Stocking up for Winter

Sunday 7th October 2018
The first winter thrushes arrived today, first a lone fieldfare followed by small flocks of redwings heading in across the fields.
Doubtless they looked down on me as I harvested some of this year's pumpkins and pulled potatoes out of the ground. Some of the pumpkins have fared poorly this year, but the Giant Pink Bananas (which are indeed pumpkins) have excelled, as have the Naples Long.

Sue was doing a sterling job making inroads into the wood pile. We won't need to skimp on the woodburners this winter.



Tuesday 9th October 2018
We can provide most of our own fruit and veg. We can provide our own meat. But there are some items which we cannot provide for ourselves. Loo roll, flour, cleaning products - none of these are totally out of our reach but some things are not so practical to produce at home.

In an ideal world I would buy organic, ethical and environmentally friendly, but unfortunately prices are sometimes prohibitive. I know there is often a hidden price to buying cheap, but economics do have to come into account.
Personally I think that some of the worst products should be taxed to directly support some of the most ethical products, but that is never going to happen is it? Until then, ethical shopping unfortunately remains the preserve of the middle classes.

My posh shopping

But I have come across a scheme which offers these products at very good discounts, bringing their price down close to their bulk standard cheap unethical counterparts. It is a national scheme which supplies local food clubs with a delivery once a month.
So not only can Sue and I now afford some of the products we want to be able to purchase, but we can run a food club to encourage local people to do so too.
Ok, we will probably be preaching to the converted, but we can only do so much for the cause.

Anyhow today our order arrived. All this for just over £30! (we did enjoy a twenty quid introductory discount). Now we know it works, we will be looking to get our food club up and running.

Wednesday 10th October 2018
A while back I discovered Priscilla (daughter of Elvis) ensconced in the stables harbouring a nest of eggs. Since we don't actually want more chickens, I left her with just three eggs and forgot about her.

On my way down to the chickens today I heard a familiar cheeping. There under the hedge was Priscilla leading two tiny chicks down to the rest of the chickens.

We set up a house for her in with the Silkies. The two little chicks are certainly very confident and seem strong

Meanwhile, by way of contrast to our harmonious country ways, the farmer next door was doing his best to erode the rest of his topsoil. I would be grateful for his gift, but I don't particularly want my whole smallholding covered in his denuded and chemicalised dust.

Orange Fenland

Autumn brings dramatic sunsets on the farm. Given clear weather, almost every evening sees the western sky ablaze.
The only trouble is the days are really drawing in now. But that is part and parcel of the beauty of the seasons.

My last picture shows an increasingly common fenland upside down sunset.

Fields of pumpkins to satisfy the annual demand at Halloween. In an age when any sort of deep beliefs seem rare, the public seems to increasingly need to throw itself into more and more festivals, the origins and meaning of which are completely lost. 

Wisbech's historically famous orchards are thin on the ground now and Spalding's bulb and flower fields are scarce too. Times change and pumpkins are just as widespread now.

One day I must put in the effort and capture an orange sunset behind a field of orange pumpkins.

Just one final plea. If you do purchase a pumpkin, please don't just throw it away at the end. If you don't want to make soup out of it, at the very least add it to the compost bin or feed the wildlife with it. Alternatively seek out a pumpkin recycling point. They do exist.

A Fifth of November Pumpkin Harvest - but nothing to remember, remember.

Wednesday 1st November 2017
Scritch Scratch
There's a rodent in the kitchen. Heard scratching in the wall then scuttling in the ceiling! Happens at this time every year, but sounds a bit big. Maybe not a mouse. I've put Gerry up in the loft and laid poison in the boiler cupboard.

Dramatic sunset over the smallholding tonight.

Saturday 4th November 2017
The no-rear pig
Rain! Lots of rain.
This year it has only rained about a dozen times but each time we seem to get a month's worth at once.

I picked up half a pig from a farm along a very wet country lane out toward The Wash. With just the two of us and not wanting to get into trying to sell the meat, keeping a couple of pigs just gives us too much pork. So for the moment we are happy to support other smallholders and let them do the hard work!

