"DOWN ON THE FARM"

The October weather has been very kind to us. We cleaned and washed the empty large chicken shed and managed to concrete the rest of the shed floor in the three weeks downtime. The 16week old Lohman Tradition pullets were duly housed on the 17th October.

Lohman Tradition are a new strain of hen, better able to cope with the challenges of outdoor organic life. So far their bodyweights are not as high as I would like but they are looking better everyday and should come into lay in mid November.

Autumn raspberries have been a success this year, although I have to solve the wet weather shelf-life problems they share with the strawberries.

We have prepared land to plant a further 1,500 canes this month. They will be planted through a woven plastic sheet (called Mypex), this cuts down the weed competition and helps to retain moisture. This method is not ideal because raspberries fruit on new canes which may not come through the plastic sheet. I will wait to see what happens.

My gooseberry patch needs a lot of attention this month. I have cut the weeds back and they now need pruning to make picking easier next year. Perhaps 'Mypex' would help keep the weeds down, here, too. More expense!

Plums and cherries have made good growth this year and with a bit of luck we could have a useful crop next summer. Mowing and clearing up the strawberries in August promoted new growth, which subsequently flowered. We now have a crop of green strawberries with no prospect of sufficient sunshine to ripen them. One day I may get the timing right.

I purchased 200cubic metres of second class compost in May and mixed it with some chicken manure. I put it in a 100metre row and watered it weekly with an alkathene pipe with holes drilled in it, turning it regularly with the tractor made the compost heat up and start 'working' again. I hope this composting has killed off pathogens within the chicken manure that may harm my new flock. Last week I moved the compost to the orchard ready for spreading after Christmas. My composting area is now free so I have ordered more compost to start the process again. Growing with compost should build soil bio-diversity and improve water retention, it is the core principle of organic farming.

My new flock of hens are now performing well. I weigh a sample of birds weekly to check that they are growing well, if they put on enough weight I give them another hour of 'daylight' (ie I leave the lights on in their houses for another hour). Hens are extremely photo sensitive, by increasing their day length I can control when they start laying eggs.

They achieved their target weight and are now in full production, some of them are getting quite adventurous and going out into the orchard, I am sure that when the weather improves they will be all over the farm.

The new gooseberry bushes are all planted, but we are a bit behind with planting raspberries. The soil was prepared and the mypex put down, I waited for rain. The rain came with venegance and the nicely prepared seed bed became a quagmire, with a bit of luck we will finish the job this week.

I have nearly finished pruning apples and pears. Plum and cherry pruning did not get done in June so now will have to wait until next summer.

Egg sales are going well. The flavour and quality from young flocks is always excellent so sales are a joy.

Selling my apples is not proving so easy. The retailers who sell my eggs all seem to have their own apple suppliers and the market seems to be quite difficult. This years crop looks destined to go for juicing, but next year I expect to grow several tons, and at the moment I have no market for them, which is quite worrying. Several options spring to mind:

    Co-operate with an established producer
    Market direct to the public by internet
    Go for 'own label' juicing

Ho hum

Farmer Kit has to put his thinking cap on.

Happy Christmas

Kit
Visit us again in the New Year for the next update.

No.3 - JANUARY 2004

Welcome to the third 'Down on the Farm' newsletter.

Farmer Kit says 'too often legislation is introduced with little thought about implementation'

Everyone in the 'egg industry' has known for along time that all eggs marketed from the beginning of this year have to be printed with a code identifying the farm of origin and the method of production.

I like to be at least 'up to speed', so in September I ordered a rather expensive machine to print eggs here. We are at the beginning of February and there is no sign of MY PRINTER.

DEFRA did not issue the codes until December 2003, so there was absolutely no chance of egg printing machines being ready on time. Ho hum.

