The posters are up, and the schedule for the show has been in the shops and outlets around the patch for some time. But today is reckoning day, by which time all paperwork for the entries to the show must…
Category: Farming
The traditional Sunday lunch vs the World Diet Plan
This entry started life as an idea of writing about the cooks, mostly mothers it has to be said, who live their lives sustaining the family, who patiently work at cooking the family meals: breakfasts; packed lunches; dinners; day in…
Gordon the guinea fowl
I saw my first guinea fowl at Beamish Open Air Museum, probably twenty-five years ago. They were scurrying around the miner’s cottage, just near to the Methodist chapel, and they even rated a descriptive legend. Apparently they were favourites of…
Allendale Beekeeping
Paul Mingard writes in to chat about his sleuthing adventures into the realm of beekeeping: “If you had to choose the perfect area in which to keep honeybees, you wouldn’t choose Allendale. It is well above the warm and fertile…
Allendale Agricultural Show
Early in the week, in response to anxious queries about the weather and state of the showground, Dani Henderson, Show Secretary, was putting on a brave face: “A few people have been asking if the show’s going ahead. Well, the…
The dangers of dead helium balloons
I felt so sorry for John Davison, now close to, no, past retirement he says, when he popped up on the BBC’s evening programme Look North, yesterday evening, to chat about the loss of his 15 month old calf due…
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days . . .
. . . .of summer! Maybe even when the torrential rains and thunderstorms come, as they did Tuesday evening, dramatically, maybe even then it’ll still be summer. It’s a dreadful weekend predicted, so much so that the Lions Golf Classic…
Berry picking time . . .
We should be grateful that the blackbird, a clear favourite in our garden apart from beloved Gordon the guinea fowl, doesn’t seem to fancy the red currants! He’s decimated the lovely soft juicy black currants (I knew he was after…
Hay Meadows of the North Pennines
If you want to understand something of the importance of the traditional hay meadows of the North Pennines, the place to go is to the online archive of Neil Diment’s investigations, served by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural…
Shaftoe Young Farmers Club
A few days ago I had a lovely chat with James Little, the Chairman of Shaftoe Young Farmers club, which sounds like a group that enjoys itself and its activities very much indeed. I began by asking about the name:…