Harvest time

Three days after the KCA tea party, inspection showed, as suspected, ominous squirrel damage on both the old and the young bloc.  With two weeks to go until the pickers from Hurstwood Farm were due it was a case of holding your breath, fingers crossed and just hoping that they would not make too many inroads into the crop in that time. Hurstwood need the nuts to be well-ripened for their markets and for processing into oil; squirrels on the other hand go for them before they are even fully formed within the shell - as the photo below clearly shows.

The kernals in these nuts were still soft and undersize when the squirrels attacked

But harvesting could begin on the young bloc and a start was made on August 26th.  Next day I was joined for picking by another Nutter who spotted a fine grass snake, slithering away into long grass: not surprising but the first time I had seen one on the plat. I've been keeping a log book of everything including weather, and the following day was windless and sunny, with thermals rising. Three buzzards overhead were taking advantage of the thermals whilst at nut tree level dragonflies were cruising around.

 At the far end of the young bloc, where the ground slopes downhill, more squirrel damage was evident and the trees were almost bare of nuts.  At this end there is a band of wild hazels and the marauders can dart out and back without fear.  While the hazels are good pollinators it might be best to coppice them over the winter and deprive the squirrels of their cover. Meanwhile we keep picking.

nuts spread out for drying and sorting

Destined for Ightham Mote

The nuts are piling up in the shed where they are sorted and bagged up to go on sale at Ightham Mote. The shed is now watertight and squirrel-proof, thanks to Ightham Mote's head gardener and his team and to another supporter who kindly donated the materials for patching the holes in the roof and sides.

payment is made 'by donation' to the chained box

Daily deliveries are made to the stand outside Ightham Mote's Reception area to catch the attention of visitors and payment is made 'by donation' (with £2 a bag recommended).  It is interesting to average out the daily take!

At the side of the stand there are notices pinned up with facts, figures and recipes for cobnuts, like the one below.

A champion cluster with eleven nuts

Cobnuts grow in ones or twos and often in larger clusters. The record-holder this year was a cluster of eleven!

Mid-September was when the Hurstwood Farm pickers, thirty two students, were due to arrive but the weather had turned uncertain. Fortunately the appointed day, September 15, started dry, if overcast. Boxes were laid out  and the students were assigned in pairs, one pair to each row.

'Looks a bit like rain!'

A cheerful picker

On the second day it really did rain hard, all day and there was no question of picking: a day lost, and a day's earnings for the gang.  But next day was fine enough and the team were able to complete the task of clearing the whole of the main bloc.

At the end of the day, with a final burst of energy, the team loaded crates full of cobnuts onto the trailer.The farm's Landrover was temporarily out of action and it was this Audi that took its place.

The Audi that thinks it's a Landrover

Everyone lends a hand

There was time to fool around when the work was done.....

.....but some people were just too tired.

Eventually the trailer was loaded up but  the question was....

   ....following the previous day's heavy rain, would it make it up the muddy track to the gate and out onto the tarmac road?  We held our breath.....

Will it or won't it?

There was still picking to be done on the young bloc and students from Sevenoaks School came, as part of their volunteer programme, to help us out.

One of them had an interest in insect life and was fascinated by the numerous ladybirds, earwigs and shield bugs to be found among the nuts and - as far as I can see - doing them no harm at all.

How many shield bugs?

So how good had the harvest been this year?  Had it not been for the squirrels it would probably have been as good as last year and I can see that I am becoming somewhat obsessed.  But while you might enjoy looking at them in your back garden, grey squirrels are a serious pest to growers like us as well as to young trees and woodland.  Last season, perhaps because of a poor breeding year their numbers were reduced, but this year made up for it and probably a tonne of nuts was lost to them. We learn that grey squirrels fail to flourish where there are pine martens (though red squirrels live alongside the martens happily). Well, that's food for thought.

