We had a great time at the first CropShare farm day this year! Farmer Paul grows a range of strawberries on the farm, mostly heritage vareties. They too have their place in his crop rotation and this Saturday it was the job of us CropSharers to move plants to another field, so brassicas can be grown on the previous site of the strawbs.
Wrapped up warm!
The cooler weather didn’t stop even the younger CropSharers.
Lifting strawberry plants
We lifted hundreds of plants, of different varities. We moved Red Gauntlet, which is prolific as it crops twice a year, the very appropriate Cambridge Favourite and the Queen’s favourite Royal Sovereign.
Strawberry plants
There were plenty of smaller runner plants around the larger mother plants, connected by stolons (stems that grow across the soil surface) that we separated out. The runner plants, when planted out with more space will have runners of their own this year! Ah the circle of life.
Unfotunately as we started out planting the strawberries, it all got a bit too much for a few trowels… but they made some good modern art.
Trowel shrine in the strawberry fields
Aaaaand… LUNCHTIME! Oh how I’ve missed CropShare lunch! Feast your eyes on these babys…
After lunch CropSharers went out to visit the sheep and new born lambs. See what we got up to with the farm’s wool last year.
There are a few sets of twins this year!
All very sweet. And for the rest of the afternoon the sun came out! We planted the strawberries out in their new field, where they’ll have plenty of room to spread out and give us a tasty crop this summer.
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