Presentation Notes at Soil Associations Conference at the Passenger Shed in Bristol

The room prior to the workshop Agri-culture where four of us explored topics such as Art in farming, master class training days, school visits and mobile bakery for demonstrating bread making in schools
For my short presentation the notes are available if you click on the title above. The Plenary sessions are available on the soil association website now.

New chiller unit at market

The chiller unit we bought the other week has seen its first service, we unvieled it in alls its glory at Ludlow Farmers Market, it comes on its own trailer which is boxed in when you set it up on site.

We are using it with Clun Forest Organics Farmers, which is a group of four local farmers selling our meet cooperatively across a number of outlets.
The chiller was set up next to a stall also selling our vegetables and Trevor Wheelers (pictured below) potatoes, carrots and swedes.
It was a reasonably successful day especially considering the weather and that this was our first attempt. Our intention is to continue to attend on the second Thursday in Ludlow, then try Shrewsbury Farmers Market on the first Friday and to attend Bishops Castle Farmers Market on the third Saturday of the month.

All our meat is killed at the local abbatoir Griffiths in Leintwadine and is butchered by Welsh Farm Organics or Golden Valley Organics.

Leek Crop

Leeks are one of the most important crops for us, they usually get a good price, are in steady demand throughout the winter and will stand through hard winter frosts. The crop this year is just about ideal. the individual plants are not too big but have nice long shanks giving a good balance of size and flavour.We have almost cleared the early season crop seen below the two central beds. These will not take frost as well as the blue green cultivars which should stand through the hardest (almost) winter.
The only year that I have sen significant winter loss of leeks was a few years ago when there was an extraordinarily mild autumn and early winter. which was followed by a hard frost of minus 8C. It appears that the plants were growing soft and a heavy frost damaged them before they could harden up.

All our leeks are grwon through a biodegradable sheet which looks like polythene but decomposes over the year. Between the beds we sow white clover which grows into the leek beds throughout the year giving some green manure to incorporate next year.

Shrewsbury Market

The weekend comes around that means its Shrewsbury Market Every Friday and Saturday we stand at the indoor market, and have for about 10 years.
In season this week are the jerusalem Artichokes and for the first time this year swede and parsnip. The winter seasonal vegetables are in demand this year as it looks like we are getting a seasonal autumn for a change.

Artichokes are in season

We reduced the tops of the Jerusalem Artichokes to make harvesting simpler and to prevent wind blow. When the plants blow over the tubers can be brought to the surface which will attract rabbits and pheasants which will happily eat all they can find.Gyp likes to inspect the work and make sure we don't miss any tubers

Our first proper crop of Artichokes this season,the crop is looking good..I guess the heavy rain in the summer wasn't all bad.

Final Master Class today

We held our final class of the year today. The courses have I think been a success and we are now thinking about developing the idea for next year. To see the notes for todays course follow this link: http://knol.google.com/k/phil-moore or click on the title above.

Going to collect the chill cabinet

We have bought a part share in a chill cabinet with a friend of ours who farms organically near Newcastle on Clun. It sits on a trailer which will transport it and will support it under a canopy. This means we had better get started on our meat selling enterprise.
We already sell every Friday at Myriad Organics in Ludlow as part of the Clun Valley Organic Farmers and this chiller will help with selling the meat to a wider customer base.