Whilst it feels like the intense heat is now coming to an end, here on the farm we are still recovering from the events of the last week. Our refrigerated van, fondly known as ‘the Snow Leopard’, was stolen on our delivery route in London. It was full of freshly harvested produce and cut flowers, restaurant Keys and our reusable boxes and buckets. Due to the circumstances of the theft, we will not be receiving an insurance claim. Our van was one of our most valuable assets, allowing us to deliver directly and independently. We still have several more years to pay it off and after an already incredibly tough 2 growing seasons of drought, flooding, labour shortages, rising costs, and a pandemic, This is truly devastating to the farm. Coincidentally, this has all happened exactly a year after the catastrophic flood and hail storm we experienced last July. Whilst the Van getting nicked was the cherry on top- this week has been full of other challenges including crop loss, extreme heat, pest damage, a tractor getting stuck due to a water leak, Freddie’s eye brow getting Spit from irrigation pipe 2 hours before catching flight to Korea, the rooks pulling out every single fennel and most of the radicchio we planted, twisters 🌪 lifting our nets into Neighboring fields, poor Bill getting a parasite in his eyes, Oh and Midnight having 2 abscesses on his head... the curse of July??? All that on top of keeping the farm going and produce delivered in the UKs hottest days on record. While we decide what our next step will be, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank our Amazing team who have been working so hard to keep things together... harvesting, watering, planting, generally being positive during this tough time. Alice, Beth, Lughan (digging irrigation trenches in his bee suit to avoid wasp nests), Lisa ( packing and seeding queen) Paul ( tractor operator and now turned builder for the new bakery) Anna, Emma, Chris, Kelsey, Hugo, Veronica, Keri, Luke, Sophie, Mooniah, Sophie, Bec, Ludovico, and Freddie. Thank you also to everyone who’s been supporting the farm and buying our produce and flowers. It means the world to us!