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

#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.

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