Edinburgh to Cheriton Bishop

In the last week there has been two meetings, in two countries with two totally different sets of views on farming and land use.
The 2010 Nuffield Farming Conference held in Edinburgh at a nice hotel, where the great and good of agriculture listened to the 2009 scholars presentations of their findings. Mostly these were very interesting, some were outstanding presentations by inspiring individuals. There was some controversy, mostly from the south west which seems to embrace alternative ideas, and plenty of discussion. I felt a little disappointed with the food chain talks, where we have heard it before about getting closer to the consumer and telling the story. My feeling are the supermarkets are even telling producers stories now, so what is next? The inspiring stuff is on the green energy, peak oil and alternative crops like algae and grain maize. These were scholars that had looked outside the box and were acting on what they saw with conviction, exciting times! Reports on the talks are available from the Nuffield website or if they not there get hold of Mr Stones, they are worth reading.
Of course I was there not just to enjoy but to find out what will be required of me next year and I'm certainly have some work to do.
Cheriton Bishop village hall with no heating and 16 people was the venue of the second meeting to watch the screening of Winstanley a 1975 film about the digger movement in 1649. Winstanley was a dreamer that tried to make his vision a reality by growing crops and living on St Georges hill which was common land. It was a vision that came from poverty and great injustices. the generally theme is that all land should be free and should be there for all to share. After a lot of hardship and pretty bad behaviour of both the local landowners and local peasants they were finally dispersed. Although they had a rough time with crops being damaged, they nearly starved as their crops were not sufficient alone and they did not want to trade to make sure they had enough food for the winter.
The discussion afterwards was a mixed group, not many humble peasants but plenty of anti farmer feeling. Ideas discussed was how the single farm payment has made land too expensive and farmers to rich, how anyone should be allowed to build on land if they were low impact living, how you could live on very few acres, that we are born with the skills to farm or if not we should be teaching sustainable living. I did try and put in a good word for council farms especially Devon, but I felt a little outnumbered. To close the evening we sang The World Turned Upside Down my favourite verse being:

We come in Peace, they said, to dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common and make the waste ground grow
This earth divided we will make whole
So it may be a common treasury for all

Strong stuff, but if peak oil chaos that is predicted does occur, are we going to be in such times that radical solutions will be required?
Part from my Sister in law (and Jakki won't mind me saying that!) must people have an interest and affinity with the land and nature. They are finding out where there food is from and many dream of moving to the country and having animals. Most see capital and availability of land as the biggest barrier. Many lack courage to live in a yurt, but here in the South West we have many rich peasants buying up the small farms to live their dream.
Farming has two options; to see this as a threat, or as an opportunity to harness those dreamers and help them to farm.
Maybe in the next year I can come up with a talk that keeps up the South West's alternative reputation.
16 + the amiss 7 + Michael Blanche NfSch = nearly a revolution. Any one like to join (no need to be a peasant)

