A new “Learn To Mow” event has been added which will be particularly relevant for those needing to manage grass or weeds like bramble, thistle, dock and rush in areas where machinery is not possible or suitable.

Full details including how to book a place are on the Learn To Mow event calendar page.

The 2 day course will be run by Steve Tomlin who first learned to use a scythe in the Pyrennes in 2001 and is a founder member and Training Coordinator for the Scythe Association (Britain & Ireland). Steve has taught several hundred people to scythe since beginning to teach in 2010 and is recognised as the leading scythe teacher in the UK.

In addition to his own courses in mowing and peening, he is an instructor for new scythe teachers, and has taught the use of the scythe for Natural England, the National Trust, Highgrove Estate, BBC Countryfile with John Craven and ITV’s Countrywise with Paul Heiney.

You can find out more about Steve by visiting his scythe blog at http://stevetomlincrafts.wordpress.com/category/scytherspace-2/.

Originally a simple Facebook page was created just to accompany this website with the intention of using it to promote the news and events that were added to the website.

Now the time has come for a dedicated North Pennines Smallholders group on Facebook which will add another way for people to connect and share experiences.

If you already use Facebook then please take a look but you will need to be signed up on Facebook to get access to the group.

North Pennines Smallholders group on Facebook

If you don’t use Facebook and don’t want to sign up then reset assured that the North Pennines Smallholders website will continue to be the main source of news and information for the group.

The feedback and notes from the most recent smallholder meeting held in Allendale back in March are now available.

Please take the time to download this and read it through, any questions or comments can be posted either on the forum here or by email.

Highlights

The meeting was fairly well attended and there were quite a number of topics discussed during the evening with some excellent ideas raised. Here are a few of the topics that were covered:

• Setting up a committee to further establish the smallholders network
• Past workshops had proved popular and can be repeated in future
• Woodland management was identified a topic of interest for many
• Safe use of pesticides and related training was raised as an area of concern

Download

The full notes from the meeting are available to download as a PDF document using the link below:

PDF, 204KB

The North Pennines AONB are looking for volunteers to undertake bumblebee surveys in the gardens of interested residents in and around the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Volunteers will visit residents gardens to survey for different bumblebee species and specific bee-friendly plants.  The completed survey will form the basis of the Gardening for Bumblebees pack that they’ll send out to all households that have had a survey with tailored advice on how to make their garden better for bees.

You don’t need any experience or prior knowledge as they’ll be running a free training day on bumblebee identification in partnership with Anthony McClusky of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust on Friday 8^th May at Bowlees Visitor Centre in Teesdale and  Saturday 9^th May at Garrigill Village Hall near Alston.  Lunch is included!

After the training, volunteers will be expected to survey 5 gardens between May and September. These can include your own garden and those of friends and family.  All travel expenses incurred as part of the project will be reimbursed.

Contact information can be found on the relevant calendar event entry if there are any questions or to book your place

The North Pennines AONB Partnership are holding another evening meeting at the Golden Lion in Allendale on 19 March.

This is particularly relevant as there will be an open discussion on the further development of the North Pennines Smallholder Network.

Click here for full details of the meeting which include the relevant contact so please email Ruth in advance if you plan to attend.

Here are some details of a survey being conducted on behalf of the Landworkers’ Alliance which may be of interest to North Pennines Smallholders:

I am writing to invite you to take part in a survey of the productivity of small farms in the UK? I am undertaking this work on behalf of the Landworkers’ Alliance, in conjunction with the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. We are hoping to gather data about the productivity of at least 100 farms of 20ha and less, on which people are earning at least part of their livelihood. A link to the online questionnaire can be found here
https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/coventry/amatterofscale/.

Please don’t be daunted by the length of the survey! Unless you operate a highly diverse farm, you will probably not have to fill in many of the tables, which are the time-consuming part. However, realistically it is likely to take a couple of hours to complete, and we realise that this represents a significant investment of your time. As an incentive to take part, all those who complete the questionnaire will be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 voucher for a short break with Organic Farm Holidays (http://www.organicholidays.co.uk) , at a B&B or holiday cottage of your choice, or one of five Opinel knives.

If your farm is highly diverse, we are particularly keen that you should take part, so that we can explore the relative productivity of diverse farms with those that operate monoculture.

