Rural Smallholdings Magazine » Organic Gardening

Selecting the Best Strawberries for Your Smallholding

Rural Smallholdings — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:00:54 +0000

Smallholding berry farming is one of the most profitable ways to utilize growing space. Whether you pick the berries yourself, or establish a pick-your-own operation, there is money to be made in strawberries. If you establish a reputation for having the best tasting strawberries in the county, you’ll do even better.

When choosing strawberry plants, there are several things to consider, but one of the most important is plant type. Strawberries come in three distinct types: June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Here are the differences:

June bearing. These strawberry plants will produce a single flush of flours and produce one crop that is harvested over a 2 – 3 week time span. Then the crop is done for the year, and the plant puts its energy into replicating itself through runners. Subcategories divide June bearing varieties into early, mid-season, and late. You can expect the largest strawberries from June bearing plants.

Everbearing. These strawberry plants will produce two or three harvests beginning in spring and extending into autumn. Because they are always fruiting, these plants produce fewer runners. The strawberries tend to be smaller on everbearing plants if they are not fed properly.

Day Neutral. These strawberry plants don’t require long days to produce flowers, so they produce fruit regularly throughout the growing season. While day neutrals tend to produce flowers in flushes, and mature the crop of strawberries before producing another flush of flowers, there will always be ripe strawberries in the patch. As with everbearing strawberries, day neutral strawberries will shrink in size if the plants are not given the right nutrients.

To maximize your profit potential, make sure you only grow the tastiest varieties of strawberries. In the UK, features such as winter hardiness aren’t a serious issue, so look for plants that yield well. Avoid varieties that tend to produce watery fruit, as these do not freeze well.

Here are some varieties that offer superior flavor with acceptable disease resistance and freezing quality:

June bearing: Gariguette, early; Honeoye, early to mid; Tenira, mid; Chelsea Pensioner, late.

Everbearing: Mara Des Bois, Fort Laramie

Day Neutral: Tribute

The flavour of strawberries is somewhat subjective, but if you love true strawberry flavour, then the varieties above will deliver. I have had wonderful results with Honeoye as a June-bearing strawberry and Tribute as a day neutral. I think they will always be my favorites. The Tribute is such a dark strawberry that you will think you canned blackberry jam instead of strawberry. I tried a day neutral variety named “Aroma” one year. What a disappointment. No organic gardening method over the next three years ever coaxed flavour out of that strawberry, and the results with chemical fertilizers were even worse.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with new releases. Breeders are always striving to improve some aspect of the strawberries available—flavour, disease resistance, shipping quality. Your best sources are online, as few local nurseries are adventurous enough to bring in an unknown variety. Purchase a few plants and see how they do. If you find a winner, you can multiply the plants yourself, or order in bulk.

For information on how to multiply strawberry plants, see the article Multiplying Strawberry Plants for Smallholding Profits.

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

Article by Denise Rutledge for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Smallholding Projects – Winter Planting

Rural Smallholdings — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:14:53 +0000

Preparing your planting beds

Winter farming is one of the best ways to enjoy fresh produce year round. If you plan carefully, you can enjoy fresh salad greens, peas, beets and carrots all through the cold winter months. And you can get a head start on your spring garden while you are at it.

One of the most important concerns for a winter garden is light. Days are shorter and the sun is also lower in the sky. No matter how beautiful a greenhouse or cold frame you build, if it isn’t placed in a location where it will get the maximum light available, the plants inside will not do well. So the first thing you must do is plan the location for your winter plantings so it can take advantage of any sunny days you have.

Once you have the right location selected, then you need to consider the needs of the plants. While you can plant straight into the ground, you can only do this if you prepare the ground carefully. The first step to proper ground preparation is to double dig the area.

Double digging is a technique that aerates the soil while bringing nutrients up from deep in the ground. The basic technique is the same no matter what size of bed you make. First, you remove the top layer of soil from an area that is one spade wide by one spade deep. Set this soil to the side. Fill the resulting hole about half full with compost. Add lime and a good quality organic fertilizer using the recommendations on the package. It can be a good idea to add some kelp meal at this stage as well, once again using the recommendations on the package.

Now, dig down so you loosen the soil beneath the mulch about one spade depth again. This will mix the mulch and fertilizer together with the subsoil. If you notice that this fluffs everything up so that the trench seems to be full, don’t worry. That’s what you want.

Now move over one spade’s width. Dig down one spade’s depth, tossing that soil onto the soil you just loosened up. Fill this new trench with compost, lime, fertilizer and kelp meal. Loosen the soil at the bottom of the trench, mixing the compost and everything else.

Repeat these steps until you have loosened the entire planting bed. When you reach the end, add the soil that you set aside. The main thing that you will notice is that when you are done, you will have the equivalent of a raised bed, with the soil being anywhere from 10 to 15 cm higher than the ground around it. The roots of your plants will love it!

