The call of the charcoal

By

-

9 May 2023

Jim Bettle of Dorset Charcoal makes his living from an ancient craft, fuelling his passion for a more sustainable country. Tracie Beardsley reports

Dorset Charcoal with Jim Bettle — One of Jim Bettle’s Dorset charcoal kilns. All images: Courtenay Hitchcock

Jim Bettle’s lively eyes focus on the smoke winding its way skywards. He’s reading it, looking for a deeper colour. Above the chatter of woodland birds, he listens for the sound of fire. A sudden thunderous roar and he springs into action, peering up the port-holes of a huge, circular steel kiln to see how far the fire has spread.
He expertly manoeuvres a massive circular lid – I can’t help but think of a giant’s paella dish – over the wood-filled kiln, propping it so the fire spreads before he dexterously drops the lid. Then he slots four tall chimney pipes into bases around the kiln. Now he’s cooking – and will be doing so for the next 16 hours. It’s this year’s first burn in the woods for The Dorset Charcoal Company.
Jim’s ‘in tray’ is a neat stack of 300 cubits* of ash, sycamore and oak, cut from the private Dewlish woodland that will be his ‘office’ until the end of August. In that time, he’ll produce more than 35 tonnes of sustainable British charcoal.
One of very few British charcoal producers, he’s the biggest in Dorset. ‘I’ve got seven kilns, based on models dating back more than 200 years.
‘As we hit the busy season, I’ll constantly have two kilns going, producing about half a tonne daily,’ explains Jim.

It’s not just for the barbecue – Dorset Charcoal Co. create cattle and pet feed supplements, as well as gardener’s biochar.

Nothing is wasted, every size having a use. Bigger pieces are bagged up on site to sell as barbecue fuel, while finer grades go to the cosmetic industry as an environmentally-friendly replacement to the now thankfully banned microbeads.
Jim’s charcoal even features in blockbuster movies – his powder was used for special effects in the latest Star Wars film! The Dorset Charcoal Company is accredited as a sustainable supplier to the TV and film industry by the BAFTA scheme We Are Albert.
His charcoal enhances equestrian and cattle feed (adding biochar to feed reduces cows’ methane emissions by up to 18.4 per cent) and is also a diet supplement for dogs. His biochar horticultural additives, an ancient way of conditioning soil, help to retain both nutrients and moisture, improve drainage and soil microbes.

Jim Bettle, owner of Dorset Charcoal Co. will make half a tonne of charcoal daily over the summer

An ancient sustainability
‘Finally, after shouting from the treetops, the penny is dropping and we’re finding sustainable alternatives,’ says Jim. ‘Charcoal is natural. We’ve used it for thousands of years. The symbiotic relationship makes such sense. We can create a sustainable wood fuel with carbon dioxide emissions 95 per cent lower than gas or oil. It’s absorbed back into the soil and nourishes trees.’
He gestures to the woodland around him. ‘Managing this coppice allows flora and fauna to thrive. I hear more birds and insects as we open the wood and let light in. I’m completely driven by producing a sustainable product that has positive effects in the environmental chain.’

Once a kiln is lit, Jim Bettle lets it ‘cook’ for 16 hours. He has seven kilns, and during the season there will constantly be two working

Wearing the charcoal hat
The call to a career in charcoal came more than 25 years ago. ‘I got my degree but quickly realised a suit, tie and a job in the city was not for me.’
After some time spent backpacking, Jim took a variety of rural jobs. ‘A throwaway comment from a master thatcher I was working for – “there’s a future in charcoal” – was the first seed sown. I went to Glastonbury Festival (now one of his clients) and rather than take photos of the stars on the Pyramid stage, I took snaps of kilns!’

