Nirvana Biodynamics

The January weather has been variable from extremely hot to morning fogs and dews. The cooler days have provided an opportunity to get some berries pruned and mowing done. It is the driest since we have been here (25 years) most of the spring fed ponds have dried up. Last week we have missed o ut on the storms that were associated with a very unusual weather pattern from the east. Now the main raspberry season is over the main job is pruning the berries as well as picking and processing the rip ening fruit. Another job is re moving the nets from the berries. This is one of those ‘many hands make light work’ type of job so with a group of students from the FOOD FOREST permaculture course coming for a farm tour it was an ideal opportunity to get the nets down. As well as a farm tour they enjoyed lunch in the willow house. Picking mu lber ries is a messy business, they are plump, juicy and delicious but very few people are interested in buying them……So I’ll process them int...

With the main berry harvest concluded it time to spend a little more time in the gardens. The paths have gone a little wild and need a bit of tiding up. I’ve had to replace a couple of irrigation fittings that succumbed to the hot sun after 20 odd years of service. The beans are powering along & the bush beans are producing daily harvests along with a large array of greens, carrots including purple, red & yellow ones The cardoon is growing well. . The selected le eks & Seymour carrots are developing a new supply of seeds. The Tomatoes & cucumber are developing slowly although we have tasted a few ripe ones. Yesterday I weeded the pumpkin patch, which is looking good although the expected crop butternuts seem to be some other unidentified variety. Over the previous hot spell I got all the garlic braided & hung around the kitchen. It was also a good time to make some sorbets & develop some ice-cream recipes. By far the best sorbets are the citrus mainly lemo...