Community Supported Agriculture First Harvest

We were very excited (and a bit apprehensive!) to kick off this season’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) veg bags at the start of the month. This year, we doubled the number of weekly shares we offered and started a month ahead of last season. Our long-term ambition is to provide food grown on the farm year round, so pushing out our season each year is important to help work towards that. Adding in all the logistics and behind the scenes weekly administration tasks, alongside continuing to sow and grow to keep the veg coming, definitely makes a shift in rhythm for our working weeks.

We have been delighted to have a bit more rain (it makes a massive difference to the crops). After worrying whether our first crops would be ready for our shares, they got into their stride with the bit of extra water and we could start the season with some beautiful shares.

Seasonal Veg Notes

This month the leafy greens have been lush and delicious. Kale, chard, spinach, frilly mustards, mixed salads, pak choi and napa cabbage have all featured in our CSA shares. Along with radishes bringing bright peppery pops of flavour and colour and broad bean tips hinting at summer flavours to come.

In the tunnels, our tomato crop is underway with loads of exciting new varieties and some old favourites. The cucumbers are getting their feet down with the first fruits coming mid month. The French beans are starting to form, and broad beans and peas are on their way for the end of the month.

Root veg haven’t been doing so well for us so far. This is a combination of sporadic water supply, weed pressure, temperature fluctuations, and pigeons chomping off our turnip tops. Hopefully this will pick up soon and folks can also enjoy delicious carrots, turnips and beetroot.

Additions From a Local Farm

This year, we took the decision to buy in a wee bit of extra veg to supplement the first shares. In a CSA scheme, members commit to sharing the risks and rewards of crop successes and failures, including seasonal ups and downs, but we also want to make sure folk are getting enough food in each share. We chose to add some beautiful overwintered beetroots and neeps to the first shares. These were grown locally in North Berwick on a certified organic farm. This is the type of veg that could be grown on our farm in future and available at this time of year, and also supports another local farmer doing great work to feed people high quality veg produced in a way that respects the land.

Notes From Seed Fest 2025

Daisy and Lisa headed up north to the Scottish Seed Fest – a gathering for seed growers and interested folk to talk all things seedy, to build a network for seed sovereignty. Our Flashy Lightning Butter Oak lettuce was voted a winner in the lettuce variety tasting showcase! So our CSA members and folks shopping at the stall can rest assured they’re getting prizewinning greens 😉

This is also a variety we’re growing for seed this year, and we are excited to be stewarding this variety to become more regionally adapted to the Scottish climate. Being able to grow and save climate adapted seeds is a vital part of developing local food sovereignty – if you’re interested to learn more we recommend following the work of The Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty Programme. We’ll also be hosting some seed saving sessions later in the season – maybe with variety tastings so you can help us decide what to focus on!

Market Stall Opens Next Week

The farm gate Market Stall is restarting Thursday 3 July 4:30-6pm. We’re looking forward to offering our market garden veg to customers, fresh picked on the spot and as close to the stall time as possible, alongside the offerings from our brilliant local stall partners. Click here for Market Stall details and directions. See you there!