NEWSLETTER – 15^th OCTOBER 2024

Hello, and welcome to the October newsletter.  Well, we are firmly entrenched in autumn now.  The weather is quite nice to work in still, but we had our first frost last Thursday morning, so we know what is just around the corner.

So, the first news this month is that from the 5^th November box onwards, the prices will be £9.50 for the small box, £12.50 for the medium box and £15 for the large box - that’s an extra 50p/box. Please don’t forget to change your standing orders if you pay by BACS!  The usual inflationary rise, I’m afraid, but as far as I am aware, the small box is the only local organic veg box you can get for less than £10!

Now, onto veg matters!  The potatoes have now been harvested and the red skinned variety is ALOUETTE.  They have only just been harvested mainly due to the fact that my tractor was out of action for three weeks due to a gear box issue.  You may have noticed that my Discovery was also off the road for a fortnight having the clutch done, so an expensive month.  Bulk potatoes are now available.

As the Chinese cabbage aren’t yet ready, and the lettuce have all but finished, we are starting early on the pumpkins, marrows and squash.  This week, in the paper bag, is a slice of pumpkin.  Next week will be a chunk of marrow.  These can both be a bit bland on their own so treat them as a blank canvas onto which you can add your own flavour.  There are a number of marrow recipes on t’internet but our favourite is Stuffed Marrow Bake on the BBC Good Food website. In Hallowe’en week, there will be some miniature pumpkins in the boxes. These are more flavoursome and are nice cut into strips and roasted in a tray with some olive oil.  Or there’s always the soup option!  Nearly all the apples have been picked, including the bramleys.  These are in this week’s box as they may go well with the pumpkin in a soup.  Normally they won’t be in the boxes unless I am short of something in an emergency!

NEWSLETTER – 17^th SEPTEMBER 2024

Hello, and welcome to the September newsletter.  Well, I guess it’s autumn now.  I suppose it was a reasonable summer for growing.  Enough rain that the lake didn’t run out, and plenty of sunshine but it got a bit too dry right at the end.  So much so that I couldn’t get the plough in the ground for a reseed!  Thankfully, the recent deluge has corrected the situation.

That deluge, although welcome, came just at the wrong time for potato harvesting which had to be postponed.  Now it has dried out, the clutch has gone in my tractor so I am still having to dig potatoes by hand and the bulk sacks will have to be delayed for a bit.  The variety is currently the red DUKE OF YORK but either next week or the one after, we’ll be going on to ALOUETTE – the usual red variety.  These should have better skin.  The onions are now also home grown and are coming straight from the field, so not properly dried yet. 

The Romanescu cauliflowers are now in full flow and are a nice size this year.  They’ll be in all the boxes for a few weeks.  The spinach/chard is now a bit short so we are harvesting several varieties of kale.  This week it is Cavolo Nero.  We also have curly green and are trying some red kale – not the Red Russian that comes later in the season but a red version of the green kale, if that makes sense!  Next week may be the end of the lettuce as the later plantings have been eaten off by slugs after the recent rainfall.  Still, I don’t think there has been a gap all season so far!

Normally at this time of year, I’d be putting sweet corn in the boxes but I’m afraid it is a bad year for mine and there won’t be many cobs, if at all.  However, as we move into autumn, the leeks will be ready.  These are looking pretty good at the moment.  Weed free and growing well.  Then, in about a month, the pumpkins and squashes will be ready and we really will be in autumn!  My main job for the next few weeks will be apple picking.  There are still a few Discovery left, then it will probably be Pearl and Queen Cox.  At the end of the month, the Bramleys will be picked and then we will be well into the juicing season!

NEWSLETTER – 6^th AUGUST 2024

Hello, and welcome to the August newsletter.  So, here we are, back from holiday!  It’s a distant memory already, but was enjoyable while it lasted. Even the weather was good!

What is great is that the hungry gap is over.  As I have mentioned before, some of the summer crops were delayed due to not being able to plant them on time in April, but these are now mostly ready.  There are beetroot and salad onions ready, another batch of fennel this week and more parsley soon too.  One crop that was delayed for a different reason – the preceding lettuce crop was so good the tunnel wasn’t ready in time – is the aubergines.  These are in all the large boxes this week and maybe all round next week?

I think most of you have had some French beans by now.  I have not planted so many this year after last year’s overkill!  On the salad front, the tomatoes are ripening fast in this heat.  Looking in the tunnel earlier, it was a wall of red!  They’re going to take a while to pick!  The lettuce are still plentiful but the cues and courgettes, after an early flush, are not coming on so quickly now.  Still, with an abundance of produce, that means I can put something else in!

