Huge industry across the farm this week as the harvest gets up to full speed. All the team are involved in picking the fruit and helping to process for the shop or for storage. Plums are being stoned for jams, chutneys, drinking vinegars, cordials and the freezer, Onions and Garlic are being strung together to dry. Tomatoes are being processed for ketchup, passata and the freezer.
Of course, it’s not only we who anticipate the Autumn harvest – as the crops come to full ripeness, their appeal to pests and predators is also peaking. Wasps, having pestered the team and customers over the last week, are mad to get at the plums and grapes as their sugars peak. The Muntjac can smell the sweetcorn ripening and will go to any length to breach our defences and get to the ultra-sweet cobs!
The shop then will be full of our produce this weekend. Bunches of Dahlias will nestle besides baskets of Plums, Mirabelle, Apples, Pears and the ever more delicious, seedless Interlaken grapes.
We will also have our own Potatoes, Carrot, Beetroot, Turnips, Herbs, Cabbages, Leeks, Cucumbers, Peppers, Padrons, Tomatoes and plump cobs of field-grown Sweetcorn. Finally, we have picked the very first squashes of the year – Butternut and Uchi Kuri. Both are sweet and nutty with creamy flesh – do try some this weekend.
On the seafood side we will have Lobster, Monkfish, Lemon Sole, Clams, Octopus and, we hope, Scallops.
After the disruptions of last Sunday and Monday when staffing problems and an electricity pylon fire caused us to have to close both the restaurant and shop, we hope to be back to full service this weekend! We open tomorrow from 10am till 4.30pm and will do the same each day to Sunday with evening slots for drinks or dinner on Friday and Saturday.
We hope to welcome you to share the bounty of the season.
