Midwinter

As we approach Midwinter my thoughts turn to the Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Year and to memories of family, friends, festive traditions and plans for this year.

When I was a child, it felt as if time passed so slowly waiting for Christmas Eve. We would open our advent calendars each morning, counting the days, in anticipation of the arrival of Christmas. We would wait until a few days before Christmas before putting up the Christmas Tree. I remember the excitement we felt in anticipation as the boxes of tissue wrapped glass baubles and decorations were brought down from the loft ready to trim the tree. 

When we lived in Germany we discovered that people selected and decorated their Christmas Trees on the first Sunday in advent, even if that fell at the end of November. We adopted this wonderful tradition and each year decorate the house at the start of advent, bringing light and cheer for the whole month of December and into January. Traditions such as eating chocolate log cake and singing carols have their origins in our Pagan Midwinter celebrations. The pre Christian festival of Juul was celebrated around the time of of the Winter Solstice by singing, lighting fires and burning a yule log to bring light in the depth of winter and herald the return to the light.

This year the Winter Solstice, or shortest day, is on Saturday 21st December in the Northern Hemisphere. Under the old Julian calendar the solstice fell on 25th December, Christmas Day, but with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar the solstice slipped back to the 21st of the month, the day we are now familiar with. 

Have a happy festive season, however you celebrate, and I look forwards to seeing some of you in Oxford in January at the Oxford Real Farming conference.

Christmas Markets and a Sense of Place

In the run up to Christmas I love to get out and about with the family visiting Christmas Markets. We usually visit a couple near us each year and often pick a destination further a field to explore as well. Visiting these markets helps to set the mood for the festive season and builds on our past midwinter traditions and customs.

Last year we travelled to the beautiful city of Bath, on the coldest day of the month, to follow the trail of wooden chalets embellished with lights and decorations around the cobbled streets.We drank spiced hot apple juice or mulled wine and ate warm mince pies and other festive foods as we meandered around the 200 plus stalls. I'm always on the look out for unique handmade gifts or locally sourced items from the wide variety of artisan producers.

It reminded me of the Christmas markets we visited in Germany when the children were small. Santa would arrive on a beautiful grey horse with his helpers and give out sweets, chocolates and tiny carved wooden toys to the children as they spoke to him. We enjoyed the warming gluhwein or kinderpunsch (children's punch) and maroni (roasted chestnuts) as we pottered around the villages.

The geographer Edward Relph talks about a 'sense of place' as the feelings held by people for places or the feelings about a place over time. Returning to our favourite places or using favourite recipes or family rituals can craft our feelings or link us to our memories. Something a simple as the trip to a Christmas market renews our relationship with that time and place or starts a new memory or sense of place.

Enjoy your holiday outings this year, wherever you spend them.

Forest Therapy and Social Ventures

Back in 2022 I heard about another Churchill Fellow, Lucy Duggan, who had researched the health benefits of nature connection. Keen to know more and wondering how this might fit with my care farming work I decided to sign up to her Forest Therapy Practitioner Course.

This accredited course covers group facilitation skills, leading safe sessions in nature and the impact of time in nature on our health as well the underpinning theories and research. I loved completing the practical sessions in nature and the synergies I discovered with care farming.

You may remember from previous blogs that forest therapy along with care farming, animal assisted interventions, social and therapeutic horticulture, eco therapy, facilitated green exercise and wilderness therapy are all part of the umbrella discipline of green care.

Forest therapy offers purposeful interactions with nature through a series of invitations that encourage participants to connect with their surroundings and senses. Sessions conclude with a cup of tea and possibly something small to eat. I find this a fascinating concept and wonder how this fits in with: food as part of a care farming session, food and a sense of place and food being used therapeutically...

This is something I find myself considering at present as I embark on an entrepreneurial incubator. In September I was awarded one of seven places in this years Social Ventures Programme from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. The programme is for people looking to make lasting social or environmental change.

Since my Churchill Fellowship I've been working to create a tangible initiative that blends care farming, food and therapeutic interventions and with the support of my mentors and the academic staff at Social Ventures I look forward to bringing this to life in 2025.

Earthed and the popularity of Allotments

A few months ago I discovered the charity earthed and their wonderful education platform that offers a wide variety of nature based courses at beginner and advanced skill levels. Their focus is on supporting individuals who want to make changes in their own communities with topics such as activism, traditional knowledge and food sovereignty. I'm currently learning about No Dig Growing and looking at how I can implement those principles into vegetable growing.

A few of my friends have signed up for allotments to increase the variety of vegetables they grow and to boost their self sufficiency. About 15 years ago I briefly took on a local allotment, giving it up after a couple of months due to time commitments. The history of allotments in the UK goes back to Anglo Saxon times with spaces available for people to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Modern allotments continue to be measured with the Anglo Saxon rod system of ten rods which is roughly equal to 250 square meters.

Todays allotments stem from the 1845 General Enclosure Act and later the Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1907/08, which gave councils the responsibility of providing allotments on demand to residents of the parish. During the First and Second World Wars people were encouraged to grow their own food with popular slogans such as Dig for Victory. This campaign to reduce food shortages produced 1.3 million tonnes of food from 1.5 million allotments during the Second World War.

