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Please scroll down to see various news posted since I set up the website. Updates were few and far between in the early days, but I'm hoping to keep updating with the current news this year at least once a month.
Loads more added, and once again I've changed the box ordering page, I'm trying to make it as easy to read and use as possible, but keeping as much functionality as I can. Getting there. We are ordering some double cream from Yeo Valley to arrive on the Monday the 18th, so if you would like to order some please let us know by the 14th when we put our order in. We also have available some Mincemeat from Infinity wholefoods, and will have plenty of different veg for you to top up with if required prior to Christmas, as well as various nuts and clementines. Please click the Shop Online button to the left to see what we have, and feel free to use the online ordering, but let me know if any products don't add correctly. We will be closed between Christmas and the New Year, but apart from that one week it's business as usual on our regular delivery days. If you wish to collect during the week before Christmas please let us know, we can prepare a box for your collection on Saturday afternoon, or Christmas eve if required.
Scrubbed up a lot of incorrect forms, so they should all add correctly to the basket. The only one I haven't looked at is the full list, where each item has to be added to the basket seperately. I can only get 100 products in a single form, so may need to split it into seperate categories which will need to be added independently. Please feel free to test it out but make sure your basket shows what it should be showing before checking out, and if not please email me so I can put it right. Have fun.
I've got round to adding most products to the database, although we've decided on a few nice things to add which aren't there yet. There's some delicious tinned pineapple, papaya and some fantastic dried dates to be added very soon, and Essential have began offering a variety of Fairtrade Organic rice which we'll be trying to get hold of. Still masses more tidying to do before this website is up to where I want it to be, but now the manic summer months have passed I'm managing to find time to concentrate on it at last. Please bear in mind that I have had no training whatsoever in website design or in fact any computer based qualifications, so if you spot any glaring errors please let me know, and of course if you've any nice tips then I'd be grateful for the knowledge. Checking the FAQ you'll notice that we're planning on adding a delivery charge in the near future. We haven't had a price rise for two years, and it has become obvious that the only costs that have really risen for us are those asociated with the delivery, so we've decided to add on a flat £1.00 charge per delivery. You can order up to any value and won't incur any higher delivery charge, so if you have any friends nearby who are also having a delivery it will save money if all your orders are delivered to just one address. This delivery charge will also make it viable for us to accept orders without a box - you can order what you fancy from our online shop, subject to availability of course. November 13 2006 The site is currently being updated to offer the option of online ordering. It is mostly functional although I'm still in the process of adding pictures and tidying things up. Some items haven't been added to the database, so despite being available on the website they won't be added to the basket correctly. 18 August 2006 Wow, it's nearly September already. As usual the summer has flown by and thankfully we've just about caught up on all the work, although most plantings were late this year so we're hoping for a warm autumn to enable them to continue growing. Right now that's not looking likely as the rain's pouring down but you never know with English weather. Weeding has been our main priority over the past two weeks and things are looking pretty good overall, a few messy patches but that's good for the wildlife even though it hits yields. Those of you who usually get fed up with courgettes during the summer will have noticed a definate reduction in the quantity you're getting in the boxes, this is totally due to a failure caused firstly by slugs destroying all 210 plants put out, then by birds pulling up a lot of our replanting to get at slugs and other grubs. Nice. Thankfully we're now starting to get even more of our vegetables coming through, some fantastic tendersweet sweetcorn over the next couple of weeks, beans are finally starting to flourish after a slow start and plenty more stuff to come during the autumn and winter. As usual we are planning on having an open afternoon during the soil association's organic fortnight, and this year we are going to be doing this on Sunday the 10th of September between 2pm and 5pm, although early / latecomers will of course be more than welcome, we just either won't be set up, or will be lazing around relaxing. Refreshments will be available in the house. For those of you enjoying the breads, unfortunately Rebecca has decided to move on already, so we are going to have to discontinue the bread offered as part of our add-ons to the box scheme until we get ourselves sorted out. Everything else is still available, and I am planning (as usual) to introduce a lot more and set up a decent product list with pictures on this site, although that'll have to wait until we're well into the winter and I can find the time. For now the list is at Extras List.doc (it currently calls for a user name and password, although I just clicked ok and it went through). Orders can be by post, telephone or email, whatever suits you. May 1 2006 Well, our planned date for starting to offer additional items with the box scheme has slipped. We had our Soil Association inspection a few weeks back and consequently all our energies went into making sure everything was up to date for them and therefore as usual it all went smoothly. We should be sending out price lists and order forms to the various rounds during this month however, but will be starting off with a small selection to make it easier on us, gradually upping the products on offer over time.
