A nice little bonus for us this month as our Lyburn Lightly Oak Smoked, takes the top prize for Smoked cheese at the Artisan Cheese Awards at the Melton show. The cheese is smoked down at the Dorset Smokery, Hurn, where we get consistency, and have used these guys for some years.
Last week we had some interesting comments from senior politicians, who really ought to know better. Local boy Richi, was discussing labour issues on the farm, and pointed out that he thought we would soon have robots to cut and harvest Courgettes. Richi ‘old mate’ they have been desperately try to design a robot to pick strawberries for some time. It will happen someday, but at what cost. Designing robots that are under cover, bolted to concrete, complete with a power supply to make cars, is one thing. In a muddy, wet field with no power supply is another thing, and once we have courgette robot, we are also going to need a sugar snap pea robot, a broad bean robot, a runner bean robot, a sweetcorn robot and a pumpkin robot. Good luck mate!
Then we have Suella Braverman telling us we need to get on and train more lorry drivers, vegetable pickers and welders, in that order. One can find lorry drivers to be trained, and can find welders to be trained. These are solid long term jobs, needed in every town and village in the country, needing substantial training. You absolutely cannot find thousands of potential veg pickers to train, for a job that is temporary, entirely seasonal, and particularly localised. What is it about a runner bean these people don’t understand?
