Suffolk smallholding for sale

This is where we are now and this is where we are going...

We have finally won planning permission after going to appeal to build a new Eco home on our farmland at Clayhill Lavenham. So we need to sell Bungeons Farm to enable us to build.
Until then Bungeons life carries on we have a new heifer calf- Angus x blonde d'aquitaine and another due soon. It is still very wet 49.5mm in September, 491mm  year total at end of Sept.
It is the time to make chutney, empty compost bins, deal with the previous years leaf mulch, and put the garden to bed for the winter.

Bungeons Farm Beeswax hand cream

I have finally got round to making some more hand cream. It is a great barrier cream as well as helping to heal  the inevitable nicks and knocks.
The hand cream is made from an infusion of marigold and lavender in oil, beeswax from our bees , and a small amount of honey.
The beeswax is either the the lovely white light bridge comb collected in the spring or the cappings saved  while extracting and put through my prototype small solar extractor (another use for a washing machine glass door)
The different oils and waxes give each batch of cream a different feel and purpose.

Poor mans capers

September for me is the kindest month of the year, Warm sunshine and so many rewards.
Nasturtiums are great in the garden, the flowers and leaves add colour and surprise to salads,  the seeds can be pickled then used as capers. Nasturtiums also help to control the cabbage white.
We have an abundance of blackberries a payback for a 3 winters spent coppicing. Blackberry wine is my favorite homemade wine and a winter without some would be grim.

We had a family morning sawing, stacking and carting wood , the bays are filling up and there is a stash in the dry we can process on a rainy day.

What has happened to the wasps ?

We have now finished feeding the bees , we just need to top and tail and treat for varroa and wish them luck for the winter.
There are no wasps anywhere, usually when feeding the bees we have to reduce the hive entrances and put out traps. There are also hardly any butterflies and not much fruit on the trees.
I have accepted I have no control over my Bantams , we have built them a large fox proof run, provided 2 cosy houses and still they roost in the trees, play chicken with the fox and lay where they want.

I can not bring myself to clip their wings. These are the latest additions to the colony , I thought the fox had taken her.
I am planning some more willow weaving workshops late September/October  so please contact me if interested.

Potato Harvest

We had 52.5mm of rain 2inches in our part of Suffolk in August including the hail.
I stuck to traditional varieties of potato growing Charlotte,Wilja and Kestrel but I still got blight it happened so suddenly almost overnight . Luckily the weather was kind so we removed all the tops ,burnt them and lifted all the potato's. The Wilja were disappointing and suffered the most slug/worm damage and don't taste nearly as good as Charlotte's. Overall  not many tubers were blighted and thanks to the rain a good size.

Suffolk Summer

It has been a very wet summer 120mm of rain in July including this hail storm which really hammered the fruit and veg.The bees have continued to struggle and I had to resort to emergency feeding.

We did have a very hot day for the willow weaving workshop, everyone took home the cloche they made, 3 people and three willow structures in one car. The willow cloches are very versatile in the garden and the techniques of weaving can be applied to all sorts of structures.
Please contact me if you would like to book a place on a workshop, We are in East Anglia close to Ipswich.

Learning about wood

This is the hurdle I made at Orchard Barn. I also learnt so much about basic carpentry as well as green woodworking.The hurdle is made from sweet chesnut and ash coppiced this year.
As we spend a large amount of time in the winter managing our hedgerows it was also the opportunity for us to learn more about coppicing , handling and storing wood.

The sweet chesnuts and hazels I planted 2 winters ago have begun to get going, It is hard work for them as I discovered when planting them lots of bricks and rubble where a building must once have stood.
The fence around them I made while clearing a nearby hedge although now tatty it has worked at keeping the deer,hares, squirrels away.  The fence has also been my motivation to learn more about natural fencing. Ironically the pressure treated poles we bought to stake the new fruit trees (we could not find a supply of sweet chesnut at the time) are already rotting at ground level.