2021

December

Give me the end of the year an’ its fun

When most of the plannin’ an’ toilin’ is done;

Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,

Let me sit down with the ones I love best“

Edgar A Guest, “Thanksgiving”

Our harvest

Sowing this month

Events (members only)

• End of year celebration – Saturday 18th December, 11am
• Christmas harvest – Wednesday 22nd December

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November

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

Our harvest

Sowing this month

Events

• Spider hunt – Saturday 6th November, 10am
• Foraging at 11.30pm every Saturday in the Pond Orchard with Robbie. Meet in the tea area.
• Bonfire & BBQ – Friday 5th November, 6:30pm

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October

Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil.  And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November.

Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden

Our harvest

Events (members only)

• AGM Part 2 – Saturday 30th October, 11am in the tea area. Team Leaders and Expert Growers will share a summary of the past year and discuss plans for the future. The formal part of the AGM had to happen during lockdown to meet our legal requirements; this is the part that was deferred so that we could meet and engage as a community.
• Foraging at 11.30pm every Saturday in the Pond Orchard with Robbie. Meet in the tea area.
• Sunday 10th October 1:30-4:30pm – Chutney workshop making apple, onion, and fresh ginger chutney. £3 donation to cover the cost of materials
• Sunday 17th October 1:30-4:30pm – “It all starts with the gut” gut health workshop . Making apple cider vinegar with the Mother with Robbie – apples supplied. We’ll also be making bath salts with lavender and rose petals. Please bring a bag of white sugar, large Kilner or wide top jars, epsom salts and your own chopping board and sharp knife. Dried lavender, rose petals and a pretty, home-made bag are supplied.
• Sunday 24th October 1:30-4:30pm – Gut health 2. Learn how to make your own probiotic salad. Please bring 1lb organic carrots, 2lb white cabbage, cucumber or celery, garlic head, sage, peppercorns, ginger, bayleaves & cloves and & sea salt and a washing up bowl, chopping block, sharp knife, wooden spoon & sterile large wide jars or Kilner jars

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September

Autumn begins with a subtle change in the light, with skies a deeper blue, and nights that become suddenly clear and chilled. The season comes full with the first frost, the disappearance of migrant birds, and the harvesting of the season’s last crops.

Glenn Wolff and Jerry Dennis 

Our harvest

Sowing this month

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August

Bees are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.

Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees

Our harvest

Sowing this month

Events

Saturday 1st August: the re-opening of 11am tea service. There are modifications in place for ongoing COVID safety but this is a welcome step back towards farm life as we once knew it.

Scouts visit. Read about this on the blog.

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June

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse

Our harvest

Sowing this month

May

Photo credit: Steve Grundy

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The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.

Joyce Kilmer, Spring

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Our harvest

Sowing now

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April

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.

B.C. Forbes

Our harvest

Sowing now

Events (members only)

Worm survey

The worm survey involves digging a cube of earth 20cm x 20 cms from a typical area of each plot and finding all the worms in that cube. The worms are sorted into adults, juveniles, and different types and the results collated. This survey is useful because it tells us about our soil, not just this year but also over time because we have results from two previous years.

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March

Photo credit: Steve Smallwood

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens

Our harvest

Sowing this month

Events (members only)

Seed Swap – see all the details here.

February

Picture credit: Steve Grundy

The [February] day was a lazy sort of cold. The sun slipped through the cloud in bursts, reminding the landscape that it was still there, prodding snow piles to relax into puddles and stirring sleeping seeds under the ground.”

Erika Robuck, Call me Zelda

Our harvest

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January

January is the quietest month in the garden. … But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants. The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come.

Rosalie Muller Wright, Editor of Sunset Magazine, 1/99

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Our harvest

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