CropShare is buzzin’ and scythin’ this week…
So this is what I encountered at 9 am last Saturday morning…
Does what it says on the tin
Exciting stuff! We delivered a swarm caught by a CropShare volunteer to the farm today. They’ll pollinate crops on the farm like broad beans and apples, and of course produce gorgeous honey.
This season’s beekeeping fashion must-haves
After getting kitted out in the safety garb, we took the bees to their luxury bespoke accommodation made out of reclaimed pallet...
Lettuces donated to Winter Comfort food4food
We donated fresh green and red lettuce to Winter Comfort’s food4food initiative this week. They do great work providing food for the homeless in their cafe at Victoria Avenue, as well as selling lunch buffets for events.
Thanks for the feedback food4food chefs, glad the lettuces went down well in both the cafe meals and buffets!...
Cute baby animal alert….and a salad of weeds
Had to open this blog entry with this little chick, learning from one of his mums how to take a dust bath in the sun….
First, we checked out the crop of squashes which are looking good! We planted these earlier in the year and it was good to check up on them and see how much growth they’d put on.
A closer look: harlequin squashes are starting to shape up
Can you tell what it is yet
Weeding them...
Sharing the harvest – redcurrant jam and salad workshop
Here at CropShare we know how to make the most of a great, fresh harvest.
One of the things produced in large volumes on the farm is redcurrants. Our volunteers got together and decided to make the most of this local glut of fruit, and share it with the community.
The redcurrant season was late this year because of the lack of sunshine, which is needed for ripening the fruits on the bush. When we...
Massive cabbages and fashionable salads
Another great day out on the farm, in some great weather! This time we got stuck in weeding the cabbage crop, which was looking HUGE.
Massive tasty cabbage
Easy to see the weeding team’s progress as they power through this cabbage crop
Swallow’s nest on the farm
We spotted some very cute baby swallows. The farm is full of birdlife, as a farm bird survey in 2011 by one of our volunteers who...
First CropShare harvest shared
Do we have time to mess around taking funny photos? Of course not, we’re too busy farming.
In the sunshine this Saturday, CropShare volunteers planted out a few hundred squash and cabbage plants, straightened out the mypex plastic sheet mulch that had blown all over the place in the strong winds, and weeded squash crops planted out on our last visit. Got all the jobs done!
Squashes mulched with mypex plastic
Squashes weeded – looking good!...
Sun, squashes and… circus tricks?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tgToLv-RaU
A glorious sunny day for Cropshare again, this time round our volunteers were working on their sun tans (or burns in my case) and planting out around 2500 squash plants, of different varieties- Harlequin, Harrier, Hunter… and courgettes too.
Harlequin squash plants
Squash plants loaded onto planting machine
Smaller plants were planted out on the planting machine, and others by hand either into bare soil or through mypex- a plastic “reusable mulch”, as explained by a Cropshare member...
Fun on the lay down weeder
Weeding small carrots on the lay down weeder
Another Cropshare workday, another piece of farm equipment that somehow resembles a fairground ride. This time our volunteers got to have a go at the lay down weeder- a tractor-pulled rig where 6 people can lay side by side and are able to hand weed small crops efficiently. Today we weeded the carrot crop. Check out the great video by our volunteer Axel to see the action, firstly from...
Very successful launch of Cropshare 2012 season
We enjoyed brilliant sunshine as we kicked off work with over 20 volunteers for the first session of Cropshare 2012. Everyone was raring to go and weeded around an acre of broad beans, celery and lettuces in no time.
Hoeing broad beans, planted by Cropshare volunteers last autumn.
We even had the chance to investigate weed-based hair replacement structures…
101 ways with chickweed
Nice barnet!
We put mesh covers in place, to protect this lettuce crop from wind and...
Project Polytunnel…and some lamb pics
Cropsharers had fun putting the covers on a new polytunnel at Willow Farm. We’ll use this to grow crops that like it hot this summer such as peppers and tomatoes. Yum.
Step one: unroll plastic…
Thinking creatively we were able to reach up to the roof to pull the covers over…
A lot of team work needed to get the tension right on the cover before fastening it into place…
Very pleased with our result!
And we couldn’t go...