Tree Planting: The cold snap in February scuppered our plans for the planting of new hedges and trees with both the ground and our mulch pile frozen solid, but as soon as it warmed up last week, the team started working seven days a week in a race to get everything in the ground. Danny and the team have been planting a mixture of crabapple, hawthorn, buckthorn, holly, Juneberry, birch and pyracantha for the sparrows. Our very exciting agroforestry plans will be pushed back to next winter now, but looking on the bright side, we are hoping that we can include the planting of those tree strips into a practical element of our agroforestry modules currently under development.
Spring Planting: Ian has been preparing a seedbed to sow naked oats. Easy to grow, they will be of milling quality and baker, Matt, is keen to use them. They’ll be going in the ground very soon.
The catkins are already blooming!
Kitchen Gardening: We’ve recycled some water tanks from the old dairy and positioned them outside the kitchen door for Alexis to grow herbs in. Meanwhile, on International Women’s Day earlier this week, we gave a big shout out to the Kitchen Garden People team, Emma Mills and Katie Hopkins, and their volunteers, Sam Sandberg, Martha Simpson, and Alexis. They brought in a bumper bundle of leeks which we’d recommend using to make the delicious leek crumble which Alexis made for St David’s Day. Recipe here. https://www.farm-ed.co.uk/post/st-david-s-day-feast
Mad March Hares: Spring was definitely in the air when Sophie spotted a little group of hares, haring about the farm. Wonderful to see this result of working with nature and habitat creation.