Nov 2011: Dw i'n hoffi glaw!
After the unseasonal irrigating of some crops in mid-October normal service resumes with Autumnal damp mildness all around. Light levels around the estuary however remain relatively good and French Beans Fennel and Courgettes have made into November, just. So what do we conclude from several months selling onsite to the public?
Firstly that public response and support has been good, with instinctive feeling that buying veg you can see growing must be a good idea, but also that people will make a conscious effort to come along because they want the venture to succeed. This has been heartening.
Secondly that our plant raising and growing skills remain intact, with some great looking and tasting crops produced. Thirdly what is technically and climatically possible in our mild region is some way from the crops grown and traded currently. While this is not a complete surprise we have to grapple with supplying sufficient range to meet public expectation while trying to meet the seasonal realities of a northerly latitude country.
So how to deal with this? We are trying to carry the above support while at the same time encouraging other growers to meet crop gaps, and anticipate imminent market gaps, eg as air freighted crops diminish. We are also attempting to grow a wider range of crops on one site than is ideal but which will help to satisfy demand for local Welsh veg.
Now that we hope we have convinced the local community we are not property speculators (!) we have to make the case for some polytunnel erection, both to the immediate neighbours and to the planning system. However energy efficient 'tunnels can be (very, by removing wind chill), their use for large fruit farms can arouse concern over visual impact.
While glasshouse blocks were once much more common (eg at Croft near Cardigan) producing Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Winter Lettuce, much of this trade has transfered to the Spain of unregulated cheap labour, as well as more sun. The cheap fuel that facilitated this is ending and the Welsh Assembly has recognised the need for more indigenous production. Newer popular crops such as Sweet Peppers and Chillis are very possible, as well as more ingenious leafy cropping eg Salad Leaves in January rather than Spanish Icebergs, Welsh Parsley rather than Israeli.
Other growers in West Wales have varied views on the market for organic and Welsh production but dominance by supermarkets has left most growers with no route to the public. We hope that by providing some steady sales in St.Dogmaels we can build confidence for future plantings and that the region can start to widen the range of crops grown here, particularly in the Winter months.
We remain impressed with the work being done in Fife since 2008, where many people have been eating a regional diet and subsequently expanding the market for producers in the area. Bright spots in our region might include the newish CSA scheme with Gerald Miles and others at St.Davids, Ritec's box scheme in S. Pembs, Blaen Camel and Troed-y-Rhiw appearing at Farmers Markets all over, the 4CG project in Cardigan, and the University of Aberystwyth's bread wheat project's second harvest. Rick Coleman is starting a Ceredigion loaf with the latter that tastes pretty good.
In the rest of the UK and wider world concerns about inequality and resource shortages won't go away although material comforts in the west seem to mean that most people are not as alarmed as they might be. Stirrings such as the "Occupy" movement have got a mixed response but have effectively shown the hypocrisy of many in the Church of England and larger UK institutions. We might draw some inspiration from Wangari Maathi, Kenya's recently deceased superwoman. She never ceased to point out the need to maintain and enhance our environment as being inseparable from providing work and food for its inhabitants. Unsustainable activities merely rob others of their means of existance.
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