We have harvested our first Novella potatoes, but the best is yet to come!

Lifting the first new potatoes of the season is a pleasure we all should experience.  The immature potato nuggets tumble over the harvester, clinging by their umbilical cord to the vibrant mother plant and lie on the ground sometimes partly covered and slightly indignant by their premature exposure. The childlike joy of collecting them into a bucket is tinged with some regret for the smallest tubers, which are sacrificed for the good of the whole.  So yes, we have harvested our first Novella potatoes of the year and are proud to present them to you.  You’ll love ‘em but your love should be tempered by the knowledge that the best is yet to come.  Nothing beats the first Milva (our second early) potatoes of the year, in my opinion.

A few weeks ago, on a Friday night, I saw rain I have only seen previously during the rainy season in the Philippines years ago.  You might have also seen it, if like me, you were awakened from your slumbers. I whispered, “that’s the carrots done for” into Remke’s ear but she barely stirred.  In a dream, I saw millions of tiny carrot seeds swept away in a torrent. In fact, the carrots survived but, as it has turned out, it was the parsnips which suffered.  I drill parsnips about ¾ of an inch deep and by Tuesday, the drying, rain battered soil covering the seed had ‘capped’, forming an impenetrable layer above the germinating seed.  Farmers and growers will be all too familiar with ‘capping’ which is caused by heavy rain on sandy loam soils which have been worked to a fine tilth.  As we speak we are irrigating, in an attempt to soften the cap and allow the seedlings through.

This afternoon I had a phone call from someone who said she had followed our van along the A39.  I waited with baited breath for the first demonstrable marketing success from the new van livery.  “I thought you might like to know that your near-side, rear brake light isn’t working” said the voice.