‘Tis the season of cold
and mud ………. and time to move inside.
The
Autumn Vegetable Box & Polytunnel 2 planted with winter crops (and the last
of the chillis!)
As autumn turns to
winter, the delicate summer crops have finished and we have moved onto the more
robust winter crops and planted up the polytunnels for late winter and early
spring crops.
At Hammonds End the
outside vegetable beds have been emptied and the remains of beans, cucumbers,
tomatoes, calabrese and courgettes have been chopped and added to the compost
heap. The smaller you chop the pieces, the larger the surface area for bacteria
to break-down the stems and leaves and the quicker it turns to compost.
The empty beds have been
sown with a green manure to keep the soil covered in winter and we have added
our own “Foodsmiles made” compost to the raised beds in the Polytunnels.
Harvesting has moved from
the squash, cucumber, tomatoes and chillis onto kale, perpetual spinach, chard
and swede and the end of the salad and we will soon be tucking into the leeks,
cabbage and cauliflower.
The
squash harvest ripening in the polytunnel & kale ready for harvest
The onion and garlic were
planted in October and are now coming up ready for harvesting next spring.
Overwintering
Onions and Leeks
October and November have
not been kind on the weather front with much higher levels of rain and lower
sunlight than average resulting in some of the winter polytunnel crops being
slow to get going.
This has not been helped
by mice stealing the spinach and lettuce seeds and feasting on the seedlings planted
out to grow in Polytunnel 4. This means we may be low on vegetables in the “UK
Hunger Gap” next year. If anyone has any ideas how to protect the juicy tender
crops from rodents please say!
What
is the Hungry Gap? The Hungry Gap is the hardest time of year for UK farmers: a
few weeks, usually in April, May and early June, after the winter crops have
ended but before the new season's plantings are ready to be harvested. It all
comes down to the UK's latitude.
On the positive front the
newly enlarged polytunnel 2 is full of winter spinach, rocket, turnip, mizuna
and carrots to keep us going in early spring. No mice in that one!
The big project of autumn
has been refurbishing Polytunnel
3 – replacing the cover
and adding some new doors and raised beds. It has been very wet and muddy work
but thanks to our members determination we have now completed this. We have
also improved our capacity for harvesting rainwater from the polytunnels digging
large capacity water tanks into the Hertfordshire clay. These will be connected
to pumps to irrigate the crops next summer, reducing water use and saving us
time.
Polytunnel
3 undergoing its renovation
I’ll stop moaning about
the weather – but would like some dry bright days to get some growth in the
polytunnel crops before it turns too cold!
Harvests
from our Hixberry
site are well up on last year
(almost double!) showing that whilst clay soils may be difficult to work, they
are very fertile. We recently harvested a good crop of Jerusalem artichokes
which was a new veg for members’ boxes.
Bumper Squash, Swede and Jerusalem Artichoke
harvests from Hixberry Lane
We
have also been working hard on developing our fruit area more than doubling the
size of the strawberry patch and planting out some great looking blackcurrant
bushes we grew from cuttings.
Over
the winter we plan to increase the area for growing crops in the polytunnel to
get more from this great resource.
In
the polytunnel we are still harvesting fun shaped chillies from plants grown
from seed saved by a member.
Hixberry Lane Chilies
The Incredible Edible
gardens will have NO WORK SESSIONS in December – we will return in January
ready for winter jobs such as improving our paths and pruning fruit bushes.
When you’re planning your Christmas dinner don’t forget that both gardens,
especially the Civic Centre, have free herbs such as bay, rosemary, thyme and
sage to pick all year round. Other crops to look out for over winter are
parsley, lamb’s lettuce and winter purslane – all welcome greens in the dark
months when there’s not much else green growing. Winter purslane in particular
is extremely abundant at the Civic Centre garden – it’s a mild but succulent
salad leaf, high in omega-3 fatty acids, which is a great addition to salads
and sandwiches. We weeded out and threw away sacks full at the end of last winter
so don’t be shy – PLEASE do help yourself!
