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Newsletter-February 2012
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News from last year.
New beginnings in the vegetable plot
Writing now, in the grip of February permafrost, Spring seems a long way off. Purple sprouting broccoli had produced its first buds but now has gone firmly back into hibernation.
There is still plenty of food to eat – rows and rows of leeks and cabbages, parsnips cosy underground, sprouts clinging closely to frosted stalks – but variety is limited and eating seasonally becomes a little bit boring. (See back page!)
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Although the new season’s crops are not ready until end of May, there are some tasty treats in store – pink stalks of forced rhubarb in March and the first shoots from our very own new asparagus patch in April.
This year we have the benefit of our two new polytunnels built in the field at Drove End. These will provide space for growing more early crops to fill the “hungry gap” in April and May. Last week, when night time temperatures dropped as low as -9°C outdoors, we planted potatoes – with the soil remaining soft and workable in the tunnel. Propagators are filling up with seedlings of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, and spring greens for planting out in the tunnels, and the first sowings of carrots, beetroot, radish and mangetout peas are getting underway direct into the polytunnel soil.
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New! Fresh coriander
We are currently harvesting fresh coriander from the polytunnel at Tidpit and will soon also be cutting flat-leaf parsley too. It will be good to supply these herbs year-round, freshly picked either from the polytunnel or from outside, according to the season.
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Volunteer work parties
Do you have an hour or two to spare? Do you want to know more about where your food comes from? Come along to one of our new regular work parties! Next dates:
Fridays 2nd March and 6th April, 10am – 12pm (refreshments provided)
Saturdays 3rd March and 7th April 9:30 – 11:30am (coffee and cake in village hall afterwards)
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Last Autumn
Our big effort in the autumn was the ‘Spud Lift’ which happened in two parts due to a malfunction of the potato lifter. This was no problem as everyone was rewarded with tea and cakes for their effort in rather changeable weather. The second lift was completed with the reward of a giant sized spud – as big or bigger than Rosalind (Janet’s fully grown cat) and much more solid!
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In November BBCs CountryFile gave us a nationwide airing on television when they came and filmed our activities on a very damp Friday morning for a 5 minute slot in the programme at the end of that month. This appearance covered information on why Future Farms was formed, showed the harvesting of brussels sprouts, carrots etc. for the new venture of the veg. boxes and the delivery of the first one, and a whizz around Drove End to visit the chickens and pigs and in and out of Martin Shop. It gave a straight forward view of what goes on here and we all know how wide coverage was by comments that came in our Christmas cards!
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Q. Which came first, chickens or eggs? A. Chickens!
Chickens for meat were one of the original Futurefarms products when we started in 2004. Our chickens soon acquired a reputation for their succulent flavour and good value. compared with like-for-like supermarket birds. Unfortunately, their production was complex and labour intensive and they never returned a profit. When the farm which processed our birds and made them ‘oven ready’ closed down, we tried to establish our own processing unit with the help of the team at Chalk Hill. This would have created more work for local people while reducing our production costs. All was in place when the environmental health department decided not to allow us to move our birds from the field where they are reared to the other end of the village for processing. It was with great regret that we decided to shelve our meat bird operation for the time being. We are currently selling chickens (including portions and also duck) produced by a free range farm in Devon. We hope you agree that their taste is (almost) as good as our own chickens!
Several years ago we established our own flock of laying hens to provide eggs for the local area. We now have 3 different age batches of birds that lay steadily throughout the year; fed on non GM feed with contains no antibiotics or other chemicals. The birds are moved on to fresh grass regularly and cared for by a part-time employee and a band of dedicated volunteers. We have a packing licence which allows us to sell our eggs to restaurants, B&Bs and other shops. We have to sell a minimum number of boxes of eggs every day to cover our costs. We do welcome more regular orders guaranteeing production of our fresh, free range chemical free eggs!
Our 5 purpose made chicken huts were beginning to show their age. They have recently been recovered to protect the main structures from the rain. We hope to get several more years of service from the huts as their insulated, solid construction keep the chickens warm and dry in the winter and sheltered in the summer.
So for Futurefarms, the chickens really did come before the eggs!
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Helpful hints thanks to Nigel Slater!
Winter vegetables available include Brussels sprouts, parsnips, kale, cabbage, onions, leeks, shallots and potatoes, and there are bags of salad leaves, and coriander. Here are a few recipes and ideas to jolly up vegetables that seems rather boring!
Brussels sprouts: trim the leaves and slice in half, then add to really boiling water, return to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes, then drain. Some good things to add are *cubes of feta cheese; *crumbled blue cheese; *chunks of apple fried to a golden brown in butter; *slices of raw pear; *slices of FF sausages or black pudding; *rashers of crisp FF bacon.
Leeks: good seasonings and combinations include *salty cheese; *blue cheese; *diced bacon can be added to leek soup, snippets of grilled bacon in a leek tart; *chicken particularly good in broths and stews or baked together in a pie; *try chicken cooked on a bed of leeks with lemon and chicken stock; *potatoes and leek soup, of course; *mint is the next best herb to parsley to cook with leeks.
Parsnips: Very good with beef and all game and mashed with liver, bacon. lamb shanks and oxtail – no good with fish; *Use spices like cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg with the onions at the beginning of soup; *Mild grain mustard balances sweetness in soups; *try adding diced cheese when a mustardy parsnip soup is hot and ready to serve.
Cabbage: *always good with a squeeze of lemon; *cream and nutmeg calms the stronger taste; *freshly grated ginger or a little chilli; *try stuffing blanched leaves with some FF sausage meat and cooking in a tomato sauce; *mushrooms for a stuffing or as partner in a stir-fry with the late addition of dark soy.
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