Good-quality, de-husked cobnuts

From the total harvest I keep a proportion of the cobnuts back for trying out new recipes; Gilly Jones's Cobnut and Bramley apple Granola-muesli made its debut at the Shipbourne Farmers'

Market in July and at the Apple and Orchard Day Fair at Ightham Mote at the end of September, and sold well.  A range of value-added products using cobnuts, including chocolates, confectionery and soaps, can be found at fairs and farmers' markets (not to mention high-class stores like Fortnum and Mason), so this is something to keep an eye on.

But now, at the end of a four year stint, and with renewed and hearty thanks to all who have worked so hard to restore the Ightham Mote cobnut plat; with two good harvests brought in and with the regular round of maintenance about to start all over again; now seems as good a time as any to say that this is where the blog terminates - at least for the time being!

Goodbye and thank you for following!

August events

What's going on here?

This strange van with its saucer on top arrived on a misty morning early.

The  driver got out and started waving something at the sky - apparently with little or no satisfaction. Eventually he found what he wanted and relaxed only to start talking into some kind of a blunt instrument.

This is Zac, the presenter of  the breakfast show on BBC Radio Kent whose listeners were treated to half an hour of cobnut chat inter-spersed with music which, hopefully enlivened their drive to work or to school.

 

 That same day the plat was honoured with a visit by the National Trust's Chief Executive, Dame Helen Ghosh.  Dame Helen was visiting the various parts of the Ightham Mote 'portfolio', which as well as the main property includes Oldbury Hill, Old Soar, Owlets and various others.

The first stop on her tour, accompanied by Bernadette and Jan from Ightham Mote, was the cobnut plat.  It appeared that she knew something about the subject already as she told us how she always noticed when the cobnut season had begun by their appearance in the open market in Oxford where she lives..

I and the volunteers who turned out to help welcome her were left with the impression of  a practical and approachable person with exciting ideas but with her feet on the ground. Dame Helen's new role follows a distinguished career in the Civil Service and her visit left us feeling that the National Trust is in good hands.




Not long after these events it was time to prepare for the KCA tea party.

Ominous grey skies on the morning  of the day

The weather looked like being a problem as August had turned out very rainy so the loan of gazebos from various sources was reassuring...

.... and the shed was tidied up and decorated
     in preparation.

Hardly recognisable, it is so tidy!

KCA members were invited first to visit the garden of White House Farm which is opposite the nut plat. The visit was at the kind invitation of  distinguished plantsman and arboriculturist Mautice Foster who showed visitors around the specialist hydrangea garden. Many were eager to arrange a second visit to discover the arboretum beyond the garden.

At about 2pm the persistent rain of the morning gave way to an afternoon of warm and brilliant sunshine....

Turned out fine - thanks goodness!

.... and soon after 3 o'clock the visitors came on down to the plat ready for tea and cakes which, thanks to the generosity of volunteers who had been baking for the event, were there in plenty.

Time for a cuppa

An abundance of cakes

The afternoon turned out to be a chance to meet old friends and get to know new ones among the cobnut community.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Sally, the Great Dane from Hurstwood Farm, added a touch of dignity to the proceedings.

Gather round!

People seemed keen to hear about the project of restoring the plat and  I took the opportunity to explain, with photos on display showing just how much the heroic band of 'Nutters' had had to contend with in the first two years.  I made sure to mention the school visits we have enjoyed and been so proud of and the student helpers who come from the learning disabled section of West Kent College to spend days with us in March. Thanks were due also to the National Trust for their help and we were especially pleased to have Richard, the new Head Gardener with us to see it all.

But most especially it was an opportunity to thank the Kentish Cobnuts Association for their support and the way the Association enables its members to share knowledge, techniques and contacts - a great support for cobnut growers.

For me, with picking about to begin, this had been a great day to celebrate the completion of four years of the project.

Relax!

The next post will be about getting in the 2015 cobnut crop.

Spring into Summer and a Threat from Wildlife

April, and it is time to celebrate the profusion of late spring flowers on the plat. The blue of 'Bugle', known to gardeners as ajuga reptans, is subtly different from the blue of bluebells but it would be hard to define exactly how. True to their name (reptans = creeping) they are spreading through the lower slopes of the plat and down the open slope facing the Mote driveway.

