Hey Popeye - bring it on

This year we are growing a different Spinach. It is a spinach called Lazio (was it selected by Phil because it sounded like an Itallian football team?) and this is THE ONE! Phil is always very reluctant to grow vegetables that he does not like to eat, even when he knows that other people love them. Last year's spinach, though popular with our customers did not get Phil's seal of approval, who just had one reluctant mouthful. But this years Lazio could have changed all this. Reduced with a small knob of butter and a splash of Shoyu Soy sauce, and he ate the whole serving without flinching. Dear reader. You probably don't realise how significant this is. I have spent fifteen years trying to get Phil to 'eat his greens'...well actually to try and tempt him with the delights that is Spinach and FINALLY he likes it!!

This Lazio is gorgeous. I want to eat this every day now, I cant get enough of it.

Click here for a load of spinach recipies. Though I will be experimenting with Saag Paneer later this week.

More on the Bran Effect

Pam has very kindly provided us with some Bran.... and tells us that it is bran, as in what one gives pet rabbits not bran flakes as we humans might eat for breakfast !! Bran, for slugs, can be bought from a pet shop very cheaply.

Will report back from the Bran trials in due course! Thank you Pam.

Top Tips for Slug Control

Well, I think that Bran flakes are delicious and a great start to the day, but apparently so do slugs. According to one of our Fulking customers putting piles of Branflakes near your crops is a good defence of your lettuces. Slugs will choose to eat the Bran rather than your plants, and you can go round each morning and collect them up as they guzzle on it. I am definitley going to give this a try, especially in our polytunnels where there are relatively few slugs, but those that are in there are monsters.

What you do with the little blighters once you have collected them from their Bran Breakfast is completely up to you...no recommendadtions from us, though if you keep chickens there could be an obvious answer!!

Anyone else got any slug tips?

Five Potato, six potato, seven potato... more

That's alot of potatos. Last year's potatos were a great sucess but digging them up through the concreted earth was really tough so we hope that this year the geotex will mean that the soil stays moister and they will be easier to dig up. It was a great relief when they were planted as they had spent several weeks chitting in trays in our living room.

The wind in the willows

The willow that we planted only three years ago is magnificent and beautiful. However, when it has rained it soaks you as you walk past and it flicks droplets onto you. Not anymore, Jason kindly twisted the worst offenders into a charming arch. I'm going to have a go in some other places too. (Arch modelled by Fin!)

New Salads for a new Year

This is our first year of growing in a polytunnel. Wow, they grew at a rate of knots and we have since learnt that the tropical climate that live in is not suitable for all varieties. But salads are on the menu again and we are waiting for everything else to catch up.

Phil has developed a fantastic irrigation system, using these IBC tanks and gravity. Watering the plants in the polytunnels is literally turning a knob and then coming back fifteen minutes later and turning it back again. It uses a fraction of the water that we have in the past as it drip feeds right next to the plants roots, under geotex.

......but well worth it if you want the very best tasting veg that has ever landed on your plates!

Praise indeed from the website of the Zion Chapel holiday let in Poynings, thank you Darren.

So if our coming to the area, you know where to stay. If you're looking for something to do and your bored with beautiful walks on the downs, fine dining at the Royal Oak and chatting with the tame locals ...there's always some digging to be done down here!!

Meanwhile this weeks treat for our customers is...

Romanesco Cauliflower. Phil wouldn't be Phil if he didn't grow some fractal vegetables. It is rumoured to be very hard to grow, but it has turned out better than any of our other brassicas. Maybe it needs plenty of water...we have certainly had that!!

I ate it for the first time last week and I really prefer it to normal cauliflower. If you don't overcook it then it keeps its gorgeous colour and texture.

Go on try some....

Broc Limited

My brother Nick has a company called Brox Limited, but with a broccoli harvest as good looking as this we could pinch his company name...perhaps we should be Broc Limited!

Salad Regiment reporting for duty

For one shockingly short period of time earlier this year we were on top of the weeds! This is a lovely photo, by Sky again capturing that moment! These salads have since been picked, re picked and picked again until they all bolted. We have now moved onto another bed of salads, and will be replanting this one for our autumn harvest.

Its Maddison...not McKrackin

Rocket, Spring onnions, red onions, chard, and spinach all being tended by Mr Phil McKrackin. Not a great shot of him, but as he rarely checks the blog I will see how long I can get away with posting it up here! Sky is to thank for the photo!!

Steaming hot and stinky

Three Cheers to Olus, the local Green Waste company who keep us supplied with compost. We have got through 50 tonnes so far this year and there is another 20 waiting to be spread. The weather has been frustratingly wet. Good for watering plants, but terrible for planting.

Catching up

A wet spring has meant that we have been racing to keep up. We did not plant green manures over the winter so there has been alot of bed preparation to do. Its taken shape. Thanks, Sky, for the pictures.Meanwhile in the greenhouse we have hundreds of peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers. They have all grown magnificently and our first cucumbers are due this week. Here is the greenhouse just after Sky had planted over 100 tomatoes. He is having a well deserved rest before he starts on the peppers and cucumbers.

Fertilizer Factory

We've set up a fertilizer factory on site. Here is the raw ingredient (not the bumble bee!) : Bocking 14 Comfrey. The roots go down an amazing 20 foot and draw up all manner of goodness into their leaves. All we do is cut it every six weeks (which is a shame as it is so pretty and covered in bumble bees) and put into barrels with water. Six weeks later we have gallons and gallons of the foulest smelling, but wonderfully effective fertilizer. We are also using the leaves to mulch our tomatoes. Stinky, but makes for happy toms.

Turbo Planting with the Mini-Fox

Here Phil is at the end of a liesurely afternoon planting french beaqns. Liesurely as we are now the proud owners of a mini fox that takes four days of hard work on your hands and knees into something that can be done in 3 hours!

Its a seductive little machine and drew Paul and Jo into its magic. You can't help but be intrigued by it. I will try and get the little video to work. But here's a still of it with Fin giving a helping hand. It really changes planting from a chore to a day of fun!

Putting the Sunflower into Sunflower Vegetables

They've only been in the blocks for a couple of weeks and they are well cute. Phil is going to plant them at the bottom of the field in a row, they're gonna look stunning.