Kitchen Garden Forum

The address of the 'farm' is The Hendre Monmouth NP25 5NL, definitely Wales. One thing I don't grow is Welsh Onions, so called because Welsh there just means they originated from another country. If you ask me they are big and coarse, lots better than those for salad work.
Allan

viv,
People assumed that because we grew for sale we would run a box scheme. We tried a bag scheme where we took orders weekly by 'net but this took too much time not only on delivery, also on individual packaging when we should have been growing, then an extra hour or more delivering on the way home. Now the vast bulk of our produce is sold by others at 3 retail outlets. It is all sale or return, hardly any returns usually and the shop puts a 40% markup on. It works very well.
All the box schemes we know of round here have folded, first because there weren't enough items of 'must-have' type, second the suppliers didn't produce any winter crops and buying-in didn't attract interest.
Allan

I grow Welsh onions in Shropshire and looking at the prices of veg box schemes - my colleagues and friends should be very happy bunnies as they get 5 times that amount for nothing.

We have a number of veg box schemes in Shropshire which seem to do quite well, along with some very good butchers and a fish delivery service which is excellent. There are also a number of Farmers Markets and various local sellers.

Perhaps I'll just continue to grow too much of everything and give it away..........

This has been a lively thread eh, despite the thought police intervening, what I wanted was some tips on what i could let go to seed and how to collect the seed and when, thanks a lot, see you all 2 moro night when we can trade stories about days on our plots

Allan,

I found that last year I was not very organised as far as planning/growing was concerned as converting from grassland to veg plot took some doing (any tips gratefully received. A local contract farmer failed to turn up to plough some area for us (not many farmers around here with ploughs...all sheep and cattle) despite several phone calls. So what I had was very limited...I managed Lettuce, spring onions, normal onions, radish, some turnips, some carrots LOADS of cabbage, potatoes, broad beans, peas and mangetout, runner beans and herbs and I almost forgot the cuorgettes and tomatoes. Most of my friends were happy to take what I had when I had it, I also got a few customers on an industrial estate, as there was a burger wagon there which my partner used to drag me to for lunch sometime. The local pub was also a good source of customers (one of the bar maids takes 4 doz duck eggs a week). Very little ended up in the freezer, some cabbage, spring onions and mangetout. Brussels and leeks for the winter failed due to having the plants ready in modules but the ground was not ready to plant them in! by the time they went in the leeks did not grow very well and the caterpillars had the brussels. In November I let a local farmer turn his sheep into the field which generated a bit of oncome, got the grass cut and disposed of a lot of weed growth and caterpillar infested cabbages etc.

Hopefully this year I have planned production to have produce ready in Mid-May and with stored crops, leek, brussels and polytunnel should beable to go through the year. But there will be more surpluses in the summer, which I will try to get into the local village shop and other retail outlets.

My field is about 3 miles away from the house and is also between the children's school and the house, so I have to pass it fourtimes daily anyway! Or just stop at the field for the day.

I can see how the costs must mount up if you are travelling a long distance to your field. Can you get tax relief on the traveling?

Hi Compo,
It is in the interest of the home gardener or allotmenteer to be as organic as possible.
I have advocated 'Pragmatic Gardening' for a number of years and I feel that there are many gardeners that act in the same way. Having harped on about 'Pragmatic Gardening' to the point when one person suggested that my arse must be sore from riding my 'Hobby Horse'!! She shall remain annonymous!
My roots were in Organics and have done quite a lot to the furtherance of the cause until it became evident that it really had too many pitfalls to be actually as viable as we are all being led to believe. I firmly believe in the use of moderate chemicals eg, Slug pellets to protect young and very viable plant and weed killers in non productive areas with, in certain exceptions, use on productive land and in certain cases the use of a higher powered chemical eg to rid White fly from erstwhile protected crops.
A case in question when I failed to spot that a gale had torn the White Fly netting from the crop and within two days there was White Fly but was contained swiftly. I believe in crop protection by
using netting and other barrier methods.
Another example is the growing of Carrots. It seems to me totally pointless to go to the expense of Netting or Fleece to protect against Carrot Rootfly
and giving the young Keeled Slugs a field day. It is better to protect with slug pellets either side of the row, not scattered but placed 3-4 inches apart.
We have had some terrible rows on this forum going back quite a few years and I regret nobody wins in this sort of situation. The whole thing is that whichever way you prefer to grow we seem to agree (I think) is that the fresher the produce the better it is both in flavour and in nutritional value and when you have grown it yourself it's even better.
Sweet Corn is out of this world if you put saucepan on and get it almost to boiling then shooting out down the plot picking the cobs and
stipping the casings off as you rush back and putting them in the pan the second you enter the kitchen.
You have posed the question but we don't know your persuasion?

