27/7/14 West Bexington, Dorset, Tamarisk Farm & Seaspring Seeds Open Day

*** FREE *** (my favourite price!)

TWO FARMS' OPEN DAY - West Bexington

... Sunday 27th July 2014 ... 10.30am - 4pm ...

Everyone is invited to join us for our Annual Open Day to visit two
working farms farms in West Bexington. As ever this promises to be an
interesting and enjoyable day with new things to see and talk about
and new challenges to discuss. Drop in for 10 minutes or 2 hours: join
us just for a cup of tea and a chat or stay for a full farm walk and
lunch.

• Discuss more about where your food comes from

• Talk to us about our philosophy and practice

• Tour the farms and market gardens

• Join us for some tea and a chat!

Tamarisk Farm

(including Labour-in-Vain Farm and Cogden National Trust)

01308 897781 and 897784 ..... www.tamariskfarm.co.uk

Organic cattle, sheep, cereals and vegetables

- organic meat, flour and vegetables will be on sale

Sea Spring Farm

01308 897892 ..... www.seaspringfarm.biz

Specialist growers of chillies and other vegetables.

- fresh chillies, chilli plants and seeds will be on sale

• Again this year the flour milling tour will take place with bread
samples to taste and recipes to discuss.

• Join us on a farm walk to see crops, animals and wild flowers.

• Of particular interest are the luxuriant sheepskins and our new
range of beautiful natural coloured knitting wools from our own sheep.

• Enthusiasts can walk around (and taste) the vegetable garden with
Arthur and tap his extensive experience.

• Ask us those hard questions which challenge us to justify why we
farm the way we do.

• Walk round the poly tunnels with Joy to see how the extensive
range of chillies and speciality seeds are grown.

• Produce will be available to buy, and we will be selling food for
lunch.

...................................................

No booking needed and there is no charge for the day. Easy access for
the disabled, but for those intending to explore with us please bring
suitable footwear for uneven ground. Dogs are not encouraged but are
welcome if calm and on a lead. Nothing is organised particularly for
children but we like to see them. Plenty of parking space.

For more details or to get directions check the farm's website or fell
free to phone.

We look forward to seeing you

 

I'll be there, will you and Mrs Scrunge be too? @Scrungee

 

I've been trying to talk her into a 12:00 midnight departure Saturday night, approx. 4:00 arrival at West Bex (that's what I normally do, but she's only done it once before and fell asleep and missed all the badgers, deer and barn owls on the way down, then complained how cold it was on the beach at dawn, although I don't think that will be the case on Sunday) for some Mackie fishing, but I gather there's not many about at the moment - which is why I haven't bothered going there so far this year.

I'm looking at the latest BBC app weather forecast and Sunday is now forecast as a dry, sunny forecast, and the tide that day is only a few days off July's highest springs, so a good compromise at 07:36 am BST and later, higher tides, much later in the day. So I'm seriously tempted.

 

Still not decided but I've put a load of giant freezer blocks on to freeze, filled the tank with petrol and will bottle some homebrew samples.

 

@Zigs weather/conditions still looking promising for Sunday (although now 10 mph wind parallel to beach, rather than directly offshore to aid casting is forecast, although that should be cooling) but will pack car in morning in anticipation of departing at midnight on Saturday, so oh dear no drinking tomorrow, must make up for it tonight.

 

20 mackerel caught on wednesday evening at Bexy by my mates neighbour @Scrungee

 

I would be happy with just 20, but have found I've always caught more if arriving at daybreak, and the car parking is cheaper then - free, which is my favourite price, so will aim to arrive at 4:00 am. My record is slightly over 2o0 mackies caught before the car parking charges kick in, and unlike some idiots who can't cope with that amount, I chill and process everything. If it looks like I'm going beyond what I can cope with, using, then I use a wedge/spinning rod, but from what I've heard about mackerel numbers this year, guess I'm going to be struggling to fill my bucket (which is why I haven't been to Chesil so far this year).

 

The water has cleared out and the amount of weed has dropped

I'll be brining and oak smoking any I catch as i've got no refridgeration at all

Evenings and early morning are the best

 

Just cast some lead weights and i've greased my Weasle up

Be there as early as I can on a Sunday morning

 

A late report of @Zigs and my visit to West Bexington last Sunday, but it takes me half a day to prepare for such a trip and leaving at midnight to arrive at dawn then returning the same afternoon wipes me out for the following day, leaving lots of catching up to do.

Left shortly after midnight and had my first break on the A34 near Didcot hoping to see the power station cooling towers blown up during the night but no such luck and arrived at West Bexington beach car park at approx. 4:15, having only seen 2 foxes on the drive there, no badgers, deer or barn owls this time. Amazed to see car park about half full and had a short sleep until 5:00 am and headed to the beach.

The good news was that the ticket machine was broken so parking was free (my favourite price) but did as I always do and took a pic of 'out of order' display and stick a note on my dashboard. Spoke to a fisherman in the car park who said they were amazed that there were so many people there as there wasn't any fish being caught and went on to mention it was the same when he was fishing there the day before. I think the irony was lost on him.

Completely blanked on the mackerel fishing, but at least I'd chosen the right place as the couple next to me caught 7 of the 12 mackerel I saw caught between about 60 people and they were taking it in turns to use the same gear to continuously cast out, whilst my cunning plan after a couple of hours was to wait for somebody else to catch before leaping into action myself.

Met Zigs in the car park on my return, had a break and returned to West Bex. I found the tour of Seaspring Seeds poly tunnels very informative because I asked lots of questions - you have to make the most of a free tour). Probably should have bought some seeds of what I fancied to save on postage.

The farm walk was not very exciting, mainly about use of clover to add nitrogen to the soil and enhance what would otherwise be an extremely poor grain crop, but at least there was a view of the sea and some different butterflies about than we see around here.

The beach



The Loofah poly tunnel



Chillies polytunnel



Dorset Nagas



Tomatoes



The Labour in Vain Farm organic cornfields




The interesting growing bits were that they grow through black polythene (rather than Mypex) using automated watering systems under the plastic sheet and use chicken manure added to the soil and Miracle Gro feed added to the watering system. The Chillies are grown in what I'd term 'lazy raised beds' covered with black plastic (as chillies like free draining soil), as were to the tomatoes, but that could have be due to crop rotation, but the toms looked incredibly robust.

 

Ta Scrunge

Was a good day out and was lovely to meet you at last

 

@Zigs another tip I learnt that day was don't bottle wine when you're about to go on a long drive and can't check you've done the right stuff by not be able to taste it (I don't touch a drop the day before if doing a drive like that).

Have you tried the Blackberry Wine yet?

P.S. I'll probably order some of their Draky 'vegetable' Chilli seeds like the plants in the last polytunnel of the tour (wish I'd taken pic of those).

 

Found it a little acidic for my liking Scrunge, but thank you very much

Hope you liked the Pineapple, that was a bit dry for me, the prune has come out great though, bit like Sherry