August 2025
Late August. Molly and I take delivery of the third pallet of Herefordshire apples, pears and plums. We’ve been on UK apples for a full 12 months now, an extraordinary feat, and testament to the wonderful growing year we’ve had. I open the plastic from a box of Discovery apples, and the smell of the sweet, tart fruit fills the room. Even the driver, waiting for a signature, notices. This is one of the reasons I decided to join the business- moments like these. They feel like a little secret, a privilege of working with fruit and veg, like when the winter citrus comes in, thick with fragrant oil, or popping the first broad bean from its silken home.
After the pallet is put away in the cold store, the boys and I wander down from the shop through the growing fields. Evening is closing in already, the year has turned, and we talk about the falling leaves, the blackberries in the hedges, the squash plants that I’ll soon let them rampage over as they point out another one for us to collect. Not yet though. The skins haven’t set, and we are still deep into harvesting the late summer crops. The aubergines are glutting, the tomatoes of various forms come thick and fast, Padron peppers, French beans, chillis, kilos and kilos of basil. Outdoors the rows of lettuces, Aztec broccoli, fennel, celery, kale, and leeks are looking strong and healthy. After our difficult and stressful spring getting the tunnels up and covered, looking at the field like this, whilst the boys run in circles and the butterflies lift from the kale, it almost feels like an out-breath. Like we can drop our shoulders and breathe.
The brassicas took a heavy check from the cabbage white caterpillars early this season, but in the last two weeks the parasitic wasps have been doing their jobs. Almost overnight it seemed the infected caterpillars left the brassica plants and migrated up the side of the polytunnels in their thousands to wait for their wasp larvae to burst forth from their abdomen, pupate and take flight again. These zombie caterpillars are very eerie, but we’re very grateful for their hosts, keeping the natural balance of the insects in check again.
Those of you that follow us online may already be aware we’ve been looking for a grower for next season. It’s a really exciting, and daunting, step as we expand and I’m really looking forward to being able to open our doors and welcome another person into our family. Mum is still rocking the growing with help from us all, but I think it’s time we share her knowledge with another person, and hopefully alleviate the pressure so she can actually retire and grow just for pleasure! (we’ll never stop her growing completely I’m sure!) We start the interviews this week, and have received quite a few really strong applications, so before long we hope to introduce you to a new member of the team. Fingers crossed please that we find someone who is great, and who also understands our slightly strange tendency to watch the zombie caterpillars and sniff the pallets of apples…:)
Great right now:
Everything! It’s peak harvesting season so… Aubergines, fennel, tomatoes, pattypan, celery, French beans, herbs, greens and salad all from us, and locally we’re buying in broccoli, heritage toms, purple kalibos cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuces and beetroot!
Fruit: Well the Herefordshire apples are in, we start with Discovery, UK plums are here and Conference pears will follow in about 10 days- real seasonal stalwarts. A British plum is a very different fruit from other plums- tart, fragranced, dissolvable on the tongue, infinitely moreish. That goes for greengages too- what a queen of fruits! The local blueberries are available now too- again- much more nuanced in flavour compared to their European counterparts. These are available in bulk, by the kilo, for those of you who want to freeze them or jam them- just email us.
Roots: We are finishing the local Pembs potatoes this week, they’ve done us well, and instead we’ll have some UK maincrops, red and white, in stock in about 4 days time. It’s been a nice long season on local potatoes and we’re grateful for their high quality starchy goodness! Beets are coming back in which is great, carrots still European but we should be back on to UK dirty carrots in a 4-6 weeks. Squash is on its way-Just in time for soup season!