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Briar Farm

Briar Farm

@briarfarm.bsky.social

180 followers 120 following 500 posts

Establishing an agroecological, mixed-use farm on a disused plant nursery in Cambridgeshire, UK

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Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 1d

Today’s mood: harvesting sweet chestnuts in the woods

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 2d

Medlar harvest!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 2d

Yes us too. The bramble has def popped out a few sheets but mostly acted as a protective blanket. Saved us a tonne of work really

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah we’re quite impressed. Early in the season the berries were quite shrivelled but they filled out. Variety Leikora. 5 female and two male plants. They seem to be thriving

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 3d

Harvested some sea buckthorn. We juiced it down and mixed with some apple juice.

It’s a top tier fruit, imparting a sharp passion fruit type flavour and vibrant orange colour.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 3d

Bramble roots growing in the leaf litter on the roof of our glasshouse.

Beautiful, but it’s going to be a hell of a job to clear!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 4d

Even though the glasshouse isn’t quite finished yet, we’re wasting no time getting roots in the ground.

90 strawberry plants went in today and we’ve been establishing a fertility building cover crop in the annual beds, a mixture of annul rye and hairy vetch.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 6d

Hannah and Pete putting in a solid stint replacing glass panels today. This section of the glasshouse has 500 panels, with around 30 needing replacing in all.

It’s already starting to feel warmer in there!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks! Lots going on at the moment for sure.

Def an option for the apples, however, we’re also treating these for the ecological benefit. They’re big old rangy trees with lots of standing deadwood that’s amazing for insect and bird life. Even have a green woodpecker nest in one in the back garden!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 6d

That’s great! Congratulations.

So satisfying

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 6d

It really is! Very excited at the potential of it all.

We’re currently going down a variety and rootstock selection rabbit hole for all the top fruit. We’re not used to all this protected growing space, it gives us a lot more scope on selection.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 6d

We’ve been marking the location for our new trees. A third of the glasshouse will be planted as a perennial forest garden

This season we’ll be planting the canopy, shrub and climbing layer. Think apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries, figs, pomegranates, grapes & berry bushes!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 7d

Continuing with the glasshouse renovation today. We’ve installed the manifold for the new irrigation lines, cleared out the roof guttering and are replacing broken panels of glass.

It’s all coming together quite nicely

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 7d

Early start getting our heads around the irrigation system for the glasshouse, which we’ll begin installing today.

It’s worth getting it right from the beginning as it’ll make our lives so much easier during the growing season.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 8d

If I remember right, you had some pretty pernicious plants to contend with. I feel the bramble isn’t that bad in comparison!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 8d

Here’s what we found in the glasshouse.

Plenty of bramble, but few obstacles to have to work around. We cut a transect along the edge to link up with the area we have been working on.

Feels good to be breaking new ground!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 8d

Who wants to come exploring?!

We’ve been slogging through the bramble to gain access to the other entrance of the glasshouse.

No one has been in here for over 20 years. Let’s see what we can find!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 8d

Morning all. A damp, dreary one today. We’re continuing to clear the overhanging branches on the old glasshouse and will be brushcutting the south perimeter.

Let’s get to it!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 9d

Doing some digging on the gravenstein and seems like a decent one for apple sauce, cider and early season juice. Main issue we’ve had with it is it comes early and drops as soon as the apples are ready.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 9d

‘Nothing of National importance’ they said. They were fairly confident on Gravenstein, a cooker: Then question mark over Michaelmas Red.

Both apparently common vars from the 1940-50s, which tracks with when this was last an orchard

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 9d

Getting some serious research in at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens apple day today!

We’ll be planting around 60 fruit trees this winter, including 25 apples. We’ve chosen most of the varieties but still have some more to pick.

We also had help identifying our veteran apple trees

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 11d

Before and after photos of todays tree clearance work. Still some more to go, but that’s the worst of the leaning branches cleared.

The gutters were blocked, meaning there was some pretty grim unblocking work to be done!

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 11d

Technically demanding day today. We’re trimming back the mirabelle tree that has been overhanging the entrance of the glasshouse.

A much needed job to avoid any further damage to the structure

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 11d

We made a decision to rotavate the new beds as we want to get the amendments/inoculations and decompact. It’s pretty biologically dead there atm. It’s meant most of the roots have been easy to grub up. In the othe we’ve piled a thick thatch of the cuttings so we hope that keeps at bay.

Briar Farm @briarfarm.bsky.social · 11d

This is great! I’ve seen people cut whole branches off and freeze. Apparently comes off super easy once you’ve done that.

Looking forward to having a play with it