Another little problem that has recently exercised my mind is egg packaging. Health & Safety (all bow) found asbestos in the factory that produces my pre-packs, back in August 2003. The company have done their best to sort the problem by getting their orders made in Europe whilst trying to conform to Health & Safety (all bow). It now seems that the factory is unlikely to open before July 2004, if at all, so my pre-packs will probably be made abroad in factories with no Health & Safety(all bow).

Farmer Kit in the kitchen:

I have given up smoking, and I find the evenings rather long and boring, also I have sold my apples at last so have quite a lot of quality rejects - so I have been playing in the farmhouse kitchen.

I've made apple jelly, apple and ginger jelly and apple juice all with varying degrees of success. The apple juice was time consuming to make (so I bought an apple crusher) the pasteurising process was a bit hit and miss (so I bought a small pasteuriser). Apple jelly is easy, but so much sugar is needed to make it set that the apple flavour can be lost. The answer seems to be reduce the apple juice on the Rayburn by at least 50% before adding the sugar, it is important to get it right before adding sugar, I got it wrong with the apple and ginger and ended up with treacle. Ho hum.

All this is expensive fun it keeps me off the fags and out of the pub, maybe one day it will lead to something commercial.

All the best for 2004.

Kit

No.4 - MARCH 2004

Welcome to the fourth 'Down on the Farm' newsletter.

It is mid March, blossom buds are swelling on the cherries, plums and pears. Snowdrops and acconites have nearly finished flowering, the daffs are out. The dawn chorus is getting louder, the Canada geese are back - it must be spring!

Last month I wrote about the problems I have sourcing egg packaging and that I had finally cracked it( no pun intended). Well, I spoke too soon. The new pre-packs were smart white polystyrene but my customers hated them and wouldn't buy the eggs!

I managed to cancel the print run and have now found some fibre pre-packs similar to the old ones. The promised delivery date was a month from order, two weeks have passed and already the month is stretching into two months. How do these firms stay in business?

Work continues in the orchard, but I am short of labour and I have to do it all myself. One young fit Polish man came looking for work so I applied for a Work Permit for him. The application was refused on several grounds one being that he had no degree, therefore, presumably not up to the requires standard to do hard manual graft in England.

The machine to print my eggs came last week (all eggs produced in the UK have to be printed with a number identifying the method and site of production). It was fitted to my grading machine by a bright young man (who doubtless has several degrees) and of course it didn't work. He came back a few days later and plugged in his laptop to sort of jump start the programme (you have gathered by now that I am both a techno sceptic and computer illiterate). This did not work either (nor could he get the one day cricket from the Windies on his screen) so he has taken the whole lot away again.

I hate being told what to do:

I received a letter from the Horticultural Development Council (HDC) ordering me to join their organisation at a significant cost. Apparently every grower has no choice by law but to subscribe. Amongst other things the HDC proundly defend growers rights to use chemicals to produce vegetable and fruit. As an organic grower I object to being forced to subscribe to chemical farming. My mum was right, "The world isn't fair".

This months letter seems to be a lot of moans and groans, but it's a nice day outside so I will take the dogs for a walk and admire the fruit flower buds, it always cheers me up. Next month I will try to get some photos in the newsletter- (ooooh that's progress Farmer Kit)

Kit

Welcome to the fifth ‘down on the farm’ newsletter.

Down on the farm I am finding it difficult to keep up with mowing the orchard grass, but I can’t grumble because everything looks beautifully fresh and green!

The plums have finished flowering and have set some fruit - not all of this will go to maturity, lots will drop off in June before it ripens.
 

It seemed to rain every day throughout cherry blossom time and they did look bedraggled, despite this we have some baby cherries.
 

Pears have finished flowering and lots of fruit has set, the surplus fruit is now falling off.

 

Bramley apples are now in full flower, these are the youngest of the trees on the farm, so not much fruit expected this year.

The top orchard Red Pippin is still in flower (the bottom orchard has finished). We have managed to spray twice with organic fungicide but mildew is still present.
 

