Thursday, August 23, 2007

When slugs rule...

Slugs galore! by northdevonfarmerIf it's not bad enough that a grey blanket of cloud has been a permanent feature this summer, the wet weather has had another impact: the slug population in gardens across the country has doubled.In what has become a record year for slug breeding, experts estimate there could be 15 billion in Britain - with up to 1,000 found in a single square metre.

Slugs eat twice their body weight every day and are able to lay up to 100 eggs each, so gardeners and farmers are understandably concerned at the impact of a lacklustre summer which has provided the perfect conditions for the pests to thrive.

Read the rest of this article from The Guardian to appreciate why we've been having big troubles this summer!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Future foods

If you're one of our customers, you might find my 'review' of this summer's growing conditions - and the implications for the future - of interest. Click here to see it.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A difficult summer

Mulching a pear tree in spring
2007 Season – news so far (written by Jill): The new season started with a promising but rather unseasonable hot and sunny April leaving us complaining of drought conditions by the first week in May! Since then it seems like we have had nothing but rain, wind and overcast days. Unfortunately this has been perfect weather for fungal diseases, slugs and weeds to flourish and this has had a severe effect on some of our crops:


  • Broad, French and runner beans have failed to set due to the lack of bees and other pollinating insects, resulting in no beans or late crops

  • Sugar snap peas have brown marks on pods, spread by rain splash (but should not affect eating)

  • Onions and garlic are small and have been badly knocked back by fungal diseases – again this may affect storage.

  • Brassicas and lettuce are slow to develop and have been devastated by slugs

  • Potato blight has hit particularly early and has gone into some of the tubers (brown/grey coloured flesh) and may affect winter storage.

  • Tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers are taking longer than usual to mature, and have also been subject to fungal disease.

  • Apples have bad scab and canker.

We trust that you will understand the problems we have encountered and stick with us. With the loss of things like the beans, we have been struggling to find enough variety to put in the bags/boxes so far, but hope that the “summer veg” will come into its own soon. We hope that over a full year, our bags will average out as being good quality and value. We do our best but we can’t control what the weather brings us. As you know, our vegetables and fruit are seasonal and all produce comes from our two farms.

Potato day: Jill and Mike will be holding a “potato harvesting day” where the potatoes, once lifted out of the ground by tractor, need to be picked and packed into storage crates. Refreshments will be provided during the day and a few extra pairs of hands would make all the difference and hopefully the day will be fun too. They can’t be sure of the date because it’s very weather-dependent though it will be at a weekend sometime quite soon – provisionally sometime during the Bank holiday weekend August 25-27 September 1st. If you would like to come along, please call Jill. She will then contact you when a date can be confirmed (dependant on having a a couple of days of dry weather).

Re-use and recycling of packaging: Thank you for returning the cardboard veg boxes and any used and clean punnets, egg boxes and carrier bags. We try to use as many paper bags as possible and you will be pleased to hear that we are about to change over to biodegradable plastic bags.

Bag collection and payment: Thanks for picking up the veg promptly any time after 5pm on Fridays. It helps if you can pay for the veg on a monthly basis, but please remember that some months have 5 weeks in them! Any cheques should be made payable to Val Lynas.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Never mind the weather! Back in production today


Our 'new year' starts today. Above are (from left) Deo, Roger (telling a joke, no doubt), Jill and Val in the packing shed preparing the boxes and bags for our customers. This is our first veg for this year: summer 2007 until spring 2008. And once again we are indebted to Deo who has spent many days working voluntarily to help Jill and Ty'n Lon during spring and summer.

It's been a pretty dreadful summer for us. Weeds worse than ever because of the rain, which has brought diseases like potato blight which came early and in a new, much worse form than before. Because of the lack of warmth and sunshine, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers have been slow to develop and ripen. The slugs are always on the verge of gaining the upper hand.
Even so, we battle on...