The first thing we needed to do was find a tenant, ideally someone with a farming background who could live on the land and help look after it. Sam Lane was working at the local Swinbrook estate and was looking for a place to live near by. He moved into the cottage in November, we got talking, and now he’s joined our team as technical advisor. It’s great how things work out sometimes. There was the first real link between Honeydale and Cotswold Seeds, before we’d even started to sow anything.
Having moved into Honeydale in late November I was immediately struck by the stunning panoramic views. They stretch from Chadlington and Charlbury in the North East and all the way around to Rissington, Stow and the Cotswold hills in the south west. I was lucky to experience a mild winter during my first at Honeydale, having been warned that snow does drift along the driveway, when it blows in on top of the hill! On the sunny days it was great to see lots of brown hares and an abundance of skylarks making the most of the over winter stubbles, as a habitat and food source. There are also a resident family of roe deer often seen in the bottom grass meadows of the farm.
As time moves on and we head towards early summer, the farm has really greened up, with the hedgerows and ash and oak trees in full leaf. In the arable fields the Barley ears have emerged which appear to rise and fall on a tide as the wind blows them, while in the grass meadows there are wild flowers and grass panicles in full bloom. Heading into the summer we have lambs that seem to get bigger each day and a pair of nesting red legged partridge. Looking ahead we will soon have a cut of hay from the meadow and have the excitement of the local farm arriving to cut and bale the spring barley, after which we face some tough decisions, as to what we plant for the following year.
