.scot domain - expensive but nice...

Since not all of the plants we're growing in the ‪polytunnels‬ are edible we thought we should purchase a new domain name, so we have opted for foragers.scot which we think will cover all bases. This year we have some Sweet Pea, Antirrhinum (Snapdragon), Lavender and Lemon Balm which will be available for sale at both Kippen Street Fayer and Balfron Primary School Fair on Saturday June 13th.

All Apple Trees Now in the Ground

We are delighted to have now completed the task of planting all 231 trees into our orchard.

9 cider varieties, 2 cooker varieties, 2 dessert varieties
and some crabs to encourage pollinators.

Our next task is to build guards round the young trees to protect them from our small flock of blackface ewes who manage the grass far more effectively (and less costly) than a mechanised solution.  Thankfully we have until November this year to complete the job.

Orchard Ready for Tree Planting

Our 2 acre field will soon be an orchard.  9 varieties of cider apple trees are being planted in the next week or so.  Better get the spade out!

With the windbreak/deer fence now complete and the sheep decanted to another area we are now marking out the location of the trees. OCD was kicking in so I think our lines are straight enough and spacing accurate using a low tech method with 5m measuring planks and sight lines.  All being well we anticipate our first batch of blended craft cider will be available in 2018.

Bad light stopped play, but managed to get almost half the orchard "pegged out"

All posts are numbered according to our orchard plan.

Prototype tree protection. Scratching posts for the sheep.

4 weeks of scratching and they appear to be up to the job. Time will tell.

Our low tech method of measuring planks and sight lines has worked well.

Foragers turns up the heat

This year we are growing 9 varieties of chilli, ranging from fruity mild to seriously hot - Spaghetti, NuMex Twilight, Early Jalapeno, Supertramp, Trinity, Lemon Drop, Submarine, Rooster Spur, and Orange Habenero.  Available later in the year.

Join our mailing list for seasonal availability and news updates.

Download our flyer for a short description of each chilli.

Speciality Tomatoes for this coming season

We will be growing 6 varieties of tasty tomatoes this year;

• Outdoor Girl
• Red Brandy Wine
• Green Zebra
• Gardener's Delight
• Tigerella and
• Black Cherry. 

All are eye-catching and big on flavour, ideal for chefs looking for a tomato which will enhance any gourmet dish.

Forager's New Website

We have finally published our shiny new (and responsive) website designed by The McAlpine Partnership (that's us by the way). We like variety in our lives and farming and graphic/web design certainly gives us that! (It's good to have an excuse to stay indoors when the weather is bad).

foragersfoods.co.uk

Foragers Survives Atlantic Storm

While the grass management team are happy with their new sheep shelter (built yesterday before the storm), we are even happier that our two Premier Polytunnels easily withstood last night's major Atlantic storm, with windspeeds of 32mph + and gusts of 60mph upwards.

We had to work under floodlight to get most of the roof on before the storm hit.

It didn't take them long to bunker down with some nice dry hay.
But back out when the winds died down about 9am.

Polytunnel ends which took the battering, partially protected by the
bund created during groundworks last year.

It was raining timber but thankfully none hit the polytunnels.
Another large oak branch succumbs to the strong gusts. 

This branch almost landed in the wildlife pond.

Some repair work required to the windbreak fence
but we expected more damage than this.