REAL@Inverness High School: August 2007

May 2007: Rabbitings

Things have been moving along apace since the last entry to this blog. We've had the warmest April ever recorded followed by what can best be described as a monsoon of a May. The ground was turning to dust before the rains arrived but is now too wet to work (if you work on wet soil you risk compacting it and reducing a plants chances of growing). We also lost all of our early pumpkins and courgettes to stem rot brought on by the large change in temperatures over the last 6 to 8 weeks. If this is the way the weather is going to shape up in a climate changes world then we had better learn to adapt. It's maybe a better idea to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and try and stop the process getting any worse, which brings me back to growing and selling locally produced food.
WE've been making the best use we can of our local fertility source...Clachnaharry Beach and all it's two foot thick layer of seaweed. WE've also been trying to develop a good mix to use for our soil blocks. Soil blocks are a method of propagating which removes the need to use plastic seed modules. It's more environmentally friendly, the plants grow well in them and they are super easy to transplant into the field. Hopefully the seaweed component of the blocking mix will help the young plants develop a strong root system.
Our onions are in the ground and seem to be thriving as does our crop of salad leaves. As soon as we get another warm, still day we'll get the polytunnel cover on and get the tomatoes in the ground. We've got quite a range sitting in pots and it'll be great to see them developing over the summer. Did you know that eating tomatoes helps protect your skin from sunburn?
WE've also harvested the comfrey from the second garden and have incorporated it into the compost heaps where it acts as an activator for the composting process. The next harvest we will use to make some comfrey liquid which is a good plant food but beware of getting any of it onto your clothes. It stinks for weeks and washing does not seem to help much. I still seem unable to get any photos onto the blog. perhaps the error message at the bottom of the page has something to do with it. Technology brings it's own problems. I'm going back to put up a rabbit fence in the rain.

March 2007: Hawthorne Drive

We have taken over a new and rather large garden at Hawthorn Drive which is kind of under the control of the weeds. Never mind. Sometimes the right piece of machinery works wonders, in this case a strimmer. Although we are trying to grow organic food on a reasonable scale with minimum use of fossil fuels, it is sometimes the best option. We uncovered lots of raised beds from the gardens previous life and these will help us to organise future plantings. The beds will be covered with cardboard (from the school) and seaweed (from the Beauly Firth) which will suppress weeds and slowly build up the organic matter and fertlity of the soil. This is called "mulching" the soil, and the cardboard and weaweed are both "mulches". It's a lazy way to garden but that sounds like a better option than some others. There will be photos to go along with this as soon as we can figure out how to do it.

February 2007: The polytunnel

Putting up the polytunnel is definitely a team game. Setting the posts in concrete to make sure the tunnel doesn't get blown over; wrestling with the hoops of the structure, putting in the ridge poles along the roof and making sure it all fits together. Not something you want to do alone if you can help it. There is still lots to do but once it is up and running we should be growing tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and also, hopefully, winter salad veg. It'll also give us somewhere to hide from the rain when it gets to heavy...
It's important that we increase the variety of produce we grow in order to make the project interesting and to give people the chance to learn about growing food locally. We must increase the amount of locally grown food if we are to reduce the damage we are doing to the environment through food miles (the distance food travels before it gets to our plates) and to increase the amount of healthy food we can offer to local people.

February 2007: Various events

It is also encouraging to know that REAL is coming to that attention of not only the local media, but also the national media as well. Along with hosting the Soil Association Organic Burns Supper (where we supplied the potatoes!), we have also had a write-up in the BBC Good Food Magazine along with a feature on the Radio 4 Farming Today programme (which never did get an airing due to a little local issue ...something about bird flu and and a chap called Matthews!). We also got a very good spread in the Glasgow Herald.

An MSP visit...

Charlies Angels... eat your heart out! Do you like our new boiler suits..... Kerry was off ill the day we took the pic!

February 2007: Our new manager

Iain Findlay is the new REAL ORGANICS farm manager. He comes to us from a varied horticultural background via business management and a masters in Environmental Studies. No argument for him as to what are the most important issues facing us today… global warming and its relations!
He comes to us from Glasgow where he ran a local box scheme on a push bike. He is very much an ideas man.. in fact there is going to be one about every minute!
Iain’s primary role will be to mature the business, through the further development of the school site along with the disused training garden behind Hawthorn Drive. He sees great potential here with much of the garden infrastructure already in place. The compost heaps are still there from years ago, as are many fruit plants and green fertilisers. There is also a small area in King Street, tucked in at the back of the Methodist Church, where we have had it on good authority that judging by the size of the weeds, the soil must be amazingly fertile!
How can we sum up Iain then? Committed to environmental issues: YES! Keen for others to know about things green: YES! Has a natural enthusiasm to work with young people: YES! Wanting to work with the community: YES! Has got an email address that says it all: Its ‘Captain Organic’! ‘Nuff said!

Christmas 2006

Happy Christmas!

The lead up to Christmas was really busy with selling, producing and training. In terms of selling, we have almost reached the £3000 mark. Over the months we have built up a solid customer base, with a lot of people very interested in what we are doing. Many love that fact that we are growing the crops ourselves. Others are happy in that the food is truly local. The older folk tell us of when they were taught farming skills when they were at school. The Christmas stall was really busy. We sold out of just about everything! Running up to Christmas, we also made and sold a range of holly wreaths.

October 2006: Balmungie Fram Training Trip

Training in horticultural skills from Jo

Sieving for good germination...

Inspecting the eggs

...road skills

And a meal using produce from the farm...why are they so shy!

September 2006: More selling

Setting up the stall, getting ready to sell at the Dalneigh gala. There was quite a lot of people interested in how we grew the veges so close to them

The girls are hard at work selling there home grown veges. In town it was hardly ever quiet there was again a lot of intrest about how we grew the crops. They were very surprised that we grew them without any chemicals and the pupils from Inverness High School were intrested in helping out in this project and the community

September 2006: we discovered tatties!

The girls put a lot of effort and take a lot of care digging up the potatoes.... oh the damage to my fingernails!

The potatoes are ready! Beautiful, eh! These are the tatties the pupils at Inverness High School happily grew.... Looking lovely, almost ready to sell.

On yer knees and work!!! 3 folk hard at work sorting potatoes... 2 having a rest! The pupils at Inverness High School take care in sorting out the tatties so they are really good quality for selling.

August 2006: Back to the farm...more growing!

Leila fully planted in the work!

Marianne & Nick hard at work

Mary and Leila planting lettuce in early August

August 2006: Market day!

We arrived to harvest at 5 in the morning; at the stall by 8, selling by 9. Sold out by 12:30. And someone told us we had brought too much stock! The happy crew did all the selling! Market stall holders in London eat your heart out! Well done girls!

And this is all we had left over.....wow!!!

July 2006: Training visits

Out to see Donnie at MacLeod Organics

Organising orders

Growing leeks from seed

Introduction to polytunnels

June 2006: The planting started right away

The tatties went in first

In June we started planting salad vegetables; lettuces, rocket, dill, coriander and parsley. We got water from over the fence in Bruce Gardens. Thanks Mrs McKenzie!