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The somewhat strained look on my face is because
I was trying to hold the trophy, the whopping great mangel
and take a selfie!
This was taken a few years back.
I didn't grow mangels one year, but every other the
Jeff Yates Mangel Shield has sat proudly on my mantelpiece.
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Mangel or Mangold Wurzels are a traditional fodder crop, a member of the beet family. They are hardly grown for that purpose these days, but I like to keep the tradition going. Pigs, sheep and chickens all love them. They are an easy and attractive crop to grow.
On top of that, the Smallholders Club has an annual mangel growing competition. Participation is sadly less and less each year, but I still take great delight in seeing the trophy sitting on my mantelpiece.
But the last online supplier of the variety I have always grown, Brigadier, has ceased trading on line and no longer stocks the seeds.
I've even emailed the committee of the mangel hurling society to try to source them, but it is increasingly looking like I will, at the very least, have to change varieties. I'm not sure the sheep are going to be too happy.
Rhubarb awakes from its dormancy
While I was pottering about today I noticed that the rhubarb bed was coming back to life for the spring. The soft new growth will get knocked back a few times by the frosts. This happens every year but it doesn't seem to harm the plants. I could trying mulching them with straw, but that would just harbour slugs and the chickens would scratch it away anyway.
I might try forcing a couple of plants this year, just using inverted black dustbins.
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