A helping hand with the harvest

Now here are some happy snaps from Christmas. Sorry I’m a bit slow with these reports; I have been madly trying to write copy for the new website.

But every time I go out and pick some rocket for my salad, I think of Lauren sitting down and picking bowls and bowls of the peppery leaves for our meals.

I sowed these seeds in the summer last year, planted them out in autumn and have just permitted them to set seed and hopefully provide me with an early crop next spring.

But all autumn and early winter have been feasting. And I do so love the flowers in salad as well.

I did think the leaves would have been zapped by the hard frosts; but they are still poking up above the ground and giving a bit of lunch pickings. It’s not a massive crop; but any greens at this time of year is cheering.

And here is another action shot of our other crop of the winter: sticks. Every winter you can find me (and any house guests) in the forests up to the east and north of the house. Those keen to make a noise and be manly, can cut down trees. But I prefer to harvest branches and sticks for my garden.

I am bulding up a huge pile of long straight chestnut poles and sticks for the potager structures. And here you can see the branches that are just perfect for chipping.

I just place a large tarpaulin close to the edge of the forest and pile them on. And two people can easily drag a tarp full of branches down to the stables with much less heaving and sighing than when I’m on my own.