Organic networking... And what a character this guy is 😂

There's nothing like a bath full of worms.

New arrival for the boxes! Squash!

No need to peel me. Just roast, steam, stew me, stick me in a curry or blend me into a warming soup. The possibilities are endless -

Enjoy.

The resulting effects of CSA and how it can support a bright and abundant future for the way we produce food.

This story among many others will be included in our new documentary Living the Change: Inspiring Stories for a Sustainable Future! Find out more at https://livingthechangefilm.com

Farm friend Jen has started a really good food blog for us called 'One Hull of a Kitchen'. She'll be using the Frith farm veg box to produce weekly, seasonal recipes to help us all stay inspired. Go check out the link below.

https://onehullofakitchen.wordpress.com/ ... See more

First sight of corn yesterday. It's delicious as it is uncooked, creamiest corn I've ever tasted!

🌽

Interesting new blog post on our website about pesticide residues in food. Written by Gina Allen who has Masters by Research in Science of the Environment.

Click the link below to read:

https://frithfarming.com/blog/ ... See more

Frith farm is a local community agriculture scheme providing fresh seasonal, high quality, chemical free, vegetables and gourmet salad in Hull and Beverley

This machine makes planting a breeze!

Looking at a small African tribe, this study found that the composition of their gut bacteria changed with the seasons, due to a strict seasonal diet. The study found that some bacteria even disappeared altogether and then reappeared the following season. When samples were compared to those from industrialised, western countries it demonstrated (again) their diminishing microbial diversity.

Nice little article supporting the importance of local, seasonal eating! 😉 ... See more

Seasonal changes in gut bacteria make-up of a small African community strengthens the evidence that diet strongly influences our gut microbiota, finds a new study in Science.

Good Morning!
Our Colourful Carrots dug from the new bed are ready for today's box scheme members !

Do you have any Yellow Cellar slugs in your garden? The RHS - Royal Horticultural Society are urging people to check their gardens.

Slugs play an important role in helping to break down your compost, and they also eat other slugs. You can read more about slugs on our website https://bit.ly/2FyDmJJ
#slugs #beneficialcreatures #organicgarden #compost ... See more

Gardeners have been urged to pick up their torches and hunt in their gardens for slugs as the Royal Horticultural Society issues a plea for data on the disappearing British bug.

🌟Congratulations Philippa Peate!🌟

You're the lucky winner of our Mother's Day competition in partnership with Naturally Good Food

We hope your mum enjoys her special treat on Mother's Day 💐 Thank you to everyone who entered we'll have more giveaways coming soon! ... See more

Join Norfolk Organic Group for their talk this evening - Learning the language of trees by Paul Jackson, starting at 7.30pm, £3 entry for non-members.

The Organic Way #spring edition has arrived and is on its way to you!

Pop down those gardening tools, grab a cuppa and get reading! We've packed this issue full of exciting features & stories for you to enjoy.

Not a member?
The Organic Way magazine is just part of our membership which includes 10% discount with The Organic Gardening Catalogue, a members' only area & monthly newsletter plus much more!

To get your hands on a copy of The Organic Way plus all of the above, join us at gardenorganic.org.uk/join-us
#groworganic #organic #organicgrowing #organicgardening #jointhemovement ... See more

With many parts of the country still experiencing frosts at night, it’s still too cold to plant potatoes. Wait a while and let the soil warm up.

Then create furrows just less than a metre apart, place the spud in the bottom, with sprouts pointing up, and cover with a shallow layer of soil. As the green shoots appear, pull the excess soil beside the furrow to cover them.
#fridaytip #potatoes #potatoplanting #growyourown ... See more

DIY store #Homebase has announced it is removing weedkillers containing #glyphosate from stores following the US court ruling that #Roundup was a 'substantial factor' in causing a type of cancer...

DIY stores have begun removing Roundup and other brands of weedkiller after a ruling in a Californian court found it was a 'substantial factor' in causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer.

We've teamed up with Naturally Good Food to offer a fantastic treat for one special mum this Mother's Day.

The treat includes a beautiful Emma Bridgewater mug, calming chamomile infusion tea bags, rich chocolate cookies, a beautiful lavender & geranium bubble and a selection of seeds from our Heritage Seed Library - the perfect pamper package!

All mums are the best but to be in with a chance of winning please like, share and comment 'treats for mum' 💐
One lucky winner will be picked at random, entries close midnight 24th March.
#mothersday #mumsarebest #winitwednesday ... See more

Ready, steady, go!

The first day of spring has arrived and the sun has made an appearance - the new season is officially underway!

Keep us up to date with your progress...

A US jury has found that one of the world's most widely-used weedkillers was a "substantial factor" in causing a man's cancer...

Jury to consider damages after one of the world's most widely-used weedkillers is blamed for cancer.