The popularity of allotments has had a resurgence since the 1990's, with a focus not only on self sufficiency, but also growing food that is healthy and considers the environment. It also has the added bonus of being good for our mental health and wellbeing. The downside of this popularity is the lengthy waiting lists in some areas for allotments. 

The artist, historian and activist JC Niala has been researching and campaigning for more allotments in partnership with Greenpeace over the last few years. She discovered there were nearly 175,000 people across Britain on waiting list for allotments and set about informing communities of their rights to request land under the Allotments Act. You can find out more at The Truth About Britain's Allotment Waiting List.

If this has prompted you to think about an allotment take a look at RHS Guide to getting started and reach out to your council to join the waiting list.

Pumpkin Patches and Halloween

I've been delighted to receive a number of invitations to food and farming events over the last few weeks and as I've travelled around I've been struck by the amount of stalls selling pumpkins or pumpkin patches along the way. October, for me, would not be complete without a visit to the pumpkin patch at my local farm. We arrive early, grab a wheelbarrow, head to the quieter part of the patch and start selecting. We look for a couple of large pumpkins suitable for carving and a selection of smaller varieties to build a display outside our front door.

Pumpkin patches only began to appear in the UK in the 1990's but the UK is now the largest grower of pumpkins in Europe and they can offer useful farm diversification. Farmers Weekly reported that for many farms growing pumpkins has given them significant extra income and flexibility as farmers can opt to sell direct to customers or to a wholesaler as best suits their individual farm situation. The Economic Times reported that some farmers are earning as much as £30,000 per acre by embracing this seasonal holiday of Halloween.

As a child, we used turnips or swedes to carve out Jack O Lanterns, as pumpkins weren't popular then, a tradition with English and Irish origins dating back to the 1700s. Carrying or displaying the carved vegetables was thought to keep spirits away on Halloween.

Will you be carving pumpkins this Halloween?

Walled Gardens, Eden Project Communities and Social and Therapeutic Horticulture

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a beautiful walled garden, orchard and meadow complete with bees, a pop up shop and professional kitchen. This peaceful 10 acres was part of what was a monastery and gardens dating back to 1133. Considering that the origins of Green Care came from medieval monastic communities it seems very fitting that this should now house an amazing Social and Therapeutic Horticulture charity that supports over 50 clients per week.

Social and Therapeutic Horticulture is part of the wider Green Care approach that focuses on using gardening to benefit individuals with health and wellbeing goals. Therapeutic and gardening techniques support physical and mental health, offer time in nature, a sense of community and a learning experience. The clients I met were skilful gardeners and generous with their knowledge of the local flora and fauna as we talked.

Standing within the walls of the orchard I was reminded of a walled garden that we used to visit when we lived in Scotland. The gardens offered plenty of space and fresh air but also shelter from the worst of the elements. It was a great place for the children to play, relax and enjoy a picnic, whatever the weather, after school and at weekends. 

I am so fortunate to be part of an Eden Project Community Action Course at the moment. Five weeks of inspirational stories, thought provoking ideas and information packed workshops with the focus on grass roots projects in our communities. Its also a wonderful chance to network and hear about the amazing projects that others are running or preparing to run. I'm using my time on this course to explore the possibility of introducing Community Pantries into Buckinghamshire. What would you be interested in setting up in your community?

Late Summer, Pick Your Own Produce and the Autumn Equinox

For me late August is a chance to pause before the busyness of the autumn and an opportunity to enjoy the last of the summer weather, sunrise and sunset dog walks, summer recipes and time pottering in the garden.

I also love trips to my local (PYO) 'Pick Your Own' farm for fruit and flowers. As a child we used to head out to farms in Worcestershire and Shropshire and come home with boxes of strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and gooseberries which would be turned into pies and crumbles and stored in the freezer for autumn deserts. I'm sure I ate as much as I picked as I remember hands sticky and stained with berry juice.

Over the last few years our local Pick Your Own farm has been Peterley Manor Farm which offers Christmas trees in the winter, sunflowers in late August and a pumpkin patch in the autumn along side the variety of fruit through the summer. My hands still get stained with juice but I now try to resist eating what I've picked until its been weighed! Just as my mother and grandmothers did, I prepare pies and crumbles for the freezer and the autumn months.

This year the Autumn Equinox occurs on Sunday 22nd September. In the Northern Hemisphere it marks the end of summer and the beginning of astronomical autumn and the Pagan festival of Mabon. We can also define autumn through phenology and meteorology. Phenology uses ecological and biological signs such as leaves changing colour and birds migrating to indicate the changing seasons, while meteorology uses three equal months per season and autumn begins on the 1st September.

The Harvest Moon, the full moon nearest the equinox, occurs on the 17th September 2024 and historically, the illumination of the full moon gave farmers extra hours to bring the harvest in. Once the harvest was brought home, a harvest supper was prepared to share with family and neighbours to celebrate and give thanks. Harvest suppers and festivals continue up and down the UK today and are held throughout September and October and this is perhaps the closest celebration we have to Thanksgiving.