Living and working on the Drax Estate, the ‘charcoal call’ came again when the estate forester looked for a charcoal burner. Over a bottle of wine, a plan was hatched and in 1996 Jim began contracting. He went to the Greenwood Trust in Telford for training in woodland skills.
‘I also travelled around the country learning this ancient craft from the “old boys”. I started making my own charcoal at weekends and in 1997 gave up my day job and launched The Dorset Charcoal Company.’
Now, 25 years on, he’s proud to have four employees and seasonal summer workers (‘my ‘woodland pirates’). And it’s not just his own business in Dorset: ‘I wears the charcoal hat for the National Coppice Federation and lobby government to regulate charcoal imports. The scale of waste is madness! The UK imports over 100,000 tonnes of substandard charcoal annually, made by ravaging tropical rainforests.
And don’t get me started on the shipping pollution to get it here!’

DorsetCharcoal.co.uk

Jim’s team expertly manoeuvre the massive circular lid – Tracie thinks of a giant’s paella dish – from the wood-filled kiln

Quick fire questions:

A-list barbecue guests?
My wife Nancy, the UK’s environment minister (it would good to have her ear!), ex-US presidential candidate Al Gore and scientist James Lovelock. Oh, and Shane Warne (I’m a keen amateur cricketer!).

Book by your bedside?
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. It’s a brilliant novel about a Mexican migrant family building a life in the USA

*cubits – an ancient unit of length based on the length of the forearm, from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Usually equal to about 18” / 46cm

Jim’s ‘in tray’ – a neat stack of 300 cubits of ash, sycamore and oak, cut from the private Dewlish woodland that will be his office until the end of August.

ATKINS Lewis William

By

Editorial team

-

9 May 2023

0

Formerly of Bruton, passed away peacefully on 30th April 2023 aged 96 years.

A dearly loved father, grandad and uncle who will be sadly missed by his family and friends. Now reunited with his beloved wife Mary.

Funeral service to take place at St. Leonards Church, Pitcombe, on Tuesday 16th May 2023 at 12pm.

Family flowers only. Donations (in lieu) made payable to The Friends of Wincanton Community Hospital, can be made via funeral-notices.co.uk or forwarded to Trotman Funeral Directors, Ashdene, Cranmore, Shepton Mallet, BA4 4QQ.

What’s so great about the dawn chorus, anyway?

By

Editorial team

-

9 May 2023

0

Wildlife writer Jane Adams grew up in the suburbs, and vividly recalls the first time she shared her morning tea with the waking birds

The wren, whose song ‘packs a mighty machine-gun punch’

In the past, I didn’t understand why people got so excited about the dawn chorus. Wasn’t it just a bunch of birds singing ridiculously early in the morning? I grew up in a London suburb where the chirp of a house sparrow was as good as it got. Then we moved to the edge of a Dorset village.
That first spring, I woke up every morning at 5am to close the window, half asleep. Not due to noisy builders, or dustmen, or someone digging up the road.
It was birds.
Just singing.
One morning I had to get up at 4am for work, and I took my cuppa into the garden. And that’s when I experienced my first dawn chorus.

‘… the unexpectedly beautiful song of a little brown dunnock’

Confident and melodic, he belted his tune out into the darkness, followed soon after by the softly repeated lullaby of a wood pigeon. In the distance, a tawny owl hoo-hoo’d goodnight to his mate, followed a few seconds later by his partner’s kee-wick.
The urgent song of a wren split the first rays of sunlight. As one of our smallest birds, its song packs a mighty machine-gun punch and it seemed to buoy other birds to join in. There was a robin, blue tits, great tits and a chaffinch I think.
Then the repeated chant of a song thrush, and the unexpectedly beautiful song of a little brown dunnock (see video below left if, like me, you’re not sure – Ed). There were other tunes I didn’t recognise, and it didn’t matter. The sound rose and fell in waves, and, as it did, I shivered with pure pleasure and felt the hairs raise on the back of my neck.

That’s when I understood.
These small feathered creatures weren’t singing for me, and they certainly weren’t trying to interrupt my sleep at 5am.
They were singing for the chance to attract a mate, to establish their territories. They were singing for their futures, for their offspring, for their very lives. That’s why the dawn chorus is special. Why it matters. Just try to imagine a world without birds.
Within fifteen minutes, it was nearly over, and I was left with just the intermittent chirp of a house sparrow.

