Outdoor salad bed

 

Karl, Lil, Faheem and Arnie, having just finished laying the bed.

On March 4th we planted 500 salad seedlings in the first outdoor salad bed of this season, which was created for us by a small team of volunteers in the previous week, and has two lines of soakerhose laid down it in case we have another dry spring. A second bed has already been prepared, and the seedlings will be ready within the next two weeks (the third and fourth salad batches have also been sown in the Propagation Station).

Planting broad beans

 

Sam dibbing through the template, while Heather and Bea follow behind planting the beans.

On March 3rd we planted our first batch of broad beans in the Market Garden. We sowed 400 superaquadulce beans on January 29th. They were planted in 4 lines along a one-metre-wide bed of greenwaste compost 5cm thick. We sowed our second batch on February 26th and they will be ready to plant at the beginning of April, all being well.

Polytunnel tool station

 

Last Sunday, a delegation from Bosavern Community Farm visited Soul Farm near Flushing, as part of the Community Supported Agriculture Network local get-together (hopefully there will be more about this in a later blog entry). Whilst there, we spotted a lovely tool station in the middle of their market garden, so that they were never too far from the tool they needed. What a great idea! And so obvious. Whereas our market garden is 100m from our tool shed / workshop.... So yesterday we built this new beautiful tool station in our Mothership polytunnel, which will save us so much time and energy, and it's only taken us 11 years to think of it. All our most commonly used tools will now be close at hand, and our workshop is less cluttered and more useable (it is curently being cleaned and organised by two volunteers as the latest storm rages outside).

Faheem

 

Faheem preparing to visit the hens on his final day with us.

Faheem, from Blackburn, volunteered with us as a WWOOFer for 4 weeks, and left this morning. We wish him a safe journey through the current storm, and all the very best with his future endeavours.

Veg boxes Friday 11/3/22

 

Andy and Polly picking salad leaves on Friday morning fresh for delivery.

Ben picking oriental greens (in this case Chinese cabbage).

Yesterday's veg boxes contained a selection from the following:-

• Grown here on the community farm - salad leaves, watercress, rainbow chard, oriental greens;
• Grown on a local organic farm - potatoes, spring greens, white cabbages;
• Grown on a UK organic farm - carrots and parsnips.

We deliver our veg boxes every Friday throughout West Cornwall (please check with us) for £1.50 delivery fee (increasing to £2 from April onwards), or you can collect from the farm, Redwing Gallery in Penzance, or our St. Ives hub.

Storm Eunice damage

The only real damage that we suffered from the onslaught of Storm Eunice last Friday was a large tear in the roof of Valentine polytunnel (named after the Valentine's Day storm of 2014), which was flapping wildly, but we have now innovatively patched up using battens, screws and baler twine. We hope this repair will last until the autumn, when we will need to re-skin the tunnel ready for winter. The skin has lasted into its eighth year, so quite good for such an exposed farm.

Veg boxes 18/2/22

Jos and Faheem picking coriander in the Mothership.

Ben picking Chinese cabbage in Nigel.

Ali and Joe cooking Thursday lunch in the cabin.

Despite Storm Eunice we still managed to pick and deliver over 80 veg boxes last Friday (although slightly delayed), with much gratitude to all the pickers and deliverers involved (all performed as safely as possible given the circumstances - most of the storm had passed over by late morning). The boxes contained a selection from:-

• our own mixed salad leaves,
• our own watercress,
• our own Chinese cabbage leaves,
• our own dried ring-of-fire chillies,
• our own rainbow chard,
• our own red Russian kale,
• our own coriander,
  
• local organic Carolus potatoes,
• local organic leeks,
• local organic celeriac, 
• and local organic cauliflowers.