I like making those wordle.net word clouds

Podcast 179 - NOT to be missed (hehehe)

The Fighting Farmboys, plus Heather, aka the Herefordshire Mumblers, reconvene on the Wiggly Sofa. There's a polite rant on the death of set-aside from Tim Teague, which Farmer Phil has to explain. Phil has an unexpected run-in with the Night Porter at his hotel. We get proof positive that Richard really is worthy of the name Frugal Fishbourne, although his success at lambing reduces the Team to tears. There are plenty of Five Star reviews, a Montycast and Three Top Tips from Terry Walton.

Warning: Do NOT listen to in public on your headphones - you are going to feel nearly as silly as Farmer Phil did when meeting the night porter....

Did you listen to this week's podcast...

Podcast 178
The team have a change of scenery when Heather moves the Podcast into Farmer Phil's grain store. Richard is dressed for the occasion in his flourescent yellow safety jacket, but Phil seems to be in his bedshirt. There's talk of weddings and funerals, good news about bee colony collapse, thunderstorms and, the subject of the day, grain drying. There's even a new Monty Cast, and a one off chance to see Herefordshire goat socks available in America.
(PS The start is Monty practising his singing technique...which is a little odd..)

Wordle Wiggly

Mealworms free for another few days...

So far we have given away 175 kilos of mealworms for our pledge to support this year's fledgling birdies. I reckon with your purchase thats a good meal for 40,000 birds or more! 

This offer is available until the end of the month and Noelle loves putting your mealworms together....so if you would like some please join our e-news subscribers and tell your friends to do the same! (But quick)

Hay Festival

We are building a Wiggly Garden right in the middle of Hay Festival. It includes a rain garden, a veggie patch, wildflower meadow, some willow structures and.... 100 planted up Joules wellies! Why not come along 21st - 31st May.

Here's what Rich has written about a little bit of it....

Apple tree graveyard!

Dead wood is essential to support many types of life, it also makes for a great feature as these intertwined apple trees demonstrate. If you take a close look you will notice an inundation of small bracket fungi growing from the trunks. Decomposers in their own right, fungi make a wonderful addition not only to the wealth of biodiversity in a garden but also the overall aesthetics. If you lifted the bark on these trees a host of scrambling millipedes, woodlice and centipedes could be seen making a break for cover. Invertebrates like these are food for birds and small mammals like shrews and even hedgehogs, if you get the inverts into your garden everything else will follow!

More later...
In our garden we will have a potter, and a gardener and various childrens workshops.

Wonderful wild greens

Hurrah, at last it's that time of year for wonderful wild herbs!

I picked stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) for the first time just a couple of years ago and have since made the most delicious soups and risottos from them. A good pair of gloves is required and it's important to only pick the fresh young leaves as the stalks can be tough and stringy. Blanching them in boiling water takes the sting out of the leaves, then they can just be treated like spinach. But they are so much richer in protein, with twice as much compared to spinach, and six times more Vitamin C. And best of all I don't even have to leave my garden to find them!

Wild garlic or ramsoms (Allium ursinum) is another favourite. Compared to the banks of wild garlic I saw over Easter weekend at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which were all in bloom, here in Herefordshire they are still young and at their best for picking. My friend Bella recommends eating them raw in buttered white bread for a full flavour experience, while I like them in omelettes and stir fries. Cooking Weeds by Vivien Weise is packed with recipes for tasty wild greens, like Stinging Nettle Rissoles and Wild Garlic Tsatsiki. Yummy!

Right. I'm off to woods to find some some more food for free ...

A Bokashi Bean Trench

Bean trenches are one of those traditional garden techniques that seem to have lost a bit of favour. The idea is that you dig a trench, line it with newspaper, fill it with your kitchen waste, before covering with soil and planting your beans - so adding lots of fertility and moisture-retention to the soil. Sounds like a good idea but a bit of hard work though, especially as some gardeners recommend starting in the autumn and filling it throughout the winter.

