February gave us a fairly predictable combination of some frosty mornings with cold but sunny days, and some very wet but milder days. We were hoping for a gradual change to spring but then came the news of the sudden stratospheric warming over the north pole, disrupting the jetstream, and bringing an arctic blast our way or 'Beast from the East' as a more catchy description! March 1, the first day of spring, and our staff are walking through snowdrifts, to get the the glasshouse to do some seeding!
We had to cancel deliveries to London shops, as there wasn't much we could harvest but our veggie boxes got delivered around East Kent, as usual, including those delivered by bike and trailer in Canterbury. Big thanks to Isabelle at Velocity Couriers for that.
We managed to harvest some frozen crops to take to Farmers Markets at Wye and Stoke Newington on Sat 3 and we're now expecting very wet fields next week, as the snow melts.
Frozen ground does give us chance to start spreading composted manure though and a newly disturbed compost heap gave the birds somewhere to forage for insects whilst all around was covered in snow .We saw fieldfares, thrushes, robins and a pied wagtail on the heap, and 2 lapwings following the muck-spreader.
