August 2009

Back to the slurry management conversation. You will recall that in June we did some research that led us to discounting the use of a reed bed here so we've been looking into improving the traditional approach of spraying the liquid on the fields. It's generally regarded as nutritious although the land can suffer from its application through burn and taint as it's often lacking in oxygen (anaerobic) and strong. Enter biodynamics! I'm still astounded at our success with these preparations. We stirred some barrel preparation for 20 minutes and poured it into the slurry lagoon, then blew air through it with a pump hanging on the tractor for an hour. We hung the biodynamic compost preparations on a cross and threw that into the centre, then sprayed Valerian (BD507) over the whole thing and left it for 3 weeks. At the end of that time, we pulled out a bucket full and "voila!"... a lovely strong coloured "tea" with absolutely no smell whatsoever.

Having searched all over the place, we eventually found a little slurry tanker in Northumberland (yes, you read that right!). It was delivered down here at 7am one morning on a low loader. A beautiful, round-bellied red machine with rust patches that give away her age. Dougal got her working with some TLC and a few new parts (oh that human aging was as easy to manage!) and set off up the fields spraying our delicious slurry tea about the place. I was quite taken with the beauty of the vision and didn't have time to get in and have a go myself... that's an experience for next year!

Now some of you will know of the delicious faggots we make on the farm with the offal from our pigs (if you don't, you're missing out so order some now!). Emma experimented with making haggis with the offal from her lamb, Swag, whose meat leapt into her freezer this month. Knock down delicious it was. We had a haggis and whiskey supper one night... I preferred the haggis... and we're definitely going to do that again :-))

Sitting down to dinner after a long day one evening, we were disturbed by a knock at the door. It was a neighbour farmer notifying us that our cows were currently rampaging through his hay. This type of news is not good. We leapt up like things possessed and rushed up there with tape and twine to see what had happened. It looks like deer must have been getting through the once stock proof hedge and finally made a gap big enough for a calf... then a small cow... then a slightly bigger one... then the whole lot. They hadn't gone far, but this sort of thing doesn't do well for neighbourly relations, as you may recall from elsewhere in these missives. Suffice it to say that that gap in the hedge has been blocked up with posts and poles and nails and the deer is going to have to find another route.

When we returned to the house it looked a bit like the Marie Celeste, dinners abandoned mid mouthful, chairs scattered and oven still warm... thankfully someone had had the presence of mind to shut the doors, otherwise the cat would have had a belly full and we'd have been off down the chippy!

Have I written somewhere about my £2 coin collection? I was told a few years ago that a large coffee jar of £2 coins was £400. As I handle quite a few of these on the markets, I decided that this would be a good way of saving some money to treat the farm. I've been doing it for a while and have actually saved just over £1000. Mark and I took a day out at IKEA and bought ourselves an office. I was tempted to pay for it all in £2 coins, but chickened out and put them in the bank to cover the card payment! Fun though. We have a lovely new office that smells like an IKEA showroom, hopefully that will change soon!

And finally, on the farming front, this month has followed on from July being rather cool and wet. Our hay is still standing out in the fields and we're hoping that there will be a break in the clouds for early September. There is talk among our customers that the sun will come out when everyone goes back to work... I hope for our sake that they're right.