Photos from December and January

Euonymous berries. When this hedge plant is let to grow a while - perhaps after 2 years of not being cut it sends out flowers. These lovely berries appear in mid-winter and are a favourite of wood pigeons.

Phacelia in flower in December. It's a green manure that normally doesn't flower in winter, but the weather has been so mild it thinks it's spring!

The storm on Jan 15th/16th blew up lots of sand off the beach, it was raining sand for at least 24 hours

Sand piled up against the polytunnel

Sunset over Samson in January

Par beach on January 18th

Farm hedges in January. We cut about one third of all hedges every year. 

Late afternoon in January - St Agnes

Sunset over Samson

View towards Bishop Rock and Samson

Sunrise over Great Bay

Autumn

There's often a lot of discussion about when seasons start and finish. For me it's not about calendar dates, you have to tune in to nature. For instance, every February we always get a quiet day or two, when the sun feels warm and spring feels like it's just around the corner. The birds begin to sing differently too. It then goes back to a bit of winter, before spring starts properly in March.

Autumn is a season that I believe invariably begins in August. This year was more marked than normal; after the stinking hot spell in July, the weather suddenly changed - cooler and clearer, but also with a fair amount of rain. The starlings began their autumn chattering, the swallows lined up on washing lines, ready for the big flight south.

September was wonderfully warm and sunny, though in truth we were hoping for at least a bit of rain to keep the crops going. It's actually the closest we came to running out of water all year.

Anyway, all the autumn/winter crops are established and looking quite good. The onions have been in the shed for a while now, the squash is about to go in, apples are stored, and the maincrop potatoes about to be dug.

October has had a bit of everything so far - heavy rain, thunder, gales and glorious sunshine. Today was warm, sunny and calm. It had remnants of summer, but by now the bracken is brown, the air is much clearer and the days are so much shorter. But the colours in the sea and sky have been fantastic.

Given that the main work of the year is done, and there are no pressing jobs on the farm, this could just be my favourite time of year...

P.S. I noticed today that we had a little bit of promotion over Twitter, courtesy of Martin Hesp of the Western Morning News. Thanks!

Organic food healthier than non-organic

Organic food has more of the antioxidant compounds linked to better health than regular food, and lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides, according to the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/11/organic-food-more-antioxidants-study

June news from the farm

May was a good month for growing, with good amounts of both rain and sun. Generally crop growth was good, though it also meant the weeds were tramping away at sometimes even faster rates! On fields where there was a weed problem from last year that has caused some problems.

Phacelia, a green manure we use widely, is a fantastic flower for insects. A patch of this is often buzzing with bees all day long!

June's been a month of two halves, starting similar to May, but then turning warm, sunny and dry. Fantastic weather for holidays, and initially good for veg and fruit too. But, as ever with us on these light sandy soils, a tension between the wishes of the veg grower and the holiday maker arise the longer the dry spell goes on!

Best view from any lettuce field in the country?!

Some crops are a bit behind where we'd like them to be, particularly in the polytunnels, but it won't be long until tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and grapes are ready. We've got some very nice 'Sharpe's Express' potatoes for sale at the moment - good boiled or roasted - small, white, oval and good skin finish.

Other outdoor crops - lettuce has been very good (though would like some rain), carrots are not far from picking, onions are starting to fold over and look decent. Later in the summer we can hope for beetroot, squash, sweetcorn, more kale and chard, red onions, peppers, aubergines and beans.

Many birds have been busy nesting and many have raised a first brood and are on to the second. We have blackbirds, wrens, thrushes, starlings, dunnocks, great tits and probably some other species nesting on the farm.

Lastly, earlier this month we decided to get married! It was a very low key event with just two friends for witnesses. An absolutely stunning day, we had a wonderful picnic on Bar Point beach on St Mary's (looking over to St Martin's), and the colours were stunning - Scilly at its best. Then we went back to St Martin's, sat on the beach, went for a walk and had a night in our yurt. So it is now Mr and Mrs Smith who run Scilly Organics!

Just married! On Porthcressa beach, St Mary's

Veg stall in early May

Our veg stall has been up and running for a couple of weeks now, but
today is the first day of the new potatoes! They taste delicious - every
year you forget just how nice the first spuds are.

We also currently have radish, salad, spinach, parsley and broccoli.
Later in the month we'll also have kale, chard, carrots and courgettes.

The stall is stocked up every day around 9.30am.

The month of birdsong

April seems to be the month when the most changes in the natural world. Wild plant growth seems to be supercharged in April, with a riot of colour along the lanes and in the field margins. On the farm there are celandines, bluebells, campion, three cornered leek, oxalis, freesias, brassicas and much more all in flower now. The nettles are nearly three feet high in places!

The birdsong this morning was exceptional and I managed to record some on my new audio recorder. A male blackbird was in full flow! What a treat...

Spring photos

When the sun shines, the wind drops and the birds are singing we all forget the rain and wind of winter. Here are some photos from the farm and around the island recently:

Claudia checking plants in the glasshouse

When brassicas (cabbage, cauli, kale, etc) go to seed, it's worth leaving them as they provide some of the earliest flowers for bees and other insects

Honeybee pollinating brassica flower

Little Bay looks great at the moment - not too much erosion and all the sand has come back

The Euonymous hedges in particular at this time of year look beautiful - such a vibrant and fresh green