Tom’s News From the Field | Canalside Community Food

February 2009

Well, with Spring on its way and a bit of time on our hands whilst the fields were covered in snow, we were able to get really stuck into the first full days seed sowing over at Ryton Gardens at the end of February. Danny and I spent a long day in their sowing shed, bench heater angled at our hands, sowing a multitude of seed varieties mainly for early crops to cover the dreaded hungry gap. Amongst these will be Spring Onions, Baby Bunched Beets, Lettuces and Spinach. With some 14,000 seeds sown during the day we certainly left their greenhouse fuller than when we arrived!

It’s certainly approaching that time now when we start to focus on the many tasks of the coming season whilst trying to maintain a steady flow of fresh veg for the share over the leaner months of April/May. Just recently the weather has really warmed up, with several days feeling almost Spring like. This has prompted the drilling of our early Peas and Carrots in the polytunnel.

So what’s to look forward to? Well, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the new season of Purple Sprouting Broccoli for some weeks now and we’ve finally been able to start putting it in the share as of this week. Also we’ve varieties of Cauliflower due to begin cropping any time now too. The Leeks have begun bulking up and should be in the share for most of the Spring having unfortunately been largely absent in the Winter months. Really it’s a matter of waiting for the warm weather to let everything begin growing again.

Happy feasting folk!