Dawn Chorus events in Dorset:

Dorchester
Dawn Chorus Walk
13th May
5 to 7am
Dorchester walking festival
Shillingstone, Blandford.
Dawn Chorus Walk with Breakfast
13th May
4.30 to 6.30am
The CRT
Radipole Lake
Nearly the Dawn Chorus with Breakfast Pastry
14th May
7 to 9am
The RSPB
Arne
Not Quite the Dawn Chorus with Breakfast
7th, 13th and 21st May
7 to 9am
The RSPB

Sizzling success in Stalbridge

By

Editorial team

-

8 May 2023

0

More than a butcher – Rachael Rowe highlights Else’s vibrant barbecue, hog roast and catering enterprise celebrated for its exceptional quality

Roger Else opened Else Family Butchers on Stalbridge High Street in 1994. Roger’s son Julian and his wife Heidi added a successful outdoor catering side to the butchery 20 years ago, with hog roasts, lamb roasts, barbecues and also sit-down meals for both private and corporate clients. They took over the family business in 2012.
‘Obviously the butchery has always sold barbecue foods,’ says Julian. ‘We’ve recently taken things a step further. Broil King is an American company selling gas, pellet and charcoal barbecues. We’ve started doing demonstrations for them and selling their range. I also give butchery talks for them.’
An impressive barbecue is set up inside the shop, complete with a range of accessories – with the number of bank holiday celebrations this month, this feels like smart marketing.

Inside the Else Family Butchers shop
All images: Rachael Rowe

Butchery and barbecue
Julian says the barbecue standards are his year-round bestsellers – the homemade sausages and burgers don’t wait for barbecue season.
‘But we’ll do a lot of marinades and barbecue packs between now and the autumn. Our ‘3 for £10’ range is always very popular, and we people love our steaks (all hung for a minimum of 28 days). In the summer months the Tomahawk steak is massive hit for barbecues, and ribeye is a particular family favourite all year round. With such a barbecue-friendly core range, it just made sense to sell the barbecues, grills and accessories too.’

Talking hog (roast)
Coincidentally, the BV team members – all attending separately – opted unanimously for an Else’s hog roast pork roll for lunch at the recent Spring Countryside Show. Else’s are a well-known stand at local fairs and events, and the queue is never short for their soft rolls filled with tender roasted pork, mouthwatering crackling, stuffing and apple sauce. It’s always worth the wait.
‘We have just come back from a weekend of hog roasts at Teddy Rocks, the charity three-day music festival in Blandford.’ says Julian. ‘We do a lot of corporate events, shows and we do private parties too. And for people organising their own catering we have the supplies instead – for the coronation weekend, for example, we have a brilliant barbecue pack and 10 per cent off our sausages.
’It’s a simple formula, you just start with the right basic ingredients. For us on the hog roast, that’s locally-produced free range pork. We get ours from Prestige Pork in Taunton. Our lamb is from Thornhill Farm here in Stalbridge. We have west country beef and the bacon comes from Wiltshire. You supporting local farmers.
‘The charcoal for the barbecues is ethical and local too, from Dorset Charcoal (see this month’s A Country Living to learn more).

Else’s year-round bestsellers are their homemade sausages and burgers

Tough in the high street
Looking at the challenges of the business since he took over, Julian says simply staying put has been the most difficult.
‘It is hard to remain on the high street as an independent butcher, with all the competition. People have cut back for sure, everyone’s shopping to a budget now of course. But I would say that people should look at the price per kilo instead of the final price you see in a supermarket. It’s sometimes cheaper in your local butcher’s shop – and you always know exactly what you’re buying! COVID was really good for us, actually, because people had slowed down. They were taking the time to shop locally.
‘We’ve worked very hard over the last 30 years. When you hear the Else name, people associate it with quality food and good service. I’m proud of that. Along the way I’ve had the opportunity to work with my dad – not many people are that lucky.
I’m also really proud of the way Heidi and I work as a team. Since she joined me she’s really taken the catering to the next level.
But it’s the whole team that really makes us what we are – right down to the event servers and those handing out hog roast rolls in a windy field. Our reputation is built by every single member of the team; great service is so important to us. We don’t advertise, all our business is through recommendations.’

