October & A bit of November 2023

Enchanted Lights 2023 – Thank You’s!

At the time or writing it has been a week since our 2023 Enchanted Lights event.  It was fantastic to see visitors enjoying the lights and entertainment on offer at this event!  Despite some slightly ‘challenging’ weather over the course of the four days we were well stocked with wood chip and spent the daytimes ensuring that the trails, event areas and car parking spaces were topped up with chip by laying this in the ‘squelchiest’ spots.   Since then, we have been busy tidying up and taking down.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to one of the 8 time slots we had available and to the myriad visitors who posted or messaged us afterwards to share your reviews, pictures and experiences.  It really is lovely to see these.

Putting on an event like Enchanted Lights takes a huge amount of effort with a small team of people working exceptionally hard to ensure we offer visitors a quality experience. The event wouldn’t be complete without our spectacular fire and LED performers as well as Tooley’s who brought their lovely carousel and the captivating story tellers – so thank you for supporting us.  A big thank you to all of our food vendors who kept everyone warm, fed and ‘hydrated’ in style! And last but by no means least, a huge thanks goes to all who joined the Team at Stourton who have tidied, installed, trimmed, shoveled & polished… & more(!) – we couldn’t do it without you!

We are still finalizing the total that was kindly donated to the Wishing Fountain for St Barnabas Hospice, both through change and via the QR code & as soon as we can, we will let you know the grand total raised across the four nights.

We were also a tiny bit flattered that we were featured in Homes & Antiques magazine alongside Belvoir & Leeds Castle as well as Chatsworth in their Bonfire Night events feature.

With everything so fresh in our minds we are already planning the 2024 event!

Logs – order Soon to guarantee pre-Christmas delivery

As we mentioned a couple of months ago in our news, we have a limited logs stock this year. So if you want a log delivery pre-Christmas please place your order as soon as possible.

To find out more about our kiln dried logs and to order please click here.

Christmas Trees – Order now!

It’s fast approaching the most wonderful time of the year and this means that Christmas trees are now available to order for home delivery.

We have 3 sizes of tree available to order from 5ft through to 7ft 6 and prices start from £45.

Our Christmas trees are freshly cut Nordmann Fir trees. These trees hold their needles well and are beautifully shaped.

Place your order before 28th November 2023 and we will delivery your freshly cut tree on 30th November. Delivery is free within a 20 mile radius of the farm.

For more information and to place your order, please click here.

Venison

It’s the time of year for warming casseroles and roasts. Whether you are entertaining a crowd or just cooking a family meal venison makes a delicious and healthy alternative to pork or beef.

You can order some of our home grown, lovingly reared venison to enjoy your favourite seasonal meal with a twist.  To place your order please contact us & Tina will arrange your order, payment and collection/delivery for you.

On the Farm

We signed off the last blog by asking for luck with the great British weather… however having received over 220mm of rain since then, the theme for October and for our autumn drilling programme has been wet to say the least!

In short, from the end of September it has rained on most days.  There was a very brief dry window and we managed to get all bar 40ha of our winter wheat sown here at Stourton.   BUT then… on 20^th October arrived Storm Babet and with it a biblical amount of rain!  Our weather station measured 80mm for the day but others not far away measured 115mm and it has rained in some way almost every day since.

We know this has had a devastating impact on homes in Horncastle and other local communities whose homes and businesses flooded and send our sympathies to all those affected.  Clearly this was not helped by the sensor fault on the Horncastle flood scheme managed by the Environment Agency which is partly on land here at Stourton.

Unfortunately, the rain has also massively impacted our crops.  The winter barley and wheat which was sown in the first half of October is faring relatively well.  However, those drilled towards the middle of the month and in the week leading up to Storm Babet sadly aren’t faring so well. With that amount of rain there have been several different effects.

One of the main issues is seed has taken on too much water during germination and has simply died and rotted away. This is prevalent on heavier patches of ground as well as headlands where there is a bit more ‘traffic’ from machinery. Also, in these areas slug activity is quite high. Slugs feed both on the seed and growing/emerging plants and with ground conditions unsuitable to access fields to apply slug pellets there is not much we can do!  We will just have to wait and see which crops grow and we will make a decision on those that don’t fare so well and have to re-sowed with spring crops. Managing patchy crops is incredibly tricky and will have a knock-on effect right into next harvest from a yield, management, logistics, and rotation point of view.  Whilst we have no option but to work with the hand we are dealt, it’s a nightmarish start to the cropping year.

In other news we are continuing to lift sugar beet.  All tractors and trailers and the beet machine managed to keep travelling over the land but due to the wet conditions the headlands of the field are wrecked and the dirt tares (the deductions for soil attached to the beet) are as high as I can remember on this farm. The beet is being delivered into the factory at Newark, and all being well if things dry up the next lift will go a little better.  In the meantime we are busy with the digger repairing field drains that have ‘blown’ (either blocked with roots or the old clay pipes which occasionally collapse).

Let’s hope the next month is drier for all of us.

Deer Diary

After much noise and testosterone fuelled behaviour the annual deer rut is finally coming to an end. All 3 stags are looking a little bit weary, are less interested in their ladies and are more interested in their food, which is always a clear sign!

Here’s Harry looking majestic courtesy of Russ Telfer Wildlife Photography.

We will shortly begin putting together our winter deer housing in the roundhouse. Gates, fences, troughs and bedding all needs to be hauled down to site and erected before the end of the month so our summer-born calves have a nice, warm dry home to keep them out of the worst of the winter weather. Something tells me November and December are going to be busy months!

That’s all for now folks!

Helen & Antony