The driest summer since 1976 has been followed by the wettest September we’ve ever recorded. The moisture combined with a warm active soil – recycling and releasing plenty of nutrients – has brought a riot of luxuriant late growth, especially from the brassicas. Oaks show no signs of abandoning their leaves and walnuts have pushed out a metre of new growth (though they often miscalculate and have to abort growth the following year). The strategy seems to be: take a punt and use the rain to make up for the growth forgone in a drought.
After a good breeding year, when numbers over the farm have visibly grown, the swifts have moved to the coast where they’re flocking up ready for departure, soon to be followed by the swallows and house martins, as they bug off to warmer climes in search of more bugs. Here on the farm, the return of the sunshine has helped cure the skins of our squash and seal the scar where we cut them from the vine; they’ll be in the barn by the end of September, a month ahead of last year. Most winter squash (Butternut, Crown Prince, Kabocha) need a few weeks in a warm store, to heal any nicks caused by harvest and the bumpy ride from the field, and to develop their full sweetness. Everyone wants to be first to write about them, first to market, or first to feature them on menus, but an impatient, premature harvest disappoints on the plate.
The best flavour normally comes with slower growing and maturing varieties, grown in the slightly challenging conditions that delay maturity. The frustratingly leisurely Charlotte salad potatoes we now enjoy are so much better than the fast maturing, high yielding potato varieties that dominate the early market. Squash always keep better on a shelf in a warm, dry home than in a barn, and you can now pre-order our 7kg organic squash box which includes at least three different varieties for £18.65, and will be delivered from the end of October. (Available at Riverford).
With our barns rapidly filling with potatoes, squash, and onions, soon followed by carrots and beets – plus great crops of leeks, cabbages, and kale in the field – we, like our oaks, are hunkering down, ready for winter. I’m all for a quieter season here on the land I love, and will do my best to provide a welcoming home for the returning swifts & co in spring.
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.
0 Comments