Catch up on the March edition of our popular blog -
One man & his organic plot...

Chris has returned after his adventurous travels to Sri Lanka and is gearing up for the spring! It’s all about the seeds over the next 8 weeks or so. He has started sowing quick crops and hardy annuals, all of which have shown their cotyledons already! ... See more

One man & his organic plot - March 2019 It’s all about the anticipation of spring for gardeners, whether your plant growing ambitions are just a small window box or if you put your shoulder to it with a large allotment, we are all poised for the new growing season. I always worry about time - maki... ... See more

We are really pleased to release our new seed packaging today! We decided a new corporate image was long overdue.

For the last day of #seedweek we'd like to talk about the Open Source Seed Initiative.

Patents & licenses on seed have spread to many parts of the world. Soon, farmers and gardeners may be unable to do anything more than rent seeds from the companies who control them. Already, the purchase of many seeds in the U.S. by a farmer is actually a one-time rental of the seed for a single cropping season. The license prevents farmers from saving, replanting, breeding, and sharing seed that has been rented, not purchased. Even plant breeders are prohibited from using these seeds to improve the crops. These legal restrictions benefit a few companies but threaten the food security of our societies.

Open source seed is seed of a plant variety the genetics of which cannot be restricted by patents or other intellectual property rights. Originally developed for computer software, the open source idea makes something like computer code, or seeds, freely available for use, and makes sure it stays freely available. The material is placed permanently in the public domain. It can still be modified, shared, bought, sold, and reproduced. Some people might may choose to improve the material to make something new. But the original material, and any derivatives must remain free for others to use forever, and cannot be restricted through patents and licenses.

You can read more about open source seed on the OSSI website below, or on our website at Real Seeds here: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ossi.html ... See more

Free the Seed!

It's #seedweek! Read about the grassroots #seedsovereignty movement of across the UK and Ireland.

"Only 3 corporations sell 75% of the worlds seed; if we all start sowing open source, organic seed, we can grow a democratic food system." David Price, Seed Cooperative, Lincolnshire, UK

https://spark.adobe.com/page/TPzSXT2LOg0bB/?fbclid=IwAR0p2U0IevkBfVcswO-ba0r2PbF-AUZSeWqYAFPwuiXoHNE-I5JgMnhDFgs ... See more

New Seed envelopes in action! All running smoothly now after only a few adjustments: Our Ballard Brown Bag Seed Packing Machine from the 1880s. This is the first trial run of our new Art Nouveau paper envelopes, custom manufactured for us as part of our drive to reduce plastic packaging. ... See more

Exciting parcel from USA! First trial batch of custom-made paper seed envelopes for our 1880's "Ballard Brown Bag Seed Packing Machine"! Don't they look fine? Bottom picture shows the back when closed & opened - the green stripe is the latex stickum to hold the flap shut.
Next step is to test them in both our envelope printer and the packing machine.
(they did unfortunately use a draft copy of the artwork rather than the final version, but that's why you get trial runs done rather than just ordering 100,000 👍 ) ... See more

Great to see everyone at Newport Seedy Saturday today. thanks to everybody who came ; hopefully we'll see you all again next year with loads of home saved seed 🙂

Just getting ready for our own Seedy Saturday here in Newport. Anyone local, see you at the Tabernacle Chapel vestry (opposite Long Street carpark) 10am to 1pm 🙂

We got our latest shipment of seed from Italy yesterday, and Kate noticed the boxes on the pallet were now labelled in English. Read the small print 🙂

Are you part of a community seed bank project? The Community Seed Banks Academy may be able to support you with training, information and exchanges. They currently have a call out for applications.

Hopefully you're all enjoying the beautiful weather. This is just a reminder not to get *too* optimistic about sowing just yet.

Remember, in most of the country soil temperatures outdoors won't get above 7 or 8 degrees C until into March. Realistically beetroot, carrots, parsnips etc will just tend to sit and linger in cold soil - even allowing for the fact that we are very likely to get another cold snap.

We find that delaying sowing until late March or into April gives much better results, with later sown crops coming on quicker and more able to outgrow slugs & other pests.

Similarly, sowing indoors on a windowsill may be very tempting, but remember that your crops will need warmth *and* light once they're up, so make sure you'll have somewhere suitable for them to grow on. We've sown our peppers and aubergines in a heated propagator, they'll go out into an unheated greenhouse insulated with bubblewrap, but we'll bring them indoors overnight if the weather is particularly cold. Tomatoes will go into the propagator this week.

My main exceptions to the 'don't sow too early' rule are onions (need a little heat to germinate but then will stand any amount of UK- level cold) and peas which you can start in modules or trays and then put out as soon as they're an inch or so high. Again they'll happily sit through frosts. I'm going to sow my new favourite Jessy sugar snap peas today 🙂

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/germination.html ... See more

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