Nice Urban Farm

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Nice Urban Farm

Home of FRESH STARTS Growing veg & herb starter plants / microgreens in our indoor vertical farm.

20/02/2022

Work continues… and it’s been feckin freezing! We’re smashing through the big mucky jobs now before the growing season starts so we can get straight down to planting as soon as spring allows. 💪

The mixed hedge / fruit tree boundaries have had a serious hair cut and it’s completely opened up the space. Now it’s done and we can see just how much extra light it brings in, it looks like there will be more useful space than we first thought. Time to tweak plans for our market garden layout.. exciting!

17/11/2021

💚 2 FOR 1 Bonus Plant! The field beans are up. These are traditionally sold and used in the U.K. as nutrient dense ground cover that can be chopped in come spring for a nitrogen boost for the soil.

However! You can also pinch the tops out to use as greens over winter for a fresh bean flavour for stir fry’s and leafy green dishes. Result!

Practicing no dig we will just cut the greens to the ground, layer and cover with a surface mulch to let them rot down for 6 weeks or so while the roots do there thing.

01/11/2021

Beautiful burnt brown treasures foraged from the local woods. It’s been a good year for sweet chestnuts, for me the best yet I think.

Looking now for some recipes to showcase them, and ways to store them for eating later in the year.

04/10/2021

Uchiki Kuri squash popping bright through the lily pad jungle!

29/09/2021

Looks like today was the last day of sunshine for a while now and so I just had to show off these beautiful yellow patty pan Sunburst squash - a plant in all its majestic glory!

Also featured in our Fresh Starts collection this year, they have been reliably producing saucer sized fruits for months now. This colder weather will inevitably see them die off but for now and today, they look just perfect. 👌

27/09/2021

We are back from our summer holidays and I have to say I’m super impressed with the number of high quality fruits the Harlequin Acorn Squash are putting out.

We chose this variety for our Fresh Starts summer and winter squash collection because it’s a good cropper and a compact plant so great for small growing spaces - but I didn’t think it’s would put out 6! amazing, dinner sized fruits per plant.

Plenty of food to store here for the winter months ahead… including the seeds which roasted in olive oil and covered in paprika and salt have to one of my favourite gourmet garden treats.

08/09/2021

We’ve been working on a new project for a little while now, exciting day today as we to start bringing those ideas to life.

Without giving too much away just yet…anyone know this iconic Sheffield building?

04/09/2021

Argo – San Marzano ‘plum’ tomato from our Fresh Starts collection.

Wow what a beauty! These tomatoes are relatively late season and have taken a while to come in but now they have we have huge flavoursome, fleshy fruits coming into the kitchen.

Keen as always to find ways to take the taste of summer into the colder seasons and to learn to preserve our harvests, I roasted this first batch to bring out the sweetness and turned them into as simple sauce for sourdough pizza.

To keep the sauce and the flavours shelf stable I’ve sealed it in jars with citric acid (raises ph and stops bad bacteria) and pasteurised them for 35mins using the water canning method.

It feels essential to learn to preserve the food we grow and when eating seasonally a taste of flavours long past for fresh eating will be so welcome treat!

Are you growing seasonally and preserving as you go? What methods do you use to save your food for winter?

24/08/2021

Sun dried tomatoes preserved in olive oil. The drastic action taken in the polytunnel to de-leaf all of the remaining unaffected tomato plants (late blight) is paying small but hugely welcome dividends.

With such a tiny crop left to harvest of these beautiful Sakura and Sun Gold cherry varieties from our Fresh Starts collection it seems only right to do something special with them.

Oven dried for 4 hours on the lowest heat (115) we’ve suspended these super sweet and acidic yellow and red gems in our favourite cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from so come mid winter we can break open a jar of summer sunshine to top homemade sourdough pizza. Once they are gone the infused oil will be used to drizzle over pasta. For now I will hide them in our store to avoid the temptation to eat them in spoonfuls from the jar before summer is out!

13/08/2021

I fill up a basket with ruby beets from our urban no dig market garden. Perfect for fresh eating, fermenting and preserving.

We've turned what was an overgrown jungle into a productive hideaway over the course of the last year and a half. There is still a huge amount to do but we are on our way to self sufficiency, figuring out if an urban UK homestead is possible as we build our small food and farm business as we go.

Find out more here:
Web: https://niceurbanfarm.com

07/08/2021

They have arrived! The beautiful patty pan squash from our collection are now fruiting in their full sunshine yellow glory.

