We’re closed from noon on Christmas Eve and wil be taking a well earned rest over the next few days.
We’ll be open for Farm Gate Sales until Noon on Friday 31st December 2021 and normal service will resume from Friday 7th January.
Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and safe and healthy New Year.
Our Christmas ordering page is now up and running so please do take a look and think about what you’ll be needing over the festive period.
As in previous years we will be offering our own home reared bronze turkeys together with sausages made from our home reared pigs in addition to our organic vegetables.
We’ll be open for collection, and shopping for additional bits and pieces on Thursday 23rd December from 9.00 am until dark and on Friday 24th December until noon. If you want to collect at any other time please call us to arrange.
Autumn has now arrived, the day length is shortening and we’re starting to think of winter vegetables here at Bothen Hill. Whilst we do have some summer varieties still available, tomatoes are holding up well, there’s plenty of salad and the courgettes are still just about there, we’re now turning our attention to winter crops.
Fortunately we managed to harvest all our potatoes before 1 October this year, so all are now safely gathered in and stored in the barns ready to be sorted for the coming months. Winter vegetables in the form of carrots, cauli and leeks are now being harvested weekly, and the squash will soon be harvested and put to cure in the poly tunnels ready for later in the year. We’ve started selling the Uki Kuri which are always the first squash to ripen and they are delicious.
We’re pleased that our Friday morning farm gate sales are holding up well, plenty to choose from, lots of space for people to come and buy and to appreciate the beautiful views which we have from Bothen Hill, why not come along and see for yourself, we shut at noon.
This year we are really struggling with produce. A significant number of late frosts caused havoc with the asparagus crop, not just here at Bothen Hill but throughout the country. It was late and yields weren’t up to expectations. We know that no 2 years are the same, but following from a bumper season last year it was very difficult.
Additionally, there’s been a knock on effect with just about all of our other crops; we’ve had several crop failures, specifically with the sweet potatoes which were wiped out completely. We’ve also suffered failure on sowings of courgettes, french and runner beans and lettuce. All of these vegetables have been replanted and are growing well, it just means that everything is a lot later than we expected.
The frost managed to affect various things in the poly tunnels as well where we lost a fair number of tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers. Sadly it also took out our entire crop of apricots, although we are hopeful that we may harvest some from the outside tree.
We can’t do anything about nature, we just have to work with it, so please bear with us whilst we try and catch up.
Having experienced numerous early morning frosts this month, which have severly slowed the asparagus, we’re delighted to say that it’s now available from our Asparagus Station here at the farm 24/7 and also at Farm Gate sales at the top of the lane on a Friday morning until noon. In addition it can also be purchased from Modbury Farm Shop at Burton Bradstock, Washingpool Farmshop and Fruits of the Earth in Bridport and Fruit n 2 Veg in Beaminster.
Additionally, we’ll be joining our neighbours, Furleigh Wines, very shortly to make up the award-winning Bacchus and Asparagus package – look out on Furleigh’s web site for details of this delicious, quintessentially English, package from the beautiful West Dorset countryside.
We are sure that you will appreciate that we are now entering probably our busiest time of the year for vegetable deliveries and it is our aim to ensure that everyone gets what they want when they need it; however, to do this we do please need your help by getting your orders in on time.
With Christmas Day falling on a Friday this year, our deliveries over Christmas and New Year will be as follows:-
Friday 11th and 18th December – normal delivery
Wednesday 23rd December – CHRISTMAS BOXES WILL BE DELIVERED ON THIS DAY IF ORDERED, OTHERWISE STANDARD BOXES
WE WILL ALSO BE OPEN FOR FARM GATE SALES AS USUAL ON FRIDAY 18TH, UNTIL NOON, Wednesday 23rd from 9 am – 5 pm and until noon on Thursday 24th DECEMBER
Friday 1st January – FARM GATE SALES ONLY UNTIL NOON
Friday 8thJanuary – Back to normal for both Farm Gate Sales and Deliveries
We will deliver your normal box on 23rd December unless you either cancel or order one of our standard Christmas boxes for £9 (to feed 4), £14 (to feed 6) and £20 to feed 8 – 10
If you normally use the menu based system or want to amend you order for Wednesday 23rd December please ensure that your order is placed by MONDAY 21st DECEMBER BY 9AM AT THE LATEST – we will not be able to process orders for delivery on the 23rd received after this time. Don’t forget to order your sausages, cakes and other goodies as well, last date for these is 18th December
If you’ve already ordered you vegetables – thank you for being organised!
We’re delighted to announce that we have won the Dorset Magazine Food and Farming 2020 Business Collaboration Award with Furleigh Estates for the Bacchus and Asparagus Gift Pack.
With the originally planned Bacchus and Asparagus Evening, scheduled for St George’s Day which is traditionally the start of the asparagus season, cancelled due to Covid 19 restrictions, discussions took place as to how something could be done to promote these two wonderful Dorset products.
The idea of a Gift Pack incorporating both wine and asparagus was suggested and much organising took place to set the wheels in motion. With the picking, sorting and delivery of the asparagus to Furleigh undertaken by us, and the order taking, packing, admin and shipping organised by Rebecca at Furleigh, twice a week for 7 weeks these two award winning products were shipped throughout the UK, to asparagus and wine lovers- a real treat during Lockdown 1.
We’re therefore delighted that the teams’ efforts have been rewarded with this award.
After a very long lay off, due to Hungry Gap starting earlier than usual for us, we’re pleased to say that vegetables are now being harvested once again.
It’s not been a very easy time, with a prolonged dry spell which has resulted in significant losses, particularly of the summer purple sprouting and the spring cabbages. It hasn’t been helped by an invasion of pigeons who have devestated the sugar snap peas, but everything else is now coming along nicely, all be it some crops haven’t produced as much as we’d hoped.
However, the French Beans, which we are growing in the tunnel, are cropping very well and we’ve had excellent pickings of broad beans. The lettuce and salad leaves are looking good and fresh and the tomatoes, which are in the tunnels, are also just starting to ripen.
Carrots look and taste excellent and even though we’ve not had as much rain as we would have liked, the potatoes are looking good – the salad ones in particular are excellent and the main crop varieties are also starting to produce good yields.
We’re just hoping that the rain will come along again soon and help the remaining vegetables on their way.
30 May 2020: Asparagus harvesting at Bothen Hill has now officially finished for the season. We’ve been picking for a full 8 weeks now, starting earlier than usual this year, so as a result we’ve also stopped earlier than usual.
We’d like to thank everyone who has supported us during this somewhat difficult season by purchasing directly from us, either via our Asparagus Station here at the farm or directly on a Friday morning or by purchasing and requesting deliveries and also from the other local outlets we have been supplying, Washingpool Farm, Modbury Farm Burton, Fruits of the Earth, Fruit N 2 Veg Beaminster, the Brace of Butchers at Poundbury and Millers at Kilmington. Also for supporting the very popular Bacchus and Asparagus On Line Gift Boxes provided by Furleigh Estate.
We just need to reassure all our lovely customers that we’re still open for Farm Gate Sales on Friday mornings until noon. We are conscious of the issues that the Coronavirus is bringing and are moving our trading outside to ensure that everyone has plenty of space and taking all possible measures with hygene and cleanliness. We will continue to supply our vegetables in this way – please do come and buy direct from us.