Julian now gives demonstrations and butchery talks for Broil King, and sells their range of barbecues and accessories

Else Family Butchers,
High Street, Stalbridge
elsefamilybutchers.co.uk
See latest news and offers on Facebook: Else Family Butchers

Not in Stalbridge…
If you’re not a local to Stalbridge, Else’s also supply some local village shops:
Okeford Fitzpaine
Village Stores
Old Chapel Stores, Buckland Newton
Brewery Farm Shop, Ansty
Robin Hill Stores, Marnhull
Child Okeford Village Shop
Red Barn, Hazelbury Bryan

Here comes the colour …

By

Editorial team

-

8 May 2023

0

The Thorngrove team are loving the seasonal rush of colour, and they’re ready to help you make the most of your garden says Kelsi-Dean Buck

The April showers have been keeping us on our toes; along with some last bits of chilly weather it’s sometimes been feeling like spring has struggled to get a foothold this season! When it’s been good, though, wow has it been good! We mentioned last month how nice it is to be properly back into gardening mode and that feeling definitely continues as we move into May.
The spring colours have been really bringing the courtyard to life here at Thorngrove; we’re loving the geraniums, phlox, tulips and there’s also a range of bedding and basket plants in the form of petunias and more! We’ve been sharing some lovely photos and video on our social media so do come and give our pages on Facebook and Instagram a follow if you haven’t already.
Our plant of the month for April was the lupins and these should be flowering very soon … along with the roses! The glasshouses are currently full of vegetable plants for your own veg garden – carrots, shallots, onions and such. Plus we have ready-made baskets, pots, troughs, garden ornaments and more instant spring garden additions.

Open Day
Coming up in May here at Thorngrove – outside of the seasonal plants – we’re turning our attention to our Employ My Ability Open Days which will be taking place on the 16th and 17th of May. As many of our visitors will known, our garden centre also operates as a campus for young people with special educational needs and disabilities who study and gain valuable work experience here on site. Many of our students have become recognisable as a key part of the teams in our café, and garden centre shop. If you, or anyone you know, might benefit from a first hand look at the opportunities we offer, please do get in touch, or spread the word. We’ve love to welcome you on our open days and show you what EMA is all about.

May half term
The ever-popular Children’s Crafts Days will return for May half term – keep an eye on our website and social media for full details on that. We’re open every bank holiday, and there’s always someone on hand to help you make the most of your garden space. Of course, The Secret Garden Café is waiting to serve you, too. The perfect stop in Gillingham this May.
See you all soon!

Some colour in the herd

By

Editorial team

-

8 May 2023

0

It’s been an eventful calving season for George Hosford, with surprise outdoor deliveries, red calves, and eight born during a Six Nations match

Cows and calves enjoying some spring sunshine

This year’s calving romped along at a great pace. The 21 heifers all finished weeks ago, and are in the yards with their calves. The main herd started at the beginning of March and over the following weeks popped them out at a good rate. The busiest day saw eight born – and yes, of course it was a Saturday, during the Six Nations rugby tournament. Doug and Brendan had to sort and tag 10 calves on the day, before they got muddled and we lost sight of who belonged to which cow. The little fellow below demonstrates clearly why we decided to bring in a Hereford bull, Theo, as a change from our 100 per cent (black) Angus. He’s irresistible with that white face, red body and fluttery eyelashes.
We didn’t really need to write the bull’s name on her tag, but it has become a habit, avoiding any embarrassing partnerships two years down the line when we bring new heifers into the herd.
Our other bull, Mr Red, is a recessive Red Angus, and he has produced some lovely coloured calves too, bringing even more visual variety into the herd. It will take a cleverer person than I, though, to properly explain the genetics of the recessive Red Angus. Suffice to say he will throw calves of different colours depending on the colour genes carried by the mother!

