Happy New Year and welcome to our Winter newsletter.
News: Please make a note that we will be packing our final boxes and bags on Friday 3 February. We shall, by then, have run out of veg after a rather difficult autumn and winter season. You’ll have noticed the absence of onions, which was the result of an almost complete crop failure. Yes, we did all the work, but a combination of a cold wet early spring, followed by a period of drought then a warm damp autumn meant that most of the onions failed. . Similarly mildew infestations wiped out almost all the winter lettuces in the polytunnel despite trying every way known to organic growing to control this problem. The Brussels sprouts were also poor at both farms this year. Then the carrot flies got the better of us and damaged much of the carrot crop, causing secondary rots to develop on the roots as well. What’s so galling is that we put in all this effort for sometimes poor results. We know too well that the Llŷn is a difficult climate for growing many of the vegetables we do, but speaking to other growers, we find that 2005 was a more difficult year than most. We do our best and really appreciate your understanding and continued support: not one of you has complained. And, of course, what you’ve been eating is what did well.
Eggs: If you want to buy eggs after our closedown, please contact Jill directly (01766 810915) as her hens don't stop laying just because the vegetables run out. Alternatively you could try Dewis Iach, the health food shop in Pwllheli, who may be able to act as an egg pickup point again.
The future: Some of you may have heard that we were going to close down permanently. We were finding it too much hard work in often-awful weather and the economics were highly marginal. None of us is getting any younger and one of us (guess!) is 60 later this year. As some of you may know, growing vegetables organically is very labour intensive, and although we won't be selling anything for a few months, we shall begin sowing some of the 2006 crops in the next few weeks, starting another year of non-stop watering, planting out and weeding. We have to admit that sometimes this commitment to tending, harvesting and selling veg throughout the year is difficult and leaves us little in the way of a social life to holiday or visit friends and family.
Anyway, after a lot of thinking, we’ve decided to soldier on for at least another year. Our strategy for doing this is to 1) employ some outside help, and 2) put up the prices. This will be the first time we’ve raised the price in our 4 years of operation despite increases in our inputs like seeds, fuel, compost and so on. So we shall be asking £10 for bags and £15 for boxes from July 2006, which is when we intend to re-start. (We’ll let you know when nearer the time.) This brings us into line with other organic box schemes around the UK and allows us to remain viable for the time being.
And now the good news: If you’ve ever looked at our website, you may have had a look at our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme information. At Mur Crusto we would like to start a simple two-part CSA scheme which benefits both you and us. Firstly, we give you a discount of 10% on your veg if you pay six months in advance; balance would obviously be refunded to you if you had to leave the scheme for some reason. If you opt for this, you’d be getting your bags at £9 and boxes £13.50 per week. Secondly, we ask that you agree to devote a few hours of your spare time to helping us when we really need extra help, eg. weeding onions, carrots. leeks etc If this idea appeals then contact Val or Bry.
Please let us know if you wish to rejoin our veg box scheme in July, whether or not you are interested in CSA. We have to be able to plan our crop quantities so please don’t forget to tell us as soon as you can. If you’d rather rejoin at the end of the school summer holiday, let us know that too to allow us to plan accordingly. We do have a short waiting list and if you don’t tell us you’re returning, we will assume you aren’t and offer the place to another family.