We are well and truly into the season of mellow fruitfulness and we are having a bumper crop of plums this year. The Farmer is bringing in large quantities daily and whilst we can eat so many it gets to a point where I have to preserve them in some so I have just spent an hour or so stoning them and bagging them up to go into the deep freeze. Come the winter they will be made into plum crumbles and used in various other puddings and pies. The Farmer has been harvesting the onions grown in the polytunnel and he has spent time plaiting them into strings to be hung in the shed again ensuring a good supply for the coming months. In the next few days I shall be out and about on the farm picking brambles from the hedgerows and they shall be turned into jelly or jam and also put in the freezer. The apples will be ready before too long as well and those that are not juiced or made into cider will be stored in trays to see us through the winter. I love this time of year and the preparations for winter. It is very satisfying having rows of jars of preserves and the various crops of fruit and vegetables safely stored in whatever way.
This past week we have had house-guests,good friends from the wide world beyond the farm. They live in London and lead lives so very,very different from life here in deepest west Wales. They are involved in the arts and politics and lead a totally urban existence so a visit to us is a real contrast. It is great for us too as they bring conversation of a different kind and of different perspectives which is very good for us. While they were with us we took them on a trip to south Pembrokeshire to a wonderful place called St. Govan's chapel which is is a tiny medieval stone chapel built into the side of a cliff. It is tucked into a cleft in the rock approached by some very steep stone steps. At the front of the building is a small grassy area which looks straight out to the Irish sea and one realises what a very hard, harsh existence the 6th century holy man, St. Govan must have led. Those medieval saints were extraordinary in the privations they imposed upon themselves for their beliefs. The photograph below shows the Farmer and our friend on the rocks at the foot of the chapel. Some scenes fromm the wonderful tv. adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials third series were filmed here. It must have a nightmare getting a film crew down there!
Yesterday we had a second visit from the person we refer to as the Bumble-bee Lady. She is a field officer for the Bumble-bee Conservation Trust which is working on a project in conjunction with our milk-buying company, Calon Wen, to improve 'pollinatoor friendly grassland farming'. As organic farmers of over 30 years standing our farm is happily home to at least 7 different species of bumble-bees we have learned, plus of course many other pollinating insects. We have the Buff-tailed, Common Carder, White-tailed, Early, Tree, Garden and Red-tailed bumblebees and Ive seen many of them all summer busily going about their business in the gardens and hedges of the farm. It seems that west Wales is a hot spot for bumble-bees which is good news for us. The region is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Shrill Carder Bee. More than half the UK's bumble-bee species have declined during the 20th century with two species having become extinct nationally in the time. If you are interested in finding out more about bumblebees and what is being fodne to protect them then go to www.bumblebeeconservation.org.
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