Busy times: help wanted soon

This is the busiest time of year for us. The exceptionally fine weather has made some tasks easier and others more unpleasant as we register temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius in the polytunnel. Today, Val and I planted out about 50 sweet corn and 32 cucumbers in these temperatures. Not much fun, but it's a busy time of year - and without any income! - getting all the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines up and growing, ready for when we re-open in July. The pictures are of granddaughter Amy and Val, preparing some beds for brassicas and planting out little brussels sprouts seedlings.

Jill has been filling her second polytunnel with peppers and tomatoes. Remember, that was the one that some of our group members helped put up earlier in the year.

Help please, CSA Group: Val and I (Bry) are off to Scotland, camping, for the rest of June and so we will need help with weeding and other things at Mur Crusto whilst we're away. Arabella will be doing her best to co-ordinate things and if you're a group member, she'll be in touch with you when help is needed later on in June. As ever, group members can help themselves to whatever there is in the way of produce. This will be the first time we've tried asking for group help at Mur Crusto. It will be gratifying to come back and find that everything is in good order on the farm instead of the weedy unkempt mess of previous years. If you can come and help, do bring a picnic and enjoy your time here. You can explore our land and walk down to the lake, a real haven for wildlife. My son Richard will be staying here for the last 2 weeks of June and Val's brother Graham will be here before then so there should always be someone around.

Carbon-free transport

A lesson to us all? As all our customers obviously know, we at Llangybi Organics, run a vegetable box scheme. Every Friday, we harvest and pack our veg in boxes and bags for our customers to collect. Everything we produce is grown on our two farms which are within one mile of each other. So food miles = 1 at the outset. Some customers collect their veg on foot and some collect by bike. The two in the photo cycle around 5 miles to get theirs and so does another regular. This is the way food distribution should be if we, as a species, are to reduce our heavy footprints on the planet's biosphere.

Not carbon-free but worthy: Most of our customers live too far distant to collect our produce by self-propelled means and have to rely on cars. But they're smart: they have almost all organised themselves into local groups so that only one person and car need make the journey each week, collecting for the others in the group.

And the moral of the story? Our ideal would be to have all our customers within riding or walking distance so no cars were involved at all. Sadly, most people in the area are stuck in the supermarket rut and have no interest in supporting locally-grown organic veg. But maybe our customers' example will inspire other local growers and communties to at least aspire to car-free food transport.