We're making good progress with the new growing season , with thousands of baby plants already sown in seed trays to look after and early direct seedings of both salad and spinach sown in the fields at the end of March. We’ve also planted most of our potatoes, made a start on planting onion sets, ... Read more
Blog
Latest news from Ripple Farm Organics.
Displaying 61 - 80 of 152
Posted: Monday, 15 March, 2021 - 15:36
We’ve been filling in gaps in hedges around the fields we rent in Wye, and this winter this has included more than 200m of a double row hedge along the edge of ‘Orchard Field’ on the boundary with Coldharbour Lane, planting around 1,200 native UK grown saplings. We planted a ‘pollinator’ mix from ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 15 March, 2021 - 15:33
Great to see lots of people enjoying the snow but one week was enough for us! We harvested what we could on the Saturday before it snowed, cancelled some of that week’s orders but managed to pack and deliver the veggie boxes and harvest enough for Farmer’s Markets. The beetroot still in the ground ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 15 March, 2021 - 15:31
We feel like we’re getting some ‘normal’ winter weather this year with plenty of frosty mornings (and amazing sunrises), although still lots of wet, milder days too so the fields are very wet, of course. We’re just grateful that we have chalky soils that drain well – we’re not looking forward to ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 3 December, 2020 - 11:05
Christmas 2020 and New Year 2021 Arrangements The Veggie boxes on Christmas week will mostly be delivered on the morning of Thursday 24 (with some deliveries on the evening of Wednesday 23). See below for collection/delivery times for the Christmas Eve box only. Canterbury/Whitstable/Faversham Will ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 3 December, 2020 - 10:57
We had a few dry days at the end of November enabling us to sow broad beans that should be ready for next spring. We also harvested a few more potatoes the slow way, i.e picking them up by hand – they came up fairly muddy though. We’ve had to buy in some potatoes for the box scheme for now, as ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 9 November, 2020 - 15:32
All of our squash are in the warm-store now ready for use over the next few months. I wish our potatoes were all harvested too but there are still a lot in the ground after it was too wet for much of the autumn for us to harvest them. We’ll have to get them out the slow way anytime the ground dries ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 10 September, 2020 - 07:05
Most of this growing season has been either too wet or too dry with not much middle ground. Showers forecast during the 2nd half of August kept missing us, and then when we finally got more than 20mm from one at Ripple Farm the fields at Wye got nothing! We did eventually get a good amount of rain ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 30 July, 2020 - 10:34
Salad Days Apologies that we don't have much salad veggies to put in the veggie boxes this week, especially as it will be 'salad weather'. The mustard leaves and mizuna have been attacked by flea beetle - a common occurrence at this time of year. Hopefully the next sowing will be OK. And even ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 2 July, 2020 - 15:36
Two -thirds of our main growing areas are sown with a variety of 'green manure' crops to build fertility before growing the next crop of vegetables. These ‘green manure’ crops include a variety of different clovers, grasses, phacelia and buckwheat and, as organic growers,we rely on these to add ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 2 July, 2020 - 09:21
We transplanted 1,000s of plants on Saturday 27 June and have been hoping for a decent amount of rain since then so we can stop irrigating (a slow job, 2 rows of trickle tape at a time) but the showers we did get didn't add up to much, and the ground was soon dust dry again. Then, we can transplant ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 4 June, 2020 - 09:17
We’ve got used to hot, dry spells in May, but this May has been particularly so. According to the Met Office the UK has recorded its sunniest month ever with 266 hours of sunshine in May, more than any other month since records began and England has experienced its driest May ever. Our irrigation ... Read more
Posted: Monday, 11 May, 2020 - 09:10
We had plenty of sunny, windy days in April which dried the ground out enabling us to get on with ploughing, cultivating, potato and onion planting, seed sowing and transplanting. We had started to irrigate some of the newly transplanted crops with trickle tape but then thankfully a few wet days ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 2 April, 2020 - 16:44
We’re feeling very lucky that we can keep on working and have some sort of normality although, of course, we’ve had to adapt to the 2m distancing in the fields and in the packing shed and lots of hand washing and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces etc. We've had a huge demand for vegetables, ... Read more
Posted: Saturday, 28 March, 2020 - 08:07
We are all fit and healthy on the farm and are constantly changing our working practices to minimise the risk of transmission of coronavirus. Just a few points to bear in mind when collecting /taking delivery of your veggie box/bag. Please do not collect your own vegetable box if you are self- ... Read more
Posted: Friday, 20 March, 2020 - 10:29
Corona Virus – Info for Box Scheme Customers We just wanted to let you all know that we’ll be continuing with box scheme deliveries as normal as long as we are able to – everyone on the farm has stayed fit and healthy so far. If you have your veggies delivered to a collection point and you are ill ... Read more
Posted: Tuesday, 3 March, 2020 - 10:27
We’ve had Ciara, Dennis and Jorge to contend with during February. Luckily for our harvesting team the worst of the weather has come on the weekends, but they’ve still had some tough harvesting conditions. We’ll have to replace some panes of glass in our old glasshouses and clear a few fallen trees ... Read more
Posted: Tuesday, 11 February, 2020 - 12:19
Our greens in the field are getting scarce but the mostly mild and wet winter means they haven’t suffered any significant frost damage. Other crops still in the field in February are carrots, parsnips, swede, leeks, PSB, cabbages, sprouts, radicchio and mustard salad leaves. Oh, and potatoes but we ... Read more
Posted: Thursday, 12 December, 2019 - 10:52
There will be an EXTRA DELIVERY on the morning of Christmas Eve this year PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WANT THIS EXTRA DELIVERY AS YOU WILL NOT BE SENT IT AUTOMATICALLY. After that deliveries resume on Thursday January 9. Order form for extras with 24 Dec boxes need to be with us by Thursday 19 ... Read more
