Shillingford Organics
'in tune with nature'

Vegetable Box Bulletin
September 2009

CONTENTS

1. SEPTEMBER EXTRAS
2. QUARTERLY STATEMENTS
3. CHARITY TANDEM SKYDIVE
4. QUESTIONNAIRE
5. CROP & OTHER NEWS

1. September Extras
Shillingford Organics Eggs: £1.50 per half dozen
Milva Potatoes :                  £3.00 for 5kg bag
Milva Potatoes:                   £7.00 for 12.5 Kg bag
Laydilay Organic
Mayonnaise:                       £2.20 per 175ml jar

2. Quarterly Statements
Your quarterly statements are due in the boxes next week. I have received a couple of payments with unusual references so am therefore unable to add these to the appropriate accounts. When you receive your statements please check carefully to ensure all your payments are showing. If you have any queries please contact Bridget to discuss them as soon as possible.

3. Charity Tandem Skydive
Bridget would like to thank all the customers and staff who so generously donated money for her Charity Tandem Skydive, which took place on Bank Holiday Monday at Dunkeswell Airfield, Honiton.

All the proceeds will be going to the Children's Hospice South West. The amount raised to date is £1,875.00 and still donations are coming in! This was a very difficult personal challenge for me but I am ALIVE!!! As if that wasn't scary enough I am now thinking about my next charitable adventure!

4. Questionnaire
We will shortly be putting a questionnaire in the vegetable boxes and we do hope you will spend a few minutes completing it. The results will help us to gauge what you, the customers, think of our produce, service and ideas for future boxes. Your comments are really important to us and will help towards building an even greater customer- friendly scheme.

5. Crop & Other News
I have to say it has been a very good growing year, possibly one of the best for several years. I know it is not normal for a grower to be pleased, but why not celebrate when things are good.

The cold winter probably helped as we have seen far fewer aphids and fewer cabbage-white butterflies and moths. This was followed with a warm spring that set things going well, with rain pretty much on demand and although July and August have been lacking in sunshine things have kept growing.

The potato crop is exceptional, with some massive potatoes, so big that one would keep a family going for a week. I hear reports from across the country of an exceptional potato harvest.

The leaves of the squash plants are dying back, revealing a substantial amount of healthy looking fruits.

The beans and beet crops have been abundant. Even the sweet corn is at present undamaged as we have just fenced it with electric wire to stop the badgers.

The only down side is the snap peas, which did not fare well in the wet July, the late spring onions, which have succumbed to mildew and the fennel, which got eaten by rabbits!

September will see us harvest the main crop potatoes and hopefully the squash will cure in the early autumn sunshine before we take them into store. The onions which are laid out in any spare space in the Polytunnels have almost dried now. These will be netted and brought in to a dry, cool store.
by Martyn Bragg

Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them.
- Author Unknown

 


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