It's half-term already!

We're coming to the end of our last school week before half term and wonder where the time has gone! The weather has been very kind to us for ages with lots of mellow autumn sunshine and temperatures way above what we could hope for....will it continue for my walk along Hadrians Wall on 30th October? I doubt it!
Kings Hedges have enjoyed a full week watching the pigs grow, their arrows fly and the fires crackle. We will be sorry to see them go and I suspect they may feel the same. I hope every old farmer has a good break and we will be back in the swing in a few weeks.

Autumn is here!

So here we are in the new term and the new year and it's been a restful and enjoyable summer for me...I hope it has for all of you reading this, too! We have been enjoying some of the best of seasonal autumn weather and the fruits of the season are in abundance. On our Sunday walks we have been picking blackberries and eating them in our fruit salads and as blackberry mousse. The elderberries are hanging off the trees and the plan is for Widey Court Primary school to gather them in on the Sunday walk this week. It is a bumper apple harvest this year and Hilary and I have started to pick eating apples for the fruit bowls at Nethercott Barton with the kind permission of Bob and Wendy Barrett. Next week we will be picking for making apple juice and I expect we will make gallons! The potato harvest is safely in thanks to both Prior Weston and Whetstone Field Primary Schools and there has been a real opportunity for everyone to clearly see the route of some of our food from the fields/trees/garden to the plate. The squashes are ready for roasting and form a part of Sunday lunch alongside our own roast pork and all the runner beans are picked and frozen. Three types of chutney have been made, rhubarb, marrow and apple, and will be for sale in the shop.
Four new pigs arrived a few weeks ago and they are already settling in and beginning to nibble at childrens' feet through the bottom of the fence. This time they are very gingery and spotty, two boars and two sows.
The turkeys are sitting on eggs but yesterday and today we picked one out that was definitely full of liquid and not chick, and broke them on a stone to see just what is the worst smell in the world!!!!!!!! Ask the children of Whetstone Field Primary School and they'll have the answer.
On Tuesday we had a great time in the spinney making things out of natural materials; willow snails, wooden medallions with rush rope, charcoal out of burnt willow and bows and arrows which have been played with constantly since then.
So...a lot of fun and a lot of hard work and a lot of food production and collecting...I love the autumn!!!!!!!!

I've been having a bit of difficulty uploading the photos I took of the rapidly-cobbed roundhouse so I'm here to have another try! On Tuesday St. George's Primary from Wrotham in Kent left only one small panel to cob and we had a lot of fun covering the roundhouse (and ourselves) with mud! The weather has continued to surpass expectations and the children have worked hard covering the silage and cleaning out the rest of Colly's Barn as well as the rest of the routine farm jobs. Partly because of the heat, I think they're all quite tired and will be ready for a lie-in at home on Saturday.

Still trying to upload the pictures.

As promised, here are photos of the work we all did yesterday putting cob onto the woven hazel walls of the roundhouse. The weather was perfect and everyone was really enthusiastic, with the result that several more panels were completed and we are confident that it will all be finished within this term. If so, our cooks Leanne and Angela, are planning to run cooking sessions with the children so that they can all have a part in cooking their own tea. These will happen on Tuesdays during the winter months,especially when the weather is too poor to want to be outside for the whole day. But the first one will happen in July because they can't wait to try it out! Any ideas for dishes children can prepare?

A huge 'thank you!' to all those who came to our Open Day on Sunday 30th May. The weather was really great and, apart from the fact that the bouncy castle wasn't delivered, the It's a Knockout competition more than made up for it! Graham's commentary was witty and pithy and it was lovely to see everyone eating, drinking and soaking up the sunshine on the lawn as they watched. We raised just over £1000 and couldn't have done any of it without the loyal support of our staff and friends. Titchfield Primary School from Hampshire were represented by their steel band during the afternoon and many people commented on the quality of their playing. They were really good!
For the last 5 weeks of the academic year we are concentrating on finishing the cob walls of the roundhouse so that it can be thatched during the summer holidays. Let's hope that the schools which are due to visit us in the near future are ready for a challenge. Tomorrow I will be taking photos of cob-making and they will be posted asap.

Now that the swallows are here it is time to start adding the cob to the walls of our roundhouse so Stuart is today working with groups of children from Goodrich Primary School in East Dulwich to do just that. There's nothing to beat getting stuck in to clay and mud and daubing it onto the woven hazel walls....plenty of pairs of sticky hands to wash! At the present rate we should see at least one wall panel a week being completed on the outside and maybe we'll get faster as we get better at it? The weather is lovely today...warm and still and the rooks are cawing like mad high in their nests in the pine tree. A perfect Nethercott day.
On 30th May at 2pm we are holding another of our Open Days with a Fun Team Triathlon event (teams of 6 competing in a succession of challenging rounds involving a greasy pole amongst other things!) so if you can make it here get your family along and show them the place where you spent a week on a farm. Perhaps your school staff will make up a triathlon team for a bit of fun? The more the merrier! There will be good food, drink, stalls and games in the idyllic setting that is Nethercott House and we hope to see you there!