Autumn Hedgerow update

Hedgerows on the farm have many jobs, from a farming perspective they give shelter to livestock and provide boundaries. For nature they are priceless, when allowed to flower they will produce food for pollinators, insects, birds and mammals. They create wildlife corridors where small animals can move around in safety. For the environment, they take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and they slow the flow of ground water towards the river.

If you have read my blog from April, you will know that we are very proud here, of our established mature hedgerows.  Back then I was talking about how the different plants were all starting to flower.  Nature has a great way of staggering the food sources.  Even now we have ivy starting to flower.  Ivy is an important food source at this time of the year, for the pollinators. 

Haw berries from the hawthorn tree, also known as white thorn.

Elderberries

This year has been a year of bounty and you’ve probably noticed that the hedgerows are full of fruit.  We have the joy of harvesting some for our own use.  We have crab apples, blackberries, damsons and sloes here.  I have made blackberry and apple jam for several years now, and this year I am making sloe gin.  Hopefully that will be a nice Christmas treat.  This is my first attempt.  I’ll keep you posted!

Sloe gin in production. Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn tree.

The damsons have a bit of nostalgia around them.  When I first visited the farm, Alan used to tell me how there used to be damsons in the hedge.  How there was a bit of a competition between his parents and a neighbour, to get them at just the right ripeness, however at the time he was telling me this, there hadn’t been damsons for years.  Fast forward 18 years, while we have been letting the hedges grow, and develop, the damson trees got the chance to grow and mature again.  They started to flower and the natural progression then is to fruit.  For the last couple of years we have made and very much enjoyed making damson jam.  For us it shows in such a clear tangible way, how important it is to let things grow. If your plants don’t get big enough to flower, they won’t have fruit or seeds, meaning their benefit to the eco system is very limited. 

Above, damsons and below, damson jam!

As I said before nature has it’s way of providing a succession of food sources, if we allow it.

Now I just have to make some crab apple jelly.  I have sentimental reasons for wanting to do this, as it was always something that my Nana made, and was a Sunday afternoon treat for us.  I just need a few more hours in the day!