Our next batch of native tree saplings has arrived. On Saturday we’ll be planting these up with a work party to create 50 metres of hedgerow.

Making dead hedges today using the brash from tree prunings. They’re great for creating habitat. This one is on the edge of one of our ponds and should provide shelter for insects, amphibians and small mammals. No need to be dragging any of this stuff off site or burning it.

Oyster mushrooms starting to pin on our low tech growing columns. A week or so and we should be inundated!

Keeping on planting fruit trees here. This winter we are establishing three traditional orchards planted within a mosaic of wildlife zones, agroforestry lanes, coppice and hedgerow habitat. We are planting apple, pear, plum, gage, medlar, quince, almond, Asian pear & mulberry.

Trees trees trees! Planting up a section of orchard with pears, apples and quince.

We’ve just been informed we have 20 fruit trees being delivered tomorrow so we’re scrambling to get organised. They are mostly local heritage variety apples and gages for our new orchard areas, but also include apricots for inside our glasshouse.

A sodden day clearing our way through old glasshouses and collapsed buildings. We’ve finished filling another skip, this is the 15th one since moving here. It’s by no means the last!

Until recently we’ve made do scrounging glass from old structures on the farm to fix up our large glasshouse. After much searching we found a great supplier of second hand glass. There’s over 100 sheets here, which should be all we need to finish the cladding. Exciting times!

We’ve begun planting up a traditional orchard with trees on vigorous rootstocks spaced much more widely than modern orchards. Long term this will provide excellent habitat while also giving us a harvest. First up its cider apples and russets

Getting on clearing out a collapsed glasshouse in our main yard. Started by picking out the worst of the glass before pulling out the main structure. We’ll likely replant this area with a thick wildlife hedge. It’s a good time of year to be getting on with these tricky jobs

We started the week by clearing the last of the bramble from the inside of our 30x30m glasshouse. It’s been a mammoth task spanning the last 4 months. Still plenty to do, not least glass replacement and clearing the roof, but a huge milestone nonetheless!

-6.4C in the glasshouse last night. Brrrr Stay toasty everyone!

First attempt at spoon carving. Not too shabby!

Spent the morning making some stuff. Here’s a ‘donker’ or a ‘bonker’ (those in the know put me right here on its actual name!) made from an off-cut of chestnut. This year we’re hoping on doing more making things. Learning some new skills and honing some old.

An evening of fire, food and stargazing at the farm. Wonderful to be able to share this place with some lovely people.

A few months ago we took the decision to clear the whole of our derelict glasshouse in one go, instead of doing it in stages. It’s been an enormous amount of work, but now nearly done. Massive thanks to Hannah who has doggedly plugged away at what felt like a never ending task.

Oca harvest 2025! Happy with the yield this year, couple kg off 5 plants. Ground looking great too with loads of worms and soil life. We’ll save the biggest biggest tubers to plant next season.

Kaki persimmon going into the forest garden section of our glasshouse. We’re excited to see how this one gets on. Variety: Rojo brilliante

You probably have to be a certain age to remember these snorkel parka jackets! Proper blast from the past. Found wrapped around an old water pump pipe for insulation.

It’s always a bit eerie cutting your way into an old glasshouse knowing that no one’s set foot in there for decades. This glasshouse should be an interesting one; it’s one of the closest to the house and seems to have more contents in it than others we’ve cleared out.

After a solid morning brushcutting some chill time in the hammock is in order! If anyone needs me, I’ll be dozing in the glasshouse.

Shaping up to be a pleasant day here. We’ll be strimming some access paths and plotting out new hedgerows, paths and dead hedges.

A wet and dreary one out here today. We made good headway clearing the glasshouse and hauling old equipment out of the way.

Picked up an orange and buttercream cake topped with jam made from seabuckthorn grown on the farm. This was made by our very talented local baker. Great to see some of our more unusual produce going to such good use!

Prepping new ground ready for planting. This area, which is inside our market garden fence, will be a basketry willow coppice.

