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

#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.

Huge fruit on Alistair MacGillivray's 'Pacific Giant' squash plant, about 70cm and still getting bigger - see the foot at the bottom right for scale! Don't forget we're running a free competition on this one - there's a £20 seed voucher for the person who sends in the most impressive photo of their results. ... See more

It's that exciting time of year when seed starts ripening thick and fast 🙂 Below are the first few umbels of Manchester Table carrot seed ready to harvest in the tunnel.

We've just harvested the tree onions - they're drying nicely in the barn, and we've got a few of the earliest ones packed up now.
http://realseeds.co.uk/onionsspecial.html#onts

We found lots of little baby lizards while we were clearing up in front of the tunnel - they move very fast, but one stayed still long enough for a photo.

Some of the flowers we've got growing amongst the vegetables on our fields at the moment - great for the bees, and some of them are edible too.

Everything is growing so fast right now. The edible lupin 'dieta' has set loads of pods. The seeds of this special variety are hopefully non-bitter and are cooked or pickled as 'altramuz'; a high yielding, fast-growing, nitrogen-fixing food crop. ... See more

Here's a fantastic photo of our Painted Mountain corn, just sent in by James Wilde of Invergowrie in Scotland. (And yes, he did grow it in a greenhouse to get it this early - but the outdoors one are just starting to make cobs now as well.) ... See more

Now how about this for a tomato colour scheme!

Pulleys are great 🙂

The water tower is finished - now all we have to do is figure out how to get the enormous tank on top of it!