At home we garden organically, my Dad works for Organic North, so it’s safe to say we are the Organic Northerners!

In August I visited Peak Organics in Derbyshire, with my Grandma Barbara and spent a day with them as they harvested their crops ready for market.

We were joined by Vanessa, Jenny and Penny in the car park of Matlock Meadows Ice Cream Parlour (the allotment is just behind the farm). They took us up to the allotment, where we were then joined by Barkus and Walter, two very boisterous dogs to say the least.

Vanessa showed us round the allotment; there were many different types of vegetables and quite frankly it was blooming with flowers. They put these beautiful bouquets together to sell at the market #BritishFlowers

Christmas comes early!

We joined in a photo shoot for the Christmas calendar. I’ll tell you now it was quite peculiar to wear Christmas hats in August, but it was fun!

Aquaponics

Afterwards, Mimms showed us something called aquaponics, which is a cycle where when fish poo into water it becomes a type of fertilizer. This is pumped into vegetable beds (they grow watercress); the excess water is then pumped back into the fish tank. I fell in love with this way of growing food, as it combines 3 of my favourite things – plants, water and fish!

My poor Dad when I got home, I was like, “Dad, I’ve got a new idea”, he replied, “oh no, not another new project!”

Bringing in the harvest

We had a coffee break where we enjoyed beetroot and chocolate brownies made by Jenny and they were delicious. We helped pull up some enormous fennel, spring onions, beetroot and chard, which had some amazing varieties. We snipped off some runner beans and trimmed the garlic, all of which were to go to the market the next day. Peak Organics as the name suggests, don’t use any pesticides or chemicals, but they still have extraordinary growth.

Thank you to everyone at Peak Organics,   I really enjoyed the day and I learnt so much.

I hope to see you again soon – especially the dogs!