Farmer's Field Notes

Our lovely grower in Kent, Ripple Farm Organics, shares a first update of the year. Let's hear how Martin and the team are getting on with 2024:

A very belated Happy New Year to all of you and many thanks for your custom throughout 2023.
After a mild Christmas, January gave us some more typical weather for the time of year. The repeated frosts meant that we had fairly small harvesting windows in the middle of the day, so we have to work ahead when we can, which included a couple of hours harvesting spinach on a Sunday morning!
Now that the crops have thawed out, we can assess the damage. The spinach, chard and outdoor salad leaves have suffered the most from the subzero temperatures so there will be less of those for a while. As we have less to harvest at this time of year, we have time to get stuck into growing plants for the season ahead. We grow all our own transplants, which keeps us busy now until June/July when the majority will be in the ground. Most of us enjoy this job, you can sit down, sheltered from rain and wind and listen to music/podcasts etc., although some prefer seeding the larger seeds such as squash rather than the fiddly brassica seeds. We buy the seeding compost, which is peat free, and we buy in almost all of the seeds, just saving a small amount  ourselves. The majority of seeds we grow are organically produced but we can apply for derogation if an organic variety is not available that is particularly suitable for our needs.
We've also been removing tree guards from the hedge that we planted 3 years ago as they are no longer needed. The tree guards are being re-used by Wye Community Farm on a hedge they are planting. I mistakenly identified a snipe on the wildlife camera pictures last week, it was actually a woodcock (very similar looking and a better fit for the habitat). Check out the best of the pics from  the wildlife cam from December and January, including a little owl for the first time.