2003 - Finding a Patch for the Patch
In 2003 when we moved back to the farm I think my family were holding their breath and waiting for the fireworks. Id never been one to sit back quietly and as the eldest and the one that had gone off and had a career I think there was more than a little worry from my siblings that I would return and start to throw my weight about. So I kept quiet, got on with reacquainting myself with the family and town I'd left 10 years earlier and tried to keep a low profile.
Marc and I did however notice that there was a very underused couple of acres tucked away in a wetter corner of the farm. No longer used for by the Henley football club or for caravan rallies due to the unreliable weather and the high water table it was sitting there, year after year mown periodically, grazed by thousands of rabbits and barely ever looked at.
"would you mind if we just took a corner of the football field" I enquired of my brother? "We'd like to grow a few vegetables". I don't think for a moment either party realised at that time that 9 years later a few vegetables would turn into 3 tunnels, 2 greenhouses, sheds, chicken houses, a pig ark, sheep hut, an orchard, flower garden and the start of a monstrous tree house. I very much doubt whether he would have agreed had he even an inkling of my latent plans.
In March 2004 we broke the land for the first time in 15 or so years and realised just how lucky we were. The years of chicken manure from the commercial rearing operation of my childhood had enriched the already lovely alluvial soil and years of grass and white clover tightly grazed by rabbits has also played its part. We had 1/2 acre of perfect horticultural land. The only drawbacks were a slight panning (a thin compacted layer of anaerobic clay soil) a spit and a half below the surface (a spit is the depth of a spade) and because of this and the subsequent water logging in very wet winters, a higher than desired acidity (as low as 4 in places). Nothing that we've not been able to rectify with breaking the pan using chicorys and some double digging and the careful use of Dolamitic limestone
It was just 1/2 acre but the freshly ploughed expanse seemed enormous and not a little daunting. but ignorance is bliss and if we had known more we probably would have been paralysed by fear and if we had known how much it was going to cost us, even though mostly everything (until this years proper commercial tunnel) was begged borrowed or frankly stolen! Then we almost certainly would have thrown up our hands and walked away!
In 2004 with me working full time for Daylesford not much was grown, just enough for our extended family and a little excess which Marc sold to a restaurant in Henley. It was a good start but growing isn't his passion and as the season wore on I spent what little free time I had at the garden plotting and planning what he was going to do next! poor man. When I resigned in the autumn of 2004 the decision was made that only one of us would work and I was able to really plan the following season over that winter. And I had big plans. I still have big plans but now they are tempered by a big dose of reality and the realisation that however you rail against it two children do slow you down and they don't always let you do exactly what you want!