Sunflowers are out.
Now the end of July, and after the heat of June, we had and inch of rain last night and an inch 7 days ago, so we are back in grass mode, the cows having eaten their way though a pile of winter fodder in June. The rain has come in time to kick the maize into gear, and all the vegetables crops look incredible. The cooler nights have slowed the courgette, to the point of only just enough, the runner beans cant cope with the very hot weather and this suits them fine. The green beans enjoy the light rain, when it becomes too heavy, we get soil slash and they get covered in soil, not ideal.
Cheese sales are flat at the moment, almost exactly the same as last year and all things considered, this cant be bad, but we are short of milk due to the dry weather in June, so not made as much cheese as we would like, but that is tomorrows problem.
The Government have now produced their new document on SFI and it is only 160 pages long, then add this to the Countryside Stewardship book, 220 pages long, and this comes to 380 pages, so my message to keep it simple, obviously fell on stony ground!!!
