Horticulture
For three years we cultivated a field, and grew crops like potatoes, beetroot, onions and leeks successfully. Our deep brown earth soils could grow anything and we were delighted to discover long lost flowers of arable land, such as field pansy and corn spurrey, amongst the crops. We found that we could grow fabulous vegetables, including chard, spinach, courgettes, pumpkins, cabbages and cauliflowers.
We sold our surplus vegetables through the local farmers’ market, but sadly after seven years, this market ceased trading in June 2007, due to a lack of producers. Organic horticulture is a backbreaking challenge if you are not at a sufficient scale to buy equipment such as flame weeders. We weren’t, and although we enjoyed growing vegetables, our backs gave in. We now grow on a small scale, mainly for our own kitchen. We keep vegetables on our organic schedule in case we have a second wind, trying veg-boxes or a community-supported scheme.