(Posted by Mike, founder of Rocket Gardens)
We’re Gathering Goodies for our Wreaths…
The harvesting team are just starting the first of this year’s bay harvest. We have around 500 bay trees on the farm and we hand pick the very best leaves to be used when we make our Edible Christmas Wreaths, Table Decorations and Festive Foliage Boxes. The tractor and trailer packed with bay leaves smells really amazing as it trundles back across the fields to the farmyard. Once the bay has been safely brought in, the team move onto cutting organic rosemary which we grow on another area of the Rocket Farm. My two youngest enjoy all this festive activity and often get involved – it’s a great way to keep them busy and in touch with the world around them.
Flowers for Christmas
We are also getting ready for picking, bunching and packing Christmas flowers. We have around 80 acres of daffodils here on the farm and the first of these will be coming into bloom very soon with hopefully a continuous supply of different varieties being harvested right through until Mother’s Day next year. With only 10% of the flowers sold in Britain currently being grown in this country we are glad to know that we are doing our little bit to try and redress that balance.
A New Experience for our Pigs
Our two rare breed English Lop pigs that the children received last Christmas are now a year old and are ready to be introduced to a friendly boar. If all goes well in theory we will be hoping for a couple of litters of piglets in around 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. We’ll keep you posted!
A Wintry Walk
I’ve just come back from an early morning walk around the farm as I needed to test drive a brand new pair of wellies (an early Christmas present that I’ve just received.) It’s amazing to see that even the most British of wellies are now proudly made in Indonesia, a country that’s not exactly synonymous with this form of attire. Still, they did the trick and my socks stayed dry and warm. It feels as if winter has finally set in down here in Cornwall and I spotted our first little bit of frost down in the lower lying fields.
Early morning is normally the best time to spot any wildlife that is about, but with this morning’s light, chilly easterly wind all of the rabbits on the farm appeared to be very sensibly tucked away in their burrows. I’ve never quite worked out why rabbits dislike an east wind so much, but fisherman say the same thing about fish; the saying goes “When the wind comes from the West the fish bite best. When winds come from the East the fish bite least!”
As I stomped across the fields and into our bluebell woods, which are currently awash with a blanket of golden leaves, I rather startled a barn owl that was out hunting for its breakfast. Oops. But it’s great to know they are about on the farm and it got me thinking that we ought to build and put up at least one new owl nesting box, so that’s a little project to add to the winter’s to do list!