October 2011 Archives

Here's our second guest blog post on Field Day. It's a piece by part-time farmer and part-time farm consultant Michael Blanche. Michael, who lives near Perth, is a first generation farmer who has 600 ewes "miles from home" and has "struggled to get a proper tenancy".

"One of the only things I have that is significantly larger than average is my carbon footprint.

In the last five years, I've travelled the equivalent of twice the circumference of the globe just to see my sheep.

I am a first generation farmer and have 600 ewes, all on seasonal lets. I live near Perth and my sheep live near Stirling. It's a long distance relationship but we try to make it work. That's twice round the world, just to get to the same position where an established farmer walks out his farmhouse door. A sign of my determination or mental illness? The voices in my head are negotiating with both my personalities, but have still to agree.

It is very tempting to blame the system for the lack of a farming ladder in the UK. I once stood up at a farmers' meeting to moan about things. I started with the line "My sheep are 35 miles from home" as quick as a flash the chairman, Jim McLaren, retorted with: "I think you need better fences, Michael."

I was taking things too seriously. Recently I've learnt to revel in my situation - I'm very lucky really.

What on earth, you might well wonder, is this woman doing?

Rachel blogged a while back about a potato shaped like a teddy bear. Well, not to be outdone, I thought I'd share this photo of a potato shaped like a tortoise.

Obviously if you have any pictures of unusually shaped vegetables, you know where I am...

You wouldn't think the occupants of Downton Abbey would be preoccupied with internet access, would you.

Hugh Bonneville, star of the hit TV series, is supporting a campaign to get rural areas better online services.

The Can't Get Online Week roadshow, which starts on October 30 and is sponsored by the CLA, will tour rural communities across England to highlight the difficulties they face.

Hugh, who plays the Earl of Grantham lives 40 miles south of London in a village with a "pretty pathetic" broadband connection and wants infrastructure companies to give the countryside a chance.

He says: "I yearn for a connection that just stays on, never mind one that goes at the speed of light.

"I'd love to run aspects of my work from home; I'd love to sign up for services that stream content but the connection's just too unreliable. Some days I can't even send an email and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it.

"Ironically, the best broadband connection I've experienced was a lot further than 40 miles from London - it was in Liberia."

Amazing footage this - although it may put you off ever riding a bike in the countryside again.

It shows a mountain biker being taken out by a Red Hartebeest in South Africa. The key moment is about seven seconds into the clip (although there are slow-motion replays later).

A North East restaurant is stepping up its efforts to be self-sufficient under the guidance of its owner's 11-year old son.

Charlie Hird, whose parents Mark and Nicola own the Italian Farmhouse at West Rainton, is currently raising a herd of pigs, which will ultimately supply meat to the County Durham eatery, as well as being sold to customers' direct.

Keen on photography?

Well you'll be interested to know that the Farmers Weekly Photography Competition 2011 is now open for entries. Good luck and happy snapping.

• Sneak out after dark and indulge in the old night-time sport of 'scrumping'  (stealing apples from the tree)
  
  
• Make a list of British apple varieties with enchanting names. I'll start you off with the Barnack Beauty, Nutmeg Pippin and, my personal favourite, the Knobby Russet
  
  
• Fill up a bucket with water and go apple bobbing
  
  
• Set up a cider making enterprise in your garage/shed/barn/bedroom. Or if this sounds a tad labour intensive for a Friday afternoon then...
  
  
• ...go to your local and buy a pint of cider
  
  
• Read David Bellamy's apple day celebration on the Huffington Post
  
  
• Send a tweet using the hashtag #nationalappleday
  
  
• Bake an apple pie for a loved one
  
  
• Bake an apple pie for yourself
  
  
• Ponder the scenario that caused these three retro lovelies to pose with a basket of apples in a 1958 edition of the Daily Mail:
  

The Churned 'Forever' Song Lyrics

I could have gone astray
Not listened to my heart
But every time I'm tempted
I go back to the start
There's no harm in our pure and natural farming
We are as one with the countryside

CHORUS:
Yeo Valley
Naturally
We won't change, no never
We'll farm this way forever and ever
Yeo Valley

Family farming
Has been the driving factor
Ploughing to the future
Aboard a shiny tractor
So listen up people, take after me
Be a little funky, choose the West Country

CHORUS

We're not a passing fad
We don't change by the seasons
We always respect nature
Just ask our happy friesians
In your eyes, I see our fate
We'll live here forever, just off the A368

CHORUS

Lady Gaga clearly has a thing about farming.

A while back she rocked up at a music industry bash wearing a meat dress, then recently she appeared on the Jonathan Ross show with a sheep. In fact, she'd given the whole set a farm theme, complete with bales of straw to sit on.

Inspired or ridiculous? You decide... 

Photo: Brian J Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex Features.

It's obviously more widespread than I'd previously thought - taking ducks or chickens into the bath.

First there was the lady who did it for the Poultry Club of Great Britain's calendar, now news reaches me of this guy who's done it for the 2012 Irish Farmers Calendar.

