Episode 38 of the Meet the Farmers podcast features Norfolk arable farmer Kit Papworth, who it was an absolute pleasure to interview. Kit was formerly Chair of Anglia Farmers, among other things, and is also an active social media user. We talk a great deal about #FarmerMentalHealth, particularly his experience in the wake of his … Continue reading Meet the Farmers – episode 38 – Kit Papworth
I am keen to broaden the conversation regarding #FarmerMentalHealth and other topics connected to farming, conservation and the countryside. With this in mind I was thrilled to speak to Bethany Burgoyne (and her alter ego HoneyB!) on her Youtube Channel. You can check it out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxKGXfql2A Bethany's new project - 'Sassy Conversations' - … Continue reading Talking to The Sassy Show
Hunting is an age old tradition in the US that is often practised and taught through generations. It serves as a way to get fresh food that isn’t treated before it reaches your plate and it can be a great experience even if you’re just getting started. However, hunters new and old know that going … Continue reading Hunting In the American Countryside: What You Need to Know – guest post by Josh Montgomery
Foraging is a pastime like no other, although it combines the joys of several outdoor activities. It provides an opportunity to learn and promises delicious results, so long as one knows what to do with the collected spoils on return to the kitchen. John Wright's The Forager's Calendar is a fairly comprehensive account and handbook for … Continue reading Book Review – The Forager’s Calendar – by John Wright
‘’The Easternmost House is a portrait of a place that soon will no longer exist. It is a memorial to this house and the lost village it represents, and to our ephemeral life here, so that something of it will remain once it has all gone.’’ The bar was set high when I read the … Continue reading Book Review – The Easternmost House – by Juliet Blaxland
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and that's why I enjoy writing end of year posts. What's done is done and you can look forward to a new year which you can hope will bring the promised land, even though experience teaches us that every year is a rollercoaster in its own way, with troubled times … Continue reading My review of 2018
Partheeban Navaratnam is Senior Lecturer in Livestock Production at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester. He recently wrote an opinion piece in Farmers Weekly calling on us all to break down the ethnic barriers in farming and so I asked him to embellish on the subject on thinkingcountry. Agriculture and the veterinary profession are very important … Continue reading Making Farming and the Veterinary sector something we can all be involved in! – Guest post by Navaratnam Partheeban
Working on a mixed farm with a mosaic of arable cropping, tussocky grassland, marshland and hay meadows I am lucky to be able to see a wide variety of species, although I would love for wildlife abundance to be still greater, a difficult prospect when wildlife is under threat from so many angles. Hares have … Continue reading The Hare, why I love it and why we might lose it
First-time buyers often perceive that properties in the countryside are only within reach of the very rich, and their only chance for affordable housing is to head to the city. Well, shared ownership could change all that. In recent years, the cry from those who have lived in rural areas is that they are often … Continue reading Opening Doors to Shared Ownership in the Countryside
This episode was recorded back in June at the Royal Highland Show which I was visiting for the first time. I speak to Kelvin Pate, a farmer from near Gifford in East Lothian (Kelvin is also NFU Scotland's Lothian and Borders regional Chair) as well as Jamie Newbould from Scotland's Rural College and Michael Clarke from … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’- episode 21 – Royal Highland Show with Kelvin Pate