Bugle among the nut trees

'Blow, bugle, blow'

A magnet for bees

The words 'Blow, bugle, blow' came to mind and I had to look it up: a wonderful elegiac poem by Tennyson. Google will take you straight to it and the evocative '.... horns of Elfland faintly blowing'.

Orchid buffs are understandably protective of the rarer species, concealing the location of their finds from all but other experts, but the Common Spotted, as the name suggests, is widespread in Kent and seems to like nut plantations as my family had plenty on our old plat, also in Ivy Hatch.  

A good specimen of Common Spotted

It is always a thrill however when they make their appearance

with flowers appearing usually in May running through well into June. This year they have continued to spread, perhaps due to the regular mowing spreading the seed heads.

Delicate flowers and grasses

It is July and mowing has still not taken place.  The grass is high, ragwort is colourful and attracts bees even though it is harmful to cattle and other animals. And there is Rosebay Willowherb, Mallow and plenty of thistles, which will succumb to the mower in due course.

For the last couple of months the trees have been left to get on with the business of plumping up the nuts.  Whilst pollination takes place as early as January and February there is little sign of any action until perhaps in late May or early June you can see some very small beginnings of nuts. Now at the end of this month they are clearly visible.  It looks like a reasonable crop though perhaps not as heavy as last year. If you  pick and break one open  you find little in the way of a kernal, more like a soft spongy material.  

But that's not what the squirrels think and even now, with a month or six weeks to go until harvest, the little beggars - excuse the expression but these creatures are indeed vermin - have already targeted two trees.  Near the bottom of the main track I find this shocking sight and wonder just how much more of the crop will be taken and how much will be left when the nuts are actually ripe.  Steps must be taken.

Havoc!

A shocking sight

Nuts which are nowhere near ripe have been vandalised

I have  no sympathy for those who see the grey squirrel as a furry pet.  The truth is that in plantations, orchards and forests and wherever young trees are planted these 'tree rats' will wreak havoc, stripping the bark and destroying the tree.

Late July and these nuts are  at risk 

To turn to more cheerful news, in August the plat will host the Summer Tea-party of the Kentish Cobnuts Association.  By then the plat will have been mown and everything should look fine - provided there are still nuts on the trees.  We are hoping for a fine day: a report will be posted in due course.

From Winter to Spring

My last post, in January, showed that pruning was well under way on the plat
with cut branches lying between the rows. It was a cold and wintry scene.  And now,
at the beginning of March, it was time to collect the debris up into piles for bonfires, setting aside anything which could be sold for pea-sticks and plant supports.

ideal for sweet peas

West Kent College came back to us offering four Mondays in the month when students would like to come and help with the task and the offer was very welcome.  

This troupe mean business

A rota of willing volunteers was set up and we were able to muster a good turn-out of helpers.

Someone had to get the bonfire going and look after it while others led students in teams of three or four to pile the twigs and sticks onto tarpaulins and drag them down to the fire.

The weather was kind, giving us four dry Mondays in a row - quite something for March! 

Each session with the students ended with the now traditional spuds baked in the ashes of the bonfire - much appreciated by all, students and helpers, who had worked so hard.




























As April arrived however there were still rows which had not been cleared and more dragging, sorting and burning were needed.  Family and friends rallied to the cause.

It's warming up!

....of this

This is the result of....

By now the plat was taking on a very different
appearance: the usual but ever-amazing transformation
that spring brings. Primroses were in bloom and this
year they have spread further

into the top end of the plat and at the lower end they carpet the slopes.

'bud-burst' gives a haze of green leaves

Violets too, along with milkmaids/ladies' smock and bluebells which are coming into flower.

 The last week of April brought more friends out to help with the final push....

....the flowers adding to the enjoyment of warm sunshine....

For several weeks I had been calling on volunteers to help with 'one last bonfire' and this one....

....this one really was the last, last bonfire.  Thank you, everyone!