Sunday 5th November 2017
Pumpkin harvest
No Fireworks, just a quiet day on the smallholding
I cleared the pumpkins ahead of the forecast frost and laid them out in the winter sun to dry off a little before they come inside.
The harvest is disappointing this year. Too much leaf growth and not enough fruit formation.
They have been very slow to form and to ripen too. Another four weeks of summer and it might have been a bumper harvest. Anyway, there's enough for us and some for the chickens and sheep still.


While I was in that area, I chopped down some of the amaranth plants for the sheep. They love them.

Amaranths aka Callaloo

A wander around the perimeter path and I spotted a patch of scotch thistles. These are relatively easy to control manually but they just keep appearing. In the end I cleared well over 300! I am constantly amazed how the sheep, albeit gingerly, manage to nibble these plants. I sustain mortal injuries even looking at them.

There were 17 Whooper Swans in the far field today too. The Mutes have set up camp on this side of the river, so I can even scan through them from the conservatory. Unless it gets much colder, the whoopers won't stay. They'll continue on, probably to the feeding centre at Welney.

Another dramatic sunset. They are magical at this time of year.

And finally, a lazy end to the day.

Ducks move into Spare Veg Patch

Not only do I have a rather intricately designed veg plot known as The Wheel, but I also have a rather sizeable plot simply known as The Spare Veg Patch.
This is where I grow the crops which grow too large to fit nicely into beds - Pumpkins, Mangel Wurzels, large brassicas such as cauliflowers.

Buddleia and elder cuttings with sweetcorn and pumpkings behind

and the brassica cage in the background.

All a bit overgrown at this time of year!

Unlike The Wheel, the Spare Veg Patch used to be arable land so it is denuded of decent top soil. It is pretty windswept too, although I have planted hedges which are beginning to give some shelter. And another thing... once the field next door is harvested, the rodents tend to flee to The Spare Veg Patch and eat all the sweetcorn before it has ripened. And one last thing... the rabbits come up out of the dry dyke and nibble everything.
But still I persist with growing things there. Admittedly I have given quarter of it over to growing seed for wild birds and another quarter as a temporary home for hardwood cuttings until they are big enough to move to their permanent homes.
The rest I have heavily nourished with horse muck and grass cuttings. Having the dogs seems to have deterred the rodents - for the first time this year my sweetcorn still has cobs on even once the field has been cleared.

Sweetcorn Minipop - the cobs are picked early,

before they mature and before anything can eat them.

Mangel wurzels actually do pretty well in the heavy soil - they are closely related to the sugar beet which is a favourite crop in the area. Pumpkins fare okay too as does sweetcorn. I think that the hard clay surface holds plenty of moisture underneath and further down, where deep in the past this was an inlet from the sea (you can still see the lines of old Roman salt works) lies a layer of sandy loam.

So everything in the Spare Veg Patch is hunky dory. No!

Those cracks which open up on the clay surface are proving to be an excellent daytime hiding place for slugs - big orange ones, long black ones, small pale ones, squidgy brown ones.
I managed to protect my brassicas from cabbage fly, cabbage whites, pigeons and rabbits, only for an enemy to rise from beneath the soil and invade from outside the protective netting, mostly disappearing during the day leaving behind just the occasional slimy trail and decimated leaves resembling the worst lacework you have ever seen. Even worse, they have taken a liking to my cauliflowers, the vegetable which has taken me six years to finally succeed with.

Part of it is my own fault. I've let the nasturtiums get out of control and they provide the perfect cool, shady habitat underneath their lily-like leaves and splashes of orange-red flowers. I totally cleared them once, but I need to keep more on top of it. There's just so much to do though.

The slugs live under the nasturtium canopy.

So in one last desperate attempt I have resorted to biological control - the ducks. They have moved in to the Spare Veg Patch. At the moment they are still scared of everything and spend most of their time huddled up by the gate, nowhere near where most of the slugs are. But hopefully in the winter they will come into their own, when I can work the soil, hopefully with a trio of ducks and a gang of chickens following me along enjoying the feast that is thrown up from beneath the surface.
Yes, the chickens get through an awful lot of worms which are the gardener's friend, but there are plenty more of them thank goodness.

And so, with tweaks and adjustments, the Spare Veg Patch will continue into the autumn and next year. It's getting there.

