A Big Week

This week we welcomed a brilliant team from the restaurant group Super 8, who came out to visit and lend a hand with some tunnel clearing – a huge help at this busy time of year. Normally, we do a big clear-out once the weather cools and growth slows down, but the mild autumn means many of our crops are still going strong, so this work's been staggered.

We’ve just wrapped up the last big harvest of our chillies and are making way for lovely new plantings of heading mustards, rocket, pepper cress, and garlic chives. Paul has been busy on the tractor, flipping the tunnels and getting them ready for this next round of crops.

Our winter radishes are a little smaller this year (no) thanks to the summer drought, but beautifully dense and full of flavour. During the Super 8 visit, chef SongSoo, who’s worked closely with us for over six years now, compared last year’s juicy radishes (perfect for raw eating) with this year’s firmer ones – noting how brilliant they’ll be for cooking. It’s always fascinating to see our crops through a chef’s eyes.

Squash continues to be the star of the show – you’ll find our fave Princess Peach adorning Produce Boxes as we head into our second and final big bulk harvest this week. It’s been such a bumper year that we actually ran out of storage bins (something we never expected). After ordering 18 new Dolav bins this season – and still needing more – we’ve finally got enough to load up the last of the harvest. It’s a real reminder of how every piece of the puzzle matters, even the humble storage bin!

Flourish X Stem Union

We’re absolutely delighted to share that Flourish is now the official host of the Stem Union – a flower wholesale hub based just outside Cambridge, connecting local flower growers with florists across Cambs, Herts, Essex, Suffolk, and London.

Every Wednesday, our Flourish flower room now transforms into a drop-off and distribution space for the hub’s growers (including us!), coordinated by Ellie, Ellie, and Sissy. We’re also providing delivery support, using our vans to take flowers into London and local areas – helping smaller growers reach more florists efficiently. We're not hosting the hub to make money; it’s about contributing to a stronger, more connected British sustainable flower network.

This is only the second week of the Stem Union’s operation and already it’s buzzing – even though it's the end of the season there's lots of flowers moving, lots of happy florists – and it’s so exciting to imagine how it will flourish next season when everything’s in full bloom again.

Calixta’s Travels

We’re over the moon to share that our founder Calixta has been awarded a Nuffield Scholarship for 2026, generously sponsored by The Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust.

“I’m absolutely blown away by this opportunity,” says Calixta. “Next year I’ll be travelling the world researching how agroecological growing practices can be scaled to strengthen the resilience of UK fruit and vegetable production – exploring how organic, regenerative, and sustainable principles can be adopted by larger producers to feed people more sustainably in the face of climate and economic challenges.”

Her travels will take her to Japan, China, South Korea, Egypt, Kenya, the USA, and several countries across Europe, including Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, and possibly more.

“I definitely won’t be stepping back completely from the farm," Calixta adds, "but I’ll be away quite a bit and leaving the farm in the very capable hands of my wonderful team that we have here. There’ll definitely be a few changes in how we are operating to make that possible, but I want to share as much as I can about the journey and the findings that we discover along the way and share the Nuffield story a little bit to help spread ideas and hopefully inspire others to take on opportunities like this.”

You’ll be able to follow Calixta’s journey right here in our newsletters, so stay tuned…

Flourish on BBC Radio 4 Today

Tune in this morning (Friday at 11am) to BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme, where Calixta joins Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sheila Dillon to talk about the farm and Flourish’s work as one of the final three nominees for Best Producer of the Year in the BBC Food & Farming Awards. Listen here!