Linscombe Farm Newsletter 12th June 2008 |
| Posted on Jun 19 2008 at 1:19 PM |
Linscombe Farm Newsletter
The sun has got it’s hat on, hip hip hip hip hooray……..at long last, a proper blast of summer, even James said “Mummy is it summer now, has spring gone?”. This was quickly followed up by “When are we going to the beach?” Um, like, after the baby has been born, um, in fact, when the vegetables are planted, weeded, harvested and packed, um, actually, just go and pick potatoes with your Daddy and imagine you’re down the beach. Tom then says “Mum you are joking aren’t you?” ………um, no actually, (see below)
Wow, doesn’t some real sun make a difference to the growth of the crops – there are literally visible changes overnight in the size of the plants – especially with a waxing moon. For any plants person, this is probably the most exciting time of year – there’s nothing quite like the buzz of watching nature in real, visible progress - if you’re not agreeing with feeling excited by that, then you’re not a plants person! (Hopefully though you enjoy eating them sufficiently!) Next week, we’re sure you’ll all be pleased to hear, no more last season’s potatoes, but FRESH NEW POTATOES, each one of which would have been marvelled over by Phil, who every year, amazes even me with the clearly expressed awe in his tone of voice as he digs the first potatoes, with comments of “cor, look at these” “oo-er, look at the size of those” - you’d think he was down the beach, hence the comment earlier to his children! Greenery obviously does it more for me – this morning I marvelled over how some Pak Choi plants had grown since yesterday. Agata has been getting increasingly alarmed as I munch my way manically through anything green and leafy that has appeared in the pack-house as the pregnancy progresses, not to mention what I manage to consume when going around the tunnels checking the irrigation. Everyone probably thinks the spinach and pak choi have got severe pest problems, but no, it’s just me…
Anyway, despite getting increasingly distracted with other things due to arrive imminently, back to the vegetables – next week also new bunching carrots in the boxes. This week you have new season chard, garlic and the sugarsnap peas, which are grown in the tunnels. A usual annual reminder that these are by far the best eaten raw and are at their best with the full grown fat pea inside. Simply pull over the stem at the top and pull down the sides to remove any stringiness and eat everything else. Sadly the time taken to harvest these delights means that you don’t get a huge abundance of them, and once more, apologies for the family arguments that are caused by who is getting the last pod. Get suspicious when all of the sudden the laziest member of your family starts volunteering to collect the vegetable box and you never see another pea all summer……. The more succulent of the broad bean pods can also be eaten, either raw or lightly sautéed in butter.
Pleased to report that the cucumbers, which as reported earlier we had a bit of a disaster with, have been re-seeded, germinated, transplanted out and are receiving tender loving care from everyone, which seems to be paying off. Like I said, amazing how things grow this time of year. Very excitingly, the sun has also brought out some other visitors on the farm – we have spotted two grass snakes within the space of a week, both around the polytunnels – and yes they must have been different snakes because they were on separate tunnel sites. Adam, who saw and reported the second one, and who has confessed to not being particularly fond of snakes, reported that he almost went into labour himself – very unusual place Linscombe, you never know quite what may happen or get seen!!
On that note, probably best to just say
Enjoy your vegetables, and of course, the sun!