Vegging In Stroud

CSA farmer Mark

Many years ago as a student at a very traditional agricultural college, I went to an meeting of an organic group somewhere near Cirencester. This was in a time when organic farming was most definitely not considered real farming, but also when I had been working on a farm that had been hit by the lead in milk scandal where contaminated feed meant pints of milk had to be tipped down the drain, calves couldn't be sold and a group of farmers in the South West suffered badly through no fault of their own. As a naive youngster I could not understand how you could feed concentrates to an animal and not know what was in the bag, There seemed to be no thought that it would have a direct link to the food that you were eating. The meeting was my first realisation that farming did not have to be as prescribed by ADAS and a more sustainable future was the vision of a group of mainly young enthusiastic farmers and growers. It was also the first farmer meeting that I had been to that had lots of women and even tiny babies. People in the room were not waiting for their lunch and dozing in their chairs, but were buzzing with energy and ideas.
After leaving college I worked with Helen Browning who started to convert her farm from a successful intensive barley farm where her Dad had make serious money to a risky mixed organic set up with livestock enterprises that had no market. Not good business idea but a vision that luckily did stack up and although the farm has had to get a lot more focused and efficient, one that is still successful today. The first years of the organic vision were full of bold decisions and having a go to see if it worked. Some of the people have dropped by the wayside but many of the first new pioneers in the early 1990's before organic conversion grants are still surviving.
This type of farming was a natural home for me, not being concerned for figures but recognising a system that gave us an opportunity to farm by taking risks and connecting with the consumer. It has been great, but the supermarket dominance has hit the organic sector, driving down prices and changing people's perceptions. In the last year organic poultry sales are down 40%,(ours are not that bad thankfully) and increasing regulation in the food industry have driven our costs up.
So what next? Now old and cynical I have been enthused with my visits to CSA's in America where having no subsidy support has given a hunger to make something work. In the UK many CSA's are starting and a lot have had very considerable support from local food grants and other agencies.
Yesterday I went to Hawkswood College to Stroud CSA to an event run by the Soil Association, There was no babies but again that same enthusiasm for something new that made me feel CSA's definitely have a future.
It was a great lunch, well presented talks and a visit to the farm. It gave me a chance to learn about Teikei (CSA) from a visiting group of Japanese farmers. One farmer was growing 1 acre of veg and 2 acres of rice as a Teikei. His produce was delivered by the very efficient Japanese delivery systems up to an hour from his farm and as bought mainly on taste and quality. He had the same concerns: was there anything for the children that wanted to farm, consumers in a recession and price of land. Teikei is well established in Japan and has been going since 1970's with now over 1000 farms.
We also learnt how the Stroud CSA, that started in 2002, worked and that it is making a small profit each year even after paying a reasonable wage to the 2 growers (Better than most 4o acre farms).
We discussed lots of different options for financing and legal structures. Luckily the Soil Association have done the ground work and have a project officers, funded by the lottery, that will help setting up schemes and will provide templates for membership and finances. These are all available on the Soil Association Website, but if you were contemplating a CSA I would recommend a help from the very professional and enthusiastic Kirstin or Jade that seem to be the kind of girls that would make things happen.

And the main thing I learned, CSA's are all different and its a completely vague term that can cover all sorts of project and definitely not just organic, but the aims are to provide a fair return and secure market for farmers, even the most hardened conventional farmer wouldn't disagree with that.
Cattle for meat sales at CSA

Child labour scandal in Devon

It's a busy time of year at Higher Fingle, but then it is pretty busy all the time. Nevil is feeling his age and as I keep going off on jolly Nuffield jaunts, we took the decision back in August to employ a more permanent farm worker. Already we have a few workers that are in the butchery and employing people is not a skill that we have found easy. The paperwork and regulations are cumbersome and the responsibility for these workers and their needs takes a lot of time and energy. I think we are fair employers and treat them with more respect than many jobs that I have had, but employing is a serious step that doesn't just have consequences for one life but maybe a whole family.
Previously we have had self employed farm workers that although are more flexible they have been poorly skilled and unreliable, but had the advantage that you only paid for when you needed them and We have had French agricultural students which have been great at times but now come with very little agricultural knowledge and require a great deal of supervision.The problem is that on a small farm you don't really need and can't really afford a full time worker but there are times that you really do need some help. Of course in the old days the children where kept off school at peak times to help out and it is very tempting as Elsa at twelve is a lot more useful then recent students. Fortunately there are now rules to prevent child labour so I meet up with Sandra who runs a project called Moor Skills. This project was set up as it was recognised that Dartmoor needs farmers and farm workers with unique traditional skills that were being lost. How it works is a group of farmers employ apprentices, these apprentices follow a training that is moorland based. the interesting thing is the apprentices moved farms each week, this increases the experience of the trainee and the farmer. The farmers work together and have the support of Sandra to sort any personality clashes out, she organises training and the wages are paid by an accountant. The Farmer pays by direct debit each week the minimum wage (AWB) required for an apprentice in to a central pot and can request extra help at busy times. This all sounded great and Sandra was keen to include our farm to give the students a chance to see some diversification, however as most students didn't have transport (some are only 16) and were based the other side of the moor the logistics just didn't work out. But it set me thinking that it could be an easy solution in areas where like minded farmers could share out an apprentice giving then a good broad experience, but without one farmer being burdened with all the responsibility. If a group of maybe three farmers took on a trainee and had them at their farm for one week in three, would everyone get a better deal?
Next step I approached Duchy college who have been really helpful, guiding me through the advertising process. But after leaving it until the end of August all the apprentices have already been snapped up.
So back to the job centre and although not allowed to say I wanted a fit strong 17 year old I did specify it was a job that would suit a trainee. Within 1/2 hour the phone started ringing as farm workers from around Britain and Ireland wanted to move to Devon. Some were poorly qualified, quite a few where redundant council workers, but mainly were well skilled and capable workers. This has made me think about the whole new entrants thing. Does farming as an industry really need any new entrants? There seems to be plenty of people out there that want to farm for themselves and plenty that would love a job on a farm, maybe instead of talking about where the new workforce is coming from, farmers have got to work out what they want. Anybody fancy doing a Nuffield Scholarship ?
So what have we done, well we have employed Andy who is not 17, he has a family, lives about 25 minutes away, has his chainsaw ticket and worked for the council cleaning the beaches. He is reliable and clean and polite, he uses his initiative and most importantly gets on with the work unsupervised. Hopefully having him will improve efficiencies and make savings which will allow the business to continue to expand to keep him on as a full time worker and maybe Elsa will be allowed to finish her schooling in peace.