I've decided to try a quick fix with the contents of my Bokashi bin. The fermented kitchen waste is absolutely packed full of nutrients and micro-organisms, or EMs (Effective Micro-organisms) will rot down quickly and hopefully form the perfect growing medium for my heritage seed swapped bean seeds.

A Wiggly Meadow Saxifrage Treat

Rob - our Wildflower expert (along with Alison) has just sent me this email:

"Dear Heather,

 

Hope all is well.

 

When we met last we thouht the occassional plant of the week would be a good idea. Now, at this time of year there are many but we have some Meadow Saxifrage that are not getting a mention or picture in the catalogue, and are about to flower and look great.

 

Thought we could do them with a picture of a tray full of plants with the usual script and picture that you have.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

 

Meadow Saxifrage - Saxifraga granulata - Perennial - plant of hills and meadows producing delicate white flowerson stems 20 to 40cm in height in April to June. When flowering and seed production have finished the plant dies down, nutrients are stored in little bulbils that form at the base of the stem these regrow in late winter or early sping. A superb plant for planting amongst bulbs in tubs or the garden where bulbs will not be disturbed.  

 

Best Wishes

 

Robert "

I agree and so this is a very special Meadow Saxifrage Deal of the Day Deal of the Week. Every day we will have 5 lots of Meadow Saxifrage at half price, so if you want a quick wildflower fix here is your chance.

Easter

In case of confusion:

There is no shop currently at the farm so we are not open for visits at the moment.

(Watch out for Open Day updates)

There are no postal or carrier collections over Easter - therefore no parcels can go out from here. 

We are closed until Tuesday 14th April 9am.

Of course if you get into gardening or home mode and want to order please do so online ready for despatch next week.

Wiggly Podcast 0176

Low Flying Rabbit Cliffhanger

This week The Team gather to talk about Buzzards and Short Eared Owls and the costs of set-aside. Richard learns about Twitter and tries to describe his latest trip to the River Cottage in less than 15 seconds. Then they try to test the moisture content of Phil's wheat, but run out of time.

Opening Hours for Easter

Please note that there are NO deliveries on Good Friday or Easter Monday. Therefore the last despatch date before Easter will be Wednesday for Thursday delivery. After Easter we will start sending parcels out again on the Tuesday.

Phone lines will be off too but you can of course order online at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk.

We do not have a shop at the farm as all our products are now at our warehouse (well potato shed) so we will not be open to the public. In fact like you we will mostly be....gardening.

We have extra team members to deal with the Easter Backlog so we will hopefully on track to get your order out promptly.

Happy Easter 

Dotty for Easter

When we tasted Chococo chocolate in the Wiggly Office we knew we had to ask them for more chocolate and here came Dotty the Hen! What I particularly love about Dotty is yes she looks cool, true she tastes absolutely scrummy, but she's also not too big so I'm thinking she wont affect the scales to badly...

The Best Things come in Small Packages.

Dotty is the perfect hen for Easter!

 

Wiggly Wigglers Podcast 175

Have you listened to this week's show yet?
Here's what's on!
Richard, Heather and Farmer Phil convene on the Wiggly Sofa (or is it a Couch, or even a Settee?) to hear about frogs and toads spawning together, the results of the Big Garden Birdwatch, the show's latest iTunes Reviews, the nesting habits of Long Tailed Tits and the success of Farmer Phil's return to primary school.
How to make your own pond, and all the equipment needed is in our store:
Pond Liners
Pond Packs
Pond Plants

Yellow Brandy Wine Tomatoes

Its time to plant your Tomatoes
But which ones:
Yellow Brandy Wine Tomatoes are absolutely delicious and...yellow. Definitely my favourite but dont just take my word for it. Here's a couple of reviews
A big, yellow fruited tomato with a rich, delicious flavour. Cordon.
Sow under glass in Mar/April.
Tim wrote this 5 star review on 02 March 2009
I agree with the other review so far - best flavour for any tomato I can recall. Quite large heavy fruits so need a lot of support.
Susan wrote this 5 star review on 14 December 2008
Brandywine tomatoes are the best Tomatoes. They are so sweet and seem to have fewer seeds than other tomatoes.
Yum
Sow now on your windowsill.