Hello from a very chilly Flourish. After we were all conned into thinking spring was coming, we’re back down to -2° mornings and heavy frosts.
Despite the cold, we’re very excited that our tulips have rallied and burst forth - they made a very early entrance on the 1st of Feb, and we’re pretty proud to have British, organic tulips coming out of our tunnels. The stunning Northcaps are the earliest variety and are remarkable in their ability to come through so early in the season. We’re already sending out buckets and wraps of those snowy white cuties and can see that buds are forming on many other varieties that will all be popping soon. Icoon, a fiery orangey-red double tulip, looks like it’ll be the next to join the party - last year’s were absolutely stunning, so stay tuned as this wonderfully short and intense tulip season unfolds.
In other news, the team has been busy picking greens from the tunnels. The tunnel infrastructure projects are coming along gradually, and we’ve started flipping beds for our new-season crop plantings of radishes, baby turnips and salads. Our mouser Midnight has come out from hibernation and has been lounging around the farm after hiding away all over the winter.
This week, a team came out from the wonderful Super 8 Restaurant group. We had an amazing meal, and they joined in with various jobs on the farm, mostly focused on looking after the soil, which is typical for this time of year. They put woodchip on all of our flower beds in the flower field, and then they helped with some bits in the prop house, like filling trays, seeding some of our first tomato plants and helping us move around the tulip crates. We’re so very grateful to them for their work, and we ended the day with a farm tour, admiring the onions and sweet peas that we seeded, accompanied by a beautiful sunset.
Crop-wise, things are definitely dwindling. Although we’ve got lots of gorgeous cabbages coming through alongside a fair amount of root vegetables and salads from the tunnels, quality will continue to dwindle as we head into February, March and April. However, we are working away to try and get as much new stuff in the ground as possible.
That just leaves us to remind you that Valentine's Day is almost upon us! You’ll find our gorgeous fresh tulips and beautiful dried flower posies available from the Farm Shop and via our online platform. We all associate Valentine’s Day with fresh flowers, but it's a slim time in British fields. So support agroecological and let us bring some floral joy to people via seasonal tulips, dried (everlasting!) flowers or even radicchio—more beautiful than roses.