Beautiful Devon and lunching with landlords

A visit by Michael a Scottish Nuffield scholar has made me realise that I need to speed up this blog writing. Michael has visited Australia and New Zealand trying to mend the farming ladder and because he has not yet found the answers he was looking for, he decided to come to Devon. Now this is obvious to all of those that live in Devon as we all know that there are plenty of exciting new entrants doing amazing things down here. Some are food centred businesses, a lot are based on organic and many include direct selling. After realising that Michael wrote everything down (swotty or what) we made sure that his whistle stop tour didn't give him a chance to pick up his pen. We visited Poultry abattoirs, chicken farmers in temporary houses and chicken farmers that had built mini mansions (although still surrounded by caravans). Lot of figures for adding up but the message which I think we have to deliver in Devon is small can be big. Intensive farming in the form of adding value and being innovative means that you can live of 50 acres. It was a shame we didn't have longer so I could have shown him robot milkers so the farmer could bottle the milk, Fancy chicken breeder selling to smallholders and so many other businesses I admire. These are all genuine new entrants that haven't loads of money to start off. Then of course we have lots of new entrants down here that have had other careers, the ones we think aren't real farmers but bring other skills like marketing and media skills that we can learn from.
Just so Michael could write about somewhere really exotic we also went to a meeting in Cornwall with a group of land agents discussing 'the farming ladder'. Michael got very excited as he finally understood the county council farms system and he has written a great blog on it. As usual the best bit was the lunch and conversation. It seems that feeling was that under 250 acres was not a viable unit and should be taken back in hand. The priority was maintaining the estate value, especially the tidiness and that although the big estates understood that farming tenants needed help to retire and bring new blood in, they just didn't feel that it was for them to help. A tiny glimmer of hope when a National Trust agent admitted that on a Bodmin estate they had made a change and let land to young couple because the other large farmer tenants that had rented bare land used large machinery and farmed too efficiently to fit how the general public expected the land to be farmed.
Maybe one way of mending the ladder would be making some of the landowners realise the benefits of new innovative tenants and opening their minds to something beyond just profit. Could be a big job, but as Michael didn't seem to fancy chicken farming perhaps he's the guy to do it!

Picking Peppers in Cherry Valley

A chance 5 minute conversation back in March led to me turning up at Stroudsburg PA bus station hoping that Heidi was going to let me into the secret of the CSA or community supported agriculture that is becoming an exciting opportunity for new entrants in the states. Thankfully she did collect me and with her husband Gary, welcomed me into their home for a week. Here I learnt that there is more to the American diet than burgers and that although we sometimes talk a different language, problems are just the same. It quickly became clear that Heidi could do with out a house guest during a busy garlic festival season and two days after her worker had left. So I had a chance to earn my keep and was set to work learning how a CSA worked from the bottom up. The weather was very hot in the day and cool at night, I got fit picking tomatoes and came back with a great suntan. I also came back being reassured that I could still work all day without the constant interuptions that happen at Higher Fingle.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) an interesting idea that seems to have great support. A CSA is a project which is often vegetable or produce, but can be meat or eggs, that the customers sign up for in January giving the often young farmer the capital to buy seeds and inputs.

