Velhurst Farmhouse, Summer 2007.
Finally, a spell of sunny weather. 15 acres of grass is down and the sun is out! Perhaps pouring milk on the Menhir has worked! Or perhaps there was not enough milk. But it came from Waitrose, and was organic!
We had a visitor from the city here the other day who had never previously made a connection between grass and hay. “So grass is hay!” she said, delighted at her epiphany. Actually no, hay is grass.
Here in the muddy fields of Surrey, we do not expect much urban empathy for our hay-making dilemmas.
Stoicism is the only way to approach farming. There is plenty of reason for it. There is a lot of grass, for sure, in rows on the two bottom hay fields but it is by now a bit… brown and soggy. The ground is still pretty wet. In places the land is heaving with water. All the ponds are full. The ditches are still running. It means dusty hay.
So I think that the cuve of 2007 will not be one to celebrate. It is just too late in the year. If you can cut and bale by the start of July, you can get a lovely bit of hay, smelling like a meadow, or one of those Bounce sheets you put in the dryer. You walk near the barn and can inhale it. What we are making now is fair, at best. But as the old boys say around here, there is only one question: Will the ******* horses eat it?
Haylage is being mentioned as something we should try next time – as if we were in the Shetland Islands.
So, good moaning. A warm welcome to the Velhurst Farm website. This is where you can find out about our events, our products (where there’s muck there’s brass), and our other activities. Apologies for the current rather thin material but it will grow. Please sign our visitor’s book. Just click here! Be the first to say hello!
