Tom’s News from the Field | Canalside Community Food

May 2009

Since last writing, we’ve come through the Winter and are enjoying a truly splendid Spring. It’s been fairly dry but peppered with rain that has kept the ground workable. Right through March and early April the share was simply bulging at the seams with everything out in the fields desperately needing picking before it went to seed. There’s no holding back at this time of year, it’s a real Spring bounty with last years plants lapping up the warm weather and putting on rapid growth. We therefore saw both varieties of Kale in the share regularly during this time accompanied by some impressive shares of Purple Sprouting Broccoli that we were particularly pleased with.

It’s a nervous time for us growers as we try to juggle the harvesting so as to keep a steady flow of veg in the yurt each week. With crops running out one after another we start to keep a keen eye on all those early crops that we’ve mollycoddled in the polytunnels and outside under the fleece. As well as all this, we had the extra task of fencing our third field from the rabbits before being able to plant out the first Spring Cabbages. But we’ve been able to focus our time much more on the job of growing vegetables this Spring compared to last year when we were erecting the last two polytunnels.

With the Hungry Gap upon us, it’s time to look forward to the crops that are coming on; both the Onions and the Potatoes are progressing very well now with the first early spuds just starting to poke their leaves out of the ridges. The Onions were planted on the Spring Equinox by a large group of volunteers before the Mabon social.

Inside the polytunnels it’s all turning around too; the salads and greens are coming out and the summer crops of Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers and Aubergines are rapidly being planted. In between these crops and in every spare space we’re squeezing in quick successions of radish and oriental leaves to keep us going. Excitingly, the new polytunnels erected last Spring have allowed us space to grow some early Mange Tout Peas that are almost ready to start harvesting and some extra early baby bunched Beetroots too. These are the sort of crops that will hopefully see us through the leaner weeks before June leads us towards the real bounty of Summer!