Spring is a Springing!

Hi All!,

I'm writing this blog from the cafe in The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. I'm sat by the window with a siocled poeth and a cacen eccles and feeling very chilled! The sky is blue, I'm sat by a radiator and the phone's off. It's good to turn off the noise for a day,

 

So, what's been happening over the winter here at Treddafydd?

It's always a quieter time. The poly tunnels and fields are sleeping, the nights are longer and we try to catch up on tasks that have been demanding our attention over the busy summer and autumn, and been ignored!
We have caught up on accounts, re-roofed our kitchen, purchased a fantastic little trailer, finished building our second poly tunnel, done a lot of planning (in various tea shops!), started to clear out our office space and also build up some stock for the coming season. We've also had the holiday let,
Arallt Holiday Cottage
redecorated after the wild Welsh winter!

Personally we've had a trying time ! Vincent was tripped up by our bonkers dog and spent Christmas with his wrist in a plaster cast! Fortunately, on New Years Eve at the fracture clinic they decided it wasn't broken after all, but he has had to nurse it a bit ever since. He was bruised all over; those of you who know us will know he doesn't have as much padding as me, and Lidl's car park is quite hard!



Since then, he has also trapped his thumb in a van door and had laser surgery for a partially detached retina!

I have been struggling with my knees, and it now seems I may need surgery to repair damaged cartilage and cruciates in both! I am assured this will be keyhole and routine but confess to being a little scared. Apparently we shouldn't play squash at our age. Ping Pong was suggested as an alternative!

The last few weeks have been very wet and muddy here on the farm. It's not a good time to look at our patch as it looks a little like The Somme right now. This has been exacerbated by a visit from our energy suppliers and their diggers, replacing several poles for which they have a wayleave arrangement. They managed to drive over the strawberries and the rhubarb, destroy a stone wall and smash the main sewer! We then had Welsh Water come to repair that and repeat the churning up process! Compensation is being negotiated.

Vincent has already begun planting seeds in the greenhouse for this years crops. It's amazing how quickly things grow! Our peach tree in tunnel one has been in full bloom for several weeks now, and we have been pollinating with a soft brush as there are very few insects about yet.

If we have half as many peaches as last year , we'll be very happy!

We are planting tomatoes, chillies, courgettes, beans, peas, lettuce, cucumbers and this year lots of flowers too. We always put fresh flowers in the holiday cottage for our guests and thought we'd grow our own this year.

We are booked onto Caernarfon Food Festival in May so hope to see lots of you there! In the meantime, you can always find us at Porthmadog Local Produce Market on the last Saturday every month, or by knocking on our back door!
There is a list of stockists on our website.

Best Wishes to you all
Sharon xxxxx