Unexpected Windfalls

Red Admirals are appreciating the fruity windfall too

So far this year we have had a winter with virtually no frost, we had about a foot of rain in 3 days and we had temperatures touching on 100F.

Every year has its variables but these weather extremes seem to be more and more frequent and each comes with its own challenges for growing food.

On this occasion it was strong winds that did the damage. Many plums and apples fell from the trees, but worse still was the damage to several of my plum trees. Our recent weather seems to be encouraging rapid, soft growth of new wood which does not stand up to the strong winds which often come in August when the trees are fully laden with leaves and fruits.
The trees which sustained the most damage were actually those which were not overburdened with fruit.

The damage did me one favour though. One of my plum trees went severely off piste a few years back. Basically the rootstock outgrew the grafted tree and we ended up with a huge tree which bore very little fruit. It looked good, but was growing fast and taking too much from the surrounding fruit trees.

Last week's winds literally split the trunk into four, so it was time to 'lightly prune'. Fortunately plum leaves and bark are a favourite for the Shetland sheep.

Fungal disaster avoided
Wet and warm weather is leading to more problems arising from fungal diseases. One of the plum trees in the chicken pen was absolutely dripping with fruits and I hadn't got round to thinning them adequately. Just as they were turning ripe, brown rot set in. Every fruit was rotting on the tree just as it was ripening. It looked as if we would lose the whole crop, as well as potentially infecting all the other plum trees.
I carefully picked every plum that was showing any signs of rot, often precariously balanced a the top of a step ladder, and removed every single trace of fruit from the ground. These weren't wasted, as the sheep very much appreciated them.
I have continued to remove any infected fruits and any that have dropped to the ground and disaster seems to have been averted.
Over the last few days Sue has picked a thousand plums off just one tree. It is still not empty.

Self-thinning Apple trees
We missed the June drop this year - this is when fruit trees often drop much of their fruit. in response to environmental stress. I didn't really keep on top of manually thinning the fruits either. This should really be done for several reasons. The branches can split under the strain of too much fruit; fewer large fruits are generally better than multiple dwarf fruits; thinning the fruit allows for improved air circulation.
The recent winds fixed the problem of not thinning though! Many apples came off, to the delight of the geese and sheep.

Helping Hands

Here on the farm we can grow more food than we can eat, but it takes all of our time to keep on top of things. So it occurs to me that the farm would be better suited to supporting more people.

With this in mind, we have taken a few volunteers this year. The deal is that they are accommodated in a caravan and help for about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. In return they get three meals a day and a jolly good experience.

Guest accommodation

Some people say this sounds like cheap labour, but it is more complex than that.  It is a cultural and learning exchange too. The balance of this equation is a fine one and has not always worked in our favour. It is not for everyone, but if I had time to travel I would certainly be happy to be on the other end of the deal. For the volunteers it offers a totally different travel experience to the usual treadmill of visiting famous landmarks.
For anyone wishing to have some time to reflect, to do some good honest work and to learn about self-sustainability, smallholding and permaculture, the swap is a very good one indeed.

Volunteers viewing our new ducklings - Arthur is helping out

The paddock team

From a professional carpenter who taught me loads to others who were trying out completely new skills

This is what volunteering schemes are all about

Let's look at the potential benefits if you get the right people and the right people management.

Knowledge Sharing

The post driver is a great

introduction to how satisfying

hard work can be!

As well as learning about each others' backgrounds and lives, we have been able to teach people all about our system of self-sustainable growing. We have taught practical skills too, from using tools such as hoes, hammers and drills to keeping sheep, poultry and bee-keeping.
We have learned from our volunteers too. One in particular had a wealth of knowledge about bee-keeping and taught Sue loads. The same person helped me out with my hopeless ineptitude when it comes to understanding how machines work.  
I have learned new construction skills too, even simple things like how to use my drill more effectively. 

Many Hands Make Light Work

Too many cooks spoil the broth, but many hands make light work.
It's all about choosing the right task. There were some tasks where all my time would be spent trying to supervise when I could have achieved the job in much less time on my own.
But there were other jobs where three people got far more than three times the amount of work done. These jobs fell into two categories.

Firstly, jobs which seem so daunting when you are on your own and would take days or leave you exhausted. With several people, these jobs became not only achievable but fun. So in no time at all we pulled thousands of thistles, weeded the whole raspberry patch and erected a hundred yards of fence. The last of these is a great example of using volunteers. On my own I can maybe drive in three or four fence posts before needing to take a break. The breaks become longer and more frequent the more the job goes on. Not only that, but the quality of the work goes down as I get tired and the risk of  injury goes up. But with three of us, each person did one or two posts and then handed over. In between we could even pick thistles. In no time whatsoever we had driven in about 40 posts. Nobody was tired or fed up and after a couple of hours we had a finished fence to admire. Very satisfying.

From preparing the ground to erecting a log cabin, 

this job would have taken me months on my own 

rather than just a few days with a little help.

Secondly, construction jobs. Jobs where I was able to gain greatly by other people's knowledge and skills. There are times too when you just need somebody else at the other end of a plank!

The new compost loo 

taking shape

The sheep testing out the facilities in their new paddock

 

The newly constructed paddock with volunteer accommodation in the background.

Not a long journey to work!

