Early potatoes

Potatoes can be a very rewarding crop to grow. It starts off in the dark days of winter when you start "chitting" the 'seed' - i.e. allowing the potatoes you plant to grow little shoots.

Ridging up the early crop

When it comes to about mid February we are always keen to get the first early potatoes in the ground, upon which we have always put seaweed on the autumn before. This gives the soil a lot of nutrients and masses of organic matter. Both of these are crucial for the quality and taste of the potatoes.

There will always be a point when, despite the cool temperatures and sometimes wet and windy conditions, we're keen to just plant and get the new season crop underway. Then they sit there underground for several weeks, the roots slowly growing and shoots slowly rising up to the surface.

At some point in March little shoots will emerge and a sense of relief comes over us growers. "Spring is on the way!" we will say. However, as with this year, you can then experience several weeks of cool winds and a lack of rain. Under these conditions the potato harvest can be set back two weeks or more.

We can use horticultural fleece to bring on the crop, often with dramatic increases in growth - both for crop and weeds! However this is also frought with the peril of the spring gales, where fleece can be quickly removed from the field and deposited in the hedge!

Freshly dug early potatoes, today!

If April is a good growing month (warm with some rain) then we aim to start digging early potatoes in the first week of May. This year we were about two and a half weeks later than that, due to the cool spring.

However, most importantly, we're happy to say that they're tasting great...and are curently on sale on our veg stall! Digging the first bucket of outdoor early potatoes is really rewarding...

Dawn Chrous

One good thing about having a baby that wakes you up early is that you get to hear the beautiful Dawn Chorus at this time of year. In homage to National Dawn Chorus Day last weekend, here is a recording of birds at about 5am on St Martin's.

Veg stall up and running

It's the time of year to start selling veg by the road on St Martin's again.

We've moved it up the hill, near the Parsonage, and it's now closer to the farm. As usual we'll be stocking up every morning and produce is available all day, every day.

Birdsong this evening on St Martin's

Spring on the farm

Early spuds coming on well in the sun

Spring is a wonderful time on St Martin's as every field and hedgerow seems to be filled with flowers. The recent good weather has been a real pleasure after the cold winds and lack of sun. But, dare we say it, we could do with a bit of rain to get everything going again now!

This female blackbird is highly intelligent, spotting us going in to the shed and within seconds appearing for the hope of a dropped raisin or crumb!

The vines in the tunnel are, or have already flowered

Tomatoes are planted and starting their skyward climb

The colour of Euonymous hedges in spring takes some beating

Clear skies have given some excellent sunsets recently

The mustard and rocket in the tunnel has well and truly bolted, getting to about 6 foot high! We tend to leave them in as long as possible to give the bees some good early pollen sources

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!