July, along with every other month has a lot of folklore attached to the weather that we can expect to get for the rest of the harvest season, the most well know of these being the St Swithin’s day prediction; July 15 St. Swithin’s Day — if on St. Swithin’s Day ye do rain, for forty days it will remain. This has always been a critical time for farmers, if we receive rain from the 15th of July onwards, crops will not be harvested on time, and the quality of those grains start to decline. This year St Swithin’s day was dry for us, and as folklore predicts we are enjoying a long spell of warm dry weather allowing us to progress well with the harvest.
In this spell of balmy weather we have begun the arable harvest, with both winter sown barley and Oilseed Rape being harvested, and as I write this the combine is being serviced to start harvesting the first crops of milling wheat this afternoon in the baking heat. After what has been a challenging year weather wise to grow crops in both the barley and Oilseed Rape have yielded well, after a full year of growing these crops this is the time where the hard work by all the team here on the estate pays off. It puts everyone in a good mood to see crops coming into the store dry and yielding well.
On other parts of the farm some of our specialty crops are coming into their own, with the likes of Phacelia putting on an incredible show in mid flower, carpeting the fields in a wall of sweet smelling, purple flowers that the bees go mad for. The team have also been busy finishing off the hay making to fill sheds with fodder for the cattle over the long winter months.
Outside of farming July is the last time I get to compete for a few months, as work means I don’t have time to go off a run long distances on a weekend, so last weekend I took on the Chilterns Ultra marathon, 75km through the rolling Hertfordshire countryside, a great excuse to get out and put myself to the test before the harvest season takes over my life, and nice to see other farmers crops.
By the time I write my next diary we will have harvested the Spelt for Northern Pasta and hopefully we will know that the quality of it is good enough to create the flour that makes the best pasta out there!
