We’ve all but finished the savoy and green cabbage, and the leeks are on their last legs too. At this point, cut any of these in half and you will see the centre lengthening, triffid-like, ready to burst into flower. We’ve had our final pick of kale, ploughed, and sown the grass and clover which will help restore the soil over a four-year break from the repeated cultivations needed to grow veg.
Next week, we’ll pick the last shoots of purple sprouting broccoli. We’ll still have spring greens through April, thanks to September rain delaying their last planting (a two-week delay that caused a two-month delay in picking). April and early May should also see a good last fling for cauliflower with the risk of frost receding.
We’re busy planting lettuce, onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbages, artichokes, peas and salad leaves but it will be mid-May before there is anything to pick, and June before we have a good variety of local veg again. Polytunnels can bring crops forward and cold stores can hold crops back but the intervening 6–8 weeks are known as the ‘Hungry Gap’ for a reason.
During this time, we look south to Spain (1,400 miles, two days and 284g CO2e/ kg of veg away), Italy (1,800 miles, two days and 307g CO2e/kg of veg away) and the French Vendée (300 miles, 12 hours and 78g CO2e/kg of veg away). These are compromises, of course, but without them I don’t think we would have a business. We never air freight or grow in heated tunnels or heated glasshouses, which are normally much worse in terms of carbon than trucking veg across from Europe. Despite so many of us professing to being ‘localvores’, when faced with new-season Spanish asparagus or bolting cabbage at the end of a long winter, most of us will reach for the asparagus.
For those of you with access, confidence, and a few spare hours, now is the best time to forage. Try nettles, sea beets, alexanders, sorrel and, of course, the wild garlic currently at its peak – or we can do the picking for you and you can order our wild garlic instead (some of our veg boxes include it, or you can add it to your order as an extra). If foraging, just make sure you know what you’re picking and avoid the poisonous hemlock, lords-and- ladies, and dog’s mercury.
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers, every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about.
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