Well, it’s getting a ‘bit back endish” as we say in Yorkshire when the summer months are moving on into the start of autumn. We have all enjoyed the long hot summer and the gardens and polytunnel on the farm has produced an abundance of produce for everyone on the farm to enjoy.
Everyone this year has taken home courgettes, chillies and purple French beans as well as farm grown tomatoes in a variety of colours, in fact the green tomatoes caught us all out as those of “not in the know” just thought they were not ripe, until it was pointed out by our horticultural experts (i.e., Fay and Susan), that they ripen to green!
The animals on the farm as well as farm staff and people we support have all enjoyed the produce grown and it’s a familiar sight now to see everyone out there picking the produce whilst at the same time popping a sneaky berry or tomato into their mouths at the same time.
Apparently one of the secrets to our success this year according to ‘Fay Don’ also known as our Chair of Trustees, is Alpaca Poo from our very own herd!! She has created a natural fertiliser with it and although it does look and smell rather disgusting, the plants love it. So, there you go anyone reading this now knows that all they have to do now is find some alpaca poo for successful summer produce – bet Monty Don doesn’t have that top tip!
As we move towards the end of summer, we now have grapes growing in the polytunnel and who knows one day we may even produce our very own Acorn Sauvignon blanc or just some very nice grapes for everyone to snack on………….