Cherry Valley CSA had around 80 customers that paid $600 in January and started collecting their vegetables in May through to October. In September when produce was abundant they were receiving around $40 a week in squash, garlic, potatoes, carrots,tomatoes, peppers and wonderful fresh veg. The farm was also able to sell surplus produce at a local farmers market and attended a number of garlic festivals each year to sell the high value garlic crop. The customers that I talked to thought that paying early in the year guaranteed that they would get the produce and the were keen for the farm to continue operating. In 2009 early tomato blight had destroyed the crop, but this year abundant tomatoes meant they could take home basket loads. Although many were disappointed in 2009, they understood that the value of the CSA was being able to share in the bad times as well as the good, reconnecting people with the reality of food production. During my time in the states I saw many variations on the CSA themes which included buying clubs (paying $40 a year for privilege of buying from the farm stand) internet buying clubs and chicken shares. Although had a fantastic level of commitment from the customer to support the young farmer to make a living.

Like any farming, margins were tiny and the work was hard. Heidi in common with many new entrants had a passion for farming and was living her dream. Heidi, from a non-farming family finished a business degree then worked for the Peace Corp in Mali. On returning to the Sates in the late 1990's she decided that she wanted to farm and set about getting experience working for growers. Seeing 47 acres owned by Stroudsburg township not being utilized she approached them with a business plan in 2005 and managed to rent the land on a ten year lease for $1 a year. Through determination and hard graft she has cleared and fenced 5 acres to produce the vegetables. That leaves the other 42 acres of woodland and scrubby overgrown land that has so much potential but needs so much more than 10 years to do it in. In the UK Heidi would have been able to apply for an environmental grant to help maintain the biodiversity and provide educational access. But in the states that support is not available so each step will be only be taken when the money allows.
Heidi's wish list was to install some irrigation (hopefully this winter), get her customers more involved with the physical work, find the money to build a classroom and have time to have more fun. Her husband Gary had recently started working full time on the farm and his extra support,I hope will mean that she can a little more. Yet again I had met a new entrant that was determined against the odds to farm and worked tirelessly to make her business work.
I left Cherry valley when the weather turned to rain, but I left with having made some great friends that I hope will do me the honour of visiting my home one day.

Little Farm In The Big Woods

Mary Jean with her goats in the woods

When I was six, my Mum read my Brother and I the classic children's tale Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the series of books documenting her pioneer childhood. In the 1860's her father cleared woodland and farmed both crops and livestock near Pepin in Wisconsin. When Laura was six the family moved west to better farm land and opportunities. Their tale is a lesson in how hard farming can be and how resourceful the pioneers were.
In the Pocono Mountains in Northern Pennsylvania similar wood clearance occured and productive farming produced food for the urban populations of the East coast. Nowadays the area is woodland again, regenerated in the last 65 years as farming become uneconomic and the areas mainly residential.
On a scorching hot morning I hitched a lift to visit a 100 acre farm near Henryville. This was farmed by young couple Jeff and Mary Jean who inherited the farm from Jeff's grandfather. Here, where there was little soil, abundance of rocks and many trees, they were trying to recreate the fields that would have been cleared in the 1860's. Through the trees there are vast heaps of stones that form the field boundaries, these are the rocks cleared each year as the extreme frosts bought more to the surface each winter.
For the last 4 years they have been selling free range eggs and vegetables locally, but were yet to make a living. To make the farm viable they had invested Jeff's 'trust fund' in a building that included a goat milking parlour, cheese preparation room and a cheese cave. It really was a lovely building clad with wood from the farm and with a wood furnace to heat the water. They are just milking 12 goats to start the enterprise and were waiting to receive the final inspections to allow them to sell raw milk. Then they will increase the numbers to 48 females.
The milk sold in the US is pretty poor and there is a great interest in raw milk for health reasons. Mary Jean was determined that she was going to get her license, both from the economic reasons but also she believed it to be healthier.

I would love to have shown some of the grass obsessed Nuffield Scholars the tiny fields surrounded by tall trees and littered with large stones and I was impressed with young farmers taking an idea, that many would regard as mad and working hard to make it work.

Their wish list included an understanding vet ( they had a certain amount of resistance to being organic) and low cell counts.Veg Field & grass

During my travels in the US a theme seemed to appear of young farmers that were taking risks on marginal land and supplying direct to a customer produce that was unique.
However modern this farming was I still couldn't help feeling that at last, I was living the little House dream that many six year old girls love. How I covert a wooden house with a porch and rocking chair, but i'm not sure Nevil would be happy with black bears wandering around the farm.

