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Well, today was a monumentous day !! After 19 months of waiting for permission to connect to the mains, I finally have water on tap - one outside the shed and one in the polytunnel - I still don't have full written permission but it gets to the point where you just think "sod it, do it and argue the toss later ". So I hired a mini digger and laid the pipes, connected everything up and Voila - water on tap
So now instead of anywhere between 2 - 4 hrs a day watering the tunnel with a watering can filled with harvested rainwater, I can do the whole thing in less than an hour !!!
I have also joined HILFN (Highlands and Islands Local Food Network) to assisit in marketing and lots of other ways - should also have a website soon.
On the crop front - calabrese is just about finished, but still have peas, broad beans, potatoes, courgettes, milan turnips, chard, spinach, cucumbers, spring onions, lettuce, rocket, mizuna, cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower and beetroot all still being harvested, with kale, savoy cabbage, winter cabbage, swede, leeks, PSB, spring greens, pak choi and raddichio growing well.
I have taken the plunge on the organic front too - have now officially registered my 5 acres as a holding / farm with SEERAD (Scottish version of DEFRA) and as soon as that is processed, I am applying to the Soil Association and SOPA (Scottisg Organic Producers Association) to start my organic certification period.
I am changing the layout in the polytunnel too - removing all the staging bar one 6ft section, and putting raised beds in it's place - the first two are in and have already been planted up with Spinach and Raddichio.
My carrots are only now beginning to look as if they might do something - there was a period of 6 or 7 weeks immediately after sowing where we had no rain, so they were set back right from the start. My onions are also disappointingly small compared to last years giants - again due to poor rainfall - so you see - it doesn't always rain up here !
Jam and chutney production is about to move into top gear - just ordered another 200 jars - bramble jelly, rowan jelly, courgette chutney, pickled baby beets and beetroot, pickled shallots, pickled cucumber, haw jelly, parsley jelly - all either made or due to be made in next month.
This weeks box will contain some or all of the following (along with a recipe card natch) - potatoes, carrots, onions, courgettes, marrow, cabbage, spinach / chard, milan turnips, broad beans, peas.
Later..................
