Hands and feet in the soil - thoughts for December (From Smallholder)

Hands and feet in the soil - thoughts for December

7:04pm Tuesday 22nd November 2011 in Editor's Blog

I’ve recently returned from a week in Holland where I was privileged to go with our local secondary school as a helper. And what has this to do with smallholding you are wondering? From the moment we left the ferry at the Hook of Holland I was getting increasingly excited about the excellent welfare of the Dutch livestock. Field after field of goats were not only loose in the field (no tethering) but also had houses on stilts and a selection of play things in their field, logs, platforms and so on. The fields were quite small, less than an acre but were spotlessly clean and full of interest for the goats. Speaking to my hosts in Holland they told me that animal welfare is taken very seriously indeed. I’d love to see more goats kept like this in the UK as they are intelligent and playful animals that need stimulation but so often they are tethered or in a plain grass field with no enrichment. My hosts kindly took me to the poultry Museum in Holland at Barneveld. I think they were a bit surprised at my huge delight in finding myself staying so close to both the museum and Dutch towns and villages known only to me in poultry breeds. Overberg for example, was just up the road and is known for its utility breed duck. Barneveld is famous for its Barnevelder hens, beautiful to look at and good layers of lovely brown eggs. The Poultry Museum was all I had hoped it would be and more with a terrific display showing the development of poultry through history up to the present day. I was surprised to see that in the early 1800s 60 eggs a year was about the average. Now my back yard hybrids are laying up to 300 eggs a year if well fed and housed – without additional lighting. The display of incubators was also impressive from a very basic basket arrangement with the heat underneath to the present day mega incubators. Outside there were live chickens in the form of Dutch breeds, all beautifully kept and in a stunning range of colours.

On the day we visited the Museum was hosting an egg frying competition where competitors selected cheeses, meats and vegetables to achieve the best background for their perfect fried egg.

Hands and feet on the soil Smallholders in Holland are called hobby farmers which is not meant at all in a detrimental way as it so often is over here. In France, a home gardening magazine is called the Potager which in translation means soup maker but actually is also taken to mean the home gardener who is keen on the environment. Their editorial for Autumn is boldly headed “Mon potager ignore la crise!” which roughly translated means “ Grow your own enthusiasts ignore the crisis!” It’s the same for us in Britain in that smallholders and gardeners are coping with the economic challenges by planting more vegetables and raising more food. I particularly liked the sentence in the editorial which I don’t think I have ever used but is so appropriate and evocative, “metre les mains dans la terre” - “putting your hands in the earth” quite literally. It goes on to say that the results of all this work are “good humour, modesty plus plenty of satisfaction with your feet firmly on the earth and your head in the galaxy of gourmets”. I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Here on my smallholding we have almost prepared for the winter. It’s difficult to know if the predictions of extreme cold will come true this year. As with most smallholders I am a weather expert, having in depth knowledge of seasons from years ago and I can recall writing in Smallholder about our series of very wet winters. At the moment the memory of the freezing weather and snow in the more recent couple of winters are in my mind so I have tried to prepare for both possibilities. But my Exmoor ponies clearly have their money on a very cold winter and have already grown winter coats of gargantuan proportions in preparation. I’ve recently bought a new poultry house for my laying hens which is snugger but well ventilated with a very large run (and they come out every evening as well into the yard). My POLs are almost all sold and the remaining cockerels are destined for the freezer. The bees have their fondant within reach of the clusters for the winter and I currently have two strong colonies (one that we took four supers of honey off) and one slightly dodgy colony – not sure if they have a queen but at this point in the year I shall feed them and hope they sort themselves out. The garden needs a bit of a sort out but I want to be sure to leave plenty of cover for wildlife including bugs and bees. I always think fondly of the long dark evenings for reading and catching up with things like sorting seeds or organising the pantry but in reality I tend to come in and fall asleep in front of the television and the fire, cat on lap. But there is Christmas to look forward to. Follow Smallholder on Facebook and Twitter to find out how (or if!) we enjoy our countryside Christmas!