The Discovery apples seem a bit late this year.  I tried one earlier and regretted it!  Although it looked red-ish, it was quite hard to cut, and the pips were still white.  Better give them another couple of weeks on the trees! The potatoes are now all “new crop” and are being dug by hand in the tunnel.  Quite a hot job, and can only be done in short bursts!  The variety is still CAROLUS.  Soon we’ll be moving to the outside ones.  First of these will be a red – DUKE of YORK.  Possibly also available in Pizza Express, Woking!!

Reminders – Order/cancellation deadline is Saturday night, please!

Please let me have your empty boxes back each week!

Please let me have your juice bottles back too, preferably rinsed! 

Don’t forget that you can catch up with all the other happenings on the farm, with photos and videos, on my “Stoneage Organics” Facebook page.  If you do, please “like” my page!

NEWSLETTER – 2^nd JULY 2024

Hello, and welcome to the July newsletter.  The first item on the agenda is to tell you that there will be NO BOXES ON THE 16^th JULY as we are on holiday!  When we return, the next box will be on WEDNESDAY 24^th JULY before reverting to Tuesdays again the following week, so a gap of one week only!  If you are a fortnightly customer having a box today (2^nd), then I’ll assume you will want your next box on the 24^th July but you are welcome to slip an extra one in next week – just let me know! 

I have had an exploratory dig in the potato tunnel and what I have found is very nice, but there are not as many as I would like.  What I will do is put some new potatoes and old potatoes in each box up to our holiday and hope that I can just put new ones in on our return.  What I mustn’t do is oversell the new ones and run out before the outdoor crop is ready.  What I suggest is that you use the old ones for mash and keep the new ones for salads etc.

We are now coming out of the hungry gap, which has been particularly hungry this year due to the delay in getting the early crops planted, due to April’s deluge.  We have small amounts of beetroot, parsley and salad onions coming from outside, with fennel for everyone this week.  From the tunnels, the cucumbers and courgettes are consolidating after a productive start!  Coming soon will be some French beans (possibly this week), tomatoes (odd one just starting to turn orange) and aubergines (not before our holiday, sadly!). I am just about managing to find enough spinach/Chard each week, but the lettuces are now coming thick and fast!

Elsewhere on the farm, the main planting season is nearly over (just the leeks to go) and my main jobs are to keep the weeds under control and, of course, irrigating!  The lake is holding up well this year, though.

NEWSLETTER – 4^th JUNE 2024

Hello, and welcome to the June newsletter.  Well, finally the weather seems to have settled!    I’ve managed to get all my ground working and seeding done and am just about to start the plantathon that is my entertainment for June!  I have just set up the irrigation for the first time this year on carrot, spinach and beetroot sowings, so expect rain now!

All the overwintered crops have gone now.  Everything is coming from the tunnels (or storage) at the moment.  The early season crops are coming along outside, and will benefit from the afore-mentioned irrigation! The new season leaf (spinach and chard) are not as forward as I would like outside, but the extra tunnel crop I put in is bridging the gap as planned.  Nice when an idea comes off for a change!

The last few tunnel lettuce have gone in the boxes this week.  They have been a blast! Normally the outside crop would be ready by now, but they were planted three weeks late due to the April deluge, and it hasn’t been that warm since.  I think they are about two weeks away but they will have been covered by the oft-mentioned irrigation, so who knows!

The tunnel crops now include courgettes all round but the cucumbers aren’t quite ready yet.  The broad beans are nearly over, but there are still plenty of salad onions.  There should be some French beans, aubergines and tomatoes soon, but they are about a month away.

With the potatoes getting a bit wrinkly in the cold store, I feel it is probably the right time to stop offering them as bulk until the autumn.  Please remember to keep them cool and dark – even refrigerated – to stop them shooting.  The tunnel crop is coming along nicely, though, and I will probably include it alongside the old ones in a few weeks.  Need an exploratory dig first!

NEWSLETTER – 7^th MAY 2024

Hello, and welcome to the May newsletter, or is it still March?  Job to tell!  Anyway, in between the gales and floods, I have managed to get quite a bit done.  The early plantings are all in, albeit 2 or 3 weeks late, the ewes and lambs are out in the fields.  I even managed to get a tunnel clad a couple of weeks ago.  Now they are all up to spec – dangerous thing to say, I know!  I’m now seeding all the summer plantings – runner beans, squash and brassicas before getting the muck spread and ploughed in.  It is always a season of optimism before the reality of summer kicks in!

We are definitely in the hungry gap period now – when the over-wintered crops are near the end but the new season ones aren’t quite ready yet.  I use my tunnels to try and reduce this where possible, and we are cutting some lovely lettuce from them at the moment.  Unfortunately, I am not cutting them with my usual trusty Poundland 6 for £1 steak knife. I took this knife out to cut the bags of seed open when potato planting and it fell into the hopper.  I hoped I would be able to retrieve it when the hopper had emptied, but it got planted.  I know roughly where, so when we harvest that row, we’ll put gloves on!

