Many thanks to the five volunteers who are helping to rescue our apple trees. It has galvanized me into action. It is so easy to let jobs like that slide by when there seem to be other pressing jobs to do at this time of year in dwiderling daylight hours. I hear walkers are good at having a quick chat and encouraging our helpers. Some may think I am being rather brutal taking down the bramble and blackthorn which is always a good habitat for various animals la

It's the first time since the apples were planted that anyone has questioned why or when they were planted. Year 5 St Nicholas School children planted them on a very wintery Feb with the help of Warden Giles. My son was 9yrs old. (attatchment) The field has quite a bit of history. The legend is a plane crashed in that field during the 2nd world war. When I first came to the farm in 1989 David Cross had leased the land for 3yrs to someone cutting turf. Andrew as part of re

After watching Extinction The Facts, it made me pause before I ran the mower over a persistent patch of nettles that I've had in the corner of my front garden behind the hedge. Until my clearing frenzy in my isolation, the patch had thrived there quite happily as a habit space, I left it. I should practice what I preach. When we have school parties and I take them down to the woods, I point out it doesn't matter how small your garden is, you can always be a custodian of wil

How to look friendly behind a face mask? I touched on the subject in the last issue. But one month on and more experience my thoughts on the subject have changed. It is lovely to see all the brightly coloured and sometimes humorous masks that people have donned. Especially our friendly customers waiting patiently outside the farm shop. Reading the signs behind the mask was brought home when I was in hospital last week having a total hip replacement. I might have been able t

Villagers walking along our footpaths will see us busily watering our crops most evenings. I hope everyone has been seeing how well our sweetcorn has been growing, along with the brassicas and leeks.. . Its quite a relaxing job about 6pm-8pm and our workers are grateful for the hot afternoons off for long walks or a swim in the river and even a trip or two down to the beach. Especially as we all start at 6am and finish around 12.30pm. Surprisingly up until last Fri each

We have had Mia, my cousin's daughter here working for us since lock-down as she was supposed to be helping on a farm in France which obviously didn't work out. This is what Mia has written about working on the farm. We are really pleased it has given her the opportunity/spring board to go on into the world and learn how to produce good food. My experience from working on this amazing farm has truly been most life changing for me. I first came here early March to help whils

For our 'down time' we manage to get away from it all through lots of cycling. I always have cycled as my 3 boys were never very interested in long walks except for Hambledon Hill. When they were between the ages of 6-14, we would have lots of off road trips. First of course very local around here but also longer trips. Castleman trailway into Moors Valley Park, along the Ox drove from Wyn Green onto Salisbury, or from Wimbourne along another Trailway to Upton Park for lun

Dear Ed, I feel rather uncomfortable writing anything as I know so many people are going through real hardships and face a bleak future about work, mortgages, mental and health matters. What a roller coaster for all of us. I can't think of any part of society that isn't touched by this virus. The sun is shining, my customers are being so 'kind' and patient with us and each other. I lie on my back in the fields looking at a sky that is clear and not criss- crossed with fligh

Andrew and I have been very lucky travelling very slowly, on bikes, 22-33 miles through Glen Nevis, Fort William, Fort Augustus to Inverness then down to Pitlochy. We are now on a NT working holiday. Most of the route was off road and one day we saw no one for over 20 miles only 3 sets of footprints marking the way ahead. They belonged to three very hardy well equipped Germans who were wild camping! We stuck to a cosy b and b's. It has protected us from the news but realize

Once again I am talking about the weather. The winds we had last week were bad enough, but Denise (the menace) seems to be outdoing Ciara this week. The cafes gazebo went on walk about by 5m into the middle of the yard and it had been anchored down by railway sleepers. It is now tethered to the farm building like a boat. Once crops are finished in late August we start to put the raised beds 'to bed' by covering them with mypex and old tyres. Mypex is a breathable woven p