A very exciting parcel has arrived! Peach and nectarine trees to plant in the glasshouse. These will form the ‘canopy’ of our forest garden and will be underplanted with a wide variety of perennial edible plants. We will also be adding apricot and persimmon trees to the mix

Some very low-tech threshing and winnowing of our home grown population wheat. A tiny harvest but incredibly satisfying. We hope to scale this up over the coming years and get more people involved at all steps of the process.

Getting asked lots of questions about how we deal with the bramble regrowth in the newly cleared glasshouse. Simple answer is when we see fresh shoots we nip the root ball out with a mattock. Look at the size of some of them! Seems to be working well so far.

We planted four cherry trees in the glasshouse today. They will be fan trained in a line right down the centre of the growing area. This will provide a crop but also dappled light to shade the annual beds either side.

Grapes and pomegranate planted in the glasshouse today. We aim to grow the grapes up in to the eaves and then train along the rafters. This will add dappled shade to plants below while also giving a harvest.

Hannah clearing bramble form the upper reaches of the glasshouse. Hard work, but satisfying when it comes down in great big slabs!

Windy old day to be tree planting. Got nearly 100 in today, mostly field maple, holly and hazel.

90 trees replanted today to replace the ones that died in the drought. These are oak and hazel for our hedgerow, coppice, and scrub blocks. Next planting session it’s field maple, holly and small leaved lime.

Nice hail of Jerusalem artichokes. We’ve struggled with growing these in the past, but this year they’ve done us proud. That’s 5.5kg off just two plants; headed off for an event on Friday with some other goodies.

Glasshouse clearance coming on well. What was once a solid wall of bramble is slowly becoming a structure. Lots of glass has blown out from the side walls so it’s a slow job removing it to the skip

Some days on the farm it’s glorious afternoons planting out trees in the autumnal sunshine. Other days it’s frustrating stop-start mornings fixing malfunctioning equipment in the drizzle! Today is one of those days; two seized hedge trimmers, a busted ignition and a stuck bolt.

Tree planting continues apace! This season we’ll be planting around 300 native trees as well as 70 fruit trees.

Headed out to RSPB Ouse Fen last night to catch up with friends and watch the starlings congregate for murmuration. Saw bittern and marsh harriers. Such a beautiful spot.

Slug and snail grazing trails on the glasshouse panes.

Agaric mushrooms, the first ones we’ve seen on the farm. Found on rabbit grazed pasture just off one of our tracks.

Now the soil has regained enough moisture we have begun this seasons tree planting. Today we put in 40 goat willow. We will be replanting 300 saplings to replace the ones that died in the drought this year, as well as 50 fruit trees to establish new areas of mixed orchard.

Here we go again! We’ve begun clearing the second half of the glasshouse. We’ve brushcut the perimeter and have cut transects through the centre of the thicket. So far no nasty surprises.

Harvested a patch of seabuckthorn. We’ll freeze these down ready for juicing later. Apparently the freezing process makes the berries drop of the viciously thorned twigs; a much easier harvest than ‘milking’ the berries off the plant into a bucket with heavy duty gloves.

Making the most of the momentum here, we’ve decided to clear out the remaining section of the glasshouse. It’s a huge undertaking, but when we’re done we’ll have 900m2 of protected growing area. What a resource!

The soil in our newly reclaimed glasshouse is in very poor condition. We made the decision to shallow till to decompact the soil and integrate amendments before sowing a fertility building cover crop. This mix of annual rye and hairy vetch seems to be establishing beautifully.

Exciting new harvest at the farm! After two years we’ve got our first crop of Sichuan pepper. These seed casing provide a fragrant, numbing lemony note that typify Sichuan dishes. We use them to make dishes such as dan dan noodles and mapo tofu.

Chilean guava have been planted in the glasshouse. These small shrubs crop a delicious fragrant fruit with a flavour just like guava. We’ve been mulching the plants with sheep’s wool and leaves that have recently fallen from our poplars.

Today’s mood: harvesting sweet chestnuts in the woods

Medlar harvest!

Harvested some sea buckthorn. We juiced it down and mixed with some apple juice. It’s a top tier fruit, imparting a sharp passion fruit type flavour and vibrant orange colour.