August gave us a couple of particularly hot spells and not much rain until the end of the month, which was followed by a few sunny days, so all good again now for the plants (and weeds) to grow well during September. All of our vegetable plants are transplanted now, except for the last sowing of ... Read more
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Latest news from Ripple Farm Organics.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 144
Posted: Tuesday, 6 August, 2024 - 08:07
We've finally put together the best of the pictures from the wildlife camera from the last few months. Happy that these include a couple of a turtle dove at the pond (although sad that we haven't heard any this year). Wildlife camera pictures Read more
Posted: Monday, 5 August, 2024 - 15:00
We’ve had plenty of warm weather and almost enough rain over the past month to keep us and the crops happy! We’ve had to do a small amount of irrigation on newly planted/sown crops but try and plant just before rain is forecast when practical to do so. Most things are growing well, a few crops and ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 5 July, 2024 - 11:47
June gave us plenty of weather, a few days that felt like late Autumn, some warmish days with cool nights, a week of heat and back to cool and wet at the start of July. The squash transplanting was finished before the hot week, helping those plants grow away before the rooks started pulling them up ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 31 May, 2024 - 08:29
We can see the end of the ‘Hungry Gap’ now, we have harvested the first of our spring onions and outdoor lettuce. We had annual spinach for the box scheme and markets at the end of May, and now have new season’s perpetual spinach, chard and kale ready. The new potatoes are still very small and the ... Read more
Posted: Tuesday, 14 May, 2024 - 15:19
Well, it finally stopped raining (some of the time anyway) so we've got all our potatoes planted now, and all of our onion sets in as well as transplanting kale, spinach, chard, parsley, lettuce and more into the fields. Some of the early direct seeding of carrots and salad hasn't done so well, ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 15 April, 2024 - 16:09
Here's an interesting inforgraphic from the Soil Association showing the main differences between regenerative and organic agriculture. Organic regen Infographics-Final.pdf And see below for more specific details about how our practices fit in with regenerative farming. Ripple Farm Organics and ... Read more
Posted: Tuesday, 2 April, 2024 - 14:16
March has been very wet, with very few dry windows to do any field work. We had a few consecutive dry days mid month, better than forecast, so we made the most of it and got out in the fields. We mowed some of the green manure and also managed a few more hours of ploughing. Martin planted a very ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 4 March, 2024 - 15:37
Most of the seed potatoes arrived mid February and are under cover. The first planting dates for our early potatoes vary a lot year to year depending on the weather. Last year England had its driest February since records began and we managed to plant some early but February has been far too wet ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 2 February, 2024 - 09:56
Happy New year to all of you and many thanks for your good wishes, cards and presents, much appreciated.And thanks for your custom throughout 2023. After a mild Christmas January gave us some more typical weather for the time of year. The repeated frosts meant that we had fairly small harvesting ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 15 December, 2023 - 11:52
The winter weather has creates a few extra challenges on the farm . When it is cold and frosty we have a shorter window to harvest produce, waiting until crops have defrosted first so we need to try and work ahead. The sunny days have been lovely though, once it has warmed up. And the wet days mean ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 1 December, 2023 - 11:15
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR We will be delivering veggie boxes on Thursday 21 December, which will contain the usual Christmas veggies as well as a larger selection of extras you can add on. Then, no deliveries at all between Christmas and the New Year, resuming on Thursday January 4. (FORTNIGHTLY ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 9 November, 2023 - 11:00
It was a particularly warm start to October, which is nice for working in and great for the tunnel crops but of course, not good as part of the global picture of climate breakdown. During October we harvested the remainder of our squash crop and started planting garlic. The garlic is planted in the ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 13 October, 2023 - 10:43
We've had a lot less visitors to our small wildlife pond this summer, as with such a wet July and August, there was plenty of water elsewhere! We now have 2 wildlife cameras so we can keep one at the pond, and move the second one around. Here's the best of the pictures from the summer, with ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 14 September, 2023 - 13:50
July and August gave us plenty of rain, so we struggled to get ahead on weeding and finish our late block of transplanting. We had to do lots more hand weeding than we would like, as although it is a satisying job that quite a few of the staff enjoy, it's much more time consuming than Martin ... Read more
Posted: Tuesday, 6 June, 2023 - 16:48
We've had mostly dry weather, with some sun and lots of wind during May and the start of June. We've been able to (just about) catch up on transplanting and weeding, as well as a good amount of mowing, ploughing and cultivating. Not bad considering our main tractor was out of action for a while, ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 5 June, 2023 - 16:53
We started the supplementary feeding for Turtle Doves at the end of May, so moved the trail camera to the feeding area then. And we are very happy to report that we already have a picture of 2 turtle doves feeding there. The pictures at the pond include a heron (it didn't stay long) and a grey ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 4 May, 2023 - 10:26
April was another wet month, which meant we had very few days when the ground conditions were dry enough to do any field work and planting. We have managed to plant over half of the onion sets, and fitted in just one part day and one longer day of transplanting. The potatoes we planted in February ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 24 April, 2023 - 15:00
After a very dry February, we've had very few dry days in March and April and have only had a few days when we could work the ground and do some planting. So far we've made a small start on planting onion sets and transplanted some kale, chard, spinach and lettuce. And Martin has direct sown some ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 6 April, 2023 - 16:10
Wood pigeons have been our most regular visitors at the pond the last couple of months and we've also had magpies, yellowhammers, chaffinches, a kestrel and more as well as fox(es), a badger, a polecat/ferret hybrid and rabbits. We got a picture of a redwing at the pond for the first time, which ... Read more