Guy’s newsletter: competition, collaboration & car manufacture
Last week we were visited by some of our growers from Andalucia. For years they’ve produced veg for us that we can’t grow at home without heating with fossil fuels. As I approached Pepe, who this year...
View ArticleGuy’s Newsletter: an aphid’s view
If things are this good why grow wings, why even move? Why have sex and risk producing variable babies that may not be as good as me? Sexual reproduction is so full of uncertainty. Why not just stay...
View ArticleGuy’s Newsletter: farming to order
Back in 2007 we took on the tenancy of Sacrewell Farm near Peterborough, just off the famously fertile Fens, to grow veg and pack our veg boxes for customers in the east of England. After a lifetime in...
View ArticleGuy’s News: Stress & rhubarb
There has been frost on the ground in the morning but we have been irrigating by midday. The recent cold, dry weather is ideal for ploughing, mucking and preparing seedbeds, especially from a heated...
View ArticleGuy’s News: Rampant vegetation & bucolic harmony
Last night I dreamt of being entombed in rampant foliage under an impenetrable forest. After a wet June, Devon is cloaked in luxuriant vegetation; branches and hedgerows are sagging into roads under...
View ArticleGuy’s news: Trust, partnership & choice
We are enjoying a bumper crop of excellent quality runner and French beans, sweetcorn and some of the best carrots I’ve tasted in 30 years; 2016 is turning out to be a good summer for most crops. About...
View ArticleGuy’s news: Musing on misery & contentment in farming
My current state of contentment is unusual for a farmer; we have a reputation for misery. Could a dour anticipation of calamity be a prerequisite of farming success? Thomas Hardy’s Gabriel Oak didn’t...
View ArticleGuy’s news: Northerly winds, love & Wendell Berry
The new growing year has started with a blissfully dry and bright spring and no major gales, frosts or pestilence. Night time temperatures have been low with a few frosts, but nothing damaging. Most...
View ArticleGuys news: Cautious steps & revolutionary leaps
We were double winners at the Soil Association Best of Organic Market awards this month; best and most innovative organic farmer. The urge to innovate stems from our restless dissatisfaction with the...
View ArticleGuy’s News: A co-operative partnership
I don’t much like big businesses but somehow we have become one. I like making worthwhile things happen but I am a bit mixed up about the need to control and own them. One such worthwhile thing is the...
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