Even if you don’t feel your farm is particularly productive, it would be helpful to understand the barriers that prevent it from becoming more productive. Completing the survey questionnaire might even be a useful exercise in evaluating the recent performance of your farm.

In addition to productivity, the  survey results will also provide a clear picture of the range of small scale farms in operation and who is running them (i.e. young/old, male/female, new entrants/people from farming families).

From Jim & Gudrun’s field near Catton, Allendale

Rare breed sheep

The ewes and lambs receive excellent welfare and this year they have over-wintered the lambs.

They are 11 months old rare breed Grey Faced Dartmoor or Grey Faced Dartmoor cross and the slaughter is at a nearby family run abattoir with meat matured for 5 days

If you have not bought half (or whole) lambs before, this is a cost effective way to buy your meat from a known location and with the ability to ask any question about the breeding/way it has been reared.

You will need a full size 20cm deep freezer drawer to accommodate ½ a lamb, which comes fully butchered:

• Two ½ leg joints (or full leg)
• Top leg joint
• Loin chops, cutlets & forequarter chops (~20)
• Whole shoulder (or two ½ shoulder joints)
• Neck joint (or neck chops)
• Breast

For information, the Cranstons website currently charge £75 for a half lamb, with a minimum weight 7+ kilos.

The half lambs are £70 for 10+ kilo (if any are under 10 kilos they will reduce the price pro rata) with delivery to your house or office on 20th March.

If you would like to know more or place an order contact: jimheslop@outlook.com

It was decided to postpone this meeting until 24th February as a result of positive comments coming back suggesting that people would have liked to attend but they didn’t hear about the meeting in time.

Take a look at the event calendar entry for more information

All other details of the meeting remain the same and remember that places are limited so please contact them as soon as possible if you are interested.

A number of new calendar events have just been added to the website but it’s possible that some may have already heard of these from other sources.

Anyone who is interested should book in advance even if the event is shown as free. More details can be found using the direct web links to each calendar entry below:

Landworker’s Alliance North East meeting in Newcastle – Tues 10th February

Come and find out more about the Landworkers’ Alliance, meet other farmers’, growers, woodland workers and land-based crafts people from the region, look around Ouseburn City Farm and enjoy a bowl of soup.

An on-farm event at Slackhouse Farm, Gilsland – Tues 10th February 

A meeting to talk about CAP reform, grassland management and rush control with a tour around the farm.

North Pennines Smallholder Network meeting – Thurs 19th March, Allendale

An evening meeting to talk about upland hay meadow management, gardening for bumblebees and a discussion on the future of the developing North Pennines Smallholder Network

Rush Management Workshop

The rush management workshop was a success and the information covered in the workshop is explained in this pdf document:

http://www.eblex.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BRP-plus-Management-and-Control-of-Common-soft-Rush-060114.pdf

Rush Management – picture 1

Photograph of Ian Cairns explaining how deep the soft rush roots grow and that each seed head sheds thousands of seeds. The seeds remain viable in the seed bank for decades.

Rush Management – picture 2

There were demonstrations of cutting machines by Natural England and the RSPB explained why they control rushes at Geltsdale for breeding waders. One of the most effective forms of management to reduce soft rush dominance is to cut the rushes before flowering, leave the rushes in place and weed-wipe the regrowth (with Glyphosate) approximately eight weeks later. In combination with improving drainage, pH and grazing regimes, rushes can be reduced.

HNV farming

For those interested in knowing more about High Nature Value farming, here is the website link:

http://www.efncp.org/projects/united-kingdom/hnv_eng_wales/hnv-farming-northern-upland-chain/

PA1 Safe use of Pesticides

The Farmer Network will be running training courses on the safe use of pesticides this year. If you are interested, perhaps register your interest with The Farmer Network:

http://www.thefarmernetwork.co.uk/farm-events-and-news/events/pa1-safe-use-of-pesticides-the-business-hub-appleby-cumbria/

CAP reform

There are regular updates to the CAP reform found on the DEFRA website. The most important piece of information for smallholders is that land under 5 hectares will no longer be eligible for agri-environment payments:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cap-reform-december-2014-update

Future Workshops and Events

The North Pennines AONB Partnership will hold an evening meeting in March (date to be confirmed) to learn more about upland hay meadow management, bumblebee-friendly wildflowers to grow in gardens and to have a discussion on what workshops and events should be held this year.