Biological control

Waxwings!

4th November 2016
The new potting shed is up
We have gone up in the world! We now have a conservatory. It's a bit early to start off the tomato plants, but I will be moving the lemon tree and the lemon grass into it soon.

A chicken lost
On the smallholding, we lost one of the oldest batch of meat birds today. It had picked up a nasty thigh injury a couple of days ago. I have no idea what caused it, but had begun to hope the chicken might survive it. However I hadn't seen it eat since I noticed the injury and it gradually withdrew from the other chickens.

Late bird news
With winter making a good attempt at levering out the autumn, I was rather hoping that my birding might settle down for a while. But late on Friday afternoon, too late to get there, news came through of an American Cliff Swallow at Minsmere. The last one of these I saw was in 2000. As I was making plans to head over to Suffolk for first light, a photo appeared on a Facebook page showing a pristine Eye-browed Thrush somewhere in Northumberland. I need that!
But I have to say there was initially a strong suspicion of a hoax. The photo was just too good. This sort of thing has happened before. As the evening progressed, the sighting seemed more and more real until eventually the location was revealed, Bolam Lake, up near where Sue comes from. Problem was Sue was away for the weekend.

5th November 2016
Remember, Remember the Fifth of November - I'd rather not!
The alarm went at 1:40am.
I took the dogs out for a walk, let out the geese and opened up the chicken houses. Not ideal, but there was nothing else for it. I needed to be on site for first light as if by some miracle the thrush had stayed overnight, it could easily disappear at any point.
I drove through the night and through some pretty atrocious weather. All my instincts told me the thrush would be gone come daylight, but it was still worth the risk. The fact that I've not seen one yet shows how difficult they are to catch up with.

A storm had clearly swept through overnight. The road was a river of leaves.

I was first on sight and the park official was somewhat surprised to see me there when he turned up in the faint first light to open up the gates to the car park.
What followed was a whole morning standing around braving the intermittent showers. It wasn't just me. Many of my twitching friends were there. By midday we had given up hope. Long way to go for a social chat. It was a nice park though.
I was back home before dark. No harm done, just a day lost and some petrol money.
Many of my other friends had a much nicer day in a sunny Suffolk watching otters and the Cliff Swallow. That's the way it goes.

6th November 2016
Pumpkin day
I was not keen to repeat yesterday's early start, so decided to wait for news on the Minsmere Cliff Swallow. It did show first thing, but flew off straight away and never came back.
Instead I spent the day cutting up pumpkins and turning them into soup. Pumpkin and Sage, Curried Pumpkin, Thai Pumpkin, Creamy Pumpkin and Nutmeggy Pumpkin Soup. The reason for so much was that a few of the larger pumpkins had slight blemishes and would not last much longer.



7th November 2016
Dewy-eyed Sheep
Last year Rambo went in with the ewes on 1st November. Our aim is for lambing to occur during our Easter holidays. As we keep the lambs into their second year, there is no rush to get them born in the cold midwinter. This year Rambo will have his day two weeks into November. We will move out the sheep which will be going off this year as they could do without the stress. We'll bring them up to the top paddock and feed them on nice things for a while.
So today I moved the sheep one enclosure closer to the farmhouse. They love moving onto new grass. The grass growth has only just slowed down with the dip in temperatures and the first frosts, but there is still plenty for the sheep to eat.
The very good news is that all the sheeps' eyes have cleared up completely now without the need for any intervention from me.

One of the grey geese has a big swelling at the base of its beak. We had one like this before which eventually died. Whether it was anything to do with this I did not know.
It is certainly not worth calling out the vet, but today I managed to catch the goose. For all their bravado, they go very placid once you have managed to catch them. The swelling was very hard but I massaged it and it seemed to go down a little. I continued, applying as much pressure as I dared, and eventually a large ball of half chewed, tangled grass came up into the goose's mouth. I'm not sure if the problem will reoccur, but at least now I know how to deal with it.

We are always gaining experience, but there's still so much to learn.

8th November 2016
Kingfisher!
Encouraged by our recent visits to the beaches of North Norfolk, I decided to take the dogs for a long walk today. I took them right down to the end of the land and along the small dke known as the Lambert Drain. This leads across a couple of fields to the South Holland Main Drain. Boris and Arthur were loving exploring new sights and smells  and I was having a great time too. I really must make more time for this sort of pleasure.

