Devon Kiwis

Its November and time to harvest the kiwis from the greenhouse- they're the same size as they were a couple of months ago and we've had 2 frosts already. In my Internet search for advice on harvesting dates for these fruit I come across information on red and purple kiwis, hardy kiwis and the Chinese egg gooseberry! They're all Actinidia species but different varieties. But I could find precious little of relevance to us here in Devon. So I have assumed what is right for gardeners in the US's milder climes is probably not far wrong for us.

Of the 100 fruit I harvested, I have tried 2 so far which havn't been sweet but aren't sharp either. They are put in the fridge first for about 2 weeks and then placed somewhere fairly warm for a couple of days- this ripens them. 

And, on the subject of fruit I am developing a taste for dried apple rings-- home-grown of course. Slicing the apples about 1/4 inch thick, then dowsing in a solution of lemon juice with a little sugar (this stops them browning), they are then placed singly on  a wire  tray above the wood stove. Although the flavour is not strong, I find dried apple rings most pleasant- especially in muesli and certainly is a better option than composting all those fallen fruit in the autumn.

Otter Valley Harvest Hub, represented by Phil, travelled to the Wayfield Gathering- a local permaculture festival held on land near Kingsbridge.  In the spirit of permaculture, some of our fresh produce was available for sale or barter. In the event, almost all the fresh tomatoes, beans, onions and salads went. Some of the many attractions over the weekend were a demo of apple pressing using a custom-made press; another demo showing how to make a Rocket stove and music by Three Radicals (Totnes- see http://www.thethreeradicals.co.uk/ 

                                                  Cat deserves a vote of thanks for organising this weekend- and what a pity more people didn't turn up.... 

These are some of the many, many beans we harvested to keep for the winter and for seed. here you can see Borlotti, Blue Lake (climber), Safari (dwarf), and Enorma (runner) beans. For me, this has been the best bean year with good crops right through till October. The Borlotti has especially done well with plentiful whole pods, fresh bean "seed" and seed for drying and for sowing next year.

                                                                          Again, tomatoes have done exceptionally well this year and having bottled kilos of them,  and exhausted my supply of Kilner and Le Pratique storage jars the rest were dried over my woodburner and preserved in olive oil with garlic for good measure.

Meanwhile, on the grain front, our first year's experiment in growing grain has yielded this crop of Amaranth. After picking the flower heads, threshing, then winowing (photo, above, left), about 1lb of grain was obtained. Hardly a bumper crop, but now I know some of the pitfalls of small-scale grain growing. Many of the principles outlined in the book Small Scale Grain Raising by Gene Logsdon also apply to Amaranth but have to be adapted to suit our temperate climate. In particular, we will need to sow and plant out much earlier to allow for the longest possible growing season and, critically, harvest the flower heads at the optimum point in terms of grain ripeness.

And the last of our Open Days saw us demonstrate the art and science of apple juicing. Having harvested a range of apple varieties including Black Dabinett, Hangy Down and Northwood, they were washed, shredded and then

pressed making a delicious, sweet juice. Justin polished off the event by sterilising some bottles for  longer-term storage.  

Quality, not quantity

Oliver Hansdcombe (Olli) amongst the amaranths

August Bank holiday saw the welcome return of Olli, that indefatigable WWOOFer, to the Harvest Hub. Olli has been organising WWOOF-teams to descend on permaculture projects around Devon and Somerset and the Hub was part of his last outing . After promoting the weekend around local Transition Town groups and the like it was sad that only 2 others took up the offer. Nevertheless, it was great to have Suzannah and Elena from TT Taunton helping out, and exchanging notes on everything from home-education to TV culture and co-housing. 

Olli, Elena and Suzannah at the Hub

One of the topics of conversation that Sunday was the peculiar growth pattern of the amaranths and sweet corn at the southern boundary of the garden. The plants gradually, but very markedly get smaller towards the boundary netting, with no obvious limiting factors to growth being evident. If anyone has any answers to this puzzle I would be delighted to hear from them.


