last fuyuna

Finished sowing onion, carrot, beetroot and parsnip outside.
We cropped last fuyuna, some of which are giant.
Actually in Japan local people where they are grown like to eat bolt, though, - Fuyuna is called tona, which means bolt- we decided to clear them and start new leaves.
I sowed komatsuna in a module for the next Japanese mix.

onion & carrot

Today was the first sunny, still day in a while. We sowed onion(set) and carrot outside.

a customer visit

Today, a man visited our garden. He said he bought our salad at the local shop and loved it.
It was great to hear from a customer, especially such a positive comment.
I' d love to create a pretty and productive garden where people want to stop not only buy vegetable but to enjoy watching and hopefully eat or drink in the future.

The Japanese salad are bolting and changing their shape and taste.
I'm taking out fuyuna and yukina gradually to plant new things.
The next is lettuce, rocket and radish. I sowed leek in a module and planted out marygold on the border.

Spuds done

95 Orla
29 Colleen

Spuds are go!

Chris:
Planted 40 Orla.
Trenched Cde ready for Colleen

New seedlings

Chris:
Continued trenching the outdoor spud patch ready for planting Orla in the large bed (ABde) and Colleen in (Cde)
Planted 150 Lettuce (cut and come again)
Planted 150 Rocket (Rocula)
I used the new seedling compost for both of these trays.
Also planted out some Rocula directly on (D3)

Apple wrap and Mouse!

Yesterday we caught a mouse in our live trap. Not sure how long it had been there, probably at least 12 hours. We took it home, gave it some seeds and thought about keeping it because it was so cute. But we let it go in a horse field.


Also yesterday, when I arrived the ground covers from the lower field had been blown up into the apple trees, taking the chicken fence with it. Luckily the chickens were too scared by the flapping plastic to escape.
I helped take down the plastic and then fixed the fence and went home for fresh omelette!

Windy windy

Last night was terribly windy. The previous night we had some glass damage to the front of the Marquee. I always fix things as soon as possible, which in this case was fortunate as from last night the wind blew westerly at 40mph (65kph) for around 14 hours. Missing or broken glass causes the wind to get in and rip more glass away. Our greenhouse survived. Joel's greenhouses have been devastated. Not good.

Our seedlings are coming on, the indoor potatoes are coming up and the Japanese leaf veg keeps on growing! In the last 2 weeks we have supplied 33 bags of salad.
We are now looking at finding more places to sell our produce, such as restaurants, cafes etc and maybe even Treehouse in Aber. We would like to keep it local for ease of delivery or bulk collected for further away.
To reach 100+ units per week would be great!

Flowers blooming in the Marquee

Happy Surprise

Junka
I am back from London and amazed to see the change.



Outside beds are finely dug out and prepared. Flowers have come out and salad has grown big.
Elephant garlic turned into mammoth! Here is one next to an A4 book - it's over half a metre tall!! Fuyuna and yukina are sturdy and started bolting. We cropped 10 bags - easily could crop another 10 bags. Need more market.
Disappointingly, okra died. Cold frame was obviously not warm enough for okra. Tomato, peppers are alright. Some were moved out too late from the propagator and became leggy. But I think we've got enough.
Tomorrow looks to be super windy. We gave outside beans cloche protection from wind.

Chop-chop, Dig-dig

Chris
Tuesday evening: Back to Borth , popped to the gardens, cropped 300gms of salad. Shuffled the seedlings from propagator to cold-frame.
Wednesday: Dug outside beds Aa, Ab, Ac, Ba, Bb, Bc, Ca, Cb, Cc ... phew!!!
The 500kg of organic seedling and potting compost that I ordered through Sue arrived coutesy of Liz and her van. Due to Joel's back being knackered at the moment, I ended up carrying over a ton of the stuff from the van...!!!
Cropped 1200gms salad, bagged up 10 lots, made up and printed out new labels.
Thursday: Woke up feeling like i'd been run over!! Too much digging, lugging and riding bike into harsh wind.
Delivered 5 bags each to Family Shop and Nisa. Good chat with Gwenda (Mrs Nisa) about the restaurant opening end of May.
Dug out beds Da, Db, Dc, Ea, Eb, Ec - ready for making potato trenches. Had to give up cos i was knackered and blinding headache causing me to go dizzy!!

I checked out the trailer home in the gardens - it's a bit ropy but with a little care and attention it should be livable. We're hoping to spend half our time there, making it easier to look after our crops. I will go to Borth each day to deliver produce and work on my paintings at Janet's.

