A Week in the Life of Shillingford: Tuesdays

So I've already told you what my first Tuesday was like...sorting onions, learning about how some of the produce is graded for the boxes into mini, small, medium, large. The second Tuesday I was, can you guess? sorting onions again! This is a job I enjoy, as it's pretty simple and you can work at a table, rather than in a crate, like with the carrots! 

The rest of Tuesday was spent winding wire in one of the fields with Wolfie. When the crops had been initially planted out, an electric wire fence had been put up all around, to keep animals out and give the crops a chance to grow. Now they had grown and most had started to be harvested, there was no need for the wire anymore so it was up to us to wind it all back up again, ready for another time. 

I was handed a large spool/bobbin and shown where to make a start. (One thing about the people here, they won't ever give you a job that they wouldn't do themselves). There's not much to say about winding wire, it's pretty easy, fiddly when it's been attached to wooden posts and you're trying to unwind it from the bottom up, and the more you wind, the heavier it gets. I decided to solve this problem by threading my scarf through the centre of the bobbin. This meant that I now only had to use my hands to wind it up, rather than hold it as well. Much easier! (Even Wolfie was mildly impressed, and these farmer guys don't get impressed by much!)

This kind of job makes you very aware that you are on your own and there are no distractions. I did see a few deer gallop away at one point which was amazing, but apart from that, it's just you, your feet and the wire. I ended up singing a lot of songs in my head! But it's great to be outside in the sunshine and fresh air, away from computers and phones and noise and just be doing a simple job, walking up and down the field. However, I was glad when Wolfie said it was time for lunch. As simple and pleasing as the job was, there's only so much you can do at a time before you fancy a change!

The following Tuesday was a bit different. By now the weather had started to change, and so instead of reporting at the Pack House at 7am, we were asked to start at 8am, which then changed to 8:30am as everything was frozen and there was nothing to pick! This time again, I started by sorting onions, (you can never have too many onions sorted!) and then Wolfie took Hannah and me to collect 3 blue crates of brussels. Ugh, as mentioned before, picking brussels isn't a simple job. It's not bad at all, but I'd say fiddly. When we'd done this, we went over to one of the other fields to get leeks.

Now, there is a method to picking leeks. The idea is to keep one hand clean so that the leek can go in the crate clean. So you pull it out with one hand, cut the roots off, cut the top off, making sure that the edges are nice, (you're aiming for a 'V' shape) and then you use the clean hand, (cutting hand) to remove a few outer layers. You also should cut the roots away from the other plants, so no soil falls on them. Basic things, but not something you'd always think about. And if you come across a lot of slimy ones, then you need to fork them all out of the ground. Now, I found this rather tricky for a number of reasons. First of all, most of the outer layers appeared to be frozen on, which made life tricky. I also didn't get the cutting of the roots quite right, and the edges kept ripping. Every now and then, I'd get a good one, which was encouraging. But as Wolfie said, when you start, you'll be rubbish, but by the end, you'll have got it. It's all about practice. And I suppose he was right. 

Although the clean effect was slightly ruined when Tilly decided to jump into the pick up with us, scrapping her claws over two crates to do so! Bad dog Tilly!!

We then went to harvest parsnips. This needed the use of the tractor and what I'll call the wiggly attachment. (I didn't find out the proper terminology). Basically, the attachment drags under the ground by about a foot or so, wiggling as the tractor moves down the field, and making it easier to get the parsnips out. As the ground was wet, after we dug them out, sorted them and twisted the tops off, we threw them into a row alongside where we were working. This meant that they could air dry a little, and then we could simply walk back up the field, collecting them in bags as we went, and stacking them on the tractor. This job required a lot of kneeling in the dirt and scrabbling, but it was a nice change to bending over all the time. Plus, there were a lot of strange parsnips! Many with three + legs, which we sadly had to reject. I wish I'd been able to take photos, but phones+gloves+mud don't mix well.

After this, we carried onto beetroots. At this point, Sharon had to go and insisted that I wear her massive coat on top of my own. I thought I was fine, but golly, I was cold! Her coat was a great help, so thank you Sharon! Since we started later and we were already by the beetroots, we decided to continue through lunch and stop then. This was the only problem for the Wwoofers about the changing hours: it meant that we didn't finish at 1pm anymore! The beetroots were ok to harvest, you simply put them out of the ground, slice of some of the top, leaving a tuft, and bag them up. You have to leave the tuft otherwise they would start to bleed, and that would be sad, (and also not great for the consumer). 

I lost count of how many bags we did, but there's a lot of judging size involved and we also pulled out the super big ones, as Godfrey suggested they could be sold for juicing, (an excellent idea!)

Now, with the weather getting worse, everything started to freeze up.....so when I went to take a shower...guess what? Yup, surprisingly, (or not), the water had frozen. Luckily, Martyn gave us the use of the shower in his house, which was more than adequate. (Hannah did make me laugh though...coming back from her shower she asked me, "Is it just Martyn, or do you all have carpet in your bathrooms?!" (She's from The Netherlands). I told her it was one of this country's little quirks, like having separate hot and cold water taps....no reason to it and not helpful at all!)

So there we are, Tuesdays covered! 

A Week in the Life of Shillingford: Mondays

Greetings!

So I feel like there is just so much to tell you about being here at Shillingford! I thought the best way is to take you through a week's routine here. Each day tends to have a particular role, and so, as the song goes, let's start at the very beginning...

So many carrots!

Monday: Mondays tend to be rather quiet, as there are only a few orders to do. Usually some of the more time-consuming jobs are done. I've had two Mondays here now. Both times, I've sorted carrots. These were picked earlier in the year and placed in large wooden crates in the 'fridge' in the barn. Both times, I and another Wwoofer, (Mel, then Hannah), have had to grade out the good carrots from the others. The reject list is as follows:

- too small or large

- twisted too much

- root fly has had a go

- mouldy or just not great!

cold!