The radish and spinach are also tunnel grown, and in a week or two there will be broad beans and salad onions too.  The courgettes should also be ready early in June.  Outside, while the caulis and leeks have pretty much finished, there is some parsley and spinach regrowth to come and plenty of cabbage!

The potato variety is CAROLUS.  They need to be stored in the cool and dark now to stop them sprouting and going wrinkly.  They are still edible even if they are wrinkly, and you can pull the sprouts off but I know how annoying it is when the peeler snags on a wrinkle!

NEWSLETTER – 9^th APRIL 2024

Hello, and welcome to the April newsletter.  Here I am, still in my office, waiting for it to stop raining so I can plant the outside crops of potatoes and onions, along with spinach, lettuce, parsley, kohl rabi and salad onions. Haven’t even been able to plough the ground yet, it has been so wet.  Reminds me of 2012 when I didn’t get my spuds in until May and then they got blight and I didn’t have a crop.  Hope it doesn’t get to that stage this year.

So, on the subject of potatoes, this is variety changeover week!  You will either have some of the last red Alouette, some Marfona bakers or some white Carolus.  From next week, it will be Carolus for the foreseeable future.  My potatoes are stored in ambient temperatures for most of the winter, but now spring is alleged to be here, I have put them in the cold store to slow down their sprouting.  If you get one with sprouts, you can just pull them off and eat the spud, but it may be an idea for you to keep them in a cool, dark and dry place.

More on the carrot situation - I am currently buying in carrots and onions.  The onions have been very good, but the carrots haven’t, and I am refusing to buy any more until there is a new supply.  This is promised for next week, but as I have to make a certain sized order up for delivery, this means I am very short of onions this week!  Therefore, the box is almost entirely home produced!  Normal carrots and onions next week, hopefully!

The pak choi is almost finished, but there are some lovely lettuce coming out of the tunnels.  There will be radish ready soon, also from the tunnels, and in a while, some broad beans.  There will be no spring cabbage this year, but there are still quite a lot of Tundra outside.  I planted a bay of the tunnel out to chard instead of the spring cabbage to try and keep leaf going throughout the year.  Also, the next batch of caulis is looking imminent now!

NEWSLETTER – 12^th MARCH 2024

Hello, and welcome to the March newsletter.  So spring is just around the corner apparently.  I’d be happy if it would just stop raining!  Won’t be too soon when it does arrive!

Firstly, a word about the carrots.  As you know, these are occasionally bought in and having been washed, do not keep very well.  I have to order several week’s worth at a time to get free delivery and it was apparent on the last delivery that they will not keep for the amount of time they were needed to.  I expect you remember several with their ends chopped off a couple of weeks ago.  Nothing wrong with that from an eating point of view, but it doesn’t look good in the boxes.  I have bought a smaller amount for my most recent delivery, thinking I could have a week without carrots in a couple of week’s time.  The quality hasn’t improved.  I’m hoping a new supply will be available for the next time I order.

One upside of this order coming in is that I have bought in some celeriac to make the order up and reduce the number of carrots bought, and they are in this week’s boxes.  I thought I’d give you a change from parsnips for a week, if not swedes!  I don’t like buying in too much produce though.  Far better to put my own produce in.  Better quality and more reliable!

This week and next, I will be clearing the green kale and the early batch of purple sprouting to make way for planting the maincrop potatoes at the end of the month.  The tunnel earlies are already in, along with some lettuce and radish.  The pak choi are now ready and are providing a bit of salad in the boxes.  Also soon, there will hopefully be some cauliflowers and Red Russian kale.

So, on the rest of the farm, the sheep are about to lamb.  The bulk of them will have finished by the end of the month by which time I will be doing the early veg plantings.  Hope it dries up by then!  What we need now is some sunshine!  We still have some bramley apples left, and there is plenty of apple juice still available.

NEWSLETTER – 13^th FEBRUARY 2024

Hello and welcome to the February newsletter…and still it rains!  After a cold dry period, when I got a lot of hedge trimming done, it has now reverted to type.  Shame, as I have got a couple of tunnels to clad after the succession of gales, and a lot of other outdoor work to do!  For those of you in Bishops Lydeard, my delivery times will be a bit erratic while we are marooned by the road closure, but your box IS on its way!  May be there already even though it isn’t light yet!

