January is the month for forward planning on the farm. It's the time when we review what we grew last year, and how successful it was (difficult when the farm spent most of the summer under water...), should we be trying new crops, were there big "hungry gaps" in our programme?
We'd really appreciate feedback from our customers on this, both from farmer's markets and the delivery rounds. Are there certain crops that you would like to see more-or less!- of,would you welcome new varieties, do you really wish there was something we grow that we don't?
As organic farmers, we have to make sure that plants in the same botanical family are rotated around the farm, to avoid disease build up. For example, cabbages and swedes are closely related, and are attacked by the same pests, so each year they must be grown on a different part of the farm, taking about 5 years before they come back to their original spot.
Coupled with that, we have to provide an interesting range of vegetables 12 months of the year. These are planted starting in February right through to October, and many crops, such as lettuce and broccoli, are planted every week to provide a continuous supply right through the season.
On top of all that, we have to use organic seeds and plants, so to ensure that they are available, we must order well in advance. So for a week or two, my desk resmbles a bomb site, with seed catalogues and scribbled notes, emails to plant raisers and seed companies, and a huge reminder chart hung on my wall. Needless to say, with over 60 different crops growing, nothing ever goes quite to plan!
So you can look at the seasonality chart for Eden Farms veg, I've tried various ways to persuade blogger to let me load this. No luck!! So I'm pasting the link to my carefully crafted google document below, see if you can look at it; and if anyone knows how to make this display as its supposed to, let me know!!
When you are looking at the chart, I have tried to show when some of our common veg are not available from the farm, and have to be imported- for example, although we supply tomatoes 12 months of the year, we only grow them on the farm for 5 months.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=ppfBX0ksfpJ0-6VmixK94ZQ
In response to last season's atrocious weather, we have put up half an acre of polytunnels. This is an exciting new project, and we are looking forward to extending the range and season of some of the crops we currently grow, plus I have one or two new ideas that I'm experimenting with: more news on that later in the year.
Meanwhile, the seeds are arriving, the potatoes are set in trays to chit (grow) before planting, and theres a sort of simmering excitement as the days start to draw out. I realise it's all a bit premature, we no doubt have weeks of rain and frost ahead, but at least there's the hope of spring up ahead!
Remember, you can respond to this blog online and have your opinions published too!
