We only went and won it! Delighted to say that we are now the proud winners of the LEAF-Bayer Farming Primary Partnership award! This award “celebrates a farm that has built and continues to build a successful relationship with primary schools (5-11 year olds) and makes a valuable and sustained contribution to school life, both on and away from the … Read More
Autumn drilling update
The oil seed rape went in to the ground relatively easily and on time, this year. The dry conditions made things fairly straightforward, although the flea beetle seem to have had other ideas. The dry weather, however, continued, so we started drilling winter wheat and barley later than usual and only when there was a chance of some rain. Of … Read More
Farmers Weekly interview
Farmers Weekly were keen to catch up with James last week, as Nonington Farms was probably one of the first farms in the country to start harvesting oil seed rape. To read the article in full click here: https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/harvest/harvest-2019-oilseed-rape-combining-kicks-off-in-kent
Recipes
At Seedlings we enjoyed learning and picking wild garlic, which is in abundance during the spring, when the leaves start spreading out under the leaf-less canopy on the woodland floor. The leaves are obvious to distinguish due to their garlicy smell, but if you’re uncertain, rub the leaf between your fingers and then smell your fingers. Wild garlic leaves can … Read More
Coppicing in the woods
Our coppicing programme is nearly over for the year. We have coppiced a few hectares of woodland, as we do every year. This means cutting down trees such as hazel and chestnut to the ground. By doing this we allow light to get on to the woodland floor, enabling flowers such as bluebells and garlic to thrive. Cutting down the … Read More
Spring Drilling
At the moment we are putting some crops in the ground. They are going in during the Spring, so it’s known as spring drilling. These crops include spring wheat, barley and beans. We are also trying out oats for the first time too. Now that the weather is warming up after the winter, the soil temperatures are also rising. So … Read More
April showers on the lambing field
April started on Easter Sunday this year, for us a fairly typical bright Spring day with the Easter bunny depositing eggs around the churchyard: so far, nothing unusual. But this April has been anything but typical. In the space of a month we have had a season’s worth of rainfall falling in a day, and temperatures peaking for one short … Read More