Seedlings 🌱 #frithfarm #seedlings #permaculture #horticulture #csa #salad #birdseyeview

What a chore but what satisfaction! An afternoon well spent getting the rest of the beds lined out, now just to get some veggies in. #frithfarm #farmingthefuture #csa #permaculture #horticulture #cultivation ... See more

Strawberries are in flower 🍓. #frithfarm #farmingthefuture #strawberries #strawberry #inbloom #inflower #horticulture #permaculture #csa

Blooming nettle! #nettle #inbloom

A day well spent at Humber street vegan market today. The place was packed with like-minded people and it was great to hear such a positive response from people about local farming. Hopefully, you managed to catch us and some of our produce, if not watch this space for more markets in the future. ... See more

Plenty of wonky carrots here at the farm.

Billions of pounds of perfectly good produce are being wasted simply for being the wrong shape, color, and size. But Imperfect has a great solution!
www.imperfectproduce.com
Like Rob Greenfield for more videos like this! ... See more

Out of your pantry and into your garden - Millie Ross shows you how to grow black beans and chillies in your backyard.

Birdseye view of the farm

We spent the day up in the northeast, experiencing other CSA's and organic farming practices. We had a walk around Nafferton farm, showing us their research on organic methods vs conventional methods. We finished the day with a presentation documenting the evidence that organic foods were higher in antioxidants and omega fatty acids, while been much lower in carcinogens like cadmium. It was the positive affirmation we needed, a real buzz around small-scale organic farming is building. ... See more

We've made a film describing the work we do with our producer and distributor members. We launched the film on Saturday at the Land and Food Forum and are thrilled to be able to share it with you now..... Give it a watch, then share it across your social networks! Thanks to the lovely Black Bark films for their amazing work. ... See more

Our top #fridaytip for the week is to clear away rotting or diseased leaves from the veg patch, especially from #lettuces and #brassicas. Much of it can be #composted.

As you lift your #veg, cover any bare areas of soil with a low nutrient mulch such as leaf mould, straw or dampened down newly-fallen leaves.

Don’t use your #compost yet – save it for early #spring. ... See more

We're also taking part in Heritage Open Days.
Pop along and take a walk through our gardens. You can even enjoy a lovely cuppa afterwards ☕️

Heritage Open Days 2017

Potentilla thurberi 'Monarch's Velvet' - scarlet cinquefoil is our #plant of the week. This #herbaceous #perennial flowers all summer. It enjoys full sun and poor to moderately fertile soil.
#plantoftheweek #Potentillathurberi #MonarchsVelvet ... See more

This fantastic picture of late-ripening blight resistant Salt Spring Sunrise tomatoes from our Heritage Seed Library was sent to us by Seed Guardian, Adam. As we continue to work on the 2019 #HSL seed list we'd love you to share any pictures of this year's HSL successes that you've still got growing on your veg plot... ... See more

We have two types of #Plantain for our #WeedyWednesday plant this week - Greater Plantain Plantago major & Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata.

Both are found in #lawns and paths, and both are #perennial weeds with strong roots. But did you know they are also a useful herb?

Greater Plantain: #Herbalists use the leaves to stem bleeding in small wounds, as well as to soothe insect bites and stings.

Ribwort Plantain: A #tea or #syrup from the leaves is used as a cough medicine. A poultice may also relieve stings and skin irritations.

#weedoftheweek #WeedyWednesday #GreaterPlantain #RibwortPlantain ... See more

Weedy Wednesday - Plantain There are two plantains in the garden – the Ribwort and the Greater. Both are found in lawns and paths, and both are perennial weeds with strong roots. But did you know they are also a useful herb? In this weekly series, we take a quick look at common garden weeds. How the... ... See more

The remainder of our 2017 #organic #gardening #courses are booking up fast. For information on all our upcoming courses, including our popular Introduction to Organic Veg Growing taking place on 14th September visit www.gardenorganic.org.uk/our-courses ... See more

Our Courses Filter Selection: All (Default) Ryton Events Open Gardens Local Events Courses Introduction to Seed Saving This introduces the basic principles of seed saving, including growing annual plants to seed, harvesting, drying, cleaning and storage. Crops will be looked at growing in-... ... See more

#simpleswitch No.1 - Buy peat free compost!

