On the farm in August

What a weird week! Glorious sun one second and hail storms the next! As always, we’re constantly watching the weather to make sure it doesn’t do any more damage to our crop. 

Continuing on the planting, this week we are planting kale, purple sprouting broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower down the marsh (near camber sands) where we are also digging Kent new potatoes, Maris Bard. Maris bard are a bit of an all rounder, they are great boiled or in salads, but can be part roasted, or mashed also! 

Fruit picking is in full swing with a bumper crop of raspberries - variety Joan Squire (my favourite location of raspberries as it’s sheltered, sunny and right next to the house for a quick snack!) 

We are also picking lots of cherries which are now producing much better fruit with less cracks. We hope to send the cracked cherries to the juicer end of next week. Biddenden Vineyard help us press our cherry juice because they have an amazing contraption that crushes the cherries and separates the fruit from the stone, much easier than doing it by hand! Red currents are growing well, as are apricots which will be at their best in a couple of weeks time. The start of the plum season is off with a bang, with Opals and soon Victorias, Giant Prunes and Green Gages. 

Still waiting for the first eating apples which should be any day now. We are now picking the first of the seasons cooking apples Grenadiers, which I will hopefully add to the website next week once I find out where Dad is hiding them! 

Wildlife is having a great year with far more wild orchids than ever nestled within the old plum trees. We keep a up to date record of wildflowers on the farm and try to protect them where possible, this means not walking the dogs through, no mowing of the area, and in this case, no plum picking in those patches!