Land Army

[Peasgood]

The reason UK farmers rely on EU migrants is because they are the only ones that will turn up and actually do the work. Nothing to do with cheap labour, they are not cheap. It is not unusual for good ones to be on £30 an hour or more and the minimum wage also applies to the bad workers.

UK workers just don’t want the job, they don’t want to be out in the rain, getting dirty and having to do hard work. There are some that will do it but not enough, if you need a gang of 30 workers and nine times out of ten only five turn up you have to find an alternative. That alternative was Eastern European’s that live on site.

With a crop such as strawberries or raspberries you have to pick every day, if you are two days late you have possibly lost the crop for the rest of the season. They won’t wait.

There is a very big problem in this country where people have lost sight of the value of food and where it comes from. The immense downward pressure on prices has been great for the consumer (until now) but disastrous for the producer. My family have been fruit and veg growers for three generations, We packed in about 18 months ago because it just didn’t make any sense working our knackers off all year just so some Romanians could have 6 months work and take home more than us.

I liked the job, liked the work and carried on in my own right. Since middle of Feb until today I have had sales of about £300 in total, my customers were pubs, restaurants, coffee shops etc. They’ve gone and so has my business. 
Growers are in very big trouble right now and will not be planting their crops, let’s hope international trade starts moving again or there’s not going to be enough to eat later in the year. Just think on that those cheap crops you were expecting from Spain and Italy also rely on “cheap” labour. From what news I see they are not doing so great right now.

 

[Khriss]

@Peasgood totally understand and very sad to hear. Am not a lover of supermarkets and hopefully people change their habits now, tho i usually buy British ( cept cheese n wine but dont realy buy fruit as such) stupid that fruit is air freighted in just so you get strawberries in january! K

[Richard 1234]

2 hours ago, Peasgood said:

The reason UK farmers rely on EU migrants is because they are the only ones that will turn up and actually do the work. Nothing to do with cheap labour, they are not cheap. It is not unusual for good ones to be on £30 an hour or more and the minimum wage also applies to the bad workers.

UK workers just don’t want the job, they don’t want to be out in the rain, getting dirty and having to do hard work. There are some that will do it but not enough, if you need a gang of 30 workers and nine times out of ten only five turn up you have to find an alternative. That alternative was Eastern European’s that live on site.

With a crop such as strawberries or raspberries you have to pick every day, if you are two days late you have possibly lost the crop for the rest of the season. They won’t wait.

There is a very big problem in this country where people have lost sight of the value of food and where it comes from. The immense downward pressure on prices has been great for the consumer (until now) but disastrous for the producer. My family have been fruit and veg growers for three generations, We packed in about 18 months ago because it just didn’t make any sense working our knackers off all year just so some Romanians could have 6 months work and take home more than us.

I liked the job, liked the work and carried on in my own right. Since middle of Feb until today I have had sales of about £300 in total, my customers were pubs, restaurants, coffee shops etc. They’ve gone and so has my business. 
Growers are in very big trouble right now and will not be planting their crops, let’s hope international trade starts moving again or there’s not going to be enough to eat later in the year. Just think on that those cheap crops you were expecting from Spain and Italy also rely on “cheap” labour. From what news I see they are not doing so great right now.

 

Was that paid on production?

as in minimum wage plus bonus?

[Stubby]

2 hours ago, Khriss said:

Mr Stubby was probably in the Peninsular wars as a lad, following behind the Liptons wagon in Wellingtons footsteps  ?  K

Wanker ! ?

[Peasgood]

Yes, piecework but even on piecework you can’t pay below minimum wage.

 

[struie]

On 02/04/2020 at 18:24, Stubby said:

It was a tractor pulling a canvas covered trailer with what we called " the Big Wheel " on the back that rotated at 90 degrees to the direction of travel with tines that hooked the spuds up . We would sort em ,bag em and twist up the metal wire ties with the tool ( I still have one somewhere coz it was good for putting partridge cages together when I was a keeper later in life ) .

more stories stubby lad.

[Stere]

What crops do you grow thats ready in Feb?

[Peasgood]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

What crops do you grow thats ready in Feb?

Before the modern era of importing food Jan/Feb was always known as the hungry gap because there was limited fresh food at that time of year.

We would be harvesting spring cabbage, rhubarb might be making a start depending on the weather. There would be potatoes in store to be graded, carrots still to be lifted and probably swedes still out there. You can store apples until Feb, I still have some that I picked in October but that depends on variety.

[nepia]

I spent too many hours at the end of a potato grader 1980-82 using one of Stubby's bag wire winder tools and stacking ton pallets.  Cold, boring work that was murder on the hands due to the contact with soil and dry brown paper in a cold wind.

Oh wasn't the laugh on you when one of your pallets collapsed when being moved across the yard.

[Conor Wright]

What crops do you grow thats ready in Feb?

Not a lot. Some stores as pointed out already.
You can partially sever the stems of many later sown brassicas in late autumn to reduce growth over winter, this way you could have sprouts, pointed cabbage, kale (without slashing stems) and purple sprouting broccoli.. as well as spinach, purslane, rocket, crisphead lettuce (all late september/October sowings under cover)

late sown parsnips are still a possibility as are overwintered leeks, scallions and, in a drier winters some onions too. (They often succumb to downy mildew) Celeriac will be beginning to regrow now but can be picked as late as January and stored.

We have overwintered carrots in the tunnel at the moment, small still, but thinning them out now and adding them to soups.
You can overwinter potatoes in a tunnel too, we had fresh first earlies on xmas day! (Take a handful of your first pick of earlies, throw them in the fridge for a fortnight, leave them in chitting boxes for a few days/ weeks and plant in the tunnel late august/September.)

There are many other techniques both old and modern that are not widely known.

Theres the possibility of using the heat generated from woodchip etc. to keep a glasshouse warm (above freezing at night is essential) throughout winter extending the growing season for tomato, cucumber, courgette, squash etc right up to new years, wouldn't be hard to stretch these crops to March with minimal preserving techniques.