Such beautiful fruits and so abundant, these plants will keep us and our friends fed for weeks to come.

We hope you are having success with your Fresh Starts plants this year, be sure to let us know.

04/08/2021

This year we installed new planters in our tiny city garden and filled them with a random selections of ornamentals and edibles including tomatoes, squash and herbs from our Fresh Starts collections.

Well the results are fantastic! Creating a waterfall of colour texture and food in such a tiny space is bringing some serious plant joy 🤩

You really don’t need huge amount of open ground to grow your own produce… 🙌

02/07/2021

Public information broadcast 😎Happy Friday everyone. We are taking a little holiday so will also be taking some down time from social media.

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I love the community of growers on here and find Instagram in particular a great source of education and inspiration, but it’s really important for me personally to keep screen-time in check and to actually put the phone down every now and then.. For biz enquiries head over to the website 🙌

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Here’s a little update on the Fresh Starts Tomatoes, absolutely loving the warmth of the tunnel! Hope you’re all seeing good growth and your first fruits 🍅

29/06/2021

Workers lunch! Came to the plot with an egg and a sausage in my pocket 😂 and pulled the rest from our garden beds. Such a simple pleasure that feels like and absolute triumph!

29/06/2021

It’s been 2 and a half weeks since we finally got our polytunnel up and our tomato collection in, and I just cannot believe how far these plants have come in just 18 days.

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We had no time to waste so decided to do the quick and dirty method, creating one basic bed and then planting everting into builders buckets full of compost (inspired by someone on here, I forget who - whoever it was thanks for sharing this super cost effective method!)

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This is our first time tunnel growing let’s hope the harvest is as impressive at the end as this growth has been at the start!

Any seasoned tunnel grower tips welcome x

27/06/2021

Sundays are without doubt my favourite day. A day of rest, a day of appreciation and for us at least anyway - a day of indulgence.

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We roasted pasture raised slow grown chicken with our own Japanese onions, garlic and herbs thyme and rosemary.

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Accompanied by Yorkshire puds, our home grown Charlotte potatoes, summer cabbage and finely chopped shallots.

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A simple but time devoted pleasure - Sunday dinner is part of our family culture - observed, toiled over and enjoyed. What a joy to be able to grow the ingredients to such a feast.

27/06/2021

It’s official we have now sold out of our Fresh Starts Herb Collection 🤩the last boxes will be posted out tomorrow.

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What a wonderful whirlwind journey this past few months have been! We are already working on ideas for next years collections which will be available for pre-order much early than our launch season.. lots of tweaking to do and new themes to play with.

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Our focus now is on our winter season collaborations… but much more of that to follow later... 🧡

Thanks everyone!

24/06/2021

Switching it up slightly on the grid, it’s such a pleasure to eat the first bowlfuls of our own produce this year (and some preserved from last)

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This hearty salad combines loose leaf Lollo Bionda lettuce, french breakfast radish, baby Charlotte potatoes, spring onion and fermented beetroot - 2020 vintage - all from the new growing beds. Combined with the beautiful salmon we dry cured for 5 days and froze in January this is truly a feast!

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As we move through the season we will be able to add more and more flavours and texture from our own ground and our own fermentation and pickle stores. The work really begins now to make the most of it all...

23/06/2021

So many pots.. eco pots, made from recycled plastic and recallable. We aim to create minimum waste and protect the environment where ever we can. For now these kinds of innovations cost us more than standard pot products, but the prices are coming down and the continued pressure being applied through people making positive buying choices is having an effect in encouraging big manufacturers to change to eco friendly processes.

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One little planet positive pot of herbs at a time, we’ll get there 🌎 💚

22/06/2021

A quick visit to the plot and I managed to steel a small handful of Red Duke of York potatoes!

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Leaving the plants to grow on with their bounty still safely covered in the earth, tonight we will have the freshest, most flavoursome potatoes of the year. The first forage is always the best.

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Having only been planted 8 weeks ago this is a super early surprise 💚 I’ve not grown this variety before but I’m feeling some love for this kind of punctuality…

22/06/2021

Our herb boxes and wholesale herb plants went out today. I’ve been surrounded by the sensory aromas since 6am, loving the long days and the gorgeous greenery.

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Orders still open for a short time.

16/06/2021

The herb starts are looking vibrant in their vertical nursery. This is such an efficient use of resources and space, allowing us to grow healthy organic plants ready for potting on and planting out.

