Harvest Part 2.

Harvest is half way through ! The plums have all been picked and packed and sold  and  the conveyor was put into storage and a cheer went up from Mr B and Damian our packhouse manager. It has been a good year but as you may have noticed Autumn came early , the chill was in the morning air by August 8th and this hastened all fruit into ripeness. Clive and the teams worked long hard hours to get the plums in and now the apples are following fast and earlier than usual.The packhouse worked hard to pack and despatch 147 tons of plums….

In the case of the plums the trees were picked several times to ensure that the plums were  ripe enough but with enough shelf life to last in store. Many growers  pick their plums bullet hard which never become a sweet delicious plum. This leaves many plum buyers disappointed and put off English plums whereas Waitrose specifies their plums from us must be nearly ripe. Our pickers are very  carefully supervised and the whole process more costly but more satisfying.

Putting away the plum conveyor belt for another year

Cox Lavera ready for picking and storing

Pears many of which are small and do not conform

So now to apple harvest. First were the Delbar , next Smitten and Elstar. Conference pears are safely in. A good crop but with lots of pears of the wrong shape…. We are given very precise specifications for pears which sadly reflect the unwillingness of the customers to eat all pear shapes. Packaging helps this by including in the bag varying pears – all tasty but definitely some more shapely than others! Fruit with Attitude…These pears are destined for juice.. award winning Pear Juice however so a good use. Nevertheless we should all be working for less fruit and food waste.

Apples are again picked according to their starch levels and colour as the first pick apples go into store to be trickled out over the next months. Trickled out because we do not grow enough English apples to fulfil the home demand and supermarket buyers are easily tempted by highly coloured fruit from Europe. Our Fruit growing is at a disadvantage as our labour is properly paid and  yields are lower due to cooler climate and light levels. We have some great tasting new varieties like Wellant  and some interesting ones like Papples. Come and try some as our seasonal shop is now open daily until Christmas. ( Closed on Sundays)

Conservation Agriculture at Castle Fruit Farm

Castle Fruit Farm Manager Clive planting new Conference pears

Bentleys Fruit FarmDefinition of Conservation Agriculture

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil’s structure, composition and natural biodiversity. CA has proven potential to improve crop yields, while improving the long-term environmental and financial sustainability of farming.

The FAO believes that there are three major benefits from CA:

• Within fields that are controlled by CA the producer will see an increase in organic matter.
• Increase in water conservation due to the layer of organic matter and ground cover to help eliminate transportation and access runoff.
• Improvement of soil structure and rooting zone

Castle Fruit Farm and Conservation Agriculture.

Michael Bentley has long been involved in Farmers Overseas Action Group which is a charity involved in agricultural development amongst other projects, in Uganda. This interest was sparked by 2 years in India as a young graduate volunteer with Quakers. Trained as a soil and water engineer his particular passion has been sustainable farming practices in the tropics which increase yields by paying careful attention to water management and soil structure amongst other things. This is one of the fundamentals of what is now known as Conservation Agriculture or Climate Smart Agriculture. It is clear that nature is committed to recycling everything, the circular economy par excellence, whereas man uses natural resources and then discards them. The tenets of Conservation Agriculture are just as relevant here in the UK so I asked Michael some questions about his                      practice at Castle Fruit Farm !

“How do you look after your soil here at Castle Fruit Farm ?”

Maintaining soil health is crucial – globally and here. One way we look after our soil is by minimising the use of heavy machinery particularly when it is wet. This is one negative of organic growers in that mechanical weeding rather than spraying is their means of weed control which involves very regular traffic up and down the rows. We subsoil occasionally if the soil has become compacted to repair the soil structure.

In what ways are biodiversity important and how do you support biodiversity in the orchards?

Soil biodiversity is linked closely to soil structure and soil composition which is vital for good rooting of trees, good nutrition and therefore yields. Yield (and price) determine our economic viability and underpins a commercial fruit farm like Castle Fruit Farm. When planting a new orchard we endeavour to rest and restore it before planting. We are currently replacing  Baldwyn’s Oak orchard. Having grubbed the trees, here Cox apples which yield poorly and are now little in demand  – sorry those who love them- we sowed a grass mix containing leguminous and flowering plants. This is then grazed (and manured ) by the sheep for one season. In order not to destroy the soil structure by ploughing as in the past, we simply spray a strip with a herbicide and then plant the new trees into an opened furrow. In this orchard it will be Braeburn – a new clone with good colour specifically for our northern clime and desire for coloured fruit not pale and interesting !

Another soil issue is erosion. We know in the tropics of the huge losses of soli after deluges as has happened recently in South America. We are fortunate in our climate . However we are seeing increasingly torrential rain.  Here on Castle Fruit Farm we watch with dismay if gulleys appear on our steep sandy slopes and endeavour in different ways to prevent soil loss – planting across the contours where possible, avoiding using tractors when wet and  mulching with bark chippings or green waste compost. Preventing soil loss is crucial everywhere in the world including here.

What about your management of water ?

The best water is rain water over which we have no control. We drip feed water through irrigation systems to our orchards when essential – gone are the days of very wasteful sprinklers. We disrupt the soil minimally and try to minimise evaporation and conserve soil moisture by using green compost from near Dymock.

So in conclusion, what are the values of these practices ?

Hopefully we are not only conserving soil health but improving it so that farming on this farm is sustainable for future generations and the great planet.