Winter purslane in the Civic Centre Garden
We need more volunteers to
help the gardens reach their full potential, so please have a think about
whether you’d like to get involved next year. No experience is required and
we’re a friendly bunch to work with – just drop in to any of our sessions to
get involved. And look out for extra events coming soon too, such as workshops
and social events…
There has been a lot of
interest over the autumn months in the many different fungi popping up around
the gardens. These all occur naturally – we haven’t put them there – and we are
not mushroom experts so we can’t tell you whether or not they are edible
varieties, so please don’t go picking them unless you know exactly what you’re
doing! They are rather beautiful and an important (and amazing!) part of the
ecosystem, so we tend to leave them where they are for your viewing pleasure.
And for your reading pleasure, here’s a little bit about these remarkable
organisms.
Fungi facts:
1) Fungi
are not in the plant kingdom but in a kingdom all of their own – in fact, they
are more closely related to humans than plants!
2) Like
human skin, mushrooms create vitamin D when exposed to sunlight – this means
you can increase your vitamin D intake by leaving your mushrooms in the sun for
an hour or two before eating them. Or by sun-drying them!
3) The
primary component of the cell walls of fungi is a substance called chitin,
which also makes up fish scales and the shells of insects and crustaceans.
4) Mushrooms
are the fruiting bodies of an underground organism, the vegetative part of
which is a branching network of root-like fibres called mycelium. The biggest
fungus (and the biggest organism) in the world is believed to be a honey fungus
(Armillaria solidipes) in Oregon, USA, which measures 3.4 miles across!
5) Mycelium
forms relationships with plants – particularly trees – and actually helps
supply their roots with extra water and nutrients from the soil in exchange for
food; a little sugar from the roots.
6) This
underground network of mycelium links trees in such a way that they actually
communicate with each other through it. For example, if one tree is under pest
attack, it releases chemical signals which ‘warn’ other trees to raise their
defences. As another example, some trees have been found to send extra
resources via the network to new saplings of their own species nearby, to
support them.
7) Fungi
are hugely important as decomposers of waste in nature; they release enzymes to
break the decaying material down, and then they absorb its nutrients. That’s
one reason fungi are often seen on dead wood.
8) But
it’s not only dead plant matter that fungi can absorb – they have also been
used to clean up oil spills, toxic chemicals, plastic waste, and even
radiation!
9) Fungi
can even make it rain! In the Amazon rainforest, the spores released by certain
mushrooms in dry weather actually help to seed new rain clouds above.
10) There
are 15,000 types of wild fungi in the UK. About 200 are edible, and about 50
poisonous. Some have impressive medicinal qualities. Many of the toxic
varieties will only cause gastric upset, but of the most toxic species, one
small slice is enough to kill several people and there is no antidote or cure!
Friends of Foodsmiles are welcome to come to work informally at the farm
whenever they need some hearty exercise and company (and probably cake too)! It
would be great to see you so please come along and say hello - there is always
plenty to do! If you are interested, please contact us and we can let you know
when we are working on site. You can also go on our 'active friends' list and
receive our site newsletter if you wish to do this regularly (membership@foodsmilesstalbans.org.uk).
Date for the Diary: Foodsmiles AGM will be held on 6th February 2020
in the Council Chambers in Harpenden – all Members and Friends of Foodsmiles very
welcome. Watch out for the formal invite in the New Year.
If you are interested in
being on the committee, please talk to one of the site managers.
Recipe
Suggestion: Creamy Leeks with Cashews
2 medium leeks
4oz cashews
1 small onion chopped
¾ pint creamy milk,
warmed
2oz butter
1 clove of garlic,
crushed
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2oz 81% flour (light
wholemeal flour)
Salt & pepper
Fry leeks, onion, cashews
and garlic in butter until tender. Remove from the heat. Stir in flour. Return
to heat. Gradually add milk. Bring to the boil stirring continuously. Add
parsley and seasoning. Serve in split jacket potatoes with a crisp winter salad.
And
finally, the muddiest site manager award goes to...