One of new Hereford bull Theo’s ‘irresistible calves with white faces, red bodies and fluttery eyelashes’.

Surprise deliveries
Recently we had to turf out a pen full of cows into a nearby paddock so that we could use their pen for sorting out the youngstock. They have been outdoors all winter, but have now run out of grub, having worked their way across all the cover crop fields, munching off the mixed species covers at approx 1.2 hectares per day.
This meant that we could, in theory, get on and sow the barley that will follow the cover crop – except that the unusually wet March prevented any tractor action in the fields for weeks.
The youngstock were heading one way, out to a field where we could feed them silage, and the older cows were heading across the farm towards the river meadows, where there is a little new grass.
While the cows were outside, enjoying a very thin bite of grass on a brisk day, two of them decided to calve. Just two hours I left them alone …

The handler must be washed between moving muck and grain

Wet tyres at short notice
The cows get mucked out a couple of times during the winter (to make sure they don’t end up jumping over the gates or banging their heads on the roof of their shed …). The muck gets hauled out to the fields, where it will be composted with woodchip, anaerobic digestate and maybe some green trimmings before being spread as fertiliser in the autumn.
It can be tricky juggling the handler if we have muck to move and grain lorries to load because you can’t just drive from the cow shed, covered in muck, to the grain store (see image above right).
It takes at least half an hour to wash it thoroughly, and then the grain will stick to the tyres if they’re still wet. They’ll then carry the grain outside and spread it all over the yard. Because of this, we do try to avoid mucking out when lorries are due. However, some of the grain merchants can be a bit ‘short notice’ with their collections (or perhaps it is the haulier, it’s hard to tell).
One unfortunate driver had to wait rather too long recently after a misunderstanding with his boss. We had cows temporarily outside, making a field muddy, and the clock was ticking for getting the mucking out finished before dark. The new straw bedding needed to be spread before the handler could be released for washing and loading – and yes, then it had wet tyres anyway.

Goat willow
The 22/23 winter hedge planting campaign has at last drawn to a close. Our target was 1,700 metres of new hedge, plus a quantity of gapping up where we’ve coppiced off some old and gappy hedge under our Stewardship scheme.
With the aid of a team of very keen helpers from Durweston, and others from Bristol, we’ve managed to plant around 12,000 plants, as the weather has allowed, over the winter months. Most of it needed fencing in to keep cattle and marauding deer out! That kept Gary and Brendan busy, when crops and cattle allowed, for weeks.
It is great to see that some of the earliest planted whips are already leafing up and flowering. The ‘pussy willow’ catkins of the Goat Willow looked good but are now fully leafed. The cat paw-like catkins indicate a male plant, and it is to be hoped that we also planted some female ones, so that fertilisation and fruiting may occur.
The female flowers are far less showy, but do offer plenty of nectar to attract insects that, with luck, will bear the pollen on their bodies in order to successfully pollinate.

A new barn guest
Hopefully, we’ll have fewer mouse problems in the combine this year. Who knows where the character in the image below came from? But he’s welcome to stay. Together with the resident owl, his presence will hopefully result in reduced rodent pressure for us!

Sponsored by Trethowans – Law as it should be

Lewis-Manning Hospice Care’sKing’s Coronation Tea Party!

By

Editorial team

-

8 May 2023

0

Thursday 11th May 2023 – 2pm-4pm

56 Longfleet Road Poole, BH15 2JD

Help us to celebrate this moment in history with our community and volunteers. Enjoy delicious treats, take part in a tombola, browse patient crafts, play bingo & learn about our volunteering opportunities.

