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News for week begining 12 April (Week 15)

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Harvesting

The carrot harvest from Bridgefoot is almost at an end, as is the swede. Both crops have been plentiful this year. The carrots have been particularly tasty. We’re now harvesting parsnips. They are slightly disappointing in terms of size, but we couldn’t leave them in the ground any longer. Our beetroot harvest has also been disappointing and we’ve had to get most from our supplier in Stonehaven. The leeks have been plentiful this year and they’re still coming out in large quantities. We are also getting kale, chard and radishes locally, which means the price is kept down for those items.

Growing

With the arrival of spring, farms around the country are a hive of activity and Bridgefoot is no different. We have been very busy with weeding and planting. We’ve just transplanted Chinese and pointed cabbages along with broad beans and French beans. Radish, spinach, fennel and celery have been sown and are currently in the propagation tunnel, to be transplanted into the other tunnels later. Today, Matthew, Frieda and Ron are sowing seed potatoes.

Herbs

We are now harvesting chives and thyme, which have both just started going into boxes. The herbs are a lovely addition to the box and we’ve just planted rosemary. We hope to have oregano available too. We’ve also lots of chives in transplant trays in the propagation tunnel.

Prices

We are now at that time of year when very little local produce is available, and we have to supplement greatly with produce from outside the UK. This has been a double-edged sword this year as we’ve been experiencing a high shortage of items, which has pushed prices up. Brexit has just added another layer of complexity with the sheer volume of paperwork making things much more difficult for importers. The Hungry Gap is always challenging for farmers, and for small box schemes as ourselves in Scotland, it has now become a bit more of a challenge. The challenge for the office is trying to ensure people are getting enough in their boxes, which takes a fair degree of skill and creativity! However, with the summer soon approaching, this will become less stressful as our own produce starts to take off, so we just have to ride the storm for now.

Staff

One of our packers, Graeme, shall be leaving us next week as he returns to his work in graphic design now that the lockdown is almost at an end. We’d like to thank Graeme for all his hard work in the past 6 months. Graeme will continue to do some ad hoc work from a graphic design view, so we look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.

Frieda, who’s been with us for some time and who helps with packing on a Thursday, will now step into Graeme’s shoes, while continuing to do work in the fields.

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