Ooops! I think the Hobby Horse remark might have been me!

Hi Jenny,
You must realize now how much I appreciated the remarks by you and there was me trying to be a perfect gentleman to protect you. However it was perfectly true what you said about the Hobby Horse but couldn't possibly answer the rest of the remark
on here for fear of being censored by the three appointed Gestpo!!
BTW I am most distressed to learn that you have had to give up your Allotment after all the hard work that you have put into it over the years!
Will I ever know the result of the Perennial Sow Thistle experiment. Perhaps you can tell me when we meet on the Malvern Expo. I am looking forward to the day like no other as it looks like being a rememberable if not Historic day.
Sincerely, Johnboy.

I believe the Organic debate should be regularly aired since it is becoming more into the vocabulary of the general population.

I don’t think that there is any correct way to grow crops; it is constantly evolving along with every other aspect of life.

Surely the work by E B Balfour (The Living Soil and The Haughley Experiment) was thought provoking at a time when growers/farmers were embracing the chemical solution. Incidentally, in those days the term artificial manures were used to describe inorganic fertilisers today.

Organic production for me is a worthwhile aim but not always practical. One reason it is worthwhile is the medium we grow our crops in is the soil and the land benefits in building up good humus content.

However, is it right that the word Organic can only be used by certain associations to describe food? Why is it only their interpretation of the word that can be applied?

I have no quarrel with an association certifying their members so that they are approved by them to their standard, but to also have a legal monopoly on the word Organic is plainly wrong.

The problem is many of the public have the impression that unless it has ‘Organic Status’ all the produce is full of nasty chemicals. This impression should not be left unchallenged.

Barney

Gosh this is great, my puter has been in for a service the last couple of days so been missing all the fun. Really missed the forum and everyone on here. Jonhboy how close is your nearest neighbour then.



Still gardening with nature.
Kind regards a lot happier Old herbaceous.

God is good but the devil isn't a miss.

P.S thanks for the nice replies on the old honesty box.

I'm pragmatic when it comes to spraying. Having got a plot that has couch and bindweed on it i'd rather spray. I've got a bad back so can't really dig. besides, live's too short.

I don't specifically buy organic seeds but if they're what I want then I will. I don't tend to buy F1 seeds and try only to have heritage types.

The only fertilizer I use is regularly is calciefied seaweed, lime and blood,fish and bone occasionally.

It is an interesting debate but you have to garden to your own abilities.

Hi old Herbaceous,
Neighbours are nearest half a mile in one way and three quarters of a mile the other way. Nearest village one and a half miles and nearest decent shops
Hereford 25miles nearest supermarket twelve miles.
That is why mail order seeds are a good prospect as it costs a fortune to travel anywhere.

Barney. The Soil Association colluded with John Gummer when he was food minister to set up these Organic standards to their own liking and at the same time made the big mistake of making a legal definition of the word Organic. Certain chemicals are allowed. If they had just adopted the practice of labelling things in a certain manner with a phrase such as "grown to Soil Association standards," the world would have been much less confused. Personally I have no interest whatever in claiming to garden to these standards, I do what I think is best and most expedient and my customers judge the results for themselves. It so happens that Johnboy and I end up adopting very similar practices but with the exception that I am quite happy to use basic pure chemicals as a nutrient at times as that is the only way that a plant has of feeding, the organic nutrients have to be broken down in the soil before they can enter the roots or leaves.
Allan

Hi john Boy

you asked me my persuasion, well If i could be truly organic I would, I started growing veg thirty five years ago with my Dad, then again ten years ago in a very small garden plot, and it does seem that the chemical we would take to a dessert island would probabaly be slug pellets. I got my allotment last year and have comabatted pests in the following ways.

Slugs and snails, physical barriers, horse bran, sharp sand, and broken egg / sea shells.

Blackfly, greenfly blast off with a hose pipe or use an eco frendly washing up liquid one to three parts water in a spray,

Not got caught out yet with carrot fly

Got whitefly on my sprouts over winter but not on peer gynt variety so will grow those this year again.

Some crops will cop for the pests, that is natures way, it's ok if ur just feeding a small family, which I am, you usually get enough to allow waste and eat well too.

I think that the fact that our plot is on the top of a hill albiet 200ft above sea level and surrounded by farmers who spray a lot might help keep the pests down, I am not sure...

So the honest answer is I aspire to being organic and am trying to go chemical free, but there really is so much manufactured material out there that it would be impossible to get your soil pure I think, even the soil association allows some minor impurities as that is (as has been said many times here) pragmatic.

Amazing though for a 'dead end string' this just keeps running and running.

Organic or not? I'm with JB on this - pragmatic. Chemical free whenever and wherever possible, but not exclusively so.