By Rhian Williams
It’s been a busy summer at Kirkstall Valley Farm.
Our fourth year stewarding this piece of land between the Kirkstall Road and the river Aire has seen it packed full of life of all kinds.
Running our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, working with lots of people to grow veg for the local community, is never boring!
Highlights this year have included big harvests of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from the polytunnels. These get picked, packed and collected by members every Thursday.
This summer we have been providing 115 veg boxes every week, all filled with veg straight from the farm!
Another highlight has been welcoming so many new people, including at our third birthday party, which was a big success and helped us raise funds towards training a new grower next year (a big thank you to everyone involved).
Ben led the annual “Tasting Tour” for kids coming to the Healthy Holidays program organised by KVDT’s Children and Families team.
We had lots of visitors including the Lincoln Greeners, the Bahar Women’s Association, Greenhead College, Armley mental wellbeing groups, and the Shantona Women’s Centre, amongst others!
Lots of new folk have come to volunteer at the farm, bringing all sorts of ideas and enthusiasm. A new volunteer marketing team has developed our online presence; you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@KirkstallValleyFarm) for regular updates.
We’ve had plenty of challenges too – the lack of sunshine has meant poor harvests of things like courgettes and sweetcorn.
The mild winter and wet spring produced a massive slug population, which munched through around 70% of our winter squash/pumpkin plants before they even got going!
Looking ahead, we’re hoping for a sunny autumn to give our remaining crops the best chance to finish growing, then some cold spells over winter to reduce that slug population.
We’ll also be hosting more events to raise the rest of the money we need to train a new grower next year (to include paying them whilst they train), and watch this space for (hopefully) some exciting site developments.
If you’d like to receive a veg box, or to volunteer, more info is on our website or by e-mailing Jen: kvf.admin@kvdt.org.uk.
A huge thanks to everyone involved for all the hard work you put into the farm. It’s much appreciated!