Peat comes from an ancient habitat, which would take 1000's of years to restore – something we can never do in our or our children’s lifetimes.

Extracting the peat destroys rare wildlife and their support systems. Always choose a compost which is ‘peat free’ and has the organic symbol.
#simpleswitch #ChooseOrganic #organicseptember ... See more

Our first #Fridaytip of the month is to remind you that there's still time to sow #winter #salad leaves, such as lambs lettuce, land cress and oriental leaves. Beware, #slugs are still active in warm, wet autumn nights - check your barriers and traps nightly.

Now is also a good time to order fresh garlic cloves and onion sets now, ready for winter #planting. #helloautumn #planningahead #fridaytip ... See more

Throughout this month we'll be supporting the Soil Association with #OrganicSeptember.

We know many of you would like to grow #organically but either don’t know where to start, or worry that you don’t have the time. That’s where we come in! We’re here to support your best intentions to grow #sustainably and #healthily.

During #OrganicSeptember we'll be sharing our simple switches to get you started on the organic way - which one by one, will build up your organic growing.

#simpleswitch #ChooseOrganic #organicseptember ... See more

This is how we get mixed-coloured Aquilegia flowers. The new seed will be dried, tested and packed ready for the new catalogue this autumn. 🙂

If anyone is going to the Royal Welsh spring festival tomorrow come and say hello! I'll be on the Landworkers Alliance stall (SC108 in the Smallholder centre) in the morning, then on the panel for the smallholders' question time at 4pm Saturday afternoon 🙂
http://www.rwas.wales/spring-festival/ ... See more

The bees are out in force. A little hard to photo clearly, but this is a big red-tailed bumble bee making radish seed for us. It's 'Green Luobo' radish and will be ready in September

Hooray! Germination of the beautiful "Gaia" cold-adapted soybean we are trying out this year. 🙂

OK, listen up! Here's a chance to have a *real* effect and help stop GM crops getting into the UK. DEFRA are asking what people want as part of their 'green brexit' plans. There is huge pressure on the government to allow GM crops when we leave the EU. Now is a chance to be listened to; unlike all those petitions, this is a proper consultation and they will take notice; you personally could have a real effect. Please, read the excellent page by GM Freeze https://www.gmfreeze.org/current-actions/keep-gm-out-of-the-future-of-farming/
and use the links they provide to tell DEFRA you don't want GM crops allowed in the UK. ... See more

The Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), wants to hear your views about the future of food, farming and the environment. They say they want a Green Brexit. Please let them know that GM has no place in that. ... See more

Bean germination - amazing stopmotion video

حد شاف إنبات البذرة قبل كده 😃😍
#كن_نبات

Last week we hosted a training day for the Gaia Foundation at our barn, teaching experienced growers to become professional seed producers. It was really nice to meet all the lovely people; the vision is that ultimately there will be a network of local seed producers feeding into regional seed hubs and seed companies all over the UK. ... See more

Real Seeds Giant Pumpkin Photo Competition - we are also giving an extra prize of £20 of seed to David Coop for heroic pumpkin carving! (44kg and an all-night carving session!)
That's it for this year; thanks so much to everyone who sent in their photos; you all grew amazing pumpkins and we enjoyed looking at them all. I hope you had fun; we'll do the same again next year, all you have to do is use our bought seed or your own home saved seed from the Pacific Giant pumpkin 🙂 (you did hand-pollinate them, didn't you?) Free, open-source, printable seed saving instructions are at http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html ... See more

We have some winners of the Real Seeds Giant Pumpkin Photo Competition! If you remember we offered a £20 seed voucher to whoever sent in the most awesome photo; after much deliberation one prize will go to Helen Pottinger, for creative pumpkin lifting:
" it weighed in at 7 and a half stone - or 105 pounds. I didn't know how we were going to lift it but eventually came up with the idea of enrobing it in an old sweatshirt, turning it upside down - and then two of us were able to lift it into the wheelbarrow by the arms! We managed to break the wheelbarrow in the process . . ." ... See more