Husbandry
- turning principles into practice.
News from our smallholding. |
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Within just a few months
of working the land, Carole and team's efforts in the 'market garden'
have been rewarding, producing a wide variety of crops, from potatoes
to peas, carrots to cut flowers, in fact green groceries of all
colours (not just green!) We've been keen to re-introduce traditional
and ancient varieties and have enjoyed experimenting planting them
with natural companions.
We are intending to increase the production
of fruit by creating an orchard of apples and pears, but also looking
to soft fruit and berries too.
In the meantime we have been harvesting
parts of the ecology of this land which are at present in overabundance – the
wild rabbit, for instance!
We will also be producing arable crops
such as wheat, oats and barley on a small scale – again focusing
on ancient varieties. These cereals have dual use as foodstuffs
and structural material, e.g., straw. We will also be producing
other structural materials such as willow, hazel, ash and flax.
As
you can see, our emphasis is on diversity – encouraging
a diverse ecology is our business. |
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An Education: husbandry in action
By setting up this practical working experiment and thereby demonstrating
some of the principles and practice of husbandry we hope to share
what we are learning with others who are interested.
Carole brings
much experience from both the private and public sectors,
having previously taught children, adults and those with special
needs, and therefore, combined with Jonty's husbandry training,
there is a great opportunity as time progresses to offer a valuable
real, live teaching and learning experience that addresses
the enormous variety of interests which come under the overall
umbrella of husbandry skills – more  |
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