I ended the last blog almost a year ago with an image of neighbours helping me to load logs to take home for firewood which kept me warm over the winter. A year later it is almost time to fire up the wood burner once again. Before that I am taking a look back over the past Cobnut year.
November 2020; the dormant catkins are beginning to change to yellow but there is still an autumnal haze over the cobnut plat.
Catkins blowing in the wind
February and the red female flowers are in evidence and when the weather is dry with a breeze to blow the pollen, they will be fine. Worryingly the dry days were fewer than the wet and blustery ones so I could only hope for the best.
Meanwhile Tony had coppiced two more of the big bushy wild hazel’s (a new supply of firewood for next winter) and volunteers were willing to come and trim overhanging branches but COVID restrictions intervened. Family help arrived and the work was completed all the same, leaving piles of branches around which Steve, the National Trust ranger from Ightham Mote, turned into manageable piles of chippings in the space of a morning.
I had been advised to consider treating the plat to a dose of lime. It is a practice I remember taking place at least once on my family’s plat (also in Ivy Hatch). A rule of thumb was, I think, once every seven years - or was it every ten years? So an agronomist was commissioned to take and test soil samples around the plat which revealed that ph levels were indeed low. Sacks of lime were spread around the trees to be washed into the ground by the rains which followed; while much stayed on the surface it will release slowly over time. A job well done and to be forgotten about for the next seven (or was it ten?) years.
Throughout the spring COVID regulations were still restricting our lives. The ability to cycle to the plat and wander around enjoying the usual display of wildflowers: primroses, violets, followed by bluebells and bugle and culminating with orchids - the common-spotted which flourish in the symbiotic company of hazel - was just one of the ways in which guardianship of the plat has brought much pleasure and relaxation, to myself and everyone who has been part of it over the years.
The KCA’s summer outing had been in abeyance for the obvious reason but we decided to give it a go again and organised a cobnut walk, firstly around the Foxbury plats at Stone Street - taking in a view of the lavender fields as well - and then on the the Mote plat for a wander around and tea and cakes. A pleasant afternoon catching up with old friends.
By now the grass was high but that was not a worry for two Irish sisters who came for a look around and a chat in preparation for planting up cobnuts on their family farm in County Antrim. They are not the only ones and it is striking to note the number of farmers and landowners in Ireland, north and south, doing likewise.
knee high in the long grass
Summer mowing was delayed this year for one reason or another. The grass was high in August when the tractor-mower finally arrived and the driver fought his way through it.
He came again six weeks later for a pre-harvest mow; this time it was less of a struggle.
Grass is mown, ready for the pickers
The weeks leading up to the harvest bring the usual worries: will it be a heavy crop or a light one? And will the squirrels be much of a menace? A group of young people from the Tonbridge branch of Young Farmers, organised by Debbie Broad of Mote Farm, came to visit and learn about cobnuts. They must have enjoyed the visit as they stayed until it was almost dark and we could only just find our way out of the plat.
The weekend of September 4th and 5th was ‘Pick and Picnic’ weekend. It was well-attended on both days, friends and families and newcomers arrived in welcome numbers; friends who hadn’t met for a long time, now with young ones in tow, picked and chatted while Charlie provided the finest of picnics with nuts and olives, fruit and the best cheeses from Borough Market, along with generous bottles of red wine.
Picnic time on 'Pick and Picnic weekend
This sent a few of the company to sleep in the afternoon while the rest continued to pick and to carry crates loaded with nuts and not just nuts……
He has a good crateful
With Charlie in charge, picking on the main bloc continued for the rest of the following week. Sadly it worked out that the vermin squirrels had taken a large proportion of the lower end of the main bloc, leaving little to be picked. Disappointing.
The last of the nuts from the young bloc.
It was lovely to be welcomed back to the Mote Visitor Reception area to set up my usual cobnut stall and to be part of the Autumn Celebration in front of the house itself, selling muesli and other cobnut products alongside fresh cobnuts.
The Celebration of Autumn: stalls in front of the mote.....
It was, in a way, a swan song as I had decided to give up the baking side of the cobnut project: to ‘hang up my baking apron’ after about seven years. No regrets and many happy memories!
At the start of October I returned to the plat to check on those layered wands which Tony and I had set almost a year ago. Of the dozen, half seemed to be doing well. by excavating the soil around, Tony found that they had not yet properly made roots but were still receiving nourishment from the ‘mother’tree. That was fine as we reckoned on two years for this to happen and for them to be ready to pot up. We shall see how they are doing this time next year.
A great review of a year which brought its own triumphs and challenges. SO good to see the Irish Girls and the Young Farmers taking an interest.
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