Top Farm Enterprises

14/10/2026

Thus year we've grown a lovely mix of chillies, some mild, some medium, some very hot.

This chilli has been nibbled by something. Hopefully the fact that it's a very hot chilli and no others have been nibbled has been enough of a deterrent to whatever tried to eat it 🥵♨️🌡️🌶️

13/10/2026

Tasteful Tuesday

Recently I published a recipe for a traybake vegetable soup (fling it all in an oven tray with oil, cook, add water, blend, enjoy 🍲). This weekend I took it one step further into a delicious curry.

Take a selection of veggies - I used tomatoes 🍅, peppers 🫑, aubergine 🍆, squash 🎃, mushrooms 🍄‍🟫 - chop roughly and place in oven tray with a bit of oil and a couple of teaspoons of curry powder. Roast for around 40 mins, or until soft.

Place all veggies in saucepan, add some water, a teaspoon each of ground coriander and ground cumin and blend until smooth. Add some chilli powder if you like heat 🌶️

Desperately, cook up some pulses 🫘 - I used red lentils, but you can also just open a tin of chickpeas. Add these to the blended mix.

At this stage, you can eat it as it is OR add meat 🐔 or fish 🐠.

Heat it through until everything is piping hot 🔥, add some chopped coriander 🌿and a squeeze of lemon 🍋, and serve with rice 🍚 and or naan bread 🍞.

I make a big batch and freeze it at the stage before adding meat or fish. That way I can choose whether to add protein and make an evening meal of it, or just have it in a bowl as soup for lunch.

Enjoy 😋😋😋😋

12/10/2026

That's all the peppers harvested. We've had mixed success with the peppers, a combination of heat and some new varieties not performing as expected, but overall, we've had a good crop and some beautiful colours. As you can see from the order that went out last week to The Bistro CIC in Rasen

We're experimenting with leaving the remaining plants to overwinter. Did you know that Chillies,🌶️ Peppers 🫑and Aubergines 🍆 are actually tender perennials? The south side of the greenhouse is in full sun all day, and the roots have a thick layer of sheeps fleece above the soil, so we don't get frozen ground in there. They've had a hard cut back to force dormancy and we'll see how they do.

As it's cold at night now, we've harvested the remaining unripe peppers and these will ripen slowly indoors. We then slice and freeze them for use during the winter, so we can have a taste of summer through the cold weeks ahead.

11/10/2026

Top Farm Enterprises are all set up at Nettleham Village Hall (Brookside Avenue, Nettleham, LN2 2SS) with our amazing range of homemade preserves, made with our organic fruit and vegetables grown on our farm. Pop along and say hello!

Can't make it but want some? Message me to place an order. I can deliver local to the farm.

11/10/2026

Top Farm Piggies Squeakly Report

Mum-hooman is at the market today, so she said we can take charge of the page!

This week the hoomans have been extra busy. They said "it's definitely feeling colder 🥶 outside" but we're indoors and covered in fur so haven't noticed much, except now it's wet 🌧️ we can't go out as much. 😢

They've also said it's "end of season" and we've watched them squirrelling away unripe peppers 🫑 tomatoes 🍅 and squashes 🎃 to continue ripening inside.

We're not so sure on that because we keep being given fresh veggies from outside, albeit more and more damaged and misshapen ones. They are still edible for us, so we're happy. We even got a lovely stick of kale 🥬 from one of mum-hooman's customers.

What we're not happy about is girl-hooman telling us that the last of the cucumbers 🥒 has been harvested and supplies are running low. Apparently there are only 8 left now, so in just over a week's time, our bedtime 😴 cucumbers will have to stop unless we want shop bought ones. This is now a national emergency! Little Molly loves her bedtime cucumber 🥒. Thankfully the willow still has leaves and mum-hooman has planted lots of brassicas for overwinter so we're expecting fresh greens to continue.

Eat your greens and stay fluffy like us!

Fat-bum-Thalia, Major Kira, and Lieutenant Dax
Ezri Dax and little Molly O'Brien

10/10/2026

We squeezed out one last big order at short notice this morning!

10/10/2026

Meet the Apple Ermine Moth. So named as the colouration is similar to royal ermine cloaks.

This moth lays it's eggs between June and September on the bark. The eggs are barely visible to the naked eye but they overwinter until they hatch as a colony of caterpillars in March/April.

They spin a web around themselves, pulling the leaves inwards where they then eat the leaves. The web also cleverly prevents birds eating the caterpillars.

Once the immediate leaves are eaten, they move on to a different part of the tree and repeat the process, for around 40 days. Several colonies can defoliate a tree during that time, so as you can imagine, they can be quite a serious pest!

They then pupate before hatching as a white spotted wing moth, lay eggs on the bark to overwinter and the whole process begins again.

To treat these pests is quite simple. The immediate option is to locate the nest and cut it out. In Spring, you can see the webs are quite distinctive and notably different to a spiders web. In Autumn it's much harder to spot, but again, look for dense webs and then look underneath. You'll see eggs like these in the picture below.

To prevent further eggs being laid, use natural pheromone traps to attract the males and prevent them mating with the females.

A search this week uncovered only one overwinter nest, so we know our natural methods are working.

Once you know what you're looking for, they are quite easy to spot, so go take a look in your orchards today and take action!

09/10/2026

Recently, we've had swarms of Whitefly on the farm, and I've heard the same happening across the region.

This great sound bite on BBC Sounds explains why. The first two minutes are the usual call in waffle, but at just before 2 mins, they explain what they are and why it's happening.

The last two minutes really resonated with me - this is all part of our natural ecosystem and all too often, humans reach for a spray to kill insects as they perceive them to be a "nuisance" to themselves as humans.

All insects - and indeed arachnids - are part of the wider ecosystem. We can reduce them or deter them, but without the insects, the food chain collapses. That tiny insect is food for something else, and it goes up the ladder until we eat the plant that depends on an insect.

So before you reach for a spray, think about the wider consequences and ask if there is another way to deal with the problem. Or ask if it's really a problem at all.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0pflw7l?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile&fbclid=IwY2xjawU1cLxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHve5uS4dmLS6yEuWenGrT7d7d5oGrfBc9ePfb4VVBOP__Aw0qyR3Cs1vfr2w_aem_Jf1pH-3D9W45cFY88lBlRw

Whiteflies are everywhere right now, but what's behind the surge?

08/10/2026

Final delivery to J Shaws this morning 😢....

The cucumbers, peppers, raspberries, and microgreens are all finished now. The apples have all been harvested and we've almost finished harvesting the tomatoes with the last green ones inside to finish ripening. The squashes are all undercover too to overwinter.

And good timing seeing as we had an air frost here last night!

The end of 2026 is almost in sight but who can be sad when the sun is shining on a chilly morning and you have beautiful orders like this to deliver.

07/10/2026

This is where I'll be on Sunday 11 October with our amazing range of delicious homemade preserves 😋😋😋