This week we are ...

[Mole]

Some of you may know that hat my partner is a full time grower, and produces a weekly ('pragmatic'!) veg box for between 55 and 60 households, and supplies a greengrocer and restaurant. I am her part time helper!

Currently we are regularly picking:

Salads: Mizuna, Pak Choi, Rocket, Red Mustard and Lettuce. Claytonia will be ready in January.

Mostly tunnel grown, but some outside under numerouse cosytex covered cloches (2m wide x 15m long)

Carrots - maincrops and 'late earlies'

parsnip - sown in May

celeriac - bought-in blocks planted April

beetroot - some the size of a skittles ball after the summer rain - still not woody!

leeks

cabbage savoy, and jan king

Cauliflowers just finished till the spring ones

purple sprouting - Rudolph has been erratically producing since October

parsley - flat leaved

Squashes - stored - mostly Harlequin and Butternut

probably others

Mole[/b]

[Johnboy]

Hi Mole,
I must congratulate your partner. That seems to be a very comprehensive list and your partner must work very hard to provide such an amount albeit she has you as a willing (?) help in you.
Could you say the variety of Late Early Carrot that she has sown and when they were sown. I used to sow Early Nantes 2 at the end of August and have them for Christmas and also Autumn King 2 just a little earlier and have fresh Carrots most of the winter. Now I only have me mainly to feed I sow the same but at normal times and store them. Not quite as good but more than passable.
JB.

[Colin_M]

Have you got that wonderful red Devonshire soil that I often see when visiting the county?

That's a great list and shows what you can do when you put your mind to it. For people with the space, tunnels really help to extend the growing & producing season.


Colin

[Mole]

Hi JB

Having just helped pick for our stall at the Village Christmas Fayre this afternoon, I must add the following:


Jerusalem artichoke - Fuseau
Kale 4 types

The last of the Pink fir apples

JB

carrots are Amsterdam forcing - sown in late august

Colin We are on reddish sandy loam - not the deep devon red though

gotta go to the fair

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Mole, very impressive indeed.
I hope all your customers appreciate the tremendous amount of hard work that you both must put in.

Hope everything went well at the Christmas Village Fayre.

[Compo]

Out of interest how much ground do you do all this on mole, and can you make a decent living on it?

Compo

[Mole]

Hi

Thanks OH - I think that most of the customers realise what it's all about - some of them volunteer regularly in exchange for veg.
It is a lot of work for Ruth. There is lots of weekend work for us both if we can face it/fit it in with other things.

The Village Fayre was half as busy as last year for some reason - it was only 2 hours, and we took £40! 2 hours to pick and fettle/pack beforehand, then the growing of it all.... It was a sociable time though and money was raised for the playgroup.

Compo

We have about 1.5 acres under cultivation including a 100' by 20' tunnel at one site and a 60' by 16' at another

[Mike Vogel]

This winter I have fewer parsnips in the ground and hardly any carrots. But my celeriac has done well in the raised bed I've got them in, although I feel I might have got bigger roots if I had not put them so close together - I thought that was what raised beds were all about. I had them about a foot apart, staggered. I've also got some American Land Cress, Jerusalem Artichokes and leeks.

Tomorrow I am going to take a break from exam marking and get out onto my semi-frozen patch and dig most of the stuff up, because we are going to visit our "Outlaws" on Boxing Day and I'll dump a fair amount of this produce on them. My daughter and son-out-law will also be eager recipients. I've still got J. Artichokes frozen from last year, so i hope they take planty of that.

Happy Xmas

mike