So, after a few holidays we're back and blogging - and there's lots to be done.
The first and most important job is to give the meadow its annual haircut. This is more difficult this year, as all the rain made the plants grow massively tall and woody. We have made the decision to avoid using strimmers and other powered mowers, so we've invested in an Austrian Scythe! Tracey set up the scythe and read up on how to use and sharpen it, and she's gradually working on the rest of the group to have a go (with appropriate safeguards and risk assessments, of course!).
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| Tracey with the Austrian Scythe |
The Austrian scythe is a revelation to anyone who has done any scythe work before. It's very light, the handle is just the right shape and the blade arrives so sharp that you could shave with it. Tracey managed to get over halfway through the meadow in about 40 minutes of work in very thick growth, so she's quite pleased with it. She's also delighted not to have to break her arm starting a strimmer, and is definitely not missing the high pitched whine and stone-spitting problems of the infernal machine.
Meanwhile, the onion harvest has been taking place. The polytunnel looks quite jolly with the white and red onions all drying.
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| Onion bunting anyone?! |
And, in the orchard, the lawn we created is being maintained with a push-powered mower that works wonderfully. Just a whisper of blades and it's done. We like to think that it's as fast as a petrol mower, and it's definitely much quieter and a whole lot less polluting. Mark and Dan have been doing a great job keeping the lawn in trim, in fact they had finished before we got around to taking a picture! However, the sunflowers in the orchard have got huge, so we persuaded Mark to stand next to one for scale.
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How tall is it Mark?
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Things are hotting up in the polytunnel as well. We now have our Pocket Vine tomatoes starting to ripen. These are absolutely bizarre beasties - they look like lots of small tomatoes glued together. Fortunately they also taste great. Look out for them at some of our events.
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| It's supposed to look like that! It's a pocket vine tomato |
