Although January started unseasonable mild, we had plenty of frosty mornings throughout the month, which have taken their toll on the leafy green crops. When they’re scarce at this time of year some of them (chard in particular) are harvested leaf by leaf! January was particularly dry too, not a problem for any of the field crops as they’re well established and can find enough water and good for us as it made driving round the fields for harvesting a bit easier. See this link for January’s weather stats..
Beetbox visit
It was great to have a visit from Students at the University of Kent, Canterbury, customers of ‘Beetbox’ a student run veggie box scheme using Ripple’s veggies. It’s heartening to know there are young people interested in where their food comes from, and impressive that they manage their own veggie box scheme.
Trailcam
Pictures from the trail camera from November and December are up on our blog now
https://ripplefarmorganics.co.uk/blog/2022/01/november-and-december-2021-trailcam-pictures
Parsnips - Our parsnip crop has done well thanks to last year’s wet summer, they needed a lot of hand-weeding but once that was done, they grew very well, as you can see from the size of some of them! The larger size ones are just as tasty as the smaller ones and as they are one of the vegetables that taste sweeter after a frost, they are particularly delicious now. As well as roasting them, parsnips also make a great soup, or root mash (combine with potatoes, carrot or swede) and can even be added to a stir fry (use a peeler to make small shavings).
