Things are hotting up on the farm and we’re getting ready for the big dig potato harvest starting this Saturday 31st July – do join us if you can and take home some delicious Sutton spuds! We’ll also be sowing swiss chard and autumn salad such as winter perslane (frost hardy and bursting with vitamin C – California gold rush miners used to eat it to prevent scurvy!).

We’ll also be starting to monitor biodiversity on the farm this Saturday and will be joined by Sutton’s Biodiversity Officer Dave

Our bee hive is now installed too thanks to Rob which is really exciting (see photos)!

As it’s the summer holidays we’ll also be doing children’s activities every Saturday – let us know if you’d like to help with this.

Other news:

Last week 10 of us headed to the Woodcote Nursery vegetable garden – it was really inspiring and we’re keen to work towards making the farm as productive…

Job opportunity: Talking of productivity we are looking for someone who can work one or two days a week at the farm, operating farm equipment such as the tractor so we can get more of the land into use – let us know if you know anyone who might be interested.

New loo: We’re getting a new (free!) compost toilet installed next week – it’s much larger (and better) than our current one and will hopefully be wheelchair accessible too…

Team work:Over the next few weeks we will be painting the shed and building a gate for the farm – let us know if you want to join the fun!

Permaculture: thanks to everyone who expressed interest in the farm permaculture course – we’ll send details in the next newsletter or two.

We’re busily getting ready for our sunny summer BBQ this Saturday. We’ll be making a wild food salad, willow head dresses, cooking home made (veggie) burgers and have live music complete with accordion and sing along courtesy of the Zero Carbon Band. I do hope you can join us! Do bring food to share if possible and / or contributions for the food tin.

We were lucky enough to be donated two bbqs and some local charcoal (which encourages wildlife and reduces transport emissions by up to 85%!) courtesy of BioRegional Charcoal.

We’ll be having an activity day as usual from 10am and will be busy weeding and watering as well as assembling the bbq, gazebo etc. We’ll be on site from 9am – if anyone’s able to come before 10 to help us set up that would be fantastic! We’ll start cooking food around 12. We’ll be doing regular farm tours too, so do invite friends, the more the merrier!

Free Lettuces!!!

Exciting news from the farm, our first crop: delicious, crisp, organic, carefully nutured lettuces are now ready for munching!!! Do join us on Saturday (10-2) and help yourself – anyone who’s helped out is entitled to a free lettuce! We’ll also be selling them at the farm, via the Veg Van and other local outlets (let us know if you know of anyone who might be interested).

As well as lettuce crunching on Saturday we will be planting beetroot, sowing lettuce and chinese red mustard and mizuna (oriental salad), planting out tomatoes and chillis, weeding, watering, harvesting! Along with the traditional picnicking and tea drinking of course!

We are also planning a seed / seedling swap – do bring up any spares and swap ‘em (or donate them to the farm!)

Be Our Friend?

Now we’ve been going a few months we want to get more organised and would love to know when you’re able to join us. We’ve therefore set up a facebook page and will be adding the events to this. Do become our friend (click here) and sign up for events – that way we can share lifts and know how many veggie burgers to cook etc!

Other News

We had a great day last Saturday planting cabbages, sweetcorn, squashes, tomatoes, mulching beans, weeding and watering. We also have a new oak sapling hedge!

On Tuesday we were joined by a lovely team from Orchard Hill College for adults with learning difficulties, which was fantastic! They are making a promotional leaflet and video to encourage more students to the farm and will hopefully be joining us every Tuesday!

The Community Service Team and Youth Offender Team are also doing a great job every Sunday helping with planting, watering, weeding and carpentry.

We have been very busy down at the farm this month and have acheived a great deal thanks to all our hard working and committed volunteers. We now have a 1000 potatoes safe in the ground, a developing herb garden, some well established red onions showing their green shoots and have just built our first compost bins.

Everyone who comes to the farm brings different skills and qualities, which is what makes our farm community so enjoyable. Children, picnics, mosaic-making and clay sign-making are just some of the treats we have seen this month. And not forgetting our non-human community, we have the return of the skylark, (who temporarily disappeared after we ploughed the fields). The photo shows two of our regular volunteers after a hard few hours weeding… still smiling!!!

So, what next?

As many of you have now seen, we have a lot of land and so there is lots to do! We’ll be having another session on Wednesday 10th March from 10-2 and Saturday 13th March (10-2), as well as the larger activity days on the last Saturday of every month (also 10 – 2). Everyone is welcome so do drop  by.

We’re also setting up a farm committee and will be having our first meeting at BioRegional’s offices (24 Helios Rd, Hackbridge, SM6 7BZ) on Tuesday 16th March from 6pm and will be discussing the future plans for the farm so do let us know if you’re able to join us.

It’s fantastic the farm has got off to such a good start!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the farm launch last week (27/01/10). It was fantastic to hear so many brilliant ideas and so much enthusiasm. We have written up the notes and uploaded pictures and photos here and will also be displaying them at the farm. The presentation is also available here.

The findings from the feedback forms were really interesting (full details available here); here’s a taster:

• Our favourite vegetables were: beans, carrots and broccoli (we’re obviously a very healthy lot!)
• The most popular idea for growing at the farm was flowers, followed by herbs and soft fruit
• Most people were interested in beekeeping – this is something we definitely hope to be able to offer at the farm; followed by willow weaving and medicinal herbs
• Growing and beekeeping were the most popular skills people want to develop
• People have loads of brilliant skills to share, from growing to art, to carpentry and tea making

So, what next?

We will be busy over the next few weeks getting everything ready for the first farm activity day on Saturday 27th February, 10-3pm. There’s a lot to do before then, from digging water trenches to setting up a polytunnel. If you’re able to help with this do let us know (email or call 020 8404 7085)

We also need seeds and equipment so please drop us a line if you have any you can spare (see our Farm wish list).

Where is it?

Oh yes, several people have asked where the farm is, it’s at the Woodcote smallholdings, one plot up from the crossing between telegraph track and oaks lane. Map is available here.

Let’s get growing!

It’s really exciting that the farm has got off to such a great start! See you on the 27th Feb if not before. Here’s to a very fruitful 2010!

Anna and Sarah
Sutton Community Farm