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Herb Collection is available now for delivery next week. 8 varieties delivered in our Fresh Starts plant box. Link in header to our store. 🌱💚

16/06/2021

A miniature herb garden in a terracotta pot. This is almost the entire Fresh Starts Herb Collection available to order now (bar oregano which we already have an abundance of)

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All of these plants will grow into much bigger and bushier forms if given enough space. By containing the growth however in a small pot, you can create tiny herbal landscape full of flavours and aromas in the smallest of spaces.

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We will be doing both this year as we plan to grow enough to dry our herbs for winter use. The perennials will die off when it gets cold, to emerge again next spring but only after flowering and providing a haven for the bees.

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Stocks are limited so order now for delivery next week. A mix of 8 annual and perennial herb starter plants £12 + postage.

13/06/2021

Oregano plant looking fresh and full this morning. Looking forward to establishing new herb beds in the next few weeks where this gorgeous plant will be taking centre stage.

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Our Fresh Starts Herb Collections is available now for pre-order in our web store.

08/06/2021

It’s the end of a long day! We had to divert attention away from the tunnel this past week, but we’re back on it now and almost complete. After a flurry of activity the beds are also now full with plantings and we should be pulling our first harvest soon. It’s feels like a time filled with potential.

06/06/2021

*Fresh Starts Herb Collection*

A perennial herb, Thyme has a warm aromatic flavour that is used in cuisine across the Mediterranean, Central and Southern America and the Middle East. Of the 7 plants included in our collection Thyme is considered one of the oldest and most beloved herbs, it's small in stature but has a rich history of culinary and medicinal uses.

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Thyme is easy to grow, loving well drained soil and full sunshine. It's abundance of tiny leaves make excellent company for your meats and cheeses and it provides a foundation note to your winter herb store.

Dried thyme will retain its natural oil and flavour for 2 years or even more if stored tightly sealed in a glass jar.

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Being a perennial herb the plants included in our herb collection will come back year after year, so used fresh and dried you should have a perpetual supply to experiment with in your cooking.

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In aromatherapy, Thymes potent active compound thymol which has strong antiseptic properties is used to providing relief from respiratory ailments and stimulating immune and circulatory responses. When we decided to created a micro apothecary this year Thyme was top of our list.

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Our collection is available now in our webstore priced at £12 + PP for the 7 starter herb plants including Oregano, Sage, Russian Tarragon and Lime Basil - full details our on our website.

These are pre orders which will be dispatched from the 21st June.

05/06/2021

Another day another blue sky 💙

04/06/2021

Thanks everyone! That’s the squash orders finished for the season. It’s been such a cold start to the year but these guys only start to get going in height of summer so I’m really looking forward to letting them go wild.

03/06/2021

Making way for the polytunnel we have had to prematurely clear a bed of onions. These are now heading for a good pickling in apply cider vinegar, the first of the season. We are trying and make use of everything that comes out of the garden, even if it’s not was originally intended.

Do you grow to store and preserve or eat only in the season?

Address

Sheffield

Website

http://www.niceurbanfarm.com/

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Videos

I fill up a basket with ruby beets from our urban no dig market garden. Perfect for fresh eating, fermenting and preserving. We've turned what was an overgrown jungle into a productive hideaway over the course of the last year and a half. There is still a huge amount to do but we are on our way to self sufficiency, figuring out if an urban UK homestead is possible as we build our small food and farm business as we go. Find out more here: Web: https://niceurbanfarm.com #goodlife #lovegardening #allotmentuk #plantlover #kitchengarden #urbangardener #GYO #plants #urbanfarming #sheffield #potager #yorkshire #edible #homegrown #veganfood #notill #homestead #fermentedfoods

So what’s in the box? Deliveries start next week. Working with other organic growers in the UK our Fresh Starts collections of vegetable and herb starter plants (plugs) are aimed at home growers like us, so we can all enjoy the amazing experience and taste of homegrown produce. VEGETABLE PLANTS DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR Our Tomato Collection is our first range of 5 plants specially selected for flavour, shape and colour. Including cherry, plum, salad and beefstake varieties that can be grown undercover or outdoors, this collection gives you a range of plants to experiment with at home. ECO, ORGANIC & PEAT FREE We know that taking care of the earth and the soil we grow in is as important to you as it is to us. We only work with organically certified growers and seed producers in the UK and our plants are grown in peat free compost. All of our packaging is made from eco-friendly and recycled materials. We use 100% degradable poly bags to protect the roots of our Fresh Starts so they arrive intact. ORDER NOW and grow along with us this summer #nuffreshstarts 🙌🍅🌱