This morning I awoke to a tweet on my phone’s screen which simply said, £27/t. It meant nothing to me, but a little digging revealed the news that NFU Sugar and British Sugar have announced a one-year sugar beet contract for 2022. It means that beet farmers will receive a fixed sum of £27 a… Continue reading Sugar: From British beet to bake…
Every year, St George’s Day marks the start of Great British Beef Week. Running for seven days, the celebration promotes our great British beef industry and champions the role of beef within a healthy and balanced diet. As a guardian of cattle, I fervently believe that events like this are integral to supporting the wider… Continue reading Celebrating beef with homemade bresaola
This week felt a long time coming, but it eventually arrived. It was the joyous week when the cows were moved outside for the summer, and this year, it was a little later than usual. Later, because the grass decided it wasn’t too keen on growing. It wasn’t wet enough and there weren’t enough nutrients in… Continue reading The cows head outside for summer…
There are particular points in the farming year that bring me a real sense of joy – from the first cut of grass to the first bale of hay, to seeing and hearing the roar of combine harvesters on the fields. When harvest is in full swing there is a real sense of urgency in the… Continue reading Harvest is go…
It’s been a busy few weeks, but then again it always is at this time of the year – aside from the farm, the garden is in full bloom and the veg patch is bountiful which means I’m in my element in the kitchen cooking new dishes with seasonal produce. There are weeds to keep at… Continue reading A month without rain…
As 2017 comes to an end, we’ve received a mixture of good and bad news on the farm. The uplifting news is that our delightful Hereford cow Fuchsia is pregnant again. Earlier this year she gave birth to her first calf, Freida. We currently have a bull visiting the farm (as he regularly does over… Continue reading As 2017 comes to an end, there’s good news & bad news…
This week we welcomed our first Hereford calf onto the farm. The anticipation had been building for months as Fuchsia, a heifer, was a first-time mum-to-be. She had been showing the slow signs of change for a few weeks, however, at 3.45pm on Wednesday things really began to move. Having never seen a birth before I was… Continue reading A calf is born…
Here in south Norfolk, it’s harvest time. Unusually early, the fields are starting to come alive with tractors, trailers, balers and harvesters. It’s a truly wonderful sight. Many of the crops have been in the ground over winter and each day you can see changes as it grows. More recently the wheat and barley have… Continue reading Harvest time…
Today we headed to the Royal Norfolk Show. It was wet. For the first time in what felt like months it had been raining persistently for about 12 hours when we headed off. But it didn’t stop us and it didn’t stop thousands of others. Equipped with welllies and waterproofs we started exploring what is one… Continue reading Our trip to the Royal Norfolk Show…
As summer seems to be well and truly here the meadows are looking gorgeous – despite the lack of rain. There is a huge variety of grasses, daisies, clover and the odd pyramidal orchid. The beauty of this all is the abundance of wildlife taking advantage of the crop – there are bees buzzing on… Continue reading The beautiful meadows…