Strawberries are now in flower so we should have our first fruit in a month. I am rotovating between the rows for the third time this year, the wet weather has made it a good year for weeds!

The older Joan Squires raspberry canes are making
good growth and should fruit in September/October.

This years canes are growing OK and may produce a small crop this Autumn.

Young gooseberry bushes have some fruit on and are making good growth.


 

Older gooseberries look good although fruit sets look a little sparse, maybe they will look better when the fruit swells.

 

So that’s the news from the paddock, the chickens continue to do OK although they have had a challenge from disease – more about this at a later date

Kit

This months review has been held up a little as there has been so much to do. However, here are a few photos taken during the fruiting season.

Meanwhile please visit the archives for all previous updates and lots more photos.

More soon.

Kit

Welcome to the seventh 'Down on the Farm' newsletter. Going Quarterly!

Farm Update

Since the last Newsletter (in August 2004 - whoops how time flies...) my business has grown at such speed that I have had difficulty in keeping up! In 2005 I leased the Organic Egg Enterprise to Keith Croshaw and now concentrate on the fruit side.

2005 Top Fruit

The top fruit orchard is coming into full production, so far quality has been good and therefore easy to sell. It needs a lot of work to continue to improve yields and quality.

2005 Soft Fruit

Soft fruit has been much more difficult. Yields have been good, but shelf life quality with strawberries and raspberries has been a problem. I am now employing the services of an agronomist, together we will carefully monitor our organic inputs to address this problem. In 2005 we had to pick two tons of raspberries and throw them away. We have to pick fruit as it ripens to keep the unripe fruit disease free. In 2006 I hope that improved quality will enable me to sell a higher proportion of raspberries into the fresh market. I am also looking for a processor to take two tons of fresh or frozen raspberries.

Sales of Organic gooseberries went well in 2005, helped by Broughton Pastures who took all of our surplus to make their excellent Organic Gooseberry Wine. In 2006 I plan to nearly treble gooseberry production, so once again, I am looking for a processor to take two tons (fresh or frozen).

Work In Progress

Winter is for tree pruning. The Joan Squires Nova-Cane Raspberries have all been pruned to ground level, prunings cleared away and burned. The older gooseberries have had a haircut to try to ‘open up’ the bushes and make picking easier in 2006. The younger gooseberries have had some lower branches removed to leave three or four strong upright ‘legs’. Drip line irrigation has been stalled to all the soft fruit, including the Autumn 2005 planting of strawberries, redcurrants and blackberries. I can use this drip-line throughout the 2006 season to feed the plants with organic nutrients and hopefully improve fruit quality.

The mild autumn kept leaves on the apple and pear trees well into December, so pruning started a little later then usual. I made good progress before Christmas and have finished pruning the ‘Fiesta’ and started on the ‘Egremont Russetts’. I hope to start on the Bramleys early in the New Year, weather permitting! The Bramley yield was a little disappointing in 2005 with too much green growth and too little flower. In 2006 I am changing the organic fertilizer regime to include a little Boron and reducing the organic nitrogen. I have pruned the pears back to buds on two year old wood this year to try to ‘open up’ the trees. I don’t know if this will have the desired effect, but in previous years I have cut back to an outward facing bud on the current years growth and they have continued to grow vertically. Two year old buds stand out from the wood at about 90degrees, so I hope that cutting to these will lead to a more open centred tree. Please email any comments.

Plums and cherries were pruned in late July, but have made a lot of growth since then. They all look a bit ‘straggly’ with a lot of crossing branches, in fact, they look as if they need a good prune! I have always been told to only prune plums and cherries in Summer to reduce the risk of disease, but my agronomist is urging me to prune now! Please email any comments.

January is a great time for optimism. Every fruit tree and bush is covered in flower bud and showing exciting prospects of a great crop in 2006. All I have to do is keep them clean and healthy for the next eight months, which can’t be difficult can it?

Happy New Year


Kit.

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