2021 Farm volunteering dates
Hi all,
Thanks to those who have already asked about possible dates for farm volunteering this year. We will announce farm dates on our email list and on here so please sign up if you are interested. We will probably hold a few Saturday dates this year for a limited number of volunteers. Thanks alot!...
Farm from home for now! COVID-19 Announcement
Dear All,
For the moment we will not run volunteer sessions on the farm, but will hope to organise some sessions later in the year, where we can make sure volunteers can work at a safe distance outside, and have in place precautionary measures to ensure those of you that choose to come out and help grow food are as safe as possible. Thanks so much to those who have offered help recently. We will be...
Spring is in the air!
As Cropshare emerges from the dank coolness of winter into the warming spring sunshine, green shoots emerge from the ancient willow trees that surround the farm. These green shoots, like the amber light on city traffic lights fortel of a time of action to come. But not to be taken by surprise CropSharers, not dissimilar to a rag and bone man’s carthorse, have been unable to rein in their vitality and lust for clean...
Spring is on the way!
Excited for the new season of volunteering on the farm? Please use the sign up sheet here to register for upcoming farm volunteer days and we’ll look forward to welcoming you on the farm! Plenty of sowing to come, followed by planting, weeding and harvesting throughout the season. See you soon!...
CSA Day UK- 1st March
The first-ever national CSA Sign Up Day in the UK is on Wednesday 1 March 2017. Community Supported Agriculture is a way of farming where people in the community sign up to receive a regular share of sustainable, local produce. For us at Cambridge CropShare this means a seasonal share in the Waterland Organics veg and fruit harvest, and much more besides – experience growing a range of field and polytunnel crops on a...
Weeder Crowdfunder is live!
CropShare volunteer Reggie has designed a bespoke lay down weeder for the farm, a human-powered version of the lay down weeder that some of you may have had a spin on in the past. Reggie is planning to raise enough funds (£450) to build the weeder so we can have it in action on the fields this growing season! This will be a brilliant piece of kit for the volunteers to use to weed...
Growing grain- small scale experiments in cereals
We’re near to harvest of our grain crops on the farm at the mo. Farmer Paul sowed a selection of grains last autumn that we are planning to harvest by hand. Here’s what we got:
Were most excited about growing Old Burwell – an old and rare variety of wheat sourced from Brockwell Bake and being bulked as part of the British Isles Community Grain Association. As we are only a few miles from Burwell itself it should...
Adventures with woodchip
We love woodchip! 2016 has seen a few experiments on the farm with woodchip- our new mulching material thanks to a local tree surgeon.
You know I love a good mulch right.
Lots of benefits of mulch- the ones I’m interested in are keeping down weeds and keeping in moisture. We’ve tried mulching the polytunnel paths this year with cardboard or old potato bags laid down first, then covered with woodchips that are quite fresh, i.e....
So many seeds!
We blasted it on saturday and had a right seed sowing session – sowed out literally thousands of leek, calendula and cornflower, seed into module trays. Boom! We also pricked out small lettuce, tomato and pepper seedlings into module trays. The module trays will be grown on outside covered with fleece or in the polytunnels and will be either planted out in the field with the planter or into the polytunnels in the case...
2016 season launch night Feb 23rd
Come and join us on our launch night on Tues Feb 23rd 8pm Cb2 Bistro, Norfolk Street Cambridge, CB1 2LD.
An opportunity for new and returning volunteers to mingle and get more info about what we are going to be up to on the farm this season, including our new grain growing and seed saving projects. Come and find out more and speak to Farmer Paul and the CropShare Crew!...