Apple Delight!

Here in the Peak District we have some wonderful opportunities to be able to work with nature; with bumper crops of apples this year The Dove Valley Centre, in partnership with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, celebrated “Apple Day” in style with lots of exciting and tasty activities, including:

• Apple tasting, identification and history
  


• Apple Juicing- where everyone took their own apples and bottles
  


• Meeting the owls
  


• Appley activities for children
  


• Tasty story telling

An excellent day of family fun!

If you would like to get closer to nature, and meet the farmyard animals then why not book one of our fabulous farmhouse B&B's or cosy self catering cottages for a short winter break? There are some wonderful winter walks from the doorstep.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Another harvesting process

An alternative to grass and silage is wholecrop silage. This is where a wheat crop is harvested early whilst the grain is still soft. The entire crop, straw and all (hence the name wholecrop) is mown off, chopped into small pieces, and then carted to the farm, and stored in a large pit. The air is excluded as with grass silage using plastic sheeting which is weighed down.



The crop then ferments and produces a high protein version of silage suitable for dairy cows. This video shows the forage harvester, with special attachments for cutting, in action.

Book a holiday on one of our farms here in the Peak District to experience farm life at first hand!

Struggle in the snow

Even in the heaviest of snow falls, the animals must be fed, and that means getting to some farms that might not be on the easiest of roads. This essential corn delivery to Bassetwood Farm, home of the Carringtons, one of our B&B farms, needed considerable help to get into the farmyard.

It's not just getting the corn in, there is then the problem of getting the fresh milk out every day! Add to that problems with frozen water pipes and tractors that won't start, and everything becomes hard work - the snow may look very pretty, but it can be a farmers worst nightmare.

Fortunately the snow now seems to be disappearing as fast as it came.

It does however give our stunning Peak District scenery a different dimension. The Peak District is very much still open for bussiness - so load up you sledge and catch a last minute pre Christmas break.

Beechenhill B&B stunning in the sparkling sunshine

Hoe Grange Holidays (below) - this self catering log cabin could be in the snowy alps!

Barn Owl Ringing

One of our Peak District Holidays group members has spent several years working with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Barn Owl Group, encouraging barn owls to settle at their farm in the Upper Dove. Elspeth sent this fabulous photo for the blog.

"Although we had seen an owl flying in the late evening through most of last Summer and Autumn, during the bitter cold and snow of the winter we saw not a trace of this pale golden bird. How could it have survived the winter?

But great news - the Barn owl group came in late Spring to check the boxes and found four well grown chicks. They came back later and ringed the birds and we had the privilege of getting close up to these beautiful chicks whose pretty heart shaped faces belies their fearsome talons".

Quite a few of our Peak District Farms who offer accommodation have Barn Owls and a wide range of wildlife. If you are a keen bird watcher why not stay with us in the countryside, bring your binoculars and see for yourself?