Many due to the 5 volunteers who’re serving to to rescue our apple bushes. It has galvanized me into motion. It’s so straightforward to let jobs like that slide by when there appear to be different urgent jobs to do at this time of yr in dwiderling sunlight hours. I hear walkers are good at having a fast chat and inspiring our helpers.
Some might imagine I’m being moderately brutal taking down the bramble and blackthorn which is at all times an excellent habitat for varied animals giant and really, very small. However I get recommendation from FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) on make extra use and handle the wide range of habitats on the farm. I used to be going to regulate the bramble the place the Ash bushes have been poisoned. However it appears the bramble will defend 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 yr snuffling and pottering round at night time. Hadn’t seen one for ……variety of years. Not even squashed on the highway.
It good to see folks reporting sightings of birds/mammals across the village in The Hill. Yearly I imply to maintain a file of what is on the farm however similar 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 stated for the dimensions farm (60 acres) we had an above common selection/numbers of birds.
Speaking of birds, we’ve not had the same old pigeon injury on our brussel sprouts and different brassicas. Lengthy might it proceed. Hopefully the pigeons are being tempted by the abundance of berries/nuts round this yr. This week shall 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’ll be able to see all of them rising while 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..In step with many different organizations the orders is not going to simply be on a selected day however we can have a system of time slots. This hopefully will scale back queuing and preserve everybody protected. Please chat to Phil and I for extra data.
Have an amazing Christmas.
PS Lastly I’ve connected a Picture from final week with Andrew and I harvesting Kale
We nonetheless get pleasure from doing what we do collectively after 30yrs
