Bringing in the maize
For the first time in 12 years we grew maize. Farmers all over the UK are saying this has been the worst crop in 15 years. The dry windy conditions in May and early June stunted the newly germinated seedlings, and then summer’s abundant rain further limited growth.The important part of the plant is the…
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Warmth from wood
This morning’s cold weather coincided with a delivery of wood chip for the biomass boiler. A load of 23 cubic metres keeps the barn warm and heats all the hot water we use in a winter fortnight. It’s a delicious kind of heat, generated by seasoned wood from local managed woodland. There’s a pleasure to…
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Sheep farewell
It was shampoo and sets all round for the female lambs born this Spring as they were spruced up for the annual North of England Mule Sheep Association sale at Kendal auction. Much was made of this being the last Mule sale at the town site – next year’s lambs will enter the ring at…
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Bovine Bling
Why did the farmer fit his cow with a pedometer? To see how much it’s moooving. BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today presenter Caz Graeme couldn’t resist milking a few bad jokes in the interview with farmer Richard that was broadcast this morning. The cows have been sporting ankle bracelets containing pedometers since 2008 but the…
Read MoreVagabond shopping baskets
Two footsore travelling showmen called in at Low Sizergh Barn last month on their month long tramp through the South Lakes, performing puppetry, stories and songs at sites along the way. Their show, Vagabonding, was inspired by puppeteer Walter Wilkinson who walked and performed his way around the UK in the 1920s and 1930s. I…
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Months of apples
Looking around the orchard after the strong winds this week it’s striking how much fruit the apple trees have set. The tremendous blossoms of April have became the copious fruitlets of May. It’s time to thin, or in September we will be disappointed with our apples, and that’s a tragic prospect.
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Bovine tuberculosis in north Cumbrian herd
The news from north Cumbria that cows in an Eden dairy herd were infected with bovine TB was a blow. This is the first sign of it in the county. Badgers spread bovine TB and there’s been a great deal of controversy nationally about how to prevent further infection in the UK. The government has…
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Newton Rigg
Askham Bryan College in Yorkshire has been appointed to run courses at the well-loved Cumbrian agricultural college, Newton Rigg. Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Borders is seeking 6000 names on a petition for the college to remain a resource for agriculture in Cumbria. Not that there’s a lack of faith in the Yorkshire…
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National and international farming women
Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day, and I wish I could get to the Reading Museum of English Rural Life where the curator of the current exhibition — Land Ladies: Women and Farming in England 1900-1945 — is due to talk about the many different ways women have been active in food production: “Women have…
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Watermilling
At the Watermill, Little Salkeld, yesterday, a few of us from Low Sizergh Barn learned about grains, blends of flour and the pleasure of bread baking. We met the miller, dusty with flour, listened to the huge stones grinding the biodynamic grains that come from English farms, and marvelled at old machinery. It was technology…
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