Many due to the 5 volunteers who’re serving to to rescue our apple bushes. It has galvanized me into motion. It’s so simple to let jobs like that slide by when there appear to be different urgent jobs to do at this time of 12 months in dwiderling daylight. I hear walkers are good at having a fast chat and inspiring our helpers.
Some might imagine I’m being fairly brutal taking down the bramble and blackthorn which is at all times a superb habitat for numerous animals giant and really, very small. However I get recommendation from FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) on tips on how to make extra use and handle the big variety of habitats on the farm. I used to be going to manage the bramble the place the Ash bushes had been poisoned. However it appears the bramble will shield the brand new ash seedlings/hazel from deer nibbling and there’s a good run of bramble down the trail to make a ‘superhighway for mammals.Lets hope there are hedgehogs in there. We did get one up within the farmyard this 12 months snuffling and pottering round at night time. Hadn’t seen one for ……variety of years. Not even squashed on the street.
It good to see individuals reporting sightings of birds/mammals across the village in The Hill. Yearly I imply to maintain a document of what is on the farm however identical to clearing across the apple bushes I by no means make time. 10yrs in the past the RSPB did a survey on the farm and mentioned for the scale farm (60 acres) we had an above common selection/numbers of birds.
Speaking of birds, we have not had the same old pigeon harm on our brussel sprouts and different brassicas. Lengthy could it proceed. Hopefully the pigeons are being tempted by the abundance of berries/nuts round this 12 months. This week can be our first week of harvesting Brussel Sprouts and the tops. We nonetheless have quite a lot of kales and cabbages on the market that fortunately have not been broken by the caterpillars. You possibly can see all of them rising if you stroll previous.
Look ahead to seeing you within the farm store the place now you can begin to place your Christmas order on-line from our web site or hyperlinks from our fb/twitter/instagram pages..Consistent with many different organizations the orders won’t simply be on a selected day however we can have a system of time slots. This hopefully will scale back queuing and preserve everybody secure. Please chat to Phil and I for extra info.
Have an ideal Christmas.
PS Lastly I’ve connected a Photograph from final week with Andrew and I harvesting Kale
We nonetheless get pleasure from doing what we do collectively after 30yrs
