Recent photos

The warmer and drier weather this week has lifted everyone's spirits and allowed us to get on with jobs on the farm. Today the first salad has been planted outdoors (after the early ones in the polytunnel), ready for a big harvest of salad this year...hopefully.

The soil is in really good condition, having had a nice dressing of seaweed back in November. But the weeds are growing fast too, so there's no time for slouching around!

Our air ambulance

"Oh f***" was the first thing I said when I realised my arm was caught in the linkage of my tractor. When I say caught, I mean crushed, trapped, no way of getting out. My arm was crushed to half the width it should be, the pain was like nothing I'd ever experienced before and I couldn't get out of the situation.

It was a stupid accident and has taught me a very tough lesson, but the happy outcome for my left arm was due to two things - a mobile phone and an air ambulance. Fortunately for me I had a phone in my pocket, which I could use with my one free hand to call an ambulance and explain just how much trouble I was in. Immediately they recognised I would need to get to a hospital fast, and that meant an air ambulance.

The cut on my arm a few weeks after the operation and staples removed

After excellent service from local co-responders and paramdeics, the air ambulance arrived to pick me up direct from St Martin's. On a clear blue summer's day it landed in a small field and off I went to take a ride to Treliske Hospital in Truro. I had an amazing flight, the morphine having kicked in a bit and was able to sit up, chat to the crew and see dolphins from the helicopter! Being dropped off right in front of A&E is something pretty special, though does make you feel a little self conscious!

To cut a long story short, I was operated on later that day - a crush injury in a limb means that the swelling can cut off all blood supply and nerves, so it needs to be opened up to allow swelling to reduce. The surgeon said afterwards "the operation went well, all the dead tissue came back to life. But another 2 or 3 hours and the damage would have been permanent, and you would have lost the use of your lower arm".

Wow, that hit hard. I realised just how much both good and bad luck I had had. Good that the air ambulance got me to excellent care very quickly and effectively saved the use of my arm.

Nearly 4 years on my arm is 95% what it used to be. I still have the scars, have gained some wisdom, and will continue fundraising for this charity that provides an essential service that, incredibly, is not government funded! Last year we raised £100 on the veg stall, and this year will be looking to raise more.

Please support Cornwall Air Ambulance if you can:

https://cornwallairambulancetrust.org/

Beach farming

This photo was taken last April by Emma, our apprentice last year. It
shows just how close we are to the beach and why the soil is so sandy!
Lovely spot on a nice day, not so good when a southerly storm unleashes...

December sunshine

The weather's always like this in December!
A few from today and sunset two days ago...

Carbon footprint

Being winter, we're in the mood for doing indoor jobs and all the things
that have been put off in the summer. Now this one, calculating the
carbon footprint of the business is a year behind schedule, which is
pretty tardy by most standards!

But better late than never, here is the carbon footprint of Scilly
Organics in 2015. Once again we have calculated that far more carbon has
been absorbed on the farm than is emitted by all other activities. So
buying vegetables from us is a really carbon positive thing! If you want
to look at the detail go straight to this link:
http://www.scillyorganics.com/uploads/2/4/6/3/24630537/our_carbon_footprint_2015.pdf

Now, on to the 2016 carbon footprint...promise it'll be done in the next
month, as soon as the soil organic matter test results come back. Let's
see how the farm has fared this year...

Peaches

A fairly recent addition to the polytunnel is a couple of peach trees.
These were actually grown from seed by taking some organic white peach
stones and putting them in some compost in the glasshouse.

They were planted a couple of years ago and this year had fruit for the
very first time. Not many, only six fairly small peaches, but the
result...delicious!

We're hoping this is a sign of better things to come and look forward to
bountiful crops of St Martin's peaches in years to come.

Sweet clover

Sweet clover is grown as a green manure - to suppress weeds, fix
nitrogen and build organic matter in the soil. It's an amazing plant,
growing really tall and producing masses of yellow or white flowers that
bees and other insects love.

This field has plants that are in excess of 7ft tall and show no signs
of stopping yet! They also have very deep roots, which is ideal on our
sandy soils. Searching for water deep down, they are also bringing up
minerals and nutrients from lower down in the soil profile.

Next spring we will gently cultivate this field and all the organic
matter in this crop will give a massive benefit to the following crop.