Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

As the weather has been hotting up again, we have to be careful to water enough in the polytunnel to keep things from getting too thirsty in the heat. The leeks are doing well and the toilet rolls are certainly doing their job: these are pushed into the soil and the young plant placed in the middle. That way, as it grows, the leek keeps nice and clean. With any luck we will be harvesting these in the autumn.
Do you know what the other plant is? It is due to flower soon, after which the female of the plant will produce red berries - back at the start of spring we were eating the 'spears' (the edible part of the stalk) from this plant with our goats' cheese: a meal that costs a fortune in many top restaurants!!! And we were able to eat it every day for quite a few weeks!!! This plant is asparagus and it is now into its third year of growing. Asparagus takes three years to really establish so in its first year it is recommended you don't harvest it at all: in the second year, you can take perhaps one o two spears from each plant for eating and then in the third year you can take as many as you want. The more you cut, the more it grows!! By the end of the season (the season being late April untill June) the asparagus spears turn to tougher and thinner stalks and then you know it is time to leave the asparagus till the following year. Once you stop harvesting it, the stalks grow as tall as the plants in this photo and produce gorgeous feathery fronds and then after that the flowers and berries. In late autumn you need to cut everything right back to soil level so that the roots of the plant can then rest before starting to grow all over again in the spring.