See our NEW FOREST GARDEN | CSA HARVEST | FOOD FOREST PERMACULTURE FARM & NO DIG MARKET GARDENING

In this week's FARMVLOG we begin with harvesting for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) veg box, looking at what organic veggies we have growing in the no dig market garden before we head up to our area of new forest garden/food forest. We do some work mulching around the new pond bank, looking at the blueberries that we are growing on piles of rotting wood. We also cut back some of the pollard willows, feeding the branches to the goats and chop and dropping the twigs around the fruit trees. We learn about the five F's of a forest garden and talk about what fruit trees and shrubs we have planted as part of the seven layers of a food forest. We also talk about using humanure, compost from our compost toilet, as a mulch. We also move some wood chip up to the garden in our two wheel tractor, the BCS.
About Tap o' Noth Farm:
Hi, we're James and Rosa! Welcome to Tap o' Noth Farm, a quarter acre Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) market garden and 8 acre permaculture designed forest garden farm/homestead in Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland. We practice home scale to small farm scale agroforestry and regenerative agriculture methods to produce organic fruit and vegetables, raise dairy goats for all our raw milk needs, Shetland sheep and geese to graze our silvopasture and coppice systems and laying hens, moved around in a Chickshaw, for an abundance of eggs.
Patreon: / tapfarm​​​
If you're looking for even more content from James and Rosa then you can become a patron of Tap Farm. It takes James between 5-10 hrs to edit our vlogs, let alone the time it takes to film and farm at the same time! Your support will aid us greatly in producing our FARMVLOGS, enabling us to take the time needed to craft a beautiful film and to help fund the licences needed for the vlog soundtrack. We will list your name at the end of each vlog episode so everyone knows how brilliant you are! We will also keep you updated on our farm work/life by posting exclusive video content that is not available on KZbin such as FARMVLOG outtakes, behind the scenes footage, hints & tips and more in depth videos discussing the many permaculture systems to be found on the farm PLUS the odd photo from Rosa and James.
INSTAGRAM - @TAPFARM
FACEBOOK - / taponothfarm​​​
TAP CHAT - FACEBOOK GROUP for subscribers /followers - / tapch...​
WEBSITE - www.taponothfarm.com

[@J_bar_S_Photography]

Please keep making these blogs!! i love watching yalls videos. I learn so much!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks so much for the feedback and support!

[@lindakurtz2653]

One of the many reasons I so enjoy watching your channel is the insight you share in taking the resources you have (or can add) to your space to create a more closed loop on your property. I'm always asking myself "How can I reuse this?" of course, thats a good question to ask about everything in our lives. Its so helpful that in doing these video's you touch a community of like minded people who may not (like me) have any like minded folks around them.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you very much for the thoughtful comment and we’re very pleased to reach people who enjoy what we do!

[@woodsidestories9665]

Probably my favourite Tap film. Really well put together and all the early autumn feels ♥️

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks Kelly, glad you enjoyed it!! Many thanks as always xx

[@nenemaria-cornfieldsgarden]

Good to see an update on the new garden, it's looking so lush!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you! X

[@maristermcsorley4203]

You guys deserve 100 .000 subscription just for doing this great work and supplying great organic vegetables and with a smile,love what you do 😊

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you so much, very kind! Best wishes to you!

[@yeagerxp]

Excellent work 👍👍👍 . Thanks for sharing

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you for watching!

[@lyndaturner6686]

Nice to meet you guys, you are really enjoying the good life.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks for watching!

[@michelleelsom6827]

well done, it's hard work, but very rewarding & good for our planet :-)

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!

[@thomascallaghan5988]

Great video

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!

[@fionagrows1848]

What a gorgeous spot your forest garden is! It’s obvious youve put a lot of hard work into it.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you 🙏

[@veronicabalfourpaul2288]

Wow! so much food. I would like to see a box with the week's food. Great job.

[@growinginthewind]

The forest garden is taking shape 😊 and Alder is a nitrogen fixer too

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks! Indeed it is 🌳💪

[@brianoliver5640]

Geez, lucky you got your missus there bro, seems like she does most of the work lol 🪱🐝🌈😎

[@TapoNothFarm]

LOL.

[@BioGartenReich]

I love how lush and green everything looks! I also want to creat a small forest garden this year. Love your vlogs. Nice greetings from Germany!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks so much for watching, best of luck with everything!

[@auntyommatthefrenchmanor]

I love your garden

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks, so do we!!

[@Supwiyaman]

Looks awesome.

[@shaunm3206]

Congratulations on 10 k subscribers! 👏 onwards and upwards 🚀

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!

[@bristolveggiebeds5310]

Looks great!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Cheers!

[@karencolcomb1823]

A new subscriber but really enjoying seeing what you do.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Excellent, thanks so much for finding us!

[@nicolaj3294]

Thanks for lovely vlog James and Rosa, love the ending. You make a great team, Oran too.

[@TapoNothFarm]

No worries, thanks so much for watching :)

[@louise2209]

Thank you for posting an update on the forest garden! I’ve also begun pruning, chipping and mulching my few trees and shrubs and am looking forward to purchasing some bare root fruit trees from next month.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Great to hear it, it’s one of the best bits about the approaching winter....being able to buy bare root trees!

[@dodadodo25]

Amazing

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!!

