From muck to money

Our working relationship with our local farmer is perfect, he delivers well rotted cow muck in return for us letting his cows graze our fields - that's rural Somerset!

This arrangement is not only very popular with the hens...

 

But also provides us a much needed addition to our growing media which we use to create our raised beds.

 

 

 

Having moved up into the next field we have been preparing raised beds ready for new crops. During the winter on the heavy clay fields the ground can get very wet, so there is a need to use raised beds just to keep the growing areas a little drier.

 

 

 

 

These new beds are being prepared for Mary Washington - she likes a bit of cow muck!

 

 

We have grown on 288 Mary Washington asparagus plants from seed and they are now in need of a home.

 

 

Once in the ground these plants will need very little attention - so the new beds in  one of the top fields will be perfect. This will also free up a nice sheltered spot next to the barn for our soft fruit.

The big planting begins, with 72 plants in each bed...

Four beds later - 288 plants planted, ready to be harvested April 2020, with each plant hopefully giving us a number of spears each over a 6 week period. How exciting is that - the Sheppey Pub is already inspired and has thought of several new recipes.