Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The month of July is a very busy one in the polytunnel with a lot of plants growing quickly and producing fruit and vegetables in abundance. Some of our brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli...) are nearly 1m high with lots of foliage, and leaves that vary in colour from pale to dark green. The leaves also vary in thickness and strength, with some being rather delicate and easily snapped, others being quite strong and thick. Whatever the properties of the leaves, they are all a delightful food source for the caterpillars, and if you look closely at the bottom left of the first photo you will see some of the damage caused by them. For commercial farmers caterpillars can cause enormous amounts of damage, and therefore financial loss to the farmer. There is some debate about the development of monoculture farming (growing lots of just one kind of crop) which many believe causes an increase in pests such as the caterpillar: just imagine a group from school let loose in a chocolate factory and you will get some idea of how the caterpillars might feel when faced with a field of sweet green cabbages!
In addition to the caterpillars we have a major problem in the polytunnel of very high temperatures during the day - at 6pm today the thermometer was reading 47°C. Whilst the brassicas have deep roots which can get to the moisture below the surface of the polytunnel beds, our newly planted seeds will struggle to germinate and grow in beds which are rapidly drying out near the surface. Our solution is to soak the beds as late in the evening as possible when it is coolest, and during the day we water at least twice, sometimes more if it is particularly hot.
On the other hand our chillies (right hand photo) are doing really well after a slow start, and are now shooting up, particularly after an application of liquid feed - poo from the sheep and goat paddocks soaked in a bucket of water!
Which brings forth the warning - always wash fruit and vegetables before you eat them!