Beautiful beets from Frith Farm!!!!

Exciting times!

Our 1st veg box collection will be ready a week tomorrow - for those of you already signed up, start getting excited!

For those of you who would still like to sign up, but haven't, we still have some veg box spaces available from 22nd July - get yourself signed up!

Benefits:
1. Chemical free
2. Hand picked on the same day
3. Grown for flavour - the FLAVOUR!!!!
4. Grown locally - support your local, small scale farm
5. Grown locally - trace-ability, low carbon footprint
6. need we say more?
7. OK then... top quality food, grown by people you'll meet
8. Get healthy

For more info visit our website www.frithfarming.com ... 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

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

To see what we're up to on the farm and in the office as we grow and try new varieties, follow our Facebook or Instagram pages