Special guest Maggie the Seaside Baker!

lewis-manning.org.uk

01202 708470

Small shop, big heart, long week

By

Editorial team

-

8 May 2023

0

The Vale Pantry in Sturminster Newton is a new breed of community service, offering food and practical help to those who are struggling

Tucked away in a back street of Stur is the Vale Pantry. The vibrant little community supermarket currently supports 360 families and opens its doors six days a week to all those who find themselves struggling to manage. Forty willing volunteers work cheerfully, offering not just an affordable full shopping basket but a listening ear, empathy and practical support too.
Some ask how hard can it really be – it’s just a shop, after all. Deliveries in, stack the shelves and send people on their way with the means to make some meals.
Local councillor Carole Jones has been involved with the Pantry since its inception, and she’s keen to explain why ‘just a shop’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Says Carole:

As I try and bring you along for a pretty standard week at the Pantry, perhaps think about how many individual items we need* – excluding fruit and veg – to do what we do on a weekly basis.
Our van is off the road this week. We rather suspect it didn’t know what it had signed up for – and is formally protesting. But we had committed to collecting much-needed supplies (donated by a foodbank, if you can believe it), so the first job of the week is to persuade a merry band of cars to collect a haul of staples: beans, tomatoes and anything else that is offered. These are then distributed around the various businesses that kindly allow us storage space!

Strawberry love
While chatting to one customer who is in desperate need of a Citizen’s Advice appointment, a call comes in from the shop – we haven’t any carrots left. We can’t be without, of course, so carrots are promptly purchased. As we finish storing the last of the foodbank donation, the phone goes again – this time it’s an elderly customer struggling to find (and afford) a much-needed chiropodist. We can help with that. While on the phone, we’re also asked to contact the church to try cutting the trees. I will admit we are many things, but oddly, tree surgeon is not on the list.
The evening team of collectors from the local supermarkets is out in force across the area throughout the week. I get a call at 9pm: ‘I’m at Tesco – they have offered us 400 punnets of in-date Strawberries. Do we want them?’
A big fat yes please, obviously – who knew you could be so excited about strawberries?
However, the volunteer there to collect them drives a tiny Smart car; possibly the least likely vehicle on the road to transport 400 punnets of strawberries.
The next morning The Pantry looks like Spitalfields fruit market. I wonder how on earth we are going to get rid of this many strawberries.
We have the busiest morning of the week, the sun is shining, we are rocking the strawberries … but the stack doesn’t appear to be diminishing.
We decide to head to Nazareth Lodge to share the strawberry love. The car is already loaded with food to deliver to those without transport, but we can’t simply drive past those who we know would appreciate a few strawberries – the bin man, the local lollipop lady and the little lady walking her dog all get a punnet.
Next stop is Sherborne, to the couple who collect from Waitrose for us. We talk about a homeless man – he gets well looked after by the locals with food, he has a phone, £500 in his pocket from selling The Big Issue (this is what modern day homelessness looks like) and he has a pleasant disposition. But no one will give him a roof over his head. Our volunteers put the call in to me, and within 48hrs we help change this chap’s life.
Next there’s a Pantry member who is expected to find a way to get to his mental health appointment some 15 miles away. He has no transport – how does he do this without help? We go back and pick him up – and on the way we pick up five trays of bread from Sainsburys and 40 dozen eggs from the farm that supplies us.
We pass through Henstridge, and know that visitors to the Honesty Jar would love some of the strawberries and bread, so we drop some in on the way through. Then it’s time to get the evening orders in for the shop tomorrow – and while we’re doing it, a local grandmother puts a shout out for some premature-sized nappies that she can’t find. We can do that too. Suddenly it’s 7pm – but Tom at the Marnhull Spar is always good for coffee …

