By the Barn Blog

Soft fruits are ready to be picked, as are the salad vegetables and this is labour intensive- a bit of a problem if foreign staff is unavailable

It’s time for an important day in the farming calendar- Open farm Sunday on June 9th A day when normal working farms open their gates to allow people to see exactly how food is grown and answer questions about production.

Another flower easily seen at this time of year is Charlock- a weed of cereal crops, tall and yellow, part of the cabbage family.

So the soil is very much a living thing and we don’t want to destroy the balance, it’s much better to work with than against and whatever is taken out needs to be put back- something farming detractors do not seem to think we do.

Flowers are becoming easier to spot and the early celandines are turning their face to the sun once again.

It's also "Februdairy", a response to "veganuary" and a chance to repudiate some of the claims made against the dairy and farming industry.

The ewes are all, hopefully, in lamb now and, unless the weather takes a turn for the worst, will be able to manage on what they can find. This also means we must be careful when using Ted to move them- we don’t want him to scare or hurry them too much.

So you see, all our modern traditions are mixed up with ancient ones.

Anyway, we still have to carry on as normal- our sheep need to move to where the grazing is available and we are continuing to take our finished lambs to market.

She might not have had the career and kudos of women today but was (and women like her are still) intrinsic to agriculture!