I’m nursing a twinge in my back. Last Monday I went hell for leather carting and spreading compost, preparing beds for summer squash (courgettes, patty pan and spaghetti squash), and runner beans. In the process I overdid it and tweaked a muscle in my lower back – the same old place as always, so now I am being mindful of what I do and how I do it. I had the best part of the day working today, and I only yelped a couple of times. The problem is it’s not the time of the growing season not to be firing on all cylinders, but I’ll soldier on manfully.

My job today was erecting more of the supports for the climbing beans, and planting the runner beans that I’ve had hardening off for a couple of weeks. Now is when I will discover if I have nocturnal visitors, because rabbits, hares and Muntjac are all partial to those tender bean shoots. I know that there is a breach in the fence at the  bottom of the garden, which I really must fix. Well I should have fixed it before now of course. Most things are covered in protective mesh, but climbing beans are not easily protected with physical barriers. The courgettes and patty pan squash that I planted early last week are looking okay, so I am hoping that they will grow away now. The weeds are rampant; warm moist soil turbo charges them, so controlling them will challenge my bad back in the days ahead.

I’ve been thinking long and hard this week, and I have come to a fairly radical decision. I am currently thinking that next year I will suspend the veg box deliveries in May, or for much of that month. It is such a difficult time of the year to offer a decent selection of fresh produce, because the availability of my own grown vegetables is very limited, and that also applies to other UK growers. As a consequence I am buying an increasingly higher percentage of produce imported from European organic growers, which is okay, but the prices are ridiculously high, to the point where I am losing money on it. An example of this relates to the courgettes last week. The previous week they were of a size that enabled me to make a very small profit margin on them, and then this week they arrived and were socking great things, and when I weighed them I discovered that they were costing me twice what I was selling them for! I struggle to cover my costs on some of the other items that I am buying in, particularly when I take into consideration a delivery charge to me of £90 every week. It just doesn’t make any commercial sense. I’m not doing this to make a lot of money, I’m not that deluded, but it’s pretty sobering to look at the books and discover that you are working your socks off for absolutely nothing. So I am prepared to risk losing some customers as they look for a reliable and regular supplier of organic vegetables while I take my sabbatical, though sabbatical is not the right word, because I will be concentrating my efforts on preparing for the summer growing season. You only have to look at this week’s ‘shop’ to see just how limited the choice is, so I hope that you understand my thinking. Before next May I might well have a re-think, but I doubt it. I intend to continue with the farmers’ market at Wyken during the break from home deliveries, selling the limited amount of veg that I can produce during that lean time, getting a fair return for my efforts, rather than it subsidising the purchase of European vegetables that don’t always match up to my expectations. I will revisit this subject much closer to the time, and will give you ample warning of any break in supply.

So the shop is looking very similar to last week, except that the chard in the greenhouse has now bolted, and that there are Cara potatoes. I think that I will be able to start picking the outdoor chard next week. Apologies for the tomato debacle last week. They should have arrived around lunchtime on Thursday for me to include in the boxes, and it was only at 4pm when I called the supplier to see where they were that I was informed that they wouldn’t be with me until Friday. By making pre and post farmers market deliveries I think that most of you got what you ordered, I’m sorry if you were one of the few that missed out.

At Moyns Park there are now goslings everywhere. There is a brood of nine youngsters, one of five and two of three….but there are quite likely more. The Egyptian Geese have been absent for a couple of weeks, so I am half expecting to see them appear with some little ones soon – that would be nice. My ‘pet’ hen pheasant has been out of circulation recently too, so I suspect that she’s sitting on eggs.

What a lovely weekend it has been, and tomorrow looks good too. Weeding, planting, mowing, sowing, earthing up potatoes are my tasks while conditions are right, if only the back will cooperate.

Next Saturday I will be rushing back from the market to go to the annual Leestock music festival that will be in the grounds of Kentwell Hall in Long Melford. We have been several times before to watch some great bands that graced the charts about 25 years ago, but they are still good. A pint or two of ‘Mole Catcher’ and some dubious fast food from a van and the day will be complete. Before then I will be cheering on my step-daughter Caroline in the Centre Stage production of Sister Act at Haverhill Arts Centre. I hope that there is more than a wimple of applause…..geddit? Forget it!

Enjoy your week.

Phil