If I was a duck in the desert, I'd probably think things are great. As it is, watching all this year's hard work being swallowed up by relentless rain and flooding has reduced our farm to a self-pitying bunch of whingers, desperate to put a good face on things and be positive- but a quick walk round a farm with small yellow crops, big weeds and large puddles , rapidly dispels any fantasies. Note the yellow digger in the foreground of the picture- the only piece of farm machinery that has constantly been at work over the last few weeks.
Prior to last Friday, I calculated that 50,000 tons of water had fallen on our farm in the last 2 weeks- a crazy figure! I have now stopped calculating....
Anyhow, I'm just trying to soften you up and make you sorry for us, when I once again apologise for broccoli that goes yellow, repetitive boxes, and more old season potatoes. Please feel free to complain- you are entitled to expect good quality produce, regardless; however, it is definitely not up to our usual standard. Broad beans, spring onions, courgettes, more cabbages and beetroot- we are getting a bit overfamiliar with all these now!
I like to scout supermarkets and check out the competition; last week when Marks&Spencer only had Spanish broccoli I was unbearably smug. This week tales of air -freighted broccoli from USA- Europe hasn't got enough- at extraordinary prices , by packers under fixed-price contracts to the BIG retailers, created a frisson of satisfaction; however, I don't want to be a sour puss!
Three months of non-stop wet weather has washed away nutrients, soil structure, and crops:even the wild marsh samphire, a local delicacy that grows on the dunes up the coast, hasn't cropped.
ALL those jokes about webbed-feet in Lincolnshire may finally come true....