If you have a photograph of someone in a bath with some poultry, do get in touch. I think this could catch on...

Quick tip off. Farmers Weekly is going to be launching its annual photography competition soon and this year the prizes will be bigger and better than ever before - they'll include a super camera.

So get snapping and dust down some of your recently taken shots. More details will follow shortly and, meanwhile, here is a reminder of the shots that most impressed the judges last year.

I know it's only halfway through October, so if you don't want to read a Christmas-related blog post you better look away now.

I see Yeo Valley's 'Churned' video, which we've been busy blogging about here on Field Day, has already been watched nearly a quarter of a million times on YouTube. 

Here's what the BBC and The Independent have to say about it...

A man reading Farmers Weekly in front of Ayres Rock in Australia. As you do.

It's just one of the entries in our FW on Tour competition. Here's how you can enter.

We put the call out on Field Day last month for guest bloggers and, wow, what a response.

Kate Foley, a 22-year-old living on the family farm in Northumberland, had read about Land Rover's plans to release a new version of the Defender in 2015 and wanted to write in praise of the original Defender. Here's what she's got to say:

We're watching the television, watching some outdoorsy bloke drive across some rough fell ground.

"What's that he's driving? What's that?" says my Dad. "Can't be a Defender." A pause, and then "It's not like ours."

But it is a Land Rover Defender; unusual-looking enough to fool a man who has owned one or another of them for 30 years, but perhaps not as unusual as we first thought.

For many people, a Defender is a blank canvas. For some it remains that way through the years, but there are those who view it's solid simplicity as an opportunity.

Few are the days when you do not see a Defender or two on the roads, and no two are ever the same. Lights, canopies, mud guards, wheels, tires, doors, interiors - all are open to updates.

But no updates are actually necessary, and this has undoubtedly helped to make it one of Land Rover's most enduring and recognisable vehicles, and to sell more than two million of them since its release in 1948.

I am sure there are many more noble callings for a Defender than being an all-purpose taxi, battering ram, agricultural pick-up and tup-transporter, as ours is.

They have been used all over the world by people in all walks of life, from exploration to aid missions, and not for nothing: the Defender is viewed as a real off-roader, a hard-wearing and long-lasting vehicle, well able to stand up to some abuse in harsh conditions.

You know we were getting excited last week about the imminent arrival of the new Yeo Valley video. Well here it is.

Find out more about the video and read the song's full lyrics.

Watch a short film about the making of The Churned's video. 

Watch the 2010 Yeo Valley rap.

What's knobbly, edible, found in soil and an utterly bizarre shape?

The answer: This potato harvested at Riverford Organics at Newby Wiske, North Yorkshire.

Jake Richardson reckons the large and very oddly shaped spud could take the prize for the most peculiar one harvested this year. Or have you seen another contender?

The team behind one of last year's internet hits - the Yeo Valley rapping farmers - is about to launch a new ad featuring a farming-inspired boy band The Churned.

Rachel first blogged a couple of days ago about how Yeo Valley Organic have made the two-minute film, which will air for the first time tomorrow (October 8) during The X Factor.

A farmer's son who saved his dad from a rampaging bull has won the Child of Courage award at the 2011 Pride of Britain awards.

Tom Phillips was presented his prize by TV presenters Ant and Dec at a glittering ceremony which was shown on ITV on Wednesday (5 Oct).

A Suffolk farmer who recreated a World War One battlefield on his farm saw it play a starring role in the blockbuster TV series Downton Abbey.

Now this is a name I like - munchkin pumpkins.

It's the first year that the tiny veg, the size of the palm of your hand, have been grown by Guy and Emily French at Foxes Farm Produce near Colchester in Essex.

Remember this picture that I blogged about a while back?

Well the auction's happened - and guess how much it made?

£7000.

Say hello to Aly Balsom. Aly's FW's deputy livestock editor. She's been kind enough to write a guest post for Field Day:

We've all been there. Whether it's dinner out with a family member or a hard-done-by partner, the question always pops up: "Why can't you cook like this at home?"

Well according to celebrity chef Brian Turner, we now have less excuses as to why whipping up a restaurant-standard meal is out of reach.

Speaking at the launch of Farmison.com - a new boxed food delivery service aimed at discerning 'foodies' - the Ready Steady Cook presenter explained how shoppers can now get hold of British produce that was traditionally only available to top chefs.

The company has access to a host of rare and native breeds, along with fine artisanal cheeses and greengrocer products - all of which can be delivered UK-wide, all accompanied with an in-depth description of the farm they came from.

Camilla Jackson hit the headlines in 2002 when she rode topless through part of London in protest at the proposed hunting ban (she was known by some afterwards as 'the Countryside Alliance's Lady Godiva').

She's now back in the news for another reason: she's holding her first solo art exhibition, Tethered.

Lady Gaga caused controversy whne she wore a meat dress to a music bash last year, but there's been even more outrage about this - a dress made from cow and yak nippes.