Coming soon - pak choi!  It is a trumpet shaped plant with green leaves and white stalks.  They are nice in a stir fry, salad or a cheese sandwich, just like the mizuna (the feathery leaved one), and you can eat the stalks too.  We still have some green kale and mizuna but they are nearing the end.  The first batch of sprouting has slowed down too, but there is another batch on its way soon.  Hopefully the spinach will start re-growing soon to continue having some leaf in the boxes, though there may be some Red Russian kale if we’re lucky!  Also coming soon, there should be some cauliflowers.  I have grown three varieties again this year to try and keep them going longer, pigeons permitting!

In the prop tunnel, the early sowings are now germinating.  This includes climbing beans, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, lettuce, kohl rabi, leeks and salad onions.  The seed potatoes have been chitting by the boiler for about a week and will be planted out at the end of the month.  Then it won’t be long until lambing, then it will be spring, so plenty to look forward to!

The squash are still Crown Prince.  These are the best keeping variety but are not keeping very well this year.  They are rather large, so will be sold in smaller segments in a paper bag to keep the cut surface clean, and we have got enough for a couple of months or so.

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to the January newsletter.  I hope you all had a great Christmas and thank you to everyone who left presents out for me when I delivered the Christmas boxes!

Thankfully it has stopped raining for a while and things are drying out a bit.  Good hedge trimming weather but I have to finish the apple juicing first, by which time I expect it will be raining again!  This is the last week for the Fiesta apples and then there will be some Braeburns (if they’re sweet enough, otherwise they’ll get juiced) and some Sturmer Pippins, but we are very close to the end now for eating apples.  There will still be some Bramleys for a while though.  If you get apples in your boxes, they are Bramleys.

The squash is now Crown Prince.  The Cavolo Nero and green kale are limited at the moment, but there are still some mizuna from the tunnels.  This is a feathery leaved salad otherwise known as Japanese mustard, and has a peppery taste similar to rocket.  It can be used in a salad, a cheese sandwich or a stir fry.  When they have finished, or maybe sooner, we will be moving on to Pak Choi, which is green and trumpet shaped.  You treat it the same, and can eat the stalks too! 

So, on the farm at the moment, the sheep are housed so I can keep an eye on them as they approach lambing.  They should soon be scanned so I can direct the feed at the ones that need it most – anything thin, or going to have twins/triplets.  I am also working my way through all those irritating maintenance jobs that seem to accumulate from being put off when I am busy during the summer, and have two tunnels to clad after the recent gales!  Then soon, I will be sowing seeds for the coming season’s crops and it will start all over again!

NEWSLETTER – 5^th DECEMBER 2023

Hello and welcome to the December newsletter.  Firstly, the Christmas delivery dates!  The Christmas week box will be delivered on Thursday 21^st rather than the Tuesday to keep the green items fresher for the big day.  Then there will not be a box between Christmas and New Year, re-commencing on Wednesday 3^rd January 2024, before returning to Tuesdays as normal from 9^th January.  It would be a great help please if you could let me know as soon as you know your ordering intentions so I can plan ahead and maximise my time off!  An order can never be in too early!  Thank you!

I will assume that any fortnightly customers having a box on the 12^th December will want their next box on 3^rd January, but you are welcome to slip an extra one in on the 21^st – just let me know, please! 

The squash are currently Sweet Dumpling (stripy), butternut (beige) or Red Kuri (orange).  They should all be treated the same way.  We are now coming to the end of the Chinese cabbage – they didn’t like last week’s frost!  I’ll try to salvage a few small ones but then we will be moving onto mizuna – a feathery-leaved salad which has a peppery taste similar to rocket.  It can be used in a salad, a cheese sandwich or a stir fry.

NEWSLETTER – 7^th NOVEMBER 2023

Hello, and welcome to the November newsletter.  Well, although it is reasonably mild still, we haven’t half had some rain and wind lately!  I have to harvest the rest of the onions soon to bring them in to dry.  They are going to be a bit wetter than usual.  Hope they haven’t rotted!

This week, unless you have one of the remaining mini-pumpkins, there is either a slice of big pumpkin or marrow in the paper bag.  The pumpkin is best turned into soup, although we have had a lovely pumpkin lasagne in the past.  Pumpkins (and marrows) generally need more seasoning than the more flavoursome squashes.  Soon to come will be butternut and sweet dumpling squashes.

The broccoli has started to shoot now.  We had a good cut of it last week.  The Chinese cabbage are also now in full flow.  These can be steamed or stir fried, but are also nice as a lettuce substitute in a salad or cheese sandwich.  There may also be a bunch of rocket which will go very well with the Chinese leaves.  On the root front, some boxes had turnips last week.  They have whiter flesh than the creamier swedes which are in this week’s boxes.  Soon I must do a trial excavation of the parsnips to see if they are going to be ok for Christmas!