Of course I took my binoculars with me. With the change of seasons there have been birds everywhere lately and I was over the moon to hear and then see a kingfisher shooting along the river. It was a new bird for the patch, though it is extremely unlikely I will ever be able to see it from the farm and get it onto the garden list. Same goes for the Little Grebes which swim around but never fly! Even the moorhens have only ever wandered as far as the farm once.
Boris, Arthur and I continued along the river to the bridge, stopping to pick out four wild Whooper Swans in with the winter flock of Mute Swans. From there we headed along the tiny back road where we did not encounter one vehicle and then back across the fields. Eventually we got back to where we started. We just had to negotiate our way back across the dyke at the bottom of the land. This was easier for Boris and myself, with our long legs, than Arthur, but he managed it on his own in the end.

9th November 2016
Doh!
I woke up to the news that Trump had triumphed. What with that and the Brexit vote, I think I might just stay here on the farm and do my best not to interact with the outside world! (Apart from twitching).

Waxwings!
Back at work today. For one reason or another I've not been there much recently.
When I arrived back home, I got out of the car to open the gate and I could hear Waxwings trilling somewhere above my head. These birds don't come every winter, but numbers are looking good this year. It's still a privilege to have them on the farm and they probably won't stay long.
My arrival scared them off, but I soon relocated them perched atop one of the roadside trees next door, dropping down into the hawthorn hedge to feed. There were 22 altogether.

A family flock of 12 Long-tailed Tits joined them in the same tree at one point. These have been around for a couple of days but are far from regular visitors to the farm.

I watched the Waxwings till they flew off presumably to roost as the light was fading and the temperature was plummeting. Winter is getting a toehold and I am looking forward to it.

A Scary Variety of Pumpkins and Winter Squashes

The clocks have gone back and the winter grumpiness is setting in. I'll get over it in a few months, probably after the winter solstice when the days start getting longer again.

I don't know what the Halloween equivalent of Bah Humbug is, so I'll call it Boo Vambug!
When I were a lad, Halloween was a quaint little event which came just before Fireworks Night. A little innocent trick or treat, without threat.
But now the kids I teach know absolutely nothing about 5th November, except for the Fireworks displays, and Penny For The Guy is a complete mystery to them.
But the Halloween disco! Now that's quite something else.

Unfortunately Halloween has gone the same way as Christmas. That's all I'm saying.

I won't mention the shameful waste of pumpkins. Well there you go, I've mentioned it.

The onset of Halloween did remind me last week to harvest in my own pumpkins and squashes. They've done okay this year, without producing anything spectacular. But at least the September and October weather has been fine so the pumpkins have hardened off well. The mice had found a few of them, but there are plenty enough left to last us through the winter.

So I have harvested them all. They will be stored in the utility room, where they won't get too cold and hopefully not too warm either. There's not too much direct sunlight in there either. They need circulation all around to prevent them turning into a gloopy mess.

Anyway, here's my harvest. I'm not sure what variety the giant green ones are. I'd guess Naples Long, but they've gone a bit crazy.
The Crown Prince have come out especially well.

I'll just finish with one last big BOO VAMBUG!

A thoroughly disheartening start to June

What's the difference between a turkey and a fly? Turkeys drop more easily. Read on and you'll understand.
It's been a bad start to June and one which has put a heavy demand on my stoical resources.

1st June
The grey goose now has three beautiful little goslings. She is already bringing them out of the stables. Unlike the white Embdens, she has done the decent thing and hatched them all out at the same time.
Meanwhile outside it rained and rained and rained. The 1000 litre water butt I had to empty to repair is now full again and I spent much of the day using the rainwater to irrigate the plants in the polytunnel. I planted my pepper and celery seedlings into the polytunnel beds along with another round of coriander plants. I came upon this little cryptic fella under a plank too.

Can you see it?

He's most welcome (I don't know why I'm assuming it's a he).

A freshly fledged tree sparrow appeared on the feeders today for the first time this year. Its mum (or dad, for both sexes are alike) was feeding it. These birds are becoming rarer and rarer in the English countryside so I am very proud to have them on the farm.

