Spring Newsletter
Welcome to our new and improved newsletter, we have decided to combine all of our news from the farm and market garden into one seasonal update. In this email you will be getting an update from Liz on how her season is progressing and the recovery from her tunnel incident, news from how the animals are getting on from Ryan and Stuart will be letting you know what else we have been up to.
Market garden update from Liz
WE DID IT!!!
A huge thank you for all your support, kindness and generosity in helping us achieve this. We have now reassembled the polytunnel frame with replacement parts after the fierce winds of storm Darragh in December tore it down and (perhaps more importantly) have had our morale boosted by the support of the community. We look forward to all the veg that will soon be growing in the tunnel!
After a long, cold winter, signs of spring are emerging. There seem to be more snowdrops this year and the recent few rays of sunshine have been a lovely change from the long lingering winter months. I find this time of year so exciting. Everything is just starting to grow and my mind is pulled forward to visions of the summer - beds bursting with luscious veg, bees bumbling about and a beautiful blue sky. I can almost taste that first juicy tomato already.
Although the winter is a quieter time in the garden, we have been busy this year. After a devastating storm left the polytunnel twisted and mangled, we were shown incredible support from the community in raising funds to fix the damage. With these funds, I have bought the replacement tunnel parts (most of them being stronger versions than the originals), rootstocks to create windbreaks, replacement fence parts and even some sand and heated cable to create a heated propagation table. This will help get seedlings off to a strong start, which will be particularly important if we have another cool spring like last year.
As mentioned earlier, the polytunnel frame is now reassembled, with just the cover to go back on (hopefully this weekend if there is no wind). It has also been moved to a more wind-proof location. Although the destruction of the storm was a negative situation, it taught me some valuable lessons. The first was to understand the power of strong winds and what they are capable of. The second was to understand the power of strong communities and what they are capable of! As the saying goes – the world is tough, but so are we.
So now we can all look forward to the wonderful new growth that the spring will bring. Longer days and slightly higher temperatures fill me with anticipation. Beetroot are growing well on the heated table in preparation for the first boxes of the season while sugar snap peas and mange tout are just beginning to germinate. It’s happening!
This year I will be adding tried and tested seasonal recipes to our website, designed to fit in with the weekly box contents. I hope you find them inspiring and helpful in your journey to cooking and eating with the seasons. If you have any recipes you would like to share, please do email them to me at hayefarmveg@outlook.com.
Farm update from Ryan
As the days start getting longer and the grass begins to grow, we have been busy sorting out the livestock. At the end of February we had our TB test, this is a stressful time for both the cattle and us, as they spend their time outside grazing a different section of the pasture every day, they find a break in their usual routine upsetting. Fortunately, we are all clear and do not need to do another test until next year. At the same time as the TB test, we had our 10 cows scanned to see who was in calf and to our delight we had a full house. In preparation for the coming calves, we needed to wean the yearlings from their mothers. We do this at 11 months of age, this gives the mother a bit of time to recuperate before giving birth again and causes minimum stress to the calf and mother.
The ewes will be giving birth in the coming month; for the last couple of years we have been taking a step back approach and let them get on with lambing by themselves outside, rather than bringing them in the shed and intervening at first sign of difficulty. This seems to us as a more natural approach and the sheep know intuitively what to do. We have had better success in raising healthy sheep this way. Our flock is made up of mixture of breeds including Wiltshire Horn, Dorper, Easy Care and Exlana, all these breeds moult meaning we do not need to shear them, this gives us the advantage of not having to dock their tales. Most farmers would do this to avoid flystrike but as they lose their wool they are not as susceptible to it, we have not found it to be an issue since we stopped docking their tales.
For those who are meat eaters we have the latest batch of beef back from the butchers, the animals spend their whole lives on the farm purely on a grass-fed diet with no additional feed. This creates healthier animals and tastier meat. We then transport them to the local abattoir 50 miles away, this is as low food miles as you will find. If you wish to purchase any meat or apple juice, our shop is open on Saturdays 09.00am-10.30am or alternatively contact us by email or call Stuart on 07732489195 for times outside of these.
What else have we been up to?
We’ve attended several events over the last couple of months selling our juice and apples including the Christmas market at St. Annes church, Bewdley and the greener living fair at Arley Kings.
In January we attended Wyre Forest green energy fair. Initially you might think why would a food producer attend an energy fair? We don’t immediately think about the embedded energy in our food and the ethical choices we could make. Food miles can add a massive environmental cost, what can compete with food grown within a mile of your local town. What inputs have been used to grow your food? At Haye Farm our inputs are very low, why not come along to our farm tour in June and find out more
We attended Bewdley’s new artisan market at the Rowing Club. It’s great to see the town has finally got a quality market for local growers and artisans. We strongly encourage the local community to support this new initiative.
We’re ever grateful to our wonderful group of volunteers who make attending these events possible by freely giving of their time to help man our stalls.
The volunteers have been busy pruning our orchards before the new buds and spring blossom bursts out. The Forest Garden has had lots of tender loving care over winter and has been well mulched with woodchip before it all springs back into life.
Upcoming events
We will be at Wyre Forest greener living fair on Monday 31st March Wribbenhall 19.00-20.30
As part of Susfest we are hosting a farm tour on Saturday 21st June - 10:00-12:30 click here to book your place.
Join us for a walk round our agroforestry systems, mob grazed cattle and sheep, heritage orchards, no-dig market garden and forest garden. In depth informative tours from the farmer, staff and volunteers. Refreshments available plus a free apple juice taster. Dexter beef, lamb and apple juice will be available for sale on the day.
Spring Time - Shop Opening Hours
Our farm shop will be open on Saturdays 09:00 to 10:30 for those wishing to purchase beef, lamb and juice. Those wishing to purchase outside of these times can email haye-farm@outlook.com or call Stuart on 07732 489195.
Veg boxes are expected to be availabe at the start of June. Click here to register your interest.