Time for other things
The main drawback to having all this help is the requirement to prepare three meals a day. Breakfast is easy, but a proper cooked lunch and dinner every day takes up a lot of time.
However, Sue and I really enjoy cooking, especially when we are using our own produce picked fresh from the plot, and we don't get nearly enough time to eat as we would like.
But with the volunteers, especially the ones who appear ready for breakfast and work at a reasonable time, we can get all the smallholding jobs done before lunch leaving the afternoon and evening free for all those things we would like to do more of but never seem to have time.
Cooking, baking, crafts, reading... even a little rest sometimes.



In Conclusion
Taking volunteers is a two way street and a big commitment. We have learned to choose carefully who we accept.
Plus points are: Over 40. Own transport. Skills to offer. A very good command of English.
Seeing through people's profiles is a skill we are developing.
Here are some translations:
We enjoy hard work =  we don't know what hard work looks like.
Enjoys caring for animals =  has very few practical skills and thinks they are coming to a pet zoo
Stronger than I look = not strong
Flexible = warning, this flexibility often extends only one way!

Do we plan to take more volunteers next year? Yes. Definitely.
If we can get it right the scheme is fantastic. We love to share what we do and what we produce and it is marvellous to work alongside other people and to meet people from all across the world.

One thing we need to work on is what to do on wet days. There have been plenty this year!
Hopefully the new log cabin and the undercover shelter will both be finished by the end of this summer which will give us much better areas for craft activities.

The scheme we have used so far is called Workaway. We plan to try WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunties on Organic Farms) as well next year, as this should provide a more targeted choice of volunteers.

To summarise, in all honesty at its worst we have found ourselves dealing with stroppy spoilt teenager attitudes! People who could not drag themselves out of bed, questioned everything and were very choosy about which tasks they wanted to do.

Besides the ones who didn't turn up, we have had our fair share of spoilt rich kids who in their mid twenties still seem to be spending a few years out exploring what they want to do with their lives. They get what we are doing here but their idealistic views of sustainable living have not always been matched by a willingness to get on and do what needs doing.

In particular, a pre 10am start seemed to be a challenge, even though Sue and I religiously got up early to have breakfast ready way before that time. We tried to adapt to this work ethic, but on days when rain was forecast for late morning and all afternoon, a late start seemed rather inconvenient and frustrating. And on days when afternoon temperatures soared, it would have been a lot more sensible to have made an early start.

The flip side of this coin is that we have had some of the most productive and enjoyable days ever on the smallholding. We have been able to undertake some big projects and it has been fantastic to be working as a team with such a range of people. I have learned loads and I think our volunteers have really had their eyes opened towards the possibilities of our style of sustainable living. 

We have met people we would never have met before and we have been able to share what we do and what we produce here.

So that's my honest, warts and all view of taking volunteers.

If you're a smallholder I would say it is definitely worth considering.

If you're looking to spend some time on a smallholding and haven't been put off by everything you've read here, please feel free to contact me. We have one caravan for short-term volunteers (up to 4 weeks) and one for somebody to stay longer term.

Insects galore

With the temperature nudging up very close to 100 a week or so back, insect life on the farm has been abundant. The leek heads and umbellifers (fennel, parsnips left to flower and lovage) are covered in bees, hoverflies, flies and other bugs.

At night-time, leave the windows open and a light on and the upstairs hall becomes a giant moth trap.

So I have started taking snaps of some of the insects that I notice. Identifying them takes quite a bit of time, especially as I often don't really know where to start. It's surprising how often a Google image search for something like 'spotty red beetle yellow antennae uk' comes up trumps!
But even better, a new button which recently appeared on Google Photos on my phone finds matching images on the internet. Over 50% of the time it has left me straight to an identification, and if not it often gets me looking at the right insect family.

I find insects absolutely amazing. They come in so many forms, with a multitude of appendages, fascinating life cycles, in all shapes and colours. If they were the size of humans they would put Doctor Who's range of alien baddies to shame.

Of course, I welcome (most) insects into the garden (althought the weevils which I found by the dozen inside my calabrese heads the other day were not quite so welcome.

The weevil that munched my calabrese!(left)

A freshly opened globe artichoke flower with honey bees burrowing down to get at the pollen.

But at the end of the day there are two approaches to take with bugs. Either aim to wipe them all out, goodies and baddies, as industrial scale farmers mostly do, or let nature help with growing. Ground beetles, ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies in particular are predators which help control other insects, and slugs in the case of beetles. Yes, there may be the occasional population explosion of some insect which all but ruins a crop, but it's never a total disaster and nature rebalances itself in the end. Of course I give a helping hand by growing plants and flowers specifically to attract or repel certain insects. I use physical barriers (netting) too where this is unavoidable, and I give my plants a healthy and organic soil to grow in so they can withstand attack.

Anyway, onto the good bit, the photos. It's not all about what helps the veg to grow. It's about creating a wonderful space in which to work and occasionally stop to admire the hive of activity going on about you.

So most days now I try to meet and snap a new insect. Here are just a few of them. I won't go all Latin on you with the names. Better to just admire them in blissful ignorance, though I do like to put a name to them if I can and do a little research on their habits.

Moths in many forms flumble (flutter and stumble) into the upstairs hallway.

Top left - One of many hoverfly species - this was a giant. 

Meanwhile a bumblebee visits one of my sunflowers

Comma is one of my favourite butterflies, though the sight of
ragwort in full flower and covered in Ringlets stopped me in my tracks

Marmalade Hoverflies and a  

Swollen-thighed Beetle (aka Thick-legged Flower Beetle or False Oil Beetle)

I initially thought this was a spider until I realised I was looking

at it the wrong way round and it was a fly.

But the way it moved was clearly aimed at deception.

Yellow Dung Fly                                       Noon Fly