Cllr Carole Jones outside the Vale Pantry

Posh turkeys
Next day, a local school trip had perfect timing – more strawberries gone! It’s also the day our visitors with disabilities come and load our shelves. One of the young men with autism loves to bag the bread rolls outside, come rain or shine. He also loves the pizza he takes home for tea!
We mentor a young girl in the shop. She has been challenged by the care system, and she is a bag-full of mischief, but she had a wonderful breakthrough this week. For the first time in her life she cooked an entire meal!
The week doesn’t end there – in fact it’s a bit of a turkey. The Dorset Meat Company has a donation for us (we’ll not discuss the sat nav taking us to a coffin maker instead!).
We had presumed a car would be fine to collect 20 turkeys; but no. These are posh turkeys, all in boxes with thermometers. Jamie Oliver, no less.
Thankfully the van is now back on the road, so we can at least transport them. A call goes in to one of our volunteers (who thought she was safe starting to unwind for the weekend) – we have 20 turkeys with no homes!
We can do this. The almost 5kg turkeys are a family affair, so the calls begin. A few can collect, but for most, money for fuel is tight. How many meals can they get out of a turkey? And what a treat … So we go again, but instead of strawberries it’s Turkeys on Tour. Thankfully we leave the birds with some very happy families who are planning their first weekend roast in a while.
Of course, on top of the constant treadmill of food in and out, there is the invisible, out-of-hours work. Bids and grants need applying for, a seemingly never-ending job (it’s expensive to run the Pantry). But thanks to the team this week, two families are now getting some much-needed wrap-around care, eight members have had face to face appointments with a fabulous Citizen’s Advisor and a new freezer was purchased with the help of the Rotary Club.
We simply couldn’t do this without the help of the whole community.

Run entirely by volunteers, the Vale Pantry offers memberships to any family that is struggling financially. Members may visit once a week and pay £6 on each visit before choosing the food they would like for the week ahead. The foods available include fresh fruit and veg, chilled and frozen produce and store cupboard essentials. A typical weekly shop taken home is worth between £25 and £50.
For more details, email [email protected] or call 07968 348481

*The answer is 3,264. That’s the number of items we need weekly, not including fruit and veg.

Small shoots and old stores | The Voice of the Allotment

By

Editorial team

-

7 May 2023

0

The last of the crops are only just harvested, but Barry Cuff is already eating fresh salad as he watches the new crop begin

Fresh salads: spicy leaf mixes and tender pea shoots from the greenhouse, lettuce and radish from under cloches. Image: Barry Cuff

We had very varied weather all through April with a blackthorn winter* setting in mid month to coincide with the flowering of the bushes. But it was not as cold as some years, despite winds from the North and East, and there were fewer frosts than usual. The coldest occurred on the 4th April, and this one killed our skulkers.** We rely on these for a few early meals of new potatoes; they are left in the ground to dig as required unless they are in the way of any new crop sowing and planting. However, within 20 days of the frost, new growth had appeared and as the ground is not required till early June we hope to have new spuds ahead of the 2023 planted crop!
Apart from a few wet days we were able to work on the plot with no damage to the soil. By the third week of April we had harvested the last of our 2022 vegetables, the leeks, parsnips and purple sprouting broccoli.
We now have to rely on stored produce; beans and peas from the freezer and squash, onions and potatoes from the garage. We still have small amounts of six potato varieties – Picasso, Elfe, Sagitta, Charlotte, Royal and Rooster – and all are still in good condition. Our onions should last to around the middle of May, but we cut into our last Crown Prince squash. Still in perfect condition, it was excellent roasted.

A new season
For salads we have spicy leaf mixes and tender pea shoots from the greenhouse and are cropping lettuce (Little Gem) and radish (French Breakfast) which are growing under cloches.
We have potted up about 60 tomatoes in the greenhouses. These were sown on the 14th and we pricked them out on the 25th March.
We have now sown celery, celeriac, chervil, parsley, leeks and Brussels sprouts in the greenhouse. The onions sown in March are ready for planting out – just as soon as the weather warms up!
On the plot, the broad beans are in flower and we have sown two lines of peas plus some carrot and beetroot. All of our potatoes apart from the earlies were planted during the month.
Hopefully May will bring warmer weather – it is one of the main months for establishing this year’s crop.

*an old English name for a spell of cold weather in spring or early summer, when the blackthorn is flowering
** skulkers are ‘volunteer’ potatoes accidentally left in the ground from the previous year.