The Shifting of Seasons

This month we’ve felt the shift in the air from the brief, glorious height of summer towards autumn. The crops shift too – the tomatoes having a brief moment of abundance, the broad beans coming to an end, and french beans taking the lead. As they go through their ripening process, you can eat the beans ‘demi-sec’ (out the pod, not yet dried, but still needing a quick cook) and then dried. The diversity of veg coming from the land is delicious and beautiful.

We’re nearly half way through Community Supported Agriculture veg bag season. We’re always working to line up the next steps – this month that meant getting in our final transplants and last direct sowings that will fill our end-of-season shares with an array of autumn and winter leaves and roots. It also means looking to next year – August saw us working with our friendly contractors to sow the winter wheat, ready for next season’s grain harvest (and bread!).

Back with this year’s harvest, a band of superhero volunteers joined us to bring in all the garlic, and we had a great day harvesting flax from the trial plot. Click here to see a 2023 BBC article about the flax growing project across Scotland. Some flax grown on the farm is now on display at the V&A in Dundee as part of an exhibit of flax grown, spun and woven in Scotland.

Beauty in the Work

We thought we’d share some words from our friends at Awen Organics that really resonated with us:

Harvesting days are quick, busy and hot over summer – so many boxes to pick, and always the next crop to get on to. But sometimes the beauty just cuts right though it all and stops you for a few moments. That beauty is an important part of the way we farm, and why we do it. Sometimes crops become numbers for a while, but beneath it there is a constant layer of delicious, beautiful goodness – nourishing people and the land, building on the wisdom of generations. These tomatoes, for example, are the life’s work of farmers and growers before us who have grown and selected the seed, grown in the soil that we do everything we can to improve, harvested to bring joy and nourishment to others. When the dust settles at the end of the day it’s good to have a bit of time for the beauty and to make sure it stays a part of our decisions.