Stunning new Goat milking barn and cheese dairy

Crabcakes and Vineyards

Old Field vineyard, North Fork Long Island.

Merlot grapes, ready for harvest

Perry Baiz

One of the reasons for this blog is to try and remember where i have been and what i have seen, not just for when my memory packs up completely, but also so when the dreaded report writing begins i will be half way there. As I am doing my travel in short trips I have left myself very little time for anything and only managed to get some thoughts down thanks to Greyhound timetables. After a hectic few days, plans for a kayak trip on the Deleware have been abandoned due to rain which means no excuses not to blog.
As a not often travelled country girl i started my trip to the USA by visiting my cousin, Sarah and hubbie, Joe, in Great Neck, Long island New York. After surprising myself by not getting lost travelling from Newark my first weekend was spent being looked after with great hospitality.
North Fork Long Island used to be an area that grow lots of potatoes and cauliflowers for New York, but back in 1973 the first Vines were planted and now a thriving wine industry exists with mostly direct sales to the many tourists that visit each winery to have a $4 tasting and buying for home. Not just a few tourist were out when we visited, but crowds that included families, couples and bizarrely stretch limos full of Hen parties, certainly agritourism that seemed a great success.
Starting out early and driving to the furthest winery on the fork we had a great private tour with Perry Baiz, who with her mother and father farm The Old Field Vineyard
Old field had been purchased by Perry's great Grandfather and her father planted the first vines in 1974 and since 1997 all 12 acres have been vines, 95% of what they produce is sold direct from the farm. Perry and her mother make most of the wine, but they use the facilities at a more modern vineyard to make some and buy the grapes in to make the whites. Pretty much everything was manual, except for netting the grapes with a nifty machine mounted on the tractor. Great emphasis was placed on sustainability and this seemed to be something that was important in the marketing. When pressed why not organic, the risk of crop failure due to mildew and fungal diseases was thought to be the main reason, followed by the cost of registration and inspection. Perry had opted to study Environmental Biology before returning to the farm and found the UK's system of Agricultural education something that she would have been interested in if it was available in the states. Her Brother had decided not to farm and was a stunt man in Hollywood, however he came back each year to harvest the grapes. I'm not sure if his stunts had led to the other farm diversification that included the setting for film that is out soon starring Katie Holmes called the Romantics and it really is in a stunning place. If you love the views and want to have your wedding there you can hire the garden only and beautiful beach for $10,000.00 but bring your own tent, caters, potapotty and insurance. For the inconvenience of 6 weekends a year it suddenly is viable to farm on 12 acres and that is the beauty of being so close to such a huge number of people. But still Perry wished for the investment to put in a new barn with modern equipment and was envious of the city types that had bought neighbouring vineyards as hobbies and tax avoidance, have you heard that before? Maybe a few more films may make her wish come true, i hope so!

New wine barn on neighbours vineyard

And the crabcakes, nothing to do with the farm but that was our lunch in the lovely village of Greenport, where you could watch the Americans at play and see some stunning sailing boats and large speedboats.

Greenport Long Island

Blogging on a Circle

So this is easton circle, the major tourist attraction in Easton and where they hold a farmers market since 1760's or something like, but not on a Monday. Monday is also the day the Crayola crayon attraction is closed, so's the canal museum and pretty much that's it. So while away the time i'm using Macdonalds wifi and not buying anything by sitting on a roundabout with a very nice fountain and weird music from hidden speakers. I'm quite glad i'm not staying longer than 6 hours. I've now been on the Pittsburg greyhound and i should have guessed when the driver said that noone gets off at Easton that it might be a little quiet. To while away the time, in good Nuffield style, i went to the town offices and found the lady in charge of the Easton Farmers market. A lot of thought and effort goes into the market and she assures me that they are thriving (unlike the UK where sales are definately down.) One of the things that helps is that they accept food stamps, as well as supplying a credit card machine for the stall holders to use. It is most definately not a well off area 19% below the poverty line) and not a particularly large town (2008 estimate was 26,080) but i was told that the market supported 28 traders, although they were looking for a new poultry supplier (bit far for Higher Fingle especially by greyhound)!) market pitches were $125 for the season that run each Saturday from May through to October, so by UK standards pretty reasonable which mean that the farmers can charge a reasonable price for their produce.
Things here get weirder as i'm joined on the roundabout by someone else using Macdonalds wifi and who is determined to tell me the history of Easton. I think that's a cue to escape as We get on to the reverse flag at the reading of the Declaration of Independance and the address of the local prison. Hopefully my bus will be here soon and I get to Stroudsburg before dark, but if anyone tells me that no one goes there I will believe them!