You don’t want to walk on all your hard labour, so stick with beds that are around one metre wide. This is an easy width to work with because you can reach into the middle of the bed without losing your balance. Much wider than one meter and the bed becomes less functional.

Even if you plan on using grow boxes, double dig the soil beneath each grow box. There are several reasons to do this. 1) You can work manure into the very bottom layer (instead of compost). The manure will provide bottom heat all through the winter, but because it is in the bottom of the trench it won’t burn the roots of the plants. Next spring, the beds will be ready for a second double digging and produce a wonderful crop. 2) It will improve your yield considerably and support the health of your plants. 3) Aerated soil does not conduct cold as effectively. You don’t want the cold coming in from the side and damaging the roots of your plants.

Many smallholders find that putting a low border around each bed is helpful. While bricks are high enough, they conduct cold. Surrounding the bed with 100mm by 200mm sleepers will insulate the bed from the cold.

The next step for preparing a winter garden is to cover and insulate your planting beds. There are several ways to do this, which we will discuss in the next article, WINTER PLANTING ON A SMALLHOLDING: Ways to Keep Your Winter Garden Warm.

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Smallholder Events – WI Cookery School’s a tasty dish at The Edible Garden Show

Rural Smallholdings — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:29:58 +0000

The Women’s Institutes’ National Cookery School is to play a key role at The Edible Garden Show after agreeing to stage a series of cookery demonstrations and other food-related events at the show.

The WI National Cookery School, based at Denman College in Oxfordshire, has become one of the UK’s most popular cookery institutions since its launch last year.

Allie Hogsbjerg, a spokesman for the WI, said: “We are delighted to have been invited to provide cookery demonstrations at The Edible Garden Show. It promises to be a super show and experts from the WI will be on hand throughout the event with great ideas and recipes for your home-grown produce.”

But it’s not only cookery advice that the WI will be concentrating on. Their team will also run seminars on preserving, baking and even bread-making.

There will also be a high-profile event on the opening day where the WI will be promoting its ‘SOS for honey bees’ campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of the honey bee and the vital role they play in pollinating plants for fruits and crops.

Allie Hogsbjerg said: “Home-grown food, sustainability and safe-guarding the honey bee are all massively important environmental issues. The Edible Garden Show is an excellent vehicle to promote our various campaigns and help to educate the public about the benefits of growing their own food.”

The Edible Garden Show is the UK’s first-ever national garden show dedicated exclusively to ‘Grow Your Own’ food. It has been launched amid the phenomenal explosion of interest in ‘Grow Your Own’ and is a “must-see” event whether you are a seasoned gardener who spends every spare minute on the allotment or a complete novice daunted by planting a few vegetables in the back garden.

The Edible Garden Show 2010 will be staged over three days from Friday, March 19 to Sunday, March 21 at Stoneleigh Park – Britain’s most famous agricultural venue.

The ultimate Grow Your Own event, the show is targeted towards anyone passionate about Grow Your Own, Brew Your Own… or anything to do with healthy eating or home produce. From fruit and veg to bread making, from poultry to organic herbs, and from bee keeping to home brewing, there will be something of interest for all the family.

Tickets for The Edible Garden Show are now on sale via the ticket hotline 0871 231 0847 or on-line at www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk

Admission is £12 for adults, £9.60 for over 65s and children aged 11-16 (20% concession on the full adult price), with under 11-year-olds free when accompanied by a full fare paying adult (maximum two children per adult). Students with a valid Student’s Union Card also qualify for the 20% price concession.

For information on how to become a sponsor or an exhibitor at the show, contact Show Director Anna Campagnoli on 07876338400.

You can find out everything you want to know about the show and all the very latest news from the Edible Garden Show website.

About the WI National Cookery School:

Founded on years of experience and culinary expertise, the WI Cookery School programme combines the teaching of traditional skills with innovative and creative ideas. The WI Cookery School offers a fantastic range of over 100 day schools, residential courses and family courses.

For information on the full programme of courses, call 01865 391991 or email info@denman.org.uk

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

New Landshare Scheme

Rural Smallholdings — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:35:32 +0000

LANDSHARE INITIATIVE

So what is Landshare? More and more people are deciding to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Allotments are full with long waiting lists. The Landshare initiative aims to encourage more fresh local produce that is accessible to more people.It is hoped that the scheme will be launched early next year – but they need YOU now to get things going.There are four elements to the Landshare Scheme – in brief:

GROWER – if it is you that wants to grow your own produce.
LANDOWNER – offer land in exchange for produce.
LAND-SPOTTER – you know of where some land is available.
FACILITATOR – you’ll help other growers locally.

Visit the LandShare website for more information and to sign-up to the scheme in whichever category applies to / suits you. Sounds a good idea to me!

What the video where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall explains the Landschare Scheme.

What do you think of the landshare idea? Leave your comments to share with others.