Hello all,
It’s been a moment. Well, honestly it’s only been two weeks. But they certainly feel like a long while.
This is Scrap Kitchen, the podcast/newsletter where I detail the managing of a farm while planning for next year’s farm (one of our very own).
I feel it important to say, because I am not an island and also because interconnectivity keeps us alive, that I am not doing this alone. My beloved and I are working towards both these goals. Towards the growing of food, and managing of a team this year. And towards the creation of our future farm, one in the UK.
This was made most apparent to me, this Thursday when I fell ill. I mean like an 18th-century woman on a feinting couch kind of ill. The humors (a sore throat and a headache) took me. My beloved, my partner in all this, went in and planted 8000 strawberries without me. Was I jealous and a little weepy because I wanted to plant strawberries, work the waterwheel planter and also be able to stand? Yes. Was I also immensely grateful that I’m with someone who can do it all without me? Absolutely.
My rambling point is that I don’t want to do this alone. I don’t want to put out the idea that I’m doing this alone. Not for one second do I want to pretend that we will be able to start a farm without help and support. This is not an ask for money, more a statement of interconnectedness
Let people help you.
Let yourself be helped.
Easier said than done. But worth it all the same.
Current Farm Updates
Over the past week, we have planted a total of 11,000 strawberries. For those of you listening you can probably hear the exhaustion in my voice. And I was only there for the final 3,000.
We have also managed to get all ten beds of tomatoes in the ground. This is roughly 500 plants, but also it’s an absolute faff. Mostly because we don’t have 5’ landscape fabric.
Landscape fabric is plastic that you put down to protect against weeds. It is pinned in place with little (rust-covered) metal staples. When it works well it is a joy, preventing us from having to weed our most valuable crops, devoting more time to their care and attention. When it doesn’t work well it is a hassle; it can blow away (and crush plants) if not pinned down correctly, it can leave room for weeds to thrive and outcompete crops if not put on tight enough and somehow, despite measuring, it is never the 100’ length of our beds. Not once, never. Add into that it is plastic, you have to contend with using a petrochemical product of hundreds of person-hours to keep a spot weeded. It’s a calculation every farmer must do. And if you told me what side I would fall on (5 years ago when I was the most militantly zero waste) I would have laughed.
But when that fabric works it is a dream! Choir of angels, sunlight from a cloud, glorious.
But here’s the kicker, it doesn’t come in 5’ strips. It comes in 4’ and 6’.
Our beds are 5’ from centre to centre.
This means if we want to cover all the exposed dirt and the paths, to but the fabric as close as possible up against the plants, then we need to get crafty. We alternate our 4’ and our 6’ pieces. It works well, but laying fabric in between plantings is a slow task.
None of this is to say that it isn’t worth it. When we told the team we were going to be reducing the exposed soil under the tomato plants they were genuinely relieved. Last year we spent countless hours pulling weeds that threatened to swamp our field tomatoes. It’s very worth it. The problem-solving is fun and all.
This is more to point out that we have so many small decisions, so many intricacies while farming that add up to hours of work created or saved. We have so many checks and balances; plastic vs people’s time.
And this is just landscape fabric.
This is just tomatoes.
We haven't even talked about pre-burning holes (and I shant because I can feel people already getting bored with my chat (if I’m wrong and you want more drop a comment)).
Farming is decision upon decision. It’s making do. It’s solving problems.
And with each moment I love it more.
But all this to say we planted tomatoes.
This coming week is the big push, crunch time if you will.
We have to plant summer squash, tat soi, green onions, aubergine and peppers. This week. Or else. Wish us luck.
For those of you asking we are STILL harvesting over 150# of Asparagus every day. Even Mondays and Tuesdays, our “weekends”. It’s looking like it’s slowing down but that wont mean it’s stopping for a good couple weeks. So all we need to do is see it though. To ride out the storm.
Thankfully, U-Pick has opened up for Asparagus and people picked over 147# this Saturday alone. That’s 147# we didn’t have to pick ourselves. But more than that it’s the wonderful beginning of people coming to the farm. The general public engaging with the dirt, with the growth, with the source of their food. It’s o great to be a part of.
I also managed, just in time, to print several UPick Stamp books (which if you have been listening for a while you may recall me going on about). Children seem really excited to stamp off the vegetables they’ve picked. So it was more than worth the frantic letterpress printing and folding activities.
Future Farm Updates
In our downtime (which has been two afternoons this week, as we have come in to work on both our days off to pick Asparagus), we have managed to push forward on our business plan. We have started the nitty-gritty of how much of what we will try to sell roughly where and how much we will need to sell to survive. And if this feels slow, it is, I know. But we’re also living it. Our writing time is snatched between exhaustion, everyday farming and the semblance of a social life. We’re getting there.
We are also looking into incubator schemes throughout the south of England. One of which is in Devon and we’re aiming to continue conversations with as well as submit a business plan to ASAP. If not there then the land match scheme will be getting a business plan before June. Hopefully. Maybe.
The visa application also looms. That and the thousands of plants that need planting this week. No biggie.
We’re getting there. Slow and steady.
So that’s the update, the plan, the low down.
Nothing major.
See you next week.
M
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If you missed the last update, read it here.
Ep.12- Crunch Time