After Calixta’s return from the USA research trip, we’ve hit the ground running. Some new year gale-force winds and rain immediately destroyed a load of our tunnels, with three pretty significant ones having their plastic ripped or metal frames bent. It’s been a good learning experience but will be a big job repairing all of them.
Michael, Oliver and Josh are taking down the remaining structures, getting all the new parts ordered, and reconstructing the tunnels. It’s definitely going to be a few weeks’ worth of work but at least it’s underway. We've also been doing a great spring clean on the farm - our whole ethos is based around sustainability and making sure that we create as little waste as possible, but the reality is that as a business we do generate some unavoidable waste, and so we have been busy filling a skip with some old irrigation supplies, broken root crates (we get them second hand initially but then when they break they’re not able to be used any more) as well as other old farm supplies that are finally getting cleared out. It’s bittersweet seeing how much waste we’re generating, but at the end of the day, it is seven years' worth, so could be a lot worse.
Calixta has been visiting and speaking at Oxford Real Farming conference for the past two days. She writes:
“I did two talks today and was able to speak alongside people I really admire, who are doing really amazing things. I managed to attend one other talk today, about integrated pest management on farms which was absolutely fascinating, offering three different perspectives; from someone from a university, a researcher, and a farmer. Each talked about options and success rates. I really valued hearing them side by side and a highlight was Andy Dibben sharing how he’s integrating pests into his farming. He’s so knowledgeable, and it was great to see that we’re doing some of the same things as them. I spent the day bumping into friends and meeting lots of lovely people - the value of bringing people off farms and into these spaces can be really uplifting and it’s always amazing to have people who all do similar things in one space, sharing ideas.”
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And finally our third issue of our in-house Flourish magazine has just come back from the printers. It’s a winter special that focuses on all things ‘Resilience’ - what that means to us as a farm and to other farmers in our community, as well as the resilience of soil and the landscape, as well as the produce we grow. Making a magazine like this is a labour of love for all involved, and we’re endlessly grateful to all the chefs and other contributors who help bring it to life. These will be available to buy in the farm shop and online...watch this space!