Talking of amaranths, I should explain that I am growing them at the Hub to determine the viability of growing amaranth for its grain which is high  in protein. Although amaranths are often grown for their edible leaves which can be used as CCA, the varieties grown at the Hub are specifically grain amaranths such as Amaranthus caudatus (Love lies bleeding)

Isn't nature amazing! These are Yugoslavian finger gourds which attracted my attention whilst on a visit recently to Wrington walled garden, near Bristol. Apart from these gourds, this is a fascinating place to see, with its Cider House, apple press and artists' studios. And as someone who has to avoid wheat but loves cakes of all sorts, I am always impressed when a gluten-free alternative is available- and delicious it was to boot!

And what would you think this is? It appeared amongst my Uchiki kuri, Sweet dumpling and Turks Turban squash. Apparently it is a snake gourd (Cucuzzi carazazzi) and not a zuchini as one might imagine. There is a fascinating article on it here: http://www.liseed.org/rambl_oddsquash.html

JULY is here

After about 3 weeks of sunshine and no rain, last week saw a break in the pattern- we had rain. I love the sun and the heat but it does mean gardeners have to spend a lot of time on the end of a hose! And as the temperature only dropped in the late evening, this is when the watering has to be done. Especially thirsty are the greenhouse plants as it has reached well into the 30's during recent weeks. Here we have our beautiful kiwis proving the books wrong- you don't have to wait 3 or 4 years to get fruit- these climbers were planted last year!

Some of the hard graft in the walled garden has been shared this month  by a volunteer from Brazil- Jose. Having spent 25 years in the computer business he recently decided he needed a change and wanted to develop some practical skills. Jose enlisted with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and the first host to accept him was the Hub. In case you don't know about WWOOF, its an excellent organisation, bringing together young and old of all nationalities, townies and growers enabling novices to gain experience of organic farming and horticulture but without any cash exchanging hands. The host has to provide food and accommodation, and the visitor works according to a pre-arranged routine. Having been a WWOOFer in my 20's I gained much form the experience and can now re-pay some of that in being a host myself. See more about WWOF at www.wwoof.org.uk

In case you haven't been to the Hub, or a "lapsed" member here are a few shots of the garden taken in June 2010. Most of the potatoes were planted directly onto upturned turves, this being the simplest way to bring the area into cultivation with minimal digging and therefore little disruption of the soil. For those new to permaculture, digging, and especially deep digging is minimised for the following reasons:

1. It aerates and therefore leads to oxidation of organic materials

2. Kills earthworms

3. It damages the intricate network of beneficial miccorrhizas etc in the soil

4. Brings up dormant weed seeds which can then germinate

5. Time and energy consuming

Of course, set against these negatives one has to consider that digging also exposes pests such as cutworms etc which birds can then gobble up. But permaculture is not a religion and its supporters learn by experience- or as a recent  visitor to the Hub commented, looking in the greenhouse "I know nothing of permaculture, but for me the results speak for themselves". 

I don't expect a huge crop this year as no extra manure was added at planting time and then we had several weeks without any rain. However, some of the rows were mulched with spent hops. For your information hops have some nutritional value but their main benefit lies in enhancing the soil structure. Their nutritional content is:

N-  0.5%  P-  1-2%  K-  0.5%   + full range of trace elements 

Our potatoes were ridged with a mix of grass clippings, spent hops and soil. The aim of course is to prevent the tubers from being exposed to the light, and going green. So anything that blanks out sunshine will work, however there is a theory that grass will not prevent the blight spores from being washed off the leaves on to the tubers- if and when it arrives later in the summer. So we need to have a keen eye for this gardeners' menace.

                                                                                                                                Potatoes mulched with hops and grass

HOT DAYS, OPEN DAYS and COLD NIGHTS

and WWOOFers....For the uninitiated, WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms- an excellent institution facilitating volunteering all over the world. Arrangements can be very flexible, but no money exchanges hands- the volunteer agrees to certain hours of working, in exchange for which the host provides all meals and accomodation- which can be anything from a tent or yurt to a caravan or private room.  The Harvest Hub is registered and has benefitted form its first 2 WWOOFers this month (April). Ollie arrived from Taunton to spend a week with us on his way to doing a permaculture design course on Dartmoor. David arrived from Eastern France, via many communities and farms throughout Britain. David is gradually working his way westwards, mainly hitch-hiking, ending up on the Isles of Scilly in August.

