News from the farm :

The Joy of Living Oh, the wild joys of living! the leaping from rock up to rock, The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver shock Of the plunge in a pool’s living water, the hunt of the bear, And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lair. And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divine, And the locust-flesh steeped in the pitcher, the full draught of wine, And the sleep in the dried river-channel where the bulrushes tell that the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well. How good is man’s life, the mere living! how fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy! Robert Browning

Spring and the longer days fill us all on the farm with an increased sense of the ‘Joy of Living’ as the crops start to grow and the mud recedes.  It has been a challenging winter but now that the weather is improving there are endless jobs to do to keep ahead.  One job that is crucial to get the timing right on is the spraying of the crops so that residual weeds don’t smother the emerging crops.  At the end of last season a ‘new’ second-hand sprayer was bought but it has been having some teething problems.  Finally the manufacturers sent someone down to go through the set up procedures.  There was a degree of hilarity in the office at the coffee break after this visit.  What had been the problem?  Well apparently what needed to be done was it needed switching on…… In all fairness if you were to look at the control panels of modern tractors you would understand the difficulty, you need a degree in IT to know what you are doing!
The other job that has been taking a good deal of time lately has been the thinning of some of the woodland.  Twenty years ago areas of woodland were planted on the farm and these are maturing well.  It has now reached a stage where some trees are taken out and used for wood and others are then given room to continue growing and developing. 
In the shop we are enjoying village life and the preparation for the wedding of one of our staff.  Never a dull moment!  I am also developing a customer email data base to send a regular monthly up date from the farm with news and the monthly recipe.  So if you would like to be included on this please do email me on info@homefarmofpytchley.co.uk  Look forward to hearing from you.