A Week on the Estate: Getting Adaptive, Riseholme Visitors & Scandi Migrants

Estate Manager Paul Barnes then showed off our 12,000 grape vines, boasting a comprehensive array of supporting posts and wires and ready for their first winter. After all that bracing weather, everyone was more than happy to retire to the Old School for a hot beverage.

On top of all that, we’re about to become a Climate Demonstration Farm (CDF), part of a pan-European network of farmers promoting and leading a climate-smart approach. That means we get to play a strong part in helping the farming community boost resilience to the effects of climate-change, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and improve carbon sequestration.

As a CDF, we’ll be one of only 40 organic and agroforestry demonstration farms coordinated by Abacus Agriculture. Alongside farmers from 28 other countries, we’ll be pooling knowledge that will help make all our futures a fair bit brighter. We love to talk about what we do and listen to what other farmers have to say.

We doffed our cap to Damian Furlong this week for snapping a flock of wonderful new arrivals. The fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a larger, more colourful relative of the blackbird. Normally resident in Scandinavia, many over-winter in the UK where they’re sustained by hawthorn, yew, holly and juniper berries and fallen fruit. Our commitment to biodiversity, including planting and protecting fruiting hedgerows, looks like it’s paying dividends. We don’t recall seeing this many fieldfares before.

We have a few parish notices for those of you planning your Christmas dinners and your pre- or post-grub walk:

• Our special, festive click & collect events on 22^nd and 23^rd December will be the final opportunities to collect our produce in 2023. All poultry orders will be available for collection only from the Hall on 22^nd and 23^rd.
• This year’s final Wood Farm click & collect session on 16^th December will be for beef, gin and soap only.
• GIN LOVERS PLEASE NOTE: 12th December will be the FINAL ORDER DATE for DPD home delivery before Christmas.
• Orders for standard click & collect on 16^th December must be received by 12-noon on 15^th December.
• Orders for festive click & collect on 22^nd or 23^rd December must be received by 12-noon on 21^st December.
• The Sheepdip Paddock parking area on Brinkhill Road will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day while Jo puts her feet up!

Finally, we’re offering our lovely, loyal friends and customers the chance to win a whole Massingberd-Mundy Norfolk Black turkey, free, gratis and with our compliments.  Head to the competition post on our Facebook page HERE from Monday 11th December at 7pm, like the post, tag in someone you’d love to invite to Christmas dinner and share the post.

The competition will close at midnight on Sunday 17th December. The winner will be selected at random and will be invited to choose their preferred size of bird (up to 7kg – RRP £113)) and collect it at one of our special festive click & collect sessions on 22nd or 23rd December.

Good luck and we’ll see you there for a hot brew, a mince pie and a bulging bag of Christmas cheer.

If you’d like to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Just head to our Facebook page HERE and comment beneath the latest blog post. As ever, thanks for your support.