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!

Prize Winners!

Prize Winners!

We are delighted to announce the two winners of the Peak District Farm Holidays November prize draw who will receive theatre vouchers for Buxton Opera House:

Zan Jackson from Stoke on Trent and Janet Watson from Cheshire

Both winners will be able to choose from a selection of performances - we hope they have an enjoyable evening and would like to thank the Buxton Opera House for their support in our promotion - for performance details see www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk





Meanwhile the Peak District is under several feet of snow and today there are more fluffy white flakes drifting down from the grey skies - there will be no guests on holiday this weekend unless they arrive on skies!

The extreme conditions do make if difficult looking after all our farm animals, making sure they have water and food takes most of the day. The free range hens haven't ventured out of their coop for 2 days and have gone off laying eggs - can you blame them!