The FIRST BERRIES in the MARKET GARDEN | PLANTING BLACK & RED CURRANTS | SMALL SCALE FAMILY FARMING

*RE-POST as the first upload was accidentally deleted.
We have planted the first selection of fruit in our micro berry farm - the black, red, pink and white currants.
2024 sees work begin in establishing a small scale, permaculture designed family soft fruit enterprise that will rub shoulders with our other on-farm businesses. We aren't trying to compete with or replicate the large soft fruit commercial farms that are common place here in Scotland and around the world but showcase a small scale, ecological model that will work with our family farm's values and needs both economically and environmentally. Our sales will be direct to the consumer, working with our local community via a Community Supported Agriculture model (CSA), either through weekly fruit shares or by offering a pick your own/U pick. The berries grown in the market garden will add to the top fruit - apples and plums - that we have already been growing in food forest systems for nearly a decade.
In this video we plant all the currants, looking at bed length, planting distance between the balckcurrants and planting density, all work undertook with the help and support of our toddler!
About Tap o' Noth Food Forest Farm:
Hi, we're James and Rosa! Welcome to Tap o' Noth Farm, an 8 acre permaculture designed food forest 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, geese to graze our silvopasture and coppice systems and laying hens, moved around in a Chickshaw, for an abundance of eggs.
Our videos aren't 'how to's' - more videos to give a glimpse into our lifestyle and hopefully inspire you to bring aspects of what you see into your own life.
HEDGE + FURROW'S OFF-GRID SHEPHERDS HUT
Come and stay on the farm in our traditional shepherds hut, complete with pizza oven, wood fired outdoor bath and sauna, set amongst fields, trees and beside a beautiful pond.
You can book through AirBnB here - airbnb.com/h/h...
PATREON:
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Social Media links:
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TAP CHAT FB GROUP - / tapch. .
WEBSITE - www.taponothfarm.co.uk
#permaculture #marketgardening #plantingblackcurrants

[@mourlyvold64]

Great work! Good People! I ran across a few of your videos a few years back, can't fathom why I didn't subscribe then. But I have now! If you'll excuse me, I've got another 147 videos catching up to do... 😉 Greetings from the Netherlands.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Great, thanks so much for the support!

[@mourlyvold64]

👍@@TapoNothFarm

[@danyoutube7491]

@4:20 You can see a large worm emerge from the ground near the bottom of the screen and make significant progress over the surface of the soil in a matter of seconds due to the accelerated footage :)

[@mcfujiwara925]

Thanks for sharing! You have NO GOPHERS?!?! Here in Northern California (SF Bay Area) we have to plant all of our berries and trees in cages, so it blows my mind that there's a magical land where you can plant directly into the ground and not come back the next day to find the scattering of gnawed sticks or a hole where a bush once grew :o Any pests you do have to look out for, besides an escaped goat?

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks for watching! Nope, no gophers in Scotland. Voles, rabbits, deer...and yes, those goats!

[@stampmandavid]

Great to watch your video and see 'tap O noth' in the back ground. I myself am a Rhynie loon but live in North Thailand, was back over last year first time in 5 years due to Covid was so sad to see the decline in Rhynie over that time, not the place i was born in 1960, i still have family that lives in Rhynie my daughter and grandkids and my son plus more , will be looking forward till your next video.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hi! Thanks for saying hello. Rhynie to Thailand? Quite the change in location! It was certainly sad to see the pub go. Thanks for watching!

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

Great to see progress. Do you have any concerns about surface water running down the slope? I assume not as you obviously know the ground well having grown on it for some time. Guess it's a trade-off against some shading if planted across the slope. Looking forward to following progress.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hi, that is the sort of question we've thought over a lot ;) With the currants we have chosen N to S rows to actively help drain water as there's quite a high water table area above the plot. The beds are raised with mini drains running down each side of the beds. In other areas of the farm we have chosen on contour plantings, so it just really depends on each individual area on the farm.

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

@@TapoNothFarm Yes I thought you might have done :-) ... I get obsessive about water movement on a site and wish I had a more interesting - less flat as a pancake - place to work on. Great to have a connection to a piece of land from knowing it well. Thanks for the reply.

[@thebrum2044]

Great content, thanks for sharing, where do you buy the trees?

[@TapoNothFarm]

The fruit trees from Walcot Organics or Martin Crawford and the shrubs from James McIntyre and sons amongst others. Thanks for watching!

[@vballboy11]

great stuff! I am wondering what you bed widths are? also how wide are your pathways? Thanks!

[@TapoNothFarm]

They range from 75cm wide in this plot with 2 m alleyways between rows.

[@Lucan23]

Have you considered a small pop-up cafe/shop for weekends during the summer? If you can create enough interest on the farm that people can wonder around for 30-45 minutes before sitting down for some tea and food made from your own produce could be very popular (spicy goat sausages?), especially if plenty of stuff for kids to do. Also might get additional customers from people after climbing the hill behind you. Would depend a lot on your infrastructure though (outbuildings, parking, etc). For an indoor sitting space a greenhouse or polytunnel can be good. Suggesting this as there are many of these types of seasonal smallholding cafes where I live now in Sweden and always seem popular/profitable

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hi, yes we have...potentially something we may do in the future one day. We have a building (an old smithy) but it will take quite a bit of work to bring it back from its ruinous state. Thanks for the thoughts.

[@Lucan23]

@@TapoNothFarm Yeah, that is why would be best to do more of a pop-up first with little financial investment to see if there is the interest/customer base before making significant investments.