It's all go-go-go!!!

1.5 kgs of Japanese mix salad on the kitchen table. We need to streamline our process, such as watering, cropping and bagging in one process, ready for delivery.
Working out unit costs is scary. At present we spend over £3 to earn £1.25. This is largely due to capital investment, learning process and economy of scale. It's early days... :o)

St Pierre

Poor St.Pierre! Although their label is pretty, they became leggy in the propagator. I have pricked them out into pots and put them in the cold frame, hopefully not to shock them with icy air. Actually inside the marquee is still pretty cold in the morning and night - probably 1 to 3℃- although it reaches more than 25℃ when the sun comes. I didn't realized how extreme the temperature was inside polytunnel or how quickly the seeds would come out.

Today I cropped 7 bags of salad with Janet's help. It is nice feeling to supply food to local people. Sometimes the man at local shop to waves me on the street, "Hi, we need more salad!" as I ride a bike on the way to the garden. Our salad is popular now.
I think we can supply more in spring but need transportation. Now I can only deliver 4 bags with my bike. Chris, come back soon please!

Tomato label

Chris
Here's a mockup label for the St. Pierre tomatoes. We may not sell them, because we love them and are piggy piggy for toms. But this gives an idea of how other labels will vary depending on the crop.
Next up I need to do Welsh/English versions of the labels.
Note that I have removed the word 'organically' - we are not legally allowed to put this (yet!)

I am in London and can't wait to get back and get more beds ready for planting. Spring is on it's way and our produce is in great demand!
Junka has been holding fort on her own. She's a proper trooper :o) !!!

Blaen Camel

Junka
I made a study trip to an organic farm called BlaenCamel near Lampeter with Chloe. They have been growing vegetables there organically for 30 years. They also grow oriental leaves in polytunnels. What a large scale!
The farm is a good place to go not only for buying cheap organic vegetables at their honesty shop but also to go walking on the woodland walkpath.
I also joined a garden tour for school children, which was inspiring.

Beans and peas

Whoops! The root of beans and peas were growing out of the pots. I should have sown them in deep pots. I hastened to plant out broad beans outside, peas inside with no time for hardening. As outisde bed was not quite ready and tonight might be frosty, I covered them with fleece and sprinkled slug pellets.

Marigolds have come out and have been moved into the cold frame.
I also sowed lettuce and shungiku, planning to plant outside for summer crop. Inside the marquee it will soon be too hot for salad. They look fresh in the morning but floppy in the afternoon. So I've had to wait until it gets cooler to crop them after watering.

Okra growing

The Okra in the propagator has germinated and started to grow so I quickly potted them up in biodegradable pots and put them in the cold frame covered with cling film.

Today was sunny and windy. It was not very nice working in the marquee because of heat and constant noise. Dispite the unpleasant conditions, I completed transplanting the salad. I'll have to replan for planting, moving stuff which is possible to grow outdoors such as carrot, bean and pea since salad space has been expanded indoors.

popular Japanese salad

Our salad seems be popular at the local shop. It has a stronger taste than the same leaves when I grew them in Japan. I would imagine that Japanese people would say that they are too bitter but everybody here is saying they are delicious. How interesting it is to see the difference when the same seeds were grown in different circumstances!
In order to supply more salad I transplanted more into the front space in which the tomatoes were planned to be plant out in May. Again, I have never transplanted these Japanese leaves before because they usually grow more quickly and I thought that they disliked being disturbed. However, they grow well after transplanting.
Okra in the propagator have already started coming out.

Seedy Sunday

Junka
Today I went to Seedy Sunday which was held at Machynlleth and also joined a meeting for Dyfi Valley Seed Savers.
They are researching the growing of different Welsh varieties which commercial farmers no longer grow but which have been donated and saved. I took two types of tomato: My Girl and Welsh Farmer Law to test in our garden. I am supposed to report all the results and return the seed afterward. It is interesting to see and taste such traditional varieties.
I also got seeds of Japanese snap pea and melon.

Big smile Chris

Chris finally completed the seedling table. Well done!

Early potatoes planted

Junka
I sowed more tomato (Matina, Lylia Cerisette), hot pepper (Early Jalapeno), sweet basil and marigold. They are keeping warm and cosy in the propagator.

I also planted early potatoes (Colleen) into Marquee bed D1.