Now we're rapidly getting deeper into Spring, cultivating, sowing and planting is going well but still plenty of catching up to do after our long Winter. Most overwintered crops are desperately trying to go straight to seed and our recently planted crops have a lot of work to do before we can harvest them. Feb 2006 Well, I'm back from my travels, what a shock to come back to these temperatures from the heat of Australia. Still can't complain, it was pretty amazing, and great to catch up with my sister and meet her husband's family for the first time. Back on with things anyway now. We are intending to increase the product range we offer to include various dried and tinned organic products, such as pastas and pulses, and also provide an option to add extra vegetables to your boxes. This will include extra potatoes, carrots and onions, but also if the demand is there we will also be offering out of season produce, such as tomatoes, cucumbers and mushrooms with the box, as well as some fruit without needing to purchase the mixed bag for those of you who only want bananas or apples. We are also hoping to offer specialist bread, and milk and eggs, subject to availability. A questionnaire has been sent out with the boxes last week, if you haven't recieved it then please ask us and we can drop one to you. To impliment this change we are going to need to adjust our delivery days, adding in a Thursday delivery to enable us to use our big van for every round. The plan currently is to move Nailsea, Claverham, Cleeve, Long Ashton and Backwell customers to a Thursday delivery starting on March the 17th. After this we are intending on moving Congresbury, Wrington, Sandford and Banwell customers to a Wednesday, starting on April 5th, and all Clevedon and Yatton customers to a Friday on April 7th. Following this we are hoping to offer an increased range of products starting on April 26th. Dec 2005 Wishing you all a Happy Chrismas, and a big thank you to all our customers this past year. Our next Box Scheme deliveries will be in the New Year - Wednesday January 4th and Friday January 6th, so see you then. For those of you who don't know, I am going to visit my sister in Australia early in January for a month, so we won't be attending Bath Market until the second Saturday in February. October 2005 Well, it was a little while back, but here's a late thanks to all those who came along to our open day. It was great to see lots of familiar faces, as well as quite a few local residents, and thankfully it stayed dry for the day. We are now well and truly into Autumn, and consequently our veg boxes are changing. Gone are the runner beans, tomatoes and courgettes, and we're now getting into roots and brassicas, perfect for keeping us warm over the coming months. Unfortunately Beth, who delivers to Weston, Yatton and Wrington, has broken her leg and will be out of action until probably December so Chris is filling in doing one of her rounds, and Weston will see a variety of faces. September 2005 To coincide with the Soil Association's 'Organic Week' we will be hosting
an open afternoon on September 11th between 2pm and 5.30pm although
early / latecomers will be more than welcome.. For directions please go here May 2005 We're currently working flat out with planting, having got the vast majority of our seeds sown into modules. We have already planted Onions, celery, celeriac, some summer cabbages and caulflowers, got the runner bean poles set up and planted out our glasshouse with tomatoes. A polytunnel of cucumbers and one of french beans are both growing well. This month we are going to try to get our leeks planted out, and if there is time start planting out the brassicas, starting with purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts. The house is very quickly nearing completion, and I've finally got round to adding masses of new pictures, check them out here. January 2005 This month's main job is harvesting. Carrots are more damaged from carrot fly larvae and so we spend far more time sorting through these. We are also sorting out our strawberry beds, which became so weed infested last year that we couldn't find them (the birds managed to though), and we managed to remove a fallen willow tree that was threatening to crush our bee hives. December 2004 Work has started on our house. We obtained planning permission early in the year following a lot of hard work and it is great to finally see it happening. The main feature of this house is it's huge south facing solar roof, which when it is up and running should generate a large amount of electricity for selling back into the grid, although it has been described as a spaceship by one local. It is a timber framed building (not oak though, it's stuck between a barn and a glasshouse after all), which was made by Westwind Oak Buildings based just down the road from us and delivered by tractor and trailer.
December 4 2004 A vacancy has come up at Bath Farmer's Market and we have decided to start attending. This is held every Saturday at Green Park Station from 9am.
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