Broadwater Farm

Looking forward to the new season

broadwaterfarm — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:09:43 +0000

It has been a long hard winter at Broadwater Farm. We are all thoroughly fed up with the cold weather, but with Spring just around the corner and the promise of warmer and sunnier days ahead, maybe things will start to look up soon.

The first crop to flower will be the Plums in early April, followed by the Pears both of which we are hoping for lots of bulging white blossom. Finally in the second half of April will come the Apples, which, with their beautiful pink blossom that fill the air with a sweat aroma is a stimulating sight. April is one of the best months to be a fruit grower. From then on we watch as the fruitlets swell to become Apples. As long as we look after them and protect them from pests and diseases, we will have a good crop to harvest in September. I hope that, like us the team that have already booked for the first course will be praying for some warm sunny weather in April which will determine how many apples we pick in September.

2009 Picking Season Almost Over

broadwaterfarm — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:04:18 +0000

The harvest season at Broadwater started back in July and is now coming to an end, with just a few varieties of apple still to pick.

During this busy season, Broadwater Farm, and in particular the manager, Peter Checkley, has even managed to appear in a number of TV news programmes and publications and just recently on YouTube (autographs available on request!!).

The farm has also embraced modern technology and joined Facebook, where you will be able to find many more pictures of this year's harvest.

Limited Places Now Available

broadwaterfarm — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:28:35 +0000

A limited number of places have now become available on our third course, starting on 17th August and continuing through to 9th October

We would welcome applications from anyone who can commit to the dates of the course.

If you are interested, please complete the application form on our 'how to apply' page.

Fruit is Sizing

broadwaterfarm — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:56:22 +0000

After a very hot spell in the later half of June and recently some heavy rain. Things are looking good at Broadwater Farm. The first Course team are making a very good job of thinning the Gala crop and the fruit is sizing up well. The early flowing and the recent weather will mean that the fruit will need to be picked a few days earlier than normal. We are looking forward to welcoming the second course who will be arriving at the end of the month.

Broadwater has finnished blooming

broadwaterfarm — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:36:03 +0000

This is a "heart in the mouth" time for a fruit farm.

As the blossom drops on to the ground and we wait to see what has pollinated and ultimately, what the crop will be like for the 2009 harvest.

It is still too early to tell and experience tells me that we should never try to estimate a crop until Derby Day, which this year will be 6th June.

However……

The temperature has been good and the blossom has been prolific but we must wait for Derby Day.

Places Are Now Limited

broadwaterfarm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:54:31 +0000

This year we have had an unprecedented response to our website, the demand for work is high and places are now limited.

Although we do have a few places available on our third course, the management team at Howard Chapman Ltd, have asked us to hold these until we have a better idea of what the crop yields will be.

You are still welcome to apply for work, but please bear in mind that we will not be able to consider your application until mid-May - by this time the blossom should have set and will give us a good idea of our crop numbers and how many pickers we will require.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but thank you for your patience.

New Orchard planted at Broadwater Farm

broadwaterfarm — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:33:15 +0000

After a very wet winter we have, at last, completed the planting of our new Orchard.

As a first for Broadwater, we have supported the orchard with a post and wire system.

The orchard (imaginatively called) No3 is 3.18 hectares taking our total Gala Ha to 31.2

It seems a long way away from harvest

broadwaterfarm — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:11:12 +0000

September seems a long way off from February 2009 after a day of heavy snowfall hit the southeast of England.

Christmas Time

broadwaterfarm — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:16:58 +0000

Hello to one and all,

We would just like to wish everyone visiting this site a very Happy Christmas and New Year .

If you are interested in working at Broadwater Farm next year, please complete an application form and we will contact you in due course.

Thank you for looking at our site.

Harvest Season Going Well

broadwaterfarm — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:14:13 +0000

We started picking our main harvest about four weeks ago and so far have picked bramley apples and three different varities of pears. At the moment we are picking gala apples, which are just turning a lovely shade of red, due to cold nights and warm days. This is the first year that Broadwater Farm have used picking trains, which is the system used by many other farms around the country. Everyone is working well together, despite the fact that we have many different nationalities on the farm this year.