Soil Association National Horticultural Symposium.

As Bosavern Community Farm is a producer-member of the Soil Association (www.soilassociation.org), the UK's leading organic certification body, Hugh attended their symposium for two days in Bristol last week. It was good to put faces to names, get new ideas, hear the latest news, but most of all to meet all those other people scraping a living from growing organic vegetables around the country and realise that we're not alone! On the first day there were talks and presentations, plus heated debates, about topics such as growing green manures in polytunnels, the state of the current UK market for organics, school meals, and open-pollinated seed varieties (i.e. non-hybrids). On the second day we visited four farms in the Cotswolds area north of Bristol, to see for ourselves how other farms do things, and get their stories straight from the horses' mouths. These are particularly useful, as you can learn from other people's mistakes, and maybe even offer solutions of your own experiences.

Tales of organic carrots and excessive supermarket controls at Duchy Home Farm.

The veg field at the second Duchy farm.

Salad crops in a polytunnel at Abbey Home Farm.

The walled garden at Stroud CSA.

The most pertinent of these visits to our own situation was Stroud Community Supported Agriculture, who grow biodynamically on a mixed farm, and supply 190 "shares" per week to their members - see their website at http://www.stroudcommunityagriculture.org.
Many thanks to staff at the Soil Association for organising such a good 2-day event, and to all the growers whose nuggets of wisdom made the symposium even more worthwhile attending (even if it was just crying into each other's pints about that root of all evil - couch grass!).

Robert and Milan.

Many thanks to Robert and Milan, two young Germans who came to wwoof on the farm for a week. Anybody who enjoys digging up potatoes by hand is welcome! Good luck with the rest of your travels, and thanks for all your hard work.

Planting onions and garlic - full circle.

On 7th October 2010 we planted onion and garlic sets in the first bed to be prepared on the outside vegetable strips. This year, on the 29th and 30th September and 1st October, we completed the circle and our first full growing year on the farm by planting onions and garlic in three outside beds. All being well, there will be five times the amount of onions and garlic to be harvested in 2012 as there were in 2011. This year we have continued with "radar" onion sets because they performed so well over last winter (easily outperforming the spring-planted "sturon" and "red baron" sets for size and yield), but have switched from "flavor" to "vallelado" garlic due to availability of the sets.

Milan, Robert and Anne planting onion sets.

Robert, Milan and Jim planting garlic sets.

These autumn-planted onion and garlic sets are the second and third crops to have made the jump into 2012's crop rotation, by being planted into 2011's brassica (cabbage-family) strip. The first crop was "black winter radishes", sown on Monday 26th into 2012's brassica bed (which was 2011's legume bed). We operate a standard four-year crop rotation:-
year 1 = solanacea (the potato family) which here means a strip full of potatoes;
year 2 = legume (the pea family) so peas and beans, with other crops such as courgette and sweetcorn too;
year 3 = brassica (the cabbage family); and
year 4 = allium (the onion family) with carrots and parsnips also included.
This crop rotation system, and variations of it, is organic farming's main tool for the reduction of crop pests and diseases. Each crop family is moved on year after year, so that their specific problems do not build up in the soil, which would happen if the same crops are grown in the same soil continuously.

Class afloat.

On Tuesday 27th September, Bosavern Community Farm was visited by "Class Afloat" as part of their tour of Transition Penwith projects in the area. "Class Afloat seeks to provide, for each of its students and faculty, unparalleled learning experiences in incomparable settings aboard a tall ship and around the globe" - see their website www.classafloat.com - for more information. We invited our regular visitors St Just Primary School down for the afternoon too, to meet our international visitors, and so there were 50 mostly Canadian students plus 15 local students to show around the farm. 

St Just and international students meeting up in the open barn.

And over in the chicken field.

First we provided lunch (special thanks to Deb for organising this) for everybody, cooked mostly from fresh organic vegetables off the farm itself, then there was a tour of the farm, taking in the turkeys, pigs, chickens, and vegetable field. Greg came along and gave a talk about willow and coppicing, and the southwesterly wind put on its usual display to make his talk even more relevant. Everybody was very enthusiastic about what we are doing here, which is always a boost for everybody involved with the farm project, and makes all the hard work even more worthwhile.

Greg presenting the willow coppice work done on the farm.

The Class Afloat and Bosavern Community Farm teams in the open barn.

Here's what the Class Afloat students wrote on their diary page about their visit to this area:-

Falmouth Port Update

Falmouth has been beautiful!  The narrow, winding city streets are lined with welcoming shops and places to sample cream tea and Cornish pastries.

On Tuesday we had a great day learning about community-led initiatives to increase the resiliency and self-sustainability of local townships.  Our day began with a talk by Transition Penwith (to learn more about the Transition Town Network go to: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/), during which we learned about the small ways we can all pitch in to decrease our oil dependency and move towards a greener tomorrow.  In the afternoon we enjoyed a scrumptious, organic lunch at Bosavern Farm, a community-run farm that works closely with St. Just primary school.  The students gave us a tour of the farm grounds and we learned about the ways in which the school ties the farm into their lessons.

Wednesday was a gloriously sunny day and we enjoyed some friendly competition with the crew of the Fryderyk Chopin, a Polish sail-training vessel for high school students, which was docked alongside us at County Wharf.  After some exciting rowing races all of the students had some time to mingle at an evening social on the decks of Fryderyk Chopin!

Thursday was another wonderful day - we visited Mount's Bay Academy in the morning and Land's End in the afternoon!  At Mount's Bay we went on a tour of the school and ate lunch with the Grade 11 students.  We then explored the beach at Sennen Cove and ended our day with a trip to the southernmost point of England.

We will all be sad to leave Falmouth this afternoon, but Brest awaits!

What's selling at the gate these days.

Our gate shed continues to operate every day from dawn till dusk, selling a selection of:-
eggs
bags of mixed kale
peppers
chillies
jalapeno peppers
"amarillo" hot yellow peppers
potatoes (now digging up "Charlotte")
cucumbers
tomatoes
shallots
onions
and garlis.

What Katie did next.

After a few days away, Katie came back to wwoof for two more weeks, leaving again last Friday. Thanks again to Katie for her hard work on the farm, and for looking after the ranch while Hugh went to the Soil Association symposium in Bristol (more about this later). Katie is continuing her travels now, and we wish her all the best.

Dusk to Dark.

On Saturday 10th September the Family Album theatre company performed their new show "Dusk to Dark" here on the farm. The "stage" was a piece of Home Field as viewed through an ornate archway, with the moon rising over Bartinney Beacon behind, providing a lovely backdrop to an excellent performance.

The outdoor "stage" using scenery as a natural backdrop.

Before the show began, as people munched quiche, tortilla and cakes made from the farm's own eggs, entertainment was provided by a pedal-powered stereo system in the Hive.

As dusk approached the audience took their seats, and the show began, being a tale of love and irritation set on a campsite somewhere in West Penwith. The natural dimming of daylight provides inspiration for the show and its title, and is used as an effect on the "stage".

Audience awaiting the start of the show.

Partway through the show, as darkness approaches.

Many thanks go to Neil, Kelsey, John and Lollie for putting on a great show, and for everyone who came to watch.