Girl Power

The other week I spent an interesting day at The Royal Agricultural College Speaking to the Widening Participation officer. When I first found there was such a post I found it quite funny having gone to college at a time when the Royal maintained an exclusive status by having fees that were way above other colleges and was definitely not known for being inclusive.
Emma Thomas is an interesting person that is very much motivated by the benefits that education bring to young people. Her post is funded from several streams and is part of Aim Higher which is about making everyone aware of the benefits higher education can bring, whatever their background. This means that she is not just promoting Agricultural education. Most colleges and universities have such a person and bring all ages of school children onto campus to encourage them to aspire to Higher Education.
So why go to the Royal? I first contacted Emma because she runs the Young City Farmers Programme an idea inspired by The Black Farmer (Wilfred Emanual Jones) to get inner city kids out to experience the countryside and then help them equip themselves with the skills to go into land based industries. The programme is in it's 4th year and is funded from several land based charitable trusts and the results are now being seen. Previous student have gone on to various courses including NDA's in horticulture, apprenticeships and full time jobs. A really well thought out programme that certainly inspired youngsters to make agriculture their choice of career. The only draw back was it was only 12 students a year participating and the resources going into were quite considerable. Although Emma was pleased how the program had developed she felt that maybe it was not utilising resources efficiently and reaching out to enough students.
Emma was helped out by 2 very able girls that were Student Ambassadors. This looked like a job I could have done with at college with pay rates well over the minimum wage. Talking to these girls was where the day got very interesting. One was from a farm and was studying a degree in food chain, the other was from non farming background and in second year of a BSC in Agriculture. They had a fantastic commitment to promoting the food industry and bubbled over with enthusiasm. They obviously had the right communication skills to encourage school children to have a go at higher Education. I learnt loads from them, mainly about being old and cynical but also pearls of wisdom like 'of course we expect to be more professional than our parents generation' 'it is difficult to get experience on a farm but i always read the farmers weekly' 'i completed a tractor driving course but not yet learnt to reverse a trailer' ' on course of 40 Ag students only 4 are girls.' It was a bit mind blowing and i am still having a job working some of it out.
So far i am thinking that

1. Although i started on my pre college year 25 years ago, it is still nearly impossible to get a job on a farm without some experience
2. I thought we had done the feminist bit and proved that girls were as good as the boys, but I just must not notice anymore. (did you know that only 10% of farmworkers are female)
3. It's about time farmers woke up and took both girls and boys more seriously before all this youthful enthusiasm goes somewhere else.
4. Why on earth is Agriculture the one course at RAC that doesn't require any practical experience?

Nevil says that i should have gone and visited a proper Agriculture College (old habits die hard) and maybe I will and maybe the demographics will be different, I hope so.
The following week I got even more confused when the Farmer Weekly had some forum on 'What should a Farmers Daughter do?' Sometimes I am at a loss how to understand an industry that seems to find what your father works at more important than your skills (how many job interviews ask that?) and seems content to dismiss 50% of the workforce because of their Sex.
As a mother of 2 Daughters and 3 Sons I know which ones are the most focused and ambitious and the most useful on the farm. OK so not really scientific survey but that's Nuffield.
Phew,Rant Over so you can relax now!


My Pre-College farm, Newhouse Farm where the Hook family were good enough to teach me to drive a tractor. I did work for £35 per week for 3 months and was very proud when they decided I was good enough to be paid a proper wage.

