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

#August has been a delightful month for our gardens. Everything has been in #bloom and we've enjoyed #harvesting many of our #crops. Here is our roundup for the month...

Our #plant of the week is #Cobaea scandens - Cup and Saucer Vine. The Cobaea scandens is a half hardy annual climber #flowering from mid summer.

If you would like to make the #Cobaea scandens a new addition to your garden, it will require a sunny sheltered spot in fertile soil. #plantoftheweek #Cobaeascandens ... See more

#Dock is this week's #WeedyWednesday plant.

Dock grows large and is hard to eradicate, however like some of our other weeds it has some interesting benefits...

Dock leaves can be eaten in #salad or #soup when very young - before they get too bitter. They contain high levels of oxalic acid (like #spinach, #sorrel and #parsley).

This is extracted and used in baking powder; as a bleach for wood, removing black stains caused by water penetration; and - interestingly - as a polish and sealant for marble!

Despite the general advice, rubbing a nettle sting with a dock leaf does not alleviate the #histamine #sting.

#weedoftheweek #WeedyWednesday ... See more

Weedy Wednesday - Dock This week's weed is the farmer's scourge. Dock grows large and is hard to eradicate. And no, the leaves don't soothe nettle stings ..... In this weekly series, we take a quick look at common garden weeds. How they grow, what benefits they bring to the garden, and how to manage... ... See more

Learn everything you need to know about #seed saving with our half day introductory course.

Suitable for the absolute beginner, this course is led by our #Heritage Seed Library experts, you'll gain a detailed understanding of the benefits of saving seed and how to select plants for particular characteristics, as well as step by step instructions on saving seeds.

We have just a few places remaining so early booking is recommended to avoid disappointment. #seedsaving #heritageseeds #learn #courses ... See more

This half-day course introduces the basic principles of vegetable seed saving, including growing annual plants to seed, harvesting, drying, cleaning and storage.

You’ll gain a detailed understanding of the benefits of saving seed and how to select plants for particular characteristics, as well as step by step instructions on saving seeds. We focus on the more straightforward annual crops to allow you to immediately apply these skills to your next harvest - we’ll cover tomatoes, peas, french beans, lettuce, peppers and aubergines.

We will take a look at some of these crops growing on our site and guide you as you try seed cleaning for yourself. You can enjoy a tour of the HSL’s growing area and will have the opportunity to ask our experts any questions.

They have over 25 years of experience in seed saving between them so you’ll definitely be in good hands!

You’ll be able to take home a variety of factsheets to help get you started. This course is suitable for the beginner seed saver who has knowledge of growing vegetables. ... See more

This week's #fridaytip is to highlight powdery mildew season, when days are warm and dry followed by cold nights.

#Flowers and #shrubs, especially those growing under roof eaves, or close to a fence/wall will often succumb. To tackle this issue keep the soil watered well, even on rainy days.

#fridaytip #seasons #organicflowers ... See more

Your organic garden in August August is the time of bumper harvests in all parts of the garden. Lettuces, beans, potatoes and peas all waiting to be harvested and enjoyed. Flower colours tend toward hot yellows, oranges and purples. We are almost in autumn, so take a little time to savour the deligh... ... See more

Take a look for some inspiration...

We asked readers via GuardianWitness to share pictures of their allotments, to celebrate National allotments week. Here are some of our favourites

Good news! The free sock offer at our online clothing store on orders over £15 has been extended to midnight on Monday 28th August. Just enter SOCKY at the checkout to receive a free pair of bamboo socks.

All our clothes are made from ethically-sourced, 100% #organic cotton and proceeds help to support our charitable work.

Is it too early to say they'd made a great #Christmas present...?! ... See more

Our popular Cutting Edge Veg course took place yesterday. Participants were treated to a day of finding out how to grow vegetables herbs and spices associated with a more exotic range of cuisines.

They also learnt about crops from many cultures such as African #kale from Zimbabwe, #calalloo from Jamaica and spicy #mustard from Vietnam.

Everyone went home with their arms laden with unusual herb cuttings, tubers and roots to plant into pots.

If you're interested in enrolling on one of our half-day or full-day courses then take a look at what we have on offer... www.gardenorganic.org.uk/our-courses

#exoticveg #organicgrowing #organic #cuisine #vegetables ... See more

A little visitor to our garden today - the Green #Lacewing.
Snapped📷 by our Member Advisor, Sally.

Just preparing the new harvest seed of the Golden Chard. What a pretty plant!

The "Amanda" sweet peppers are incredible. Look, another huge harvest of fruit this morning! Seed from the first batch of these will be available online really soon. 🙂

Here's Tam spending an afternoon this week deseeding the "Amanda" sweet peppers. We love the pepper harvest - we all get a huge bucket of peppers to cook with once the seeds are taken out!

Amaranth! The Leaf Amaranth plants are flowering well now in the tunnel and it looks spectacular; they're about 12ft tall. New seed from them should be ready in late November.

Bulking up our super tasty new bean Princess - in the field earlier in the year, drying in the tunnel - and the catflap we installed so that Thompson can get in and protect all our drying seeds even when the tunnel is shut up! ... See more

A fairly large Pacific Giant squash - 27kg!

Squash harvest at Real Seeds! Here's Ian bringing in the hugely diverse Treugerat squash population. This is the start of a dehybridisation project; all these different squash came from seed in one pumpkin Ben found at a festival in France. We'll select the best and breed them true over the next 8 years. ... See more

A few photos from a busy harvest week at Real Seeds: Ian cutting the hedges back, Ben sorting the Special Swiss sweetcorn, a visit by the local Permaculture group and harvesting enormous sunflowers. (oh and not to forget Kate practicing Hamlet with a Polarnaya Siberian Cabbage...) ... See more

We've been getting the squash harvest in now, and this is interesting - the one at the bottom is a Sibley that was harvested *last year* - yes, 12 months ago! Stored on the dresser in a cool room, it's still in perfectly eatable condition. Now that's what you can call a good-storage variety! ... See more

This is why chemical farming is so wrong . Great timelapse photography of what happens if you remove all the organisms from the soil.

Bioturbation with and without soil fauna.