Is it wrong to be thinking about chocolate when you’re out for a walk? The reason I’m saying this is that last night we visited our trees that were planted a few years ago – if you have followed us for a while then you may remember them; we planted hazel trees, oak trees, holly trees, sweet chestnuts and many more. In fact, we planted a few thousand trees and dug a pond and it’s become rather a wildlife haven too. I heard my first skylark there and I’ve shared a few photos of the trees and pond over the years, and how it has developed. Tonight, however, on our visit I noticed a development, much to my delight! The hazel trees are starting to produce fruit, well cobnuts to be precise. I’ve looked it up and cobnuts are commercial hazelnuts, but ones that are grown to be eaten before they...

It’s been said again and again “What a Year 2020 has been”, well, 2020 is now consigned to the History Books, thankfully, and here’s hoping that 2021 will be the year for recovery both for the economy and our freedom thanks to the vaccine that is being rolled out throughout the UK. Its been an unusual year here on the farm and a year of some firsts too.  The weather has not been kind to us or the crops sadly, the drought that arrived with the first lockdown lasted for over  three months, during the vital growing season so that our crops didn’t receive the best start which was sadly reflected in our harvest. Then when the rain arrived it was so untimely, right during the harvest and planting time for our Winter crops. It feels like it has rained every day since September, the fields are sodden and will take...