Okehampton Show with kiwi humour

One thing we do well in the South West is Agricultural shows. The smaller local shows that are run with passion by volunteers are the best days out, much more entertainment than any theme park. Today we went off to Okehampton show and it did not disappoint. This show has had a few years that it had to be cancelled due to bad weather, but it has recovered and seemed to have loads of top class stock, as well as all the usual rural entertainment.Funny moments included the pig couple showing where one pair of white pigs caused chaos, a black sow who managed to wee on Alfred's foot and best of all the fantastic Sheep show
Who could possibly forget the sheep characteristics after such a brilliant demonstration, only a Kiwi could train nine sheep to dance.
The show was packed with all ages, both looking at and exhibiting livestock, crafts and vintage machinery. Sightly worrying to see a ford Fiesta in vintage display of the same age that i was so proud to buy after one summer of tractor driving, but great seeing David Brown Cropmaster that I remember watching our neighbour ploughing with when I was just a youngster ( mind you it must have been fairly vintage then).
Judging on today the young are most certainly interested in the countryside, and the countryside has people that are prepared to put in huge amounts energy of running the show or exhibiting, the challenge is how does that transfer to a commitment to start those youngsters on a career in farming.

Who needs Holidays?

As we head for home, we start to list reasons we can’t stay for longer. Ian Walker the owner of our lovely holiday gite was really pleased that he had quite a few 3 week bookings. Most of these bookings seemed to be school teachers, but even a 2 week holiday seems to be something that we may save like mad to achieve, but organising would be very near impossible. After getting our first farm we never left the place together for 5 years, eventually we took the kids on a weekend trip to Woolacombe to stay in a caravan that was all of 30 miles away, what a revelation and what fun. The children had our undivided attention and we could relax. As Nevil could quickly return to sort any problems out we were able to leave our very capable French agricultural student in charge.

With the children getting older and employing full time staff as well as students, last year was the first time we attempted a full week holiday. Of course now with mobile phones and many holiday accommodation having wi-fi you can pretty much keep in touch constantly and we have been able to keep an eye on the day to day running of the poultry business and even update this blog! However, farming by internet is pretty impossible and to get away Nevil had to work non-stop before we left and had to pay to leave someone reliable in charge.

So is it worth it? Although the hassle of travelling with 5 children is a little desperate (I’m writing this on the ferry, help!) Nevil and I are coming back refreshed and with hopefully a clearer direction and new ideas. The children are healthy and brown, their swimming has improved and they have an appreciation of French. They have been out for very traditional French meals and behaved themselves (mostly), been and bought bread and sweets on their own at the boulangier, cultivating with a young French farmer in a John Deere and played French Pokeman. More importantly we have all spent time together as a family.

So yes, a Nuffield experience most definitely broadens the horizons, not just for us but the children as well. Growing up on the farm can be fantastic but could become isolating; hopefully we are equipping them with skills to grow up into confident adults, not frightened to push the boundaries.

So how does a new entrant step back, assess their business and take a rest. Pretty near impossible but from our experience it should compulsory! Those farms where the parents are on hand no problem, but first generation farmers the cost and worry of taking a break at prohibitive. A while back I was talking to a local representative for Farm Crisis Network that was popping in each day to check on the relief milker so a young farmer was having a chance of a worry free family holiday. Maybe preventing a Crisis is a network the farming community should be organising themselves and offering the young a chance for a rest.

Meanwhile, I must prevent a crisis with a seven year old who really is not coping well with the sea, may be next year we will try Cornwall.

Noix

We are staying in a delightfully farmhouse/barn conversion owned by an english family who moved to france in 2006 and renovated a house for themselves and two holiday cottages. By selling a 3 bedroom Bungalow in Bournmouth they were able to buy the buildings and 6 ha with only a small mortgage and enjoy an enviable quality of live. With 2 young children they integrate with the local communities but admit they find making friends with the locals difficult as most in the rural villages are fairly elderly. But their children are doing well at the local schools and they are happy with the standards of schooling. But even we find it quiet here, i can imagine that someone that never lived in the country before could find it a massive change.
The 6 ha that are owned go right upto the road edge and there is a wide grass verge with well maintained walnut trees. This is another thing that the Perigord region is renowned for. There is 28 walnut trees on the verge (Dora counted them) and these yield around 800 euros of nuts that are all sold to the local co-op. Locally you can find allsorts of products made from walnuts including a wicked walnut wine that seems similar to Sloe gin, made using green walnuts, eau-de-vie, red wine and sugar.
When we found the local farmers market at Riberac there was a stall selling walnuts and walnut products. After Alfred manage to hit the farmer firmly over the knuckles with what i imagine is the local authentic nutcracker and bowl i felt oliged to buy at least something. So we came away with noix confit, nothing to do with ducks but i think like a marron glace or similar. Dad bought some strong smelling nut oil for salads. Again all very traditional and authentic, but also quite expensive, however it was the first organic products we have managed to find.

