-
Hazel wood chunks for smoking food
Any Hazel wood we remove from our coppice that cannot be used for walking stick shanks or other woodland crafts gets cut up into ‘Wood Chunks‘ which get used in smokers and BBQ’s for flavouring meats, fish and cheeses. All our hazel is coppiced with a hand saw so has not been contaminated with chainsaw oil. It…
-
Clearing the brash from the pond
In between dodging the heavy showers, we have had a few hours armed with a billhook and some loppers to begin clearing the felled overhanging branches and brash from the pond. It is slow work and hard graft plodding through the mud to get at the fallen willow branches and even harder work dragging them…
-
Restoring our farm ponds
On our fields at Hesketh Bank we seem to have a comprehensive selection of different farm pond types: A derelict natural pond that has never been cleaned out for ages and is full of rubbish, general detritus and the odd bit of scrap metal. A ‘ghost’ pond where a natural pond used to be but has…
-
First lambs of 2017 turned out
It is always nice to see new life on the plot and today was the day that the newborn lambs started to leave the lambing shed and arrive with their mothers to be turned out onto grass. They are in a small paddock that is very well sheltered so they settled in very quickly. More…
-
Growing Firewood – 2017 Update
February 2017 Our annual update on the progress of our firewood growing trials. All have made very good progress but the Eucalyptus seems to be doing the best at the year 3 point. The hybrid willow would normally be harvested now and it is a perfect size for making wood chunks. August 2017 I’m beginning…
-
Tree Planting at Banks, West Lancashire
Damon and Matt have been out in all weathers since November but 5000 trees later, the 11 acre field is now planted. The trees planted are mixed species of varieties that can be coppiced and will eventually be cropped for timber for crafts or wood fuel . The first cuttings will probably be in 10…
-
Planting Peppers Early
At the end of the last season, a friend kindly posted to us a few seeds from a giant pepper with a view of us having a go at growing a big one. He advised us to get them planted early January which seems incredibly early but he is the expert so today half of…
-
Frosty mornings on the farm
This week has seen some lovely crisp frosty mornings which is always a beautiful sight and is a real pleasure to walk around the farm. Our willow trials continue with a mix of biomass hybrids and traditional basket making varieties planted. The photo above is of some one year old willow whips which are ideal…
-
Coppicing Hazel
As the seasonal wreath making draws to a close a lovely morning allowed a chance to make a start on the Hazel coppice. Our stand of hazel was planted specifically to provide a harvest of walking stick blanks for the surprisingly large number of local stick making enthusiasts. We now use the remaining wood for crafts…