Preparing the maincrop field

After the chicken sheds moved into the old maincrop field, we prepared the area they came out of ready for some of this year's maincrops to be sowed and planted into. First it was topped to cut the grass, then ploughed to bury the grass, then rolled to break up the lumps, then we pulled as many dock roots out by hand as we could, then it was shallow-rotovated. Some swede, beetroot, and chard have been sown in long lines, but the weather has been very dry so germination has been patchy. In the photo our potato patch can be seen at the top of the field.

2022 garlic harvest

In May we harvested our garlic crop which had grown over winter in Imogen polytunnel. We got almost 1000 good-sized bulbs out of just under one half of a tunnel, which is a good return. Garlic is available in the farm shop, veg boxes, and Sennen Farmer's Market, at £1 per bulb.

Shivani harvesting garlic and preparing them for drying.

True garlic bulbs drying in our Propagation Station.

Not to be confused with elephant garlic, a close relative of the leek, which we generally harvest fresh/wet for our veg boxes during the hungry gap (lovely in a risotto).

James

 

James, shown here pulling dock roots out of a recently ploughed patch, volunteered with us last month as a WWOOFer, before moving on to his next WWOOFing project - many thanks to James for his assistance whilst living on the farm.

Moving chicken sheds

Here are some more photos of Clive Williams moving our chicken sheds into a new field early last month.

The first shed being manouvred into the new field.

The second shed about to start moving from the old field.

The third shed on its way up the farm.

Chickens being released into the old crop field to graze on kale and chard.

Yesterday's veg boxes

Yesterday was the first Friday of 2022 when we managed to fill our veg boxes entirely with produce from the community farm, meaning that the Hungry Gap is now over, and we hope that this will continue for several months. Our 90 community veg boxes contained:-

Small box (£7.70) - new potatoes, broad beans, basil, fennel, kale, salad leaves, and garlic.

Standard box (£12) - new potatoes, broad beans, basil, fennel, kale, salad leaves, garlic, a globe artichoke, rhubarb, and a cucumber.

Please email us on vegbox.bcf@bcents.org.uk to join our veg box scheme.

Open Day postponed

Due to the wet and windy weather this weekend, tomorrow's open day has been postponed until July 10th, which is the same day as the opening of the new St. Just skate park, so we are hoping that everybody will be able to attend both events and make a day of it!

Farm Open Day Sunday June 19th 12-5pm