Posted on Sat, Dec 19, 2009
Things in this country seem to fall apart when we have just a little snow, and this week was no exception. We had a heavy snow fall on Thursday night and now the country side has a blanket of white covering everything... The garden was beautiful on Friday morning, with just lumps in the ground where the vegetables are hidden by the deep snow, but as usual after the aware had worn off the cracks appear. Most of the students had planned to leave over the weekend or on Friday but travel was not easy, the drive up to the college is a bit dangerous when the snow turns to ice so people tend to slide down rather than drive. And just at the moment it doesn't look to be over for a week or two.
There have been a few hard frosts over the week and the ground was hard enough to drive the tractor over it so I started to move some manure around that I'll be using to mulch the rhubarb and raspberries. I have found some insperation too after my Father showed me a book about the 'Lost Gardens of Heligan' it's an inspiring place and another Biodynamic Gardener has been involved in the process Tom Petherick. They have recreated an old victorian garden including a vegetable plot which particually interests me. I've taken some notes on crop rotations and it has inspired me to finish the rotation plan for this year and to make a good start on the planning fo next year, there isn't much else I could be doing at the moment though. (Other than snow man building).
The end of this term also sees an end to the way the college kitchen is run, due to redundancies and re staffing the current cook (Cilla) has now finished making way for a new business oppertunity for a local producer who has been processing food and selling it at local retailers. It will be interesting to see how the relationship develops over the coming months. I haven't met him yet but I've heard he has some great ideas to bring people from the village as well as maybe taking hte college to the village.. So 2010 might be cold to start but the excitment and enthusiasm from new collegues will surely keep us warm
Wishing everyone a very warm holiday season, I'm not sure when I'll write again, the next two weeks look to be very busy.
Posted on Sat, Dec 12, 2009
One would think that a gardeners role would simply be to work with the soil and finish when it's dark. This is not always the case, and especially when you are connected to a far larger farming enterprise.
Tablehurst farm, every year they sell Turkeys for Christmas to the village, about 400 in total. The farm has a license to kill it's own birds on site rather than having to send them away, this also means that they all get plucked by hand at the farm... this as people may know is no small task. The farm asks that people come and help with this job from Emerson Biodynamic training and other people involved in the farm. It's hard for the farm to manage all this work by themselves and there is an understanding that this is an opportunity for the students to 'give something back' to the local farm and come to realise a little how local support is so important for one another.
The experience is a hard one for people who are not used to it, to see so many animals pass through. So understandably some people choose not to do it for this reason. Those who choose to help see a different side of things, once the rhythm starts and you understand what order to take the feathers out the conversations, stories and jokes start coming out. It's a great time for myself to catch up with how the farm is doing and talk of concerns and lessons learned over the past year. As David the farmer there says, it's not so often that they have the chance to stand around one another for such a long time.For the students they can quiz the farmers and apprentices on things they've been learning in class or ask for advice on placement opportunities.
The other great thing about being on the farm is that we see all the children there, every year there are either new ones appearing or young ones growing and becoming more helpful and independent. Farm children always seem to want to help and carry things or push things, for people and don't hesitate if they see you doing something wrong to tell you about it. To have a two year old boy reminding me to close the gate to the trailor before I walked off is very sweet.
So even though my fingers hurt and I have missed a full week of sun (which is the first time since October), I don't mind because we had fun and got a good job done for our fellow neighbours, building the communtiy spirit.