Canard!

So today we have finally found some ducks and what a revelation the canard industry is. At Val De Chandiere batchs of ducks were bought in at 14 weeks for 12 euros then Gavarage or force fed soaked maize for 15 days and then were worth 50 Euros. Every 3 weeks batchs of 120 were bought in then processed to make everything you could possibly want from a duck, rillette,confit, Foie gras, Grillons,the list was endless! Our host seemed to find it unbelievable that in the UK we did not have a market for necks and gizzards. Here they were even selling the green offals. The processing plant was of reasonable standard but nowhere near the levels of hygiene and maintance that are required in the UK, this was particularly disapointing for Nevil when he struggles at home with constantly changing legislation that is meant to be the same across the EU.
Top price product today went to Foie Entier at 133.33 Euro's per kg, thats the whole lobes of liver in a tin. If you wanted cheaper then you could buy Bloc de foie Gras that is pressed together, much better value at 90 euros per kg. We currently sell organic duck livers that weigh around 50g each at £9 per kg a force fed canard Foie will weigh around 500g.
As usual I came back laden with more tins and jars to try, but for a change tonight we ate Duck sausages with lentiles Vert as even nevil is start to complain about the amount of duck confit he is being made to eat!

The Gavage or force feeder, Ducks are fed boiled maize twice a day.

The Cooker where the fat is rendered and then all the parts of duck are cooked. Looks similar to a ham boiler. (That disgusting thing is a cooked neck being hooked out for making into a rough pate)

Ducks in cages and on slatted floor, something that our customers would find unacceptable. Ducks are Mulards or mules a sterile cross between a barbary male and a female pekin. Finished dead weight will be around 5 to 5.5 kg

The Dordogne France

I thought it was a good plan to take the overnight ferry from plymouth and drive down through France to Gouts Rossignol deep in the french countryside. About 2 oclock in the morning trying to cuddle a seasick seven year old on a very hard floor i had serious doubts that this counted as a Nuffield experience. It is not completely a nuffield trip and we are also on holiday, but for many years we have talked about seeing how the French farm so here we are. Nevil and I, 5 children and 80 year old Dad. So far the weather is better than Devon and there is lots of sunflowers, but we have more in common with french farmers than we would like to admit. Highlights so far include BBQ maigret cannard with potatoes from a night street market, vintage tractor show with line dancers and lots of duck products. So far we have seen plastic ducks at the fair, china ducks and plenty of confit but no real ducks. So there goes the popular myth that canard are wandering free range. As usual i have spent time studying meat in the supermarket and the prices (bearing in mind the exchange rate being rubbish) are about what you would expect to pay in UK. in fact the price is probable more expensive as much for sale seems to be indoors reared and most definately not organic.

Not really Farming

So the last post was a bit of a fib. Not the bit about the farm, but the money actually comes from the farm diversification. Although beef and sheep are very nice there is no way we could live off the farm without an alternative income. As i have never wanted to get a proper job we decided after the foot and mouth diaster of 2001 to diversify and started producing organic poultry. Starting with Christmas geese our business is now based around organic ducks and chickens, all processed and marketed ourselves. I am very proud of what we have achieved, but sometimes look fondly back to the days when our farm work was seasonal. The chicken industry is cut throat and requires us to operate everyday except Christmas day. The last 18 months have been challenging, but we are still here and expanding with lots of exciting plans for the future. Not quite the farming i dreamed off many years ago, but it has certainly been fun and we have met some interesting people!

Nevil weighing & packing chicken plus views of the abbatoir

Higher Fingle

The last few months have been spent trying to catch up with accounts and get all the paperwork up to date before the school holidays begin. So not much time for Nuffield planning, so to fill the gaps here are some photos of Higher Fingle farm a 57 acre county council all grassland farm. It's quite hilly, a bit rundown and only rented on short term FBT but it provides a living for the Amiss family and employs 2 full time workers as well as numerous part timers. The good news is Devon county council have reviewed their farm policies and the future looks much more secure for tenants that are prepared to invest capital and be more innovative. So our next project is to start planning for a longer term future.

Cows and calves in Sale field

Gloucester Heifer 'Zeriba Bramley' with newborn calf

Looking down on the farm and house from the top fields.

View looking the other way towards Drewsteignton, much of the farm is steep.