News
The Smallholding Year
I love the way each season brings a complete change of pace and activity on our little farm. Before we changed our lifestyle to become smallholders the seasons would blur and often revolved around holidays - Christmas, Easter, summer. I occasionally noticed the leaves change colour and usually knew when it was time to tidy the garden. Now though, everything we do is driven by the time of year.
Spring comes and we are busy, busy. Nature goes into overdrive and we come along for the ride. We are lambing, there are usually piglets to wean and move, the greenhouse is stuffed full of seedlings that need potting on and planting out, grass needs cutting … it’s all go. I love this season because by then I am more than ready for it. I am fed up with short days, slippery mud, having to dress up in everything I own to do the chores and still being cold. Spring fills me with optimism and energy. I take great delight in that first cup of tea sat outside in the pale Spring sunshine, lifting my face to the sky with a smile. I love the frenetic bird song that greets you in the early morning and serenades you at dusk.
This joy will linger on into May and June as the bright green leaves unfurl and crops start to develop, but by July I confess I am overwhelmed. It is a real struggle to keep on top of everything then. Harvests are starting to take too much time, watering increases. I forget to feed the greenhouse crops and they sulk in response. Guilt stalks me as I walk around the smallholding trying to avoid looking at the jobs I haven’t done.
The chickens, ducks and geese also start moulting around this time. So rather than the lovely, full feathered birds we usually see, they sit in dark corners and under hedges moping in various stages of undress. With some of the hens it’s like that scene in Harry Potter where the Whomping Willow goes from summer to winter with a vigorous shake of its branches. There are discarded feathers everywhere, it sometimes look like a massacre has taken place.
Last summer we were so busy with fairs and markets that I pretty much abandoned the kitchen garden at the end of July – shocking I know. Whilst Jeff managed to keep on top of the mowing (thank goodness it was so dry) the weeds overtook the vegetables and winds demolished my climbing frames. Even now, months later, the potatoes are still in the ground and every raised bed is waist high with weeds. I walk past and all I see is seven years of weeding in their developing seed heads.
Autumn is the start of the whole smallholding year. It’s when we put events in train that will bear fruit next year a true season of renewal. This year’s harvests are gathered in (or not in our case !) and thoughts turn immediately to next year’s produce. The tup (ram) is back with the ewes ensuring we have lambs in April. The boar has visited and the sows are now (hopefully) pregnant. They will farrow in the new year so that we have weaners in the Spring. The chickens, ducks and geese are looking beautiful again clad in their new winter finery and fully insulated against the season’s chill. Without guilt I can watch the kitchen garden slide further into disarray knowing that the layer of decaying vegetation will be protecting all the bugs and beasties in their winter slumbers.
So, whilst I will have had enough of it by Spring, right now at the turn of the year I am looking forward to winter. I foresee steaming stews, hot puddings with custard, fireside naps and time to catch up on all those books I have promised to read. And who knows, withany luck I may actually achieve some of those things at least once !
Diss Rugby Club
Diss is our closest town so we were delighted to be contacted by the Diss Rugby Club who asked us to become one of their Local Community Produce Partners. This social networking at it's best. We swap information about each others events and news and then pass it on to our friends.
