Of daffodils and other things

The daffodil season is over for another year. We had a bumper crop this year but, sadly, most of the daffs ended up in the compost. Maybe it is the economic downturn, maybe it is something else entirely but, whatever the reason, we sold fewer bunches of daffodils this year than we did last year. Interestingly, this year the daffs sold much better at the Farmers' Market than at the Essex Street market. In the previous two years it was the other way around.



Here is a little picture of one small part of our daffodil paddock. We haven't counted but there must be near ten thousand plants in that paddock. I know that on one Friday during the season we picked over 3000 blooms. And we had to sort, trim and bunch them all of course.

This year we've gone "high tech" with our market stall at the Essex Street market. Just feast your eyes on our very flash market stall.


With this marquee we get protection from the sun, wind and rain. And we've had all of those while we've been at the market. Since we're at the market anyway we are taking the opportunity to sell our surplus goods (some people would call it junk but that doesn't sell as well) and we are also selling our organically certified free range eggs. Both the chicken eggs as well as the duck's eggs. Most weekends we sell out of the duck's eggs but we often have some chicken eggs left over.

Now we're getting busy preparing for the spring planting. I'm clearing part of our growing paddock and turning over the soil so I can plant the next potato crop. We're scaling up this year because our test crop last year was a huge success. We grew so many potatoes that I managed to get only about 20% out of the ground. This was because I was digging them by hand after I went over the rows with a sub-surface plough to loosen the soil. This coming week we are getting a potato harvester delivered. This will turn the figures around because with this piece of equipment I'll be able to lift at least 80% of the crop. And, more importantly, I'll be able to plant many more rows which will mean that I can look forward to having several tonnes of potatoes to sell.


This little baby is a German Kuxmann single row potato harvester. It is coming from another organic farm where they are now growing other things.

And this week I'm going to learn how to milk sheep on a sheep dairy farm near Masterton. We are considering the possibilty of buying a few milking sheep but I want to learn a bit about the whole business of sheep dairying first. Our intention is to supply milk and cheese products only for our own use and maybe a bit extra to trade with friends for produce we don't grow.

So you can see that the adventure is still going on. Always something new to explore or learn. For instance, I'm learning about building dams because one of ours is in danger of collapsing and I want to rebuild it properly (since it was never built properly in the first place).

So, if any of you come to visit be sure to bring a strong back and plenty of energy because there is lots to do here on Elwin Farm.