Plants signal season change

Plants have a wonderful way of telling us that the seasons are shifting.

As the light and temperatures decline, our cucumbers, sweetcorn and beans are coming to an end, while the leeks, celeriac and kale are starting to look wonderful and gearing up for their first harvest.

Eves Hill Veg Co brought in the first of the winter squash in last week: Uchiki Kuri, a wonderful Japanese orange squash that is now curing in our polytunnel (hardening the skin for keeping quality).

We hope to bring the rest of our squash in on Saturday 30 September at our open day/community day.

Even the salads signal season change, with chard and parsley making way for Asian greens, such as mizuna, mibuna, “green in snow”, namenia, giant red mustard and, soon, rocket and watercress.

We’re feeling even more inspired by these wonderful subtle and spicy flavours as a copy of Joy Larkcom’s memoir Vegetating arrived with us last month, outlining her adventures in bringing new crops back to the UK from all over the world in the late 1970s with her family in tow.

Without her we’d be eating iceberg lettuce and turnips. As passionate vegetable growers, her legacy feeds our brains, hands and stomachs.

Speaking of salads, we are grateful to one of our new customers, who last week sent us this response to her first veg bag: “You have performed a miracle; my two-year-old has been eating salad all week and asking for more!”

We now have a pickup point for the veg bags in Cawston, as well as Booton, Aylsham and Erpingham. Large veg bags are £10 and small veg bags are £6, harvested to order every Thursday.

We are also proud to announce that we have just been awarded a small National Lottery Awards For All grant to support our work.

The money will mean we can focus on developing our business model and active research. This will include our production model and looking at where we will be taking our social outcomes side of our work.

This Saturday (30 Saturday) is our monthly open day when from 10 am – 2 pm we will be available to show you round and/or rope you into helping with the squash harvest and weeding the leeks.

Stop by and say hello, and send your friends along who are interested to know more about the veg bags or volunteering.

From 2–4 pm we will be welcoming the No Fear Gardening group from Norwich, which actively supports new and old gardeners to visit gardens and learn together.

We will be doing more of an in-depth gardeners’ tour (donation £2.50), with information about techniques that we use, such as no-dig and cut-and-come again salad, alongside the principles of being a community enterprise. RSVP by email.

Hannah Claxton 07876 354363 or email

  • Eves Hill Veg Co is located 1 mile south of Reepham on the Norwich Road. Look out for the big black barns and entrance to Eves Hill Farm, right by the “hidden dip” signs. Volunteer days are every Wednesday 10 am – 4 pm. No experience necessary. Bring lunch. Stay for an hour or two or join us for the whole day.