The fridge room is pretty cold so it's important to have lots of layers, and a hat is always a good idea....here's me the first time: yeah, I'm pretty cold. Sometimes one of us will play music on our phones or chat, but it's a repetitive job. You do find yourself going into a bit of a trance as your hands and eyes work away, with your brain elsewhere! We fill up spare paper sacks and place them onto a fresh pallet, making sure that the bag openings are facing inwards, (this makes it much easier to transport). What is nice is that we will often get some of the birds hopping in to see what we're up to, either a cocky blackbird or a nosy robin. 

Other times, we will use the quiet time to wash crates with the pressure washer. As times like these, I am so glad I have decent waterproof trousers and jacket! And sorry to Mel for spraying in her face a few times! 

Basically, there are different sets of crates: blue, white, green, grey and black, (in order of size). Most of the picking is done in these measurements. I have no idea what each weighs, but the guys do, so no matter! Usually the order will be to go out and pick 5 crates of leeks, or about a green crate of brussels. Salads are usually picked using grey crates and the little black crates aren't used that much at the moment. During the week, these crates will get rather muddy and dirty, so when there's a chance, we clean them out. It's mainly the blue and white that get the most grubbiest, and there is a quiet satisfaction cleaning the red soil and mud from the white crates, ready to be stacked up for another week. (it's also a good way to clean your trousers too!)

The last Monday I was at Shillingford, We went to the top field to get kale, red cabbage, sprouts and cauliflowers. Caulies were few and far between as the frosts had been getting worse and so most veg stop growing or are spoilt. We were also picking black kale, which was fine, if a little sorry looking, but tastes just as great. The red cabbages are also doing well, all wrapped up for winter! 

Brussel sprout picking was memorable. First, you pull all the dead leaves from the stem, as high as possible. Then, because they grow in a spiral fashion, you have to get an "in", so find a weakly attached one, and go from there. Both hands are needed really for this job, so there's a grand sight of three of us, all bending over, hands working as quickly as possible. Now, being frozen means that you really have to snap these little guys off with force, and I was glad that I was wearing gardening gloves covered by my fingerless Thermalined wool pair. This made the job do-able! I asked Godfrey later why we don't sell them on the stalk, like a lot of other places do, (I think over the past few years, it has become rather fashionable) and got the answer I expected....the yield for us would be far smaller. Pretty obvious really. So, if your'e buying brussels this year, maybe don't get them on the stalk...as you'll be encouraging the farmer to use more land for the same crop and removing possible nutrients which could be put straight back into the soil in situ.

I found a chrysalis on one of the red cabbages so I
removed it carefully and placed it somewhere safe.

The first Monday also came with a surprise at the end of the day....Wolfie had caught a rabbit in one of the boxes and offered it to Mel and me for supper. So of course I said yes! (Follow the link for a picture of Wolfie skinning it) Now, time for the vegetarians to tune out....

Although I've eaten rabbit before, in Northern Italy, this was the first time I'd had to deal with one from scratch, so I headed straight to google. Wolfie had kindly left the kidneys and liver in, so I removed them, and then soaked the rabbit in some salt water for a few hours as I'd read this removes any "game-i-ness" from the animal. Then I roasted it in the oven, having slathered it in olive oil, garlic and dried herbs. Being unsure as to how long to cook it for, I did set the heat rather high, (I didn't want to poison Mel!) and so it did really rather quickly. If I were to cook it again, I wouldn't be afraid to cook it at a much lower heat, (around 170) for a bit longer, (hour and a half?). We grabbed a load of veg to go with it, my favourite being the carrots with honey, yum! I then fried up the liver and kidneys in a little oil and butter and had them seperately, while Mel winced in the corner. (I also saved a little of the liver for Tilly, which she was most happy about!) 

Rabbit is really tasty, a bit like chicken, but obviously more meaty. We also had it with salad, and about halfway through I noticed the irony of this....(salad...what rabbits eat?!)

What made me happiest about this meal was knowing that I was eating something that had been caught and killed that day, prepared and eaten all within a 10 metre zone. That's what it should be about in my book. It's local, it's fresh and it's (probably) organic. Oh, and it's humane. 

So, that's all for a Monday....next, Tuesday!

Wwoof and Twitter

Hello! I'm home (early) due to Wales being rather icy and snowy! I made the decision to just head straight home from Shillingford on Sunday, as it was starting to look as if I might not be able to get home at all!

Since returning home, there's been a large pile of post waiting for me. The first one I chose turned out to be the Winter newsletter of Wwoof UK. Yay! Imagine my surprise when I turned to  page 10, (an explanation about Twitter) and saw that my blog address has been tweeted about! Sadly, the address was wrong, so I"m making this post so if people follow the link from twitter they should get this post! Hello! Subscribe! I will add more posts soon!

This has got me thinking, maybe....well, maybe it's time to join Twitter....(gasp!) I know I've always said that it's a step too far, but like all things with power, it can be used for good. So, I've done it....and here is my profile....http://twitter.com/lizthelandgirl

I'm hoping this will help more people see what I'm up to and also for me to get in contact with more people. I'm going to keep it purely related to Wwoof and it also means I can update little bits and bobs more regularly. The slight trouble with blogging is that I want to have enough for a decent post, so I write it all down but never get around to writing it up! I'm hoping with my Twitter account I can get all the little things out there straight away!

We'll see how it goes!

Updates

Hey guys, I would love to update you but the Internet today is being slower than a very slow thing. Right now, I'm writing this via my phone which is fine, but not ideal! I still have so much to tell you but I'm going to let the Internet dictate that I have a nice relaxing night!
One thing before I go: we finally had SNOW! yay!