APOLOGIES to regular readers who have, apparently, noticed that I have featured Jess’ Ladies quite a few times this year. I promise not to mention their beautiful milk, their succulent cream and delicious natural yoghurt or any of the huge awards they’ve won until next year at least!

So, here’s Jim from Hotch Potch organic: “How’s the growing season been then?” is the most difficult question I get asked at the market because the answer varies so much from crop to crop.

Sun-lovers such as beans, sweetcorn and squashes have soaked up the sunshine and grown excellently. The sweetcorn in particular is as good as we’ve had. In contrast some crops liked the cool of last year; cauliflower and calabrese and flowers for cutting grew strong and tall before steadily producing. In this summer’s dry warmth they’ve rushed to make seed, flowering early on short, weak frames plus the summer brassicas faced a double whammy as an unusual cloud of diamond back moths was blown over to the UK. Small enough to get under the crop covers that keep out the larger cabbage white they devastated our summer cabbage. Fortunately the high levels of biodiversity and natural predators encouraged by organic farming got to work, had a feast and put paid to second or third generations of this pest. Yellowhammers could be seen working the cabbage rows hard, walking methodically past each plant in turn then jumping up to catch any moths that they had disturbed.

It’s win AND lose most seasons. The exception being the autumn: warm weather, and not too wet, is a great help. Tender crops carry on cropping, squashes ripen, leeks get bigger, winter spinach reaches a good size before it stops growing and waits to be picked, the gamble of late sowings like French beans at the end of August pays off. We really don’t want an early frost. But generally the resilient soil structure from long term mixed organic farming and our diversity of cropping protects us against the vagaries of the weather. Above all the willingness of people to come to the market to stock their kitchen with the produce that grows best in any given season keeps us going.”