And so to the turkeys. I kept a close eye on them all day and mum seemed to be doing a great job looking after them. They spent quite a bit of time in the herb bed and quite a bit of time sheltering under a wheelbarrow. Mum spreads her wings and all you can see of the poults is all their legs poking out underneath mum. It looks like a 24-legged turkey!
When the rain got heavy I ushered them into their shed where they stayed for a while before going out for another wander. Come early evening I decided to round them back into the shed for the night. They had already taken themselves in but I could only count ten chicks. I counted three times. Still just ten. I wandered round the garden for ages looking and listening for a lone turkey poult but to no avail. Sue found it later on (well, Arthur actually, who has a very keen nose for such things) but it was dead.

2nd June
Everyone who has raised turkeys talks about how easily they give up on life and today I began to witness that. For when I opened up the turkey shed there was one of the young birds lying on its side, apparently dead. When I picked it up it was still moving, just. So I brought it inside, wrapped it up, put it under a heat lamp and fed it as much sugary water as I could. But after an hour it became obvious that it was to no avail.
We had been doing so well with the turkeys and I was now regretting the decision to let them out. Lesson learned for next year. I moved the turkeys back into the stables.

I spent the afternoon planting out my various pumpkins and squashes with names like Hundredweight (self-explanatory), Cha-Cha (not so), Table Queen, Golden Nugget, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling and Naples Long. These go into the more exposed veg patch where I grow big plants, but it does put them more at risk of attack by rabbits and slugs. So each one gets a tree protector until it becomes established. They usually take a bit of a knock for the first few days outside, but after a week they get their roots down and from then on growth is rapid. I've put 25 plants out, so I'll be very happy if 20 come through which will give us plenty enough pumpkins and winter squash.
The tree protectors keep the rabbits from nibbling but they do nothing to protect against the silent enemy from underground, the slugs. So I sprinkled organic slug pellets around the base of each plant. The advantage with these, as well as supposedly not harming other wildlife, is that they don't just disappear when it rains so the extra cost is offset a little.

In the evening we were off to the monthly CSSG (Cambridgeshire Self-Sufficiency Group) meeting for a talk on edible plants which can be part of a forest garden. This is a system of gardening I know a fair bit about, though I tend to dismiss it as a little gimmicky. However, I'm always open to new ideas. I just think that the way forward is to integrate the best bits from lots of different systems - Forest Gardening, Permaculture, Polyculture, No Dig... I've not yet dabbled with Hydroponics or the one which relies on the cycles of the moon - can't remember what it's called.
In fact there's a fair bit of Forest Gardening goes on in my patch anyway, it's just that I don't go for all these exotic plants which you can, in theory if you really wanted to, eat. I'm all for trying out new things, but there are very few which eventually earn their place in my veg plot.

Anyway, we enjoyed the company. This group is very different to the Fenland Smallholders (from whom they split somewhat acrimoniously just before we came on the scene). They are the old guard, the more hippyish element, very open and extremely knowledgeable. It's such a shame the two groups can't merge as each has particular strengths which would make them very strong together. For the moment, Sue and I keep a foot in both camps. Unfortunately the CSSG is a little too distant for us to get more involved.

3rd June
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but today was one of those most disheartening days which occurs every now and again. Smallholding is never all rosy and sometimes demands a very strong resolve.
If you only want the view through rose-tinted glasses, then I'd suggest you stop reading now!

Sue had gone to a friend's to continue with making goat's cheese and to try to figure out why their efforts at goat's milk ice cream kept failing (turns out it needs more fat, something to do with goat's milk being naturally homogenised).
I opened the turkey stable to find a dead youngster with no head! Whether it was attacked by a predator (rat, weasel, stoat?) wasn't clear but would present a big problem if it were. I more suspected that it had passed away in the night and that the others had pecked away at it - poultry can be incredibly insensitive creatures.
Another young poult was looking not too good either, droopy winged and it's eyes half closed. It was no surprise when Sue found it dead later in the morning. This was feeling like a losing battle. Worst case scenario would be that some disease was jumping through the flock at an alarming rate, but my suspicions were still that the birds had just gotten too cold when we had let them outside on a wet day and possibly developed pneumonia. Whatever the case, I felt terrible. I feel responsible for these young lives and although I expect losses, this was becoming serious. Of course, the practical side of me was also thinking of the number of turkey dinners we would be missing out on, for that is the reason for rearing these young birds.

Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, I discovered a neatly laid out pile of peacock tail feathers next to my digging spade. The only explanation was that Don, our neighbour, had found the body of Captain Peacock. This was a gentle way of letting us know. Having survived the road for so long (and presumable developed a bit of road sense), I suspect that the verge cutter may have done for him.

I spent the rest of the day doing big, physical jobs in the garden, trying not to think too much about other things. I got about half of the lawns mowed - quite a feat considering how long the grass had got. Then there was the strawberry patch to tackle. Despite my earlier weeding efforts, it had become overwhelmed with grasses and docks. With the soil nicely watered this would be the ideal time to start the not inconsiderable job of weeding before laying down straw and netting to protect the developing crop.
I called Sue in to help and we got half the job done before running out of energy. The remaining seven turkey poults made it through till the evening. What would we find next morning though?

A Passion for Pumpkins... or a Crush on Squashes

SHOCKING HALLOWEEN NEWS...

PUMPKINS ARE FOR EATING. 

THEY'RE NOT ALL ORANGE. 

THEY'RE NOT ALL ROUND.

The winner of the Veg Group's Giant Pumpkin competition was put to good use.
The flesh made pumpkin soup for the children at Sue's school
and the shell was carved into a very realistic likeness of the headteacher (sorry Sue!!!)

I'm actually talking about pumpkins and winter squashes here. To tell the truth, I'm never that impressed with actual pumpkins. I grow just a few, but one giant is normally enough to make all the variants of pumpkin soup I can eat in a year. You can use pumpkins in breads and cakes and they taste very nice, but you use such a small quantity that it doesn't really help when you're trying to use up half a kitchen full of pumpkin.

I much prefer what are known as winter squashes, These come in a bewildering range of shapes and sizes. Their flesh is usually much firmer than that of a pumpkin and the flavour is usually nuttier. They have wonderful names too. Cha Cha, Table Queen, Large Pink Banana, Sweet Dumpling, Amazonika...

I grow a large patch of mixed pumpkins and squashes. In theory they need loads of organic matter in the soil and loads of water, but I pretty much neglect mine and leave then to get on with it on their own. They are easy to raise in the polytunnel and very quickly grow into sturdy little plants. The only tricky bit is planting them out, when the shock of being outside as well as the threat of being munched by slugs can result in a few losses. However, I have largely avoided this by using tree protectors over them until their roots have obviously gotten hold and they start to grow strongly.

2015 has been a dull year weather-wise, not the best for pumpkins. I tend to leave my pumpkin patch alone. The large leaves do a pretty good job of subduing weeds, but there's always a carpet of chickweed growing under them. There comes a time when it's impossible to weed without crushing pumpkin leaves and stems.

So last Wednesday I decided it was time to collect in this year's pumpkin harvest before they started rotting in the decidedly damp weather we've been having. Although a few fruits were still forming, most had had long enough to swell, ripen and for the skins to toughen. It's crucial to get them in before the first frost too, as this destroys them.

When harvesting pumpkins and squashes, it's best to collect them with a good portion of stalk, for if they do begin to rot during the winter, this is where the rot invariably begins.

The only ones which I don;t harvest yet are the butternut squashes which, by this time of year, have pretty much taken over half the polytunnel. These squashes earn their space in the tunnel every year as they produce plenty of large, firm fruits for me. I pick them as they are ready and actually started harvesting some lovely specimens a few weeks ago.

Now, last Wednesday wasn't the ideal day to be picking the pumpkins. A couple of days of rain had left the clay soil a little sticky, to say the least. I tried to avoid treading it down too much, though most of it appeared to be stuck to my wellies!

Boris was a great help too, as you can imagine. A bit like me, he absolutely loves getting dirty.

The end result was a very full barrowload of squashes and pumpkins, plenty enough to get Sue and I through the winter with probably a few spare for the sheep. The seeds won't go to waste either. We'll scoop out a few to roast and the rest are supposedly very good at helping to worm the animals. The chickens love them.

