News From the Field | Canalside Community Food - Part 3

There are tiny signs of spring emerging with new shoots popping up around the place. It’s great to get stuck into the new season, preparing beds for planting and sowing our first seeds: early field crops like kohlrabi and celery and tunnel crops including lettuce, beets and spring onions, as well as planting seed potatoes directly into tunnel 4. The kohlrabi seeds win the prize for showing themselves first – always a little miracle that life wants to grow and a sign that spring is not too far away now.

Whilst there is much uncertainty in the world, the popularity of CSAs has shown that local food production is an essential, safe and reliable service. We’ve seen a great turnout at our work mornings in the last year, and perhaps due to lockdown are again seeing a boom in people coming to help out. As volunteering work is still allowed, we find jobs where we can space out or work in household bubbles. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get outside and be together in a safe way, working towards a common goal at a time when there is so much separation.

Here’s what our workshares and volunteers have to say:

‘I love the welcome and camaraderie, it’s amazing how much we get done when we work together, this is a unique place’ – Clare (volunteer workshare)

‘It’s the highlight of our week’ – Christine and Dave (veg members and volunteers)

“A workshare at Canalside ticks so many boxes, providing exercise, fresh air, vitamin D and purposeful companionship in a relatively safe, outdoor environment.’ – Zoe (volunteer workshare)

If you’d like to read more from Zoe you can read her blog about joining Canalside here.

Well the farm turned into Narnia earlier this week and reminded us how lucky we are to be in this space, bringing a moment of beauty and peace that only a snow scape can – see photos! Alas, it quickly returned back to the familiar mud bath. Harvesting crops in hard frost and snow is always an interesting experience and the team seem to spend a lot of time at the moment playing ‘would you rather’: ice and snow, pouring rain or searing heat. Outcome TBA.

British weather issues aside – we’re turning our attention to spring planting, taking away our old ground covers ready to muck spread for the new crops.

A big ‘thank you’ to our workshares and volunteers turning out on Wednesdays and Saturdays, helping get lots of big jobs done and site maintenance – you’re very much appreciated. 

As 2020 comes to a close we arrive in a new phase at Canalside.

There is a lot to celebrate and be proud of here. The COVID era of 2020 has demonstrated the success and value of CSAs and local food production. A huge thank you to everyone involved in our success – our members, volunteers, workshares, steering committee and staff all play an important role. The bee club, flower enterprise and Willows Project also continue to blossom and be an integral part of the farm.

Whilst we continue to advertise for a new main grower, the land team are looking ahead and feeling good about the future – assistant growers Lena and Stephen will be joined by seasonal labourer and long-standing volunteer workshare, Eleanor Brown, and have been working on the growing plan for 2021. Also working alongside the team will be Gareth and Becca from Five Acre, our sister CSA in Coventry, providing weekly support.

Moving forward into 2021 we are excited about the potential of the farm and have lots of plans to develop the site; buying new land, planting an orchard, creating more social spaces facilitating more connection for members into the farm both socially and through volunteering. Whilst still adhering to COVID rules we are wanting to welcome you to feel part of the place, celebrating the community aspect of CSAs as much as our focus on the agriculture.

The land team – Lena, Stephen and Eleanor

It was the final big seasonal workday of 2020, my final one as head grower here, and hopefully the last one we’ll ever have to do under lockdown, fingers crossed… and it was wonderful, with eager beet-pickers of all ages defying the wet weather forecast and ripping red roots from the earth from sunrise (well, it was 10am and there wasn’t any sun, but I’m pleading artistic licence). All in all we picked 990 kilos of which about a quarter is the golden variety. They are all tucked away clamped in sand at the back of the barn – huge thanks to the clamping team, the unsung heroes of the day. Beets store well in this way until June, so there’ll be lots to look forward to in 2021!

Here at Canalside we live in harmony with all of nature’s fauna and flora. However, some animals are getting a bit too harmonious for my liking: someone, or something, has discovered our squashes (which are seasoning in tunnel 3 just now) and invited all its friends and family for a squash party! We suspect the rat, so have set up live traps which so far have failed to entice the offender. Luckily not too many fruits have been lost so far.

Dom van Marsh

‘To skin’ is one of those unusual verbs with two meanings that are the complete opposite of one another. The skin a rabbit is to remove the skin, but to skin a polytunnel is to put it on – as the land team (finally!) did to tunnel 1 on Monday. The main reason to replace the polythene cover is about opacity more than anything else – you can ‘clearly’ see this by comparing the transluscent new cover of tunnel 1 with its 13 year old, virtually opaque neighbour. This will give much better crop growth, particularly in winter. Canalside member Eleanor made a fantastic short video of the work, which you can view on vimeo.

Regular readers of Canalside news will know I love a weather stat, and this week has delivered a few – England has recorded temperatures upwards of 34 degrees for 6 successive days in a sequence that included the third hottest August day for 17 years.

At the farm it has been challenging to say the least for land workers, not to mention the plants – thankfully thunderstorms have brought much-needed rain to quench their thirst. The downpours have helped arguably the most important crop on the farm to germinate nicely: the grass-clover green manure leys that are the biological powerhouse behind our soil fertility. Green manure replenishes soil nutrients and regenerates soil health as well as providing habitat for insects, and it is always a huge relief to see it germinating well!

Dom van Marsh, head grower

I’ve seen cabbages, and I’ve seen cabbages, but I’ve never seen cabbages like this before – not in July, at any rate. Planted just 6 weeks ago these plants have exploded in size and are glowing with health. The work morning teams have been going through clearing out any remaining weeds but the great thing about massive brassicas like these is that the canopies close up to shade out any weeds underneath – meaning we won’t need to go near them again until harvest. Right now you’re experiencing the benefits of this brassica boom with the kale that’s been in the share lately; I wouldn’t normally expect the first pick so early but somehow this year the soil, weather conditions and help in the fields from our marvellous volunteers have combined to give a bountiful early crop.

We’ve tried prayer, raindances and even some of the spells out of Harry Potter and finally it has worked as at last some decent rain arrived for our crops this week. This is particularly timely as we have been very busy getting some important crops in the ground: cabbages, kale and over 5000 leeks have all been planted in the last fortnight. Also, with the maincrop carrots and parsnips just emerging and getting established, the downpours are particularly welcome. The only question is: after 3 months of moaning about how dry it all is, how long before the growers start moaning that it’s too wet?