Wee-Willie-Workers!
First of all – a very happy New Year to all of our Members, we hope the festive season was full of cheer for you all. Following the particularly hard weather before Christmas we were only too happy to get onto the field this week and back into the swing of the season. The new year brings a new start and we spent yesterday putting together the cropping plan and seed order for next year’s harvest. We ended up getting very excited about learning from our experience over the past year and all the new vegetable varieties we can try out. We’re just putting the finishing touches to the cropping plan so please let us know if you’d like to have any input – suggest any varieties we could try out or simply have a look so you can plan what to grow in your own veg-plots this year.
This week’s box is particularly seasonal, in that there ain’t much growing down on Longfield at the moment. Unfortunately the prolonged frost took an inevitable toll on your vegetables and although the carrots and parsnips have survived pretty well, both the leeks and the cabbages suffered varying degrees of frost damage. On top of that we have finally been discovered by the local deer who made an extended visit to the field on Boxing Day. From the evidence of their hoof-prints we could tell that they had a very hearty feast on the remaining Brussel Sprout tops, kale and purple-sprouting broccoli before settling down to sleep it off under the big old Oak tree. Although we knew it would happen sooner or later we now have an added incentive to finally get the deer-fencing up – or possibly to offer venison as an added extra in next week’s box!
The picture above shows some very willing volunteers enjoying a well-earned tea break at November’s work-day. Some members have asked us to give a bit more notice of upcoming workdays so they can book them in well in advance – so here we go; January’s will take place on Saturday 29th, February’s on Saturday 26th, and March’s also on Saturday 26th. Workday’s usually run from 10.00am to 4.00pm and as well as a bit of work always involve tea & cake. The next one will most likely involve a bit of hedge-laying as we try to open up a bit more light onto the field in preparation for next year’s growing season.