News from the herb field: October

It has been another bountiful season in the herb field and we’ve had a job keeping up with the harvesting - the herb dryer has been going constantly since the end of June! Things are now slowing down and there is a definite feel of autumn in the air. The hawthorn berries and elder berries have been abundant; could this be a sign of a cold winter ahead? Read more from Herb Field Manager Sarah below.

"We have now gone full circle in the herb field and are once again clearing beds, taking out the annual crops, and getting the beds ready for some autumn sowings of calendula, californian poppy, burdock and mullein. Now we are root harvesting - do get in touch with our sales team for fresh or dried root orders.

We had such a fantastic year for seed saving last year and brilliant germination from the seed we saved previously, so this year we are not saving much seed from the field. We will save seed from some of the plants such as echinacea and angelica, as seed from these plants doesn’t last long. The viability of the seed is lost quite quickly and therefore the germination rates become less and less so you need to save seed from these every year.

An exciting new edition to the herb field are our 10 Passiflora incarnata plants which we grew from seed this year and are doing very well in the poly tunnel. We are hoping to do the first harvest from them soon. Passiflora incarnata is the medicinal passion flower and very beautiful, as you can see!"

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