Even the abundance of leaves and stalks won't go to waste. They have gone straight onto the compost heap, which is now groaning under the pressure, and will go back into the soil next year to add goodness and body.

A giant heap of leaves. It won't be long before it's sunk down though.

Mangel Wurzel and Pumpkin Silverware

While I was away in Shetland I entrusted Sue with the onerous task of choosing the heaviest mangel wurzel to take along to the Fenland Smallholders Club meeting.
Mangel Wurzels are a kind of beet crop which I wrote about in a previous blog here.
In the past the Fenland Goatkeepers and Smallholders Club (as it used to be known) used to have an annual competition, the prize being the Jeff Yates trophy. By the time I joined the smallholders, this annual bit of fun was dying out. Nobody was growing mangels any more and the committee were even considering ending the competition.
But it was still running, just, and I won it in two consecutive years. I faced competition from just one other mangel wurzel in that two years!

Hollow Victory

When I founded the Veg Group it seemed like an ideal time to resurrect interest in this light-hearted annual competition, so I purchased seed for everyone and threw down the gauntlet.
I have to say that I was highly disorganised and didn't get my mangels sown until way too late in the year, with the result that by competition time they were puny!
Steve walked off with 'my' trophy and the veg group never heard the last of it all year.

This year I got serious. I sowed my usual patch of mangel wurzels to be used as animal fodder, but I reserved a patch in the main veg plot for some lovingly nurtured baby mangels raised in modules.
This gave me just the headstart I needed and when I left for Shetland many of the mangels looked like they had a chance of scooping the trophy. But the opposition were being cagey, with tales of monster mangels meant to scare the opposition away, or tales of abject failure to lull into a false sense of security.

So, on the evening of the competition, I  phoned Sue to find out whether I had reclaimed my trophy.
It turns out that competition had been much stiffer than in previous years, with six entries and four weighing in at over 15lb.
Of these, two had been 15lb something, one had been 17lb something and the winner was just short of 20lb....

AND IT WAS MINE!!!!

VICTORY WAS ALL MINE!!!!!

But that's not the end of my story. For the Veg Group have had a private competition going throughout the year to grow the heaviest pumpkin. Everybody was given several seeds at the beginning of the year, but germination was poor. Some even claimed that theirs grew into other vegetables (and so marrowgate was born).

Just one of my seedlings came through and I nurtured it in the polytunnel until it was time to go out into the big wide world. I was worried, as one of my competitors had posted pictures of his with developing fruits when mine was at the two-leaf stage! But had he gone too early? Only time would tell.
I chose a rather special spot for my pumpkin, on top of the manure pile where it could get all the goodness a pumpkin could wish for. First grew the leaves, giant leaves trailing all over the heap, and then came the first fruits. I couldn't decide whether to let several fruits develop or just to go for the one. In the end the plant decided. As one pumpkin grew and grew and grew the rest of the fruits gave up the ghost and all the plant's energies went into the one fruit.

And so this last Sunday I finally severed the stem and lifted the pumpkin. I had joked with the others about needing a forklift, a new trailer and a reinforced suspension, but disappointingly the pumpkin felt rather light for its size, as if it had filled with air inside.

When I reached the veg group gathering, everybody was being very secretive. Pumpkins were left hidden in cars and Steve (yes, the one who wrestled the mangel trophy from me for a short period) had even left his growing in the garden right up until the final seconds of the weigh in.

The weigh in was tense. 500g (a joke one, a button squash actually), 5.8kg, 6.1kg, 9.98kg. No-one had yet broken the 10kg mark, but the three biggest pumpkins were still left on the table. 10.5 kg.
It was down to two. 11.9kg. The mark had been set.
I heaved my pumpkin up. It certainly looked the biggest, but was it all hot air?
But then the scales told the story. Over 21kg!!

A clear winner. More silverware and all round bragging rights for a whole year!!!!!

I'm now looking up how to grow LONG CARROTS in preparation for next year's competition. I'll be ordering my mangel seed soon too.
Hopefully I'll find time to keep the smallholding going in between polishing all the silverware.