A wet open day, ewe's chewing pears and combine time...

We arranged an open afternoon at the croft for Organic September. Of course the weather was foul. Mike and Debbie from Eva’s bravely pitched their gazebo in horizontal rain in the orchard to show people around and give them tasters. I pitched the BBQ gazebo strategically behind the lambing shed, out of the way. A fair few brave souls ventured out and sampled our cream teas, burgers and of course apples. I didn’t stay hidden long and showed some enthusiastic youngsters the lambs in the tiny paddock, including Trouble who is doing very nicely now, and Wosi and her calf June. I had a great afternoon and I hope our visitors did too, thanks for coming!

I’m learning what goes into a hedgerow, if I ever want to be able to lay one myself it would be good to know what to plant. Hedgerows are very important habitats as well as barriers for stock and a wonderful source of free food (which I’m all for). Hawthorn, rosehip, sloe, brambles, the odd crab apple and rowan and the inevitable nettles all reside in the hedges at Houghton. Another reason for learning this is that I can pick a basket of goodies for hedgerow jelly, which is massively popular. So I head down to Tarraby, basket and crook in hand with the intention of starting with some wild pear. The ewes are in the Hay meadow and are very interested in what I’m up to. They follow me to the edge of the wood as a flock and watch as I hook a branch with the crook and pick pears with the basket at my feet, fascinating obviously. The ewes creep closer and closer so I stop and watch them. Keeping a close eye on me the ringleader steps right up and sticks her head in the basket. In a sheep’s mind anything a human has in a basket must be food and therefore is to be coveted and stolen given half a chance. It is very funny watching a sheep trying to eat a pear, these wild ones are pretty hard and sheep only have a bottom set of teeth so cant really bite it. She wasn’t giving up though. And her flock-mates wanted to give it a try too… eventually I had to put a stop to it or there would be none for the jelly. Sheep are constantly surprising and entertaining me. I came away chuckling to myself, and the ewes were carefully scouring the area under the tree I’d been picking from.

We have been watching the weather very carefully. There is wheat to harvest and another cut to be taken from two of the fields at Walllace field. Eventually the decision is made this week the after much deliberation and sighing over the weather forecast, why cant there be three consecutive days of nice weather in the whole of August/September? Its all hands on deck then and the lovely neighbour who is contracted to do the cutting is called in, after he has done his own barley the combine rolls into our wheat field. It’s quite impressive to see these monsters at work and the efficiency is awesome. Boys toys apparently but I’m fascinated all the same, the bale wrapping machine seems particularly ingenious. A surreal moment comes later at about 10pm when we go to see if the lads are alright, a moonlit walk through the stubble of the fields to the bright lights of the machines working into the night baling straw. Our Silage will be made into rolls as it’s too damp for the square baler and the machines will be working for some hours yet. I’m thinking of them out in the field when I get home and hope they are not too tired.

The lads from the Halo group are helping us with Hedgerow Jelly. The fruit I picked earlier this week is for a ‘here’s one I started earlier’ moment so that they can make some finished jelly. It is quite a funny sight with all these burly, hard men sat round a table sorting the fruit, washing it and chatting away like little old ladies. They won’t mind me saying this as ‘team fruit’ fully embraced its hunter/gatherer side, wicker baskets and all. Hopefully they will enjoy the pots they took away. It’s not always whacking things with a hammer on the farm.