[@Mandy-cn5cl]

Can you do a compost toilet video please interested in how you manage it in our climate

[@TapoNothFarm]

We'll hope to film one next year. Many thanks for the suggestion.

[@Mandy-cn5cl]

Lovely forest garden I've got a small one & it's over grown this year too .. I also have Latah tomatoes & love them & their crazy shapes.. I can save you some seeds if you would like ? Let me know ☺️

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you for the kind offer of some seeds..funnily enough we recently bought our seed supply for next year but really appreciate the offer.

[@deekthefirst]

Try minicole cabbages guys, I’ve grown these for the last two years and they’re now a favourite of mine with tightly packed hearts that can sit in the ground for ages without “bursting” and have a really lovely flavour cooked or raw 👍 x

[@TapoNothFarm]

Nice one Derek, will check that out!

[@louiseslok9916]

I love Those orange flowers. What is the name of these flowers?

[@TapoNothFarm]

Calendula or pot marigolds.

[@gulsumdave5711]

Is the canal the one where you were having problems making it water tight earlier this year, did you manage to get a natural seal or did you have to resort to a plastic / butyl liner?

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hi there- yes that’s right, unfortunately we had to go with a pond liner in the end.

[@mydanishgarden3112]

The variety and depth of your farm is fantastic, as its your enthusiasm and energy. Its really interesting watching the whole farm evolve. Can I ask you what size your polytunnel is please? Looking forward to your next vlog 😊

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks so much for your kind words, much appreciated. The tunnel is 65ft x 20.

[@gardeningperth]

Just an honest question. How much longer can you sustain this life?

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hi there, thanks for your question and happy to answer, but if you could expand a bit I might be able to answer with more detail as your question is a bit vague - i.e are you referring to the life of the business, the homestead life (dairying, livestock, self sufficient living), the work that's involved in maintaining permaculture systems etc etc? Thanks.

[@gardeningperth]

@@TapoNothFarm Just the continuous hard work all year round.

[@TapoNothFarm]

(short answer) Yes, we feel we can sustain this life! (Long answer) It is hard work, for sure, and one of the things we really want to highlight through our videos and teach through our tours and courses is that, while there is an air of agrarian romanticism that is enjoyable within this lifestyle, there is indeed a whole shed load of hard work involved, but, with the right attitude, focus, fitness level and intelligent design, it's possible to avoid a life of toil and drudgery which is so commonly thought of, especially with non conventional agriculture. To be honest we are now seeing a decrease in the hours that we have to put into the farm. If we weren't always interested in experimenting with new designs or wanting to expand we would have to do far less as some aspects are beginning to tick over almost by themselves. Right now, in our early thirties and forties, we have the energy to take on quite a bit but also realise that we may want to decrease the amount of different systems that we have on the go - something we have already learned after ten years here is that, certainly within permaculture (a design system that loves to over produce a yield!), it is best to keep things simple, especially on our scale. We are already putting new enterprises and systems into place that will eventually supersede some of the more labour heavy revenue generators that we have been working with these past six years or so. The market garden, even on our small scale, is certainly an area of the farm that we know we won't always be running commercially but certainly will hopefully always operate a professionally managed home garden for our food needs. Livestock comes and goes dependant on our needs, the land's needs and capacity and our energy levels. So, to summarise (sorry for the short essay answer!!) we feel we can sustain this life (living, loving and working on the land) for the forceable future but with changes being made to how the farm functions as a whole, when we need to. The design will always evolve, alongside our lives and lifestyle needs. Hope that helps, thanks for the thought provoking question. Cheers.

[@RoyHolder]

Your Facebook links don't work! 😢

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks for letting us know!

[@frankcoldwell4424]

I really don’t like the idea of humanure. Simply because we ingest so many pharmaceuticals and chemical food additives ourselves that I shudder at the thought of introducing them to the food chain. I personally wouldn’t buy anything from you, but that’s just me.

[@TapoNothFarm]

We don’t really agree with your personal concerns around the matter but of course each to their own....but just to be clear, nowhere in the video did we say we are applying humanure around produce we are selling.

[@nenemaria-cornfieldsgarden]

I hate to break it to you but, the UK and US at least, allows sewer sludge, the left over (literal) crap from sewage treatment plants to be spread over farmers fields. Millions of tons of it. This has even more chemicals added in an attempt to remove pathogens but the antibiotics and a vast amount of other contaminants can remain. The regulations around this are sketchy at best, who knows what ends up in the food we buy? Unfortunately, those pharmaceuticals and chemicals run off from the sewage fertilised fields as well as get flushed down the toilet and into our water supply, which while treated, doesn't remove everything. Water supplies also end up contaminated with animal waste containing antibiotics and such from large scale farming. Not to mention that nearly all drinking water contains micro plastics.. The long composting process for humanure naturally breaks down any pathogens in the waste and while it's recommended to not use it on food you'd eat uncooked (like salad leaves for instance) which is possibly over cautious, the studies have shown no issue with fruit trees and the like. Nature is doing it's job. The food and water chain is packed full of those chemicals you're worried about plus herbicides, pesticides etc, which is why so many people like Tap o' Noth are turning to growing as much of their own organic food as possible. A small amount of humanure from your own farm where you know what's in is, is a very, very small concern in the grand scheme of things.