I can thoroughly recommend WWOOFing at any age- I did it myself in my 20's and learnt a lot from the experience.

Well, those Open Days came upon us all too soon. Our first, was universally acclaimed a success by all who partoook of it, with plenty of visitors and 25 apple trees donated to eager gardeners. Our second was targetted at children , encouraging them to "Plant a Pumpkin", take one away in a pot and return to see how our squash progress at the Hub. With  the majority of vsitors to Escot being young famillies, this is a wonderful opportunity to involve children in a fun way with growing food.

Its all looking rather barren here on our new, extended growing area, but already, as "we go to press" this area is mainly planted up with potatoes, onions and brassicas. We have been very fortunate in getting our hands on some excellent horse manure (many thanks Di Taylor) and some equally useful spent hops from Otter Brewery (many thanks Mary Ann). Tom, of East Devon Tree Surgeons has also kindly supplied us with woodchip which we have made good use of. For your interest, here we have used the woodchip to kill off the grass before raking it away, covering with a layer of cardboard, then manure and, finally a layer of green-waste compost. This reflects one of the principles of permaculture which aims to minimise digging which disrsupts the soil, killing earthworms and brings up lower layers of soil, whilst burrying the valuable topsoil. Obviously, in perennial-weed infested soil, digging is needed to extract those roots, but here in the walled garden perennials are not a problem. Digging also oxidises (destroys) to some extent, the organic matter in the soil.

Within days of pruning this apricot, this was the blossom that appeared- was this a coincidence or was it the stimulus it wanted to get going?

And here are the first flower buds of 2010 on one of our 2 kiwis enjoying their second spring against the warm greenhouse wall. These kiwis have also recently been pruned to try and direct some of their vigour into fruit production rather than prolific vegetation. Laterals have been limited to every 50 cms as per the books.

OPEN DAYS at the Hub

Having been around for over 12 months now, the Hub is keen to show the community what we're about. We want to demonstrate how permaculture can be put into practice, but also that we can take action today, to address global warming, food security and improve our health. All these problems are addressed to some extent by growing our own food- each lettuce harvested is one less lettuce bought from the supermarket!

So, in 2010 we will be holding 4 Open Days as follows:

Sunday 28th March 11 till 2  Tours of the Hub garden and general intro to permaculture principles
                                             30 apple trees to be donated ona first come, first served basis
                                             Short permaculture video at 2 pm in the classroom
Saturday 24th April 11-2   Plant a pumpkin/squash- children invited to plant a pumpkin seed and  
                                                  take one home.
                                            "Guess the Seed" competition
                                            Permaculture video at 2pm
Bank Holiday Monday 30th August 11-2  Biodiversity day- build a bug box
                                                                      Investigate compost beasties
                                                                      Permaculture video at 2pm

Sunday 19th September 11-2   "Cook the Harvest"- join us to prepare and cook a tasty feast using
                                                    some of this year's produce
                                                   "Biggest pumpkin" prize-- children bring your pumpkin sown in April
                                                   Harvest Hub AGM

Just waiting for Spring

As I write this on a wet February morning I thought I needed some visual inspiration- hence the sunflower which bears little resemblance to anything currently surviving in the walled garden on this grey day.

Having said this, Hub members are all optimists and much work has already been done to prepare the ground for the imminent arrival of spring!

And apart from our indefatigable Charlie who continues to contribute more time at Escot than all the rest put together, our ranks have recently been extended by the arrival of Kathy from Old Feniton and Amy and Paul from Ottery--- a big WELCOME to you all!. And just for the proof here are Amy and Paul getting stuck in preparing our new herb area:





The design and layout for this area are being overseen by Charlie and Christina. They plan to incorporate a wide variety of herbs- some culinary; some medicinal and others with uses for dyeing or as soap substitutes etc. We of course welcome offers of plants you may have surplus to requirements- just call us.

The Hub can also welcome another keen volunteer- Wayne, from Honiton who has been a keen contributor to the horticulture project  I (Phil) have been involved with at Robert Owen Communities' residential centre at Luppitt. Here he is, planing some timbers forming part of the seating arrangements in the Appleshed.