From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

Let’s open this blog post with a big photo of our well tended onions!

At the farm this time, our onions were looking bulked up and in full health. But what’s good for onions- plenty of rain and sunshine- meant the weeds weren’t far behind and needed knocking back. 
This time round we learnt that red onions are not as vigorous growers as white, and we could see a heavier weed burden in the beds sown with Red Baron.

This time round we had two teams of volunteers working hard to clear the field of weeds, allowing us to work in both the morning and afternoon.

From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

Spotted this ladybird- or not as the case may be- newly emerged from its pupa. Paul told us that there had been a flurry of aphids, and the ladybirds had followed, controlling the aphid numbers. As an organic farmer he relies on natural pest control.

From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

I did do some work honest… and only climbed up on the tractor roof to give you a birds eye view of our onion field.

From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

From the tractor I could also see the wind turbine that was built by the Transition Cambridge energy group and now powers an electric fence.

From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

We were able to take a mini harvest of any onions that we removed by accident during the weeding (and not accidentally on purpose).

From Cambridge Onion Cropshare Scheme

And of course- volunteers enjoyed a great lunch, including a salad made from chickweed from the onion field and foraged wild plums. Delicious. 

Thanks to Axel again for some great photos, and thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work this time

The onions are reaching the end of their growing season, so next time on the farm we’ll be lifting the onions and letting them dry out.

Until then,

Helen