Greek Goddess or Football refugee?

Here is Anna Marie separating Garlic ready for the boys to plant. In the background Phil is talking John through the crop plan for next year.

What a lovely sunny November day - You can see our willow windbreaks sneaking into the picture on the right. We are tightening up the fences to keep the nibbling deer out for good, as they have had a good munch over the past few months!

Why is Anna Marie working on her own?...Well the boys are listening to the football on radio five live and not being much fun, so she has stropped off for some peace and quiet!

Teaching a dog new tricks

I'm not talking about Paddy, who is planting Garlic with Phil in this picture. But about Finn, who has learnt not to walk on the beds in the field. Rather than getting from A to B in a straight line she has to zig zag accross the field following the path system and not running over Phil's finely tilled beds. All is well and good until someone turns up to visit and she gets excited and forgets herself and charges across the field to see them! Hmmm

This picture shows the third day of garlic planting. Within just a couple of weeks they had set good roots and we now have little green tips showing! We have planted about four times more than we did this year as it has been such a successful crop for us and it keeps well and sells well.

Bhaji's into eternity

Well, we won't be running out of onions for a while! We have four crates worth in our office at the moment, which should see us through to the next harvest! For curry-heads like us a bottomless supply of onions (and garlic) is fantastic. I suspect we will sell some soon as I think we actually have more than we need.

Carrot success for Sunflower Veg

These carrots had humble beginnings...As I discovered this Summer, planting carrots is actually really fiddley. The seeds are tiny and a wind-up to separate and plant. Just when I was nearly finished Paddy and Mousey turned up and before long Mousey and I had thrown/pushed each other into the freshly planted beds (I don't think Phil saw thankfully!). When the seedlings came up they were very patchy (due to me not paying enough attention when I was planting I think) and we were considering whether to replant completely. But they they turned into the most fantastic crop. We have had Carrots with every meal since August, and later this week they are all coming up and going into Tea-chests full of compost so that they will last through to the Spring.

BTW take a closer look at the dog in the top picture. I think she looks extremely suspicious!