Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We have had both a calamity and a major 'wow' moment in the polytunnel today. The calamity is that our tomatoes have got blight and this is what you can see in the first photo. Blight is a fungus that can last for years; the spores multiply in warm, damp conditions and it can attack a crop overnight! It is possible to save the tomatoes if you immediately pick them as soon as you notice the blight but, if left on the plant, they will begin to rot. Blight can also attack potatoes and in 1845 Ireland suffered from a devastating famine when much of the country's potato crop got blight and over a million people died as a result!!
We managed to save around 40 tomatoes/approximately 2kg. We could use these in green chutney; stir fry them in a curry or if we are lucky and keep them dry, they may ripen and turn red!! It is possible to encourage green tomatoes to turn red by putting them next to bananas!! Bananas produce a substance called 'ethylene' which helps the ripening process. Tomatoes produce this substance themselves but with the added ethylene from the bananas, the ripening may happen faster.
Our 'wow' moment was digging up our first parsnip of the season. We have not managed to grow many parsnips this year as most of the seeds we planted failed at the germination stage, BUT eight plants have grown and this parsnip is from one of them. It was 31cm long, had a diameter of 10cms at its widest point and weighed a fabulous 555g. We brought it up to the house this evening; washed, peeled and sliced it and popped it in a roasting dish with some potatoes. We are happy to report that the resulting meal (complete with our own lamb) was totally delicious!!