Tomato heaven 🍅

New arrival 😊

🍠

Just look at all that gleaming, healthy beetroot at Frith Farm, on its way to be roasted and frozen ahead of Freedom FEASTival on Sunday September 3!

We'll be releasing some exciting FEASTival news this week, so keep your ears to the ground for details about how you can nominate someone for something very special... ... See more

Monday's Harvest... Have you ever seen a beet so big?
See you at the Annek shortly.

Delicious healthy recipe idea! The Rainbow chard we get from Frith Farm is amazing! ❤️💛💚💙💜

Brimming brilliant broccoli!

Another day on the farm brings new exciting produce. Broccoli well on its way.

- and a lovely photo of Ben.

Great produce reaching great places.

Superb produce from @frithfarming today locally grown chemical free zero food miles #rainbowchard #radish #heritagecarrots #gooseberries #lovesummer #food #cheflife #chefofinstagram #thewestwoodrestaurant #beverley #eastyorkshire ... See more

Just the finishing touches left for the Monday Box Scheme Harvest - Drop off Soon !
The first Fresh tomatoes will be on their way and we're keeping the tops on the beetroot.
Thank you for the support for local organic producers! ... See more

Box scheme ready for drop off point - the annex
See you all soon!
Don't forget your bag!

Cucumbers almost there x

Autumn 🍁 has arrived and we're starting to see our gardens change, here at Ryton. Our Head Gardener Emma & her team of volunteers have had a busy month preparing for winter vegetables and harvesting.

Here's Emma's monthly update on the gardens...

We've made some simple changes in the small organic garden to bring it up to date. A small decked area and pergola has been added as well as some new planting and winter vegetables.

The small and large keders have been cleared out, manure incorporated and winter salads planted. Our Cooks Garden has also been cleared ready for the herbs to move in - this should be completed shortly.

My volunteers have been busy collecting seeds and seedlings, emptying and re-planting the container garden. We have also redesigned and planted the long border that runs alongside the herb garden this will start to bloom in the spring.

We are continuing to weed, cut back, harvest, mow and cut hedges back.
Our compost heaps have also been turned again and some will be ready for use in spring as a mulch. And finally we are in the process of strimming the wildflower meadow down. ... See more

Our Head of Organic Horticulture, Chris Collins has been busy at work this week on his allotment #harvesting all of his veg goodies.

There's some lovely #autumnal colours here and Chris certainly has lots of veg to make a tasty soup or two!

We'd love to know what you've been harvesting and cooking. ... See more

Euonymus alatus is our plant of the week. Also known as winged spindle or burning bush.

This large spreading deciduous shrub, grown for its autumn colour will tolerate any soil or aspect.

We think you'll agree the vibrancy this plant is perfect for an autumn garden. #plantoftheweek #autumn #organic ... See more

Do you have experience of saving seed from #vegetables?

Our 'next steps' course on the 12th #October will take your seed saving skills to the next level - focusing on types of seed with more complex requirements.

There are now a limited amount of places remaining so if you're interested you'll need to be quick!

Pop the date in your diary and secure your place here:
www.gardenorganic.org.uk/events/next-steps-seed-saving ... See more

#simpleswitch No.9 - Bring wildlife into your garden.

Mix your #flowers and #vegetables so the #blossoms attract #pollinators; leave some relaxed areas as #habitats for #insects and small animals; plant shrubs and trees for birds to shelter in; build a pond for frogs and dragonflies.

#simpleswitch #organicseptember #ChooseOrganic ... See more

#simpleswitch No.8 - Feed the soil

Use homemade compost to give your organic soil good heart ❤️

It improves the texture, the soil will hold air and water, and it provides vital nutrients for your plants. #simpleswitch #organicseptember #ChooseOrganic ... See more

Confused about where to #recycle a specific item or find it too much of a hassle to find out the nearest #recycling location?

As it’s Recycle Week, what better time to find out the facts...
#RecycleWeek #recycling #waste #TuesdayThoughts ... See more

Local recycling Click on one of the three boxes below i.e. How to recycle at home; enter your postcode and find out more about your local recycling. Update your data or add the recycling locator to your website Share page Tweet ... See more

Preserving Workshop

Friday 29th September, 11.00am-3.00pm

Got a glut of runner beans? Overwhelmed by courgettes?

Well come along to our Preserving Workshop with Suzanne Davies,and learn how to turn excess produce into chutneys, relish and preserves.

Using your own produce or some from our plot.

Bring your own lunch, we supply everything else.

Message us or email to reserve your FREE place:
info.seed@ashfieldce.org.uk ... See more

Did you know that today is the start of #RecycleWeek? It's a great opportunity to take a fresh look at your #recycling habits, including recycling your #garden and kitchen #waste!

It's easy to do and here we share our know-how to help you make better #compost, more efficiently. #MondayMotivation

www.gardenorganic.org.uk/compost ... See more

David Coop: "It weighed a lovely 44kg, so we only just managed to lift it! As you can see, it made a truly impressive Halloween lantern, although it did take all night to carve it."

Jeremy Newson got 171lb with his and says "Hi Crew, here it goes—several photos to follow. Wonderful seed. Nearly 2 tons of squash and pkins off our patch. .. Our local hospice got £150 from guess the weight of the big pumpkin + £120 from the charity allotment jar." ... See more

Helen Pottinger broke her wheelbarrow 😮with her gaint pumpkin: "I planted one at my allotment and 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 but did get it into the boot of the car and then used a saw to cut it into quarters back at home. So far, it has made 7 batches of soup, 6 pumpkin pies and a pumpkin and parsnip casserole = delicious! The remainder has been distributed amongst friends and neighbours and was very gratefully received!" ... See more

Another good Real Seeds Giant Pumpkin competition entry - a very fine squash by Annie Sax:

Real Seeds Giant Pumpkin competition - from Julie Bissell: "My Giant grew up to 48 inch circumference, 44kg of squash - the best photo I could get was of a Hokkaido squash next to it (my cats refused to pose for long enough!)" ... See more

We want to share some of the Real Seeds Giant Pumpkin Competition entries. This is from Rich, who says: "here is a picture of my 6 foot son and a pumpkin we grew together "😁

Seeds! Lovely fresh seeds! Get your new season seeds now... We just wanted to let everyone know our new 2018 Real Seed Catalogue is online 🙂
There are a very few varieties still waiting to be tested but almost everything is packed now; we hope you enjoy it.
(Delivery times? We aim to get them out to you within a week of ordering, but we get really busy January-March, so if you wait til then it can take a little longer.)
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ ... See more

A catalogue of the very best vegetable seed for home gardeners, with interesting heirloom and heritage varieties. Guaranteed better flavour or your money back.

New season website almost finished - just a few things left working their way through drying and testing. In the meantime we've been harvesting yacon. The first few packs are available now, and we'll be packing up more this week.
http://realseeds.co.uk/unusualtubers.html ... See more

Last call for entries to our Giant Pumpkin photo competition! Send us a picture of your Pacific Giant grown from our seed; the winner will be the person with the most awesome photo, and the prize is £20 worth of seed of your choice. ... See more