Green shoots and high stakes

Hard have proves the perfect antidote to insomnia for low-carbon farmer Joanne Brannan

The first seedlings have appeared at The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm: first the brassicas emerged in my home made cold frames, and now a few shoots can be seen in open ground. All gardeners experience delight on seeing their first new plants in the spring; for me this year is no different, except that the stakes are higher. I need a successful harvest to pay my bills.

I have almost completed preparing seven 500sqm beds for my first vegetable crops using the two wheeled tractor (just under an acre in total). I am anxiously watching the rest of the field which I sowed with grass and clover green manure mixes using a hand pushed broadcast sower. After a fortnight’s move the seedlings are slowly emerging, despite the efforts of clouds of pigeons to take all my seed.

When I first started work at The Oak Tree, I had no shelter on site, the weather was bitter and I was physically unfit. Spending a day spreading horse muck with my hand cart was, to be honest, something of an ordeal physically, and I would arrive home smelly, soaked with rain and sweat, and exhausted. Exhausted, but at peace on some level. This day I enjoy relative comfort thanks to the milder weather, a building for shelter, and vastly improved stamina.

I have steadily fallen into the routine of rising early, and flagging at about 9.30 in the evening, which is practical, if a tiny antisocial. This work is even more satisfying than I had expected, despite being monotonous and financially uncertain. My insomnia of many years has all but disappeared, my head is quieter and come bedtime I am too exhausted to worry. Somehow, I believe it will all work out fine.

Joanne Brannan runs The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm in Suffolk. She writes for UK magazines including Country Smallholding and Grow it!. Read Joanne’s early blogposts here, here and here.

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Green shoots and high stakes