Learning From The Land

Help - our trees are drowning!

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 19:24:00 +0000

Thought it was time to report back on the trees we planted in our ex-plant nursery car parking area. This is old permeable matting laid over pretty much solid clay with gravel on top, plus some larger chippings.

About 3 years ago we decided to break through the matting in places and dig biggish holes, fill them with compost and last some trees. We planted 26 in total:

- oak (because they are the finest!)
- scots pine (for height, shape and winter cover)
- cherry (for blossom and colour)
- field maple (because they are native, attractive and hardy)
- silver birch (because I love them)

This area is pretty wet and can hold standing water, but we underestimated just how wet and waterlogged it can be. Our tree guru, Richard Tompsett can be seen here with a sad looking drowned root.

It is obvious where the roots have been just above the water table, as the trees look much healthier. Look at these two Scots pines - the one on the right is on a tiny raised bank and is thriving, while the one to the left is struggling on the edge of the wetter area.

The ground is very clay:

But the field maple seems to like it:

And the cherry is running away. When we planted it, it was a spindly whip about the height of where Richard's hand is now:

So today we have planted some Italian Alder, in the hope that they will fare better and fill in the holes.

Fingers crossed!

The story of a hedge

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:09:00 +0000

Two years ago we planted a 100m hedge between Secret Meadow and the land behind - a pretty large field on prime farmland of about 12 acres, owned by a farmer who lives about 20 miles away and mostly uses contractors to work his land. The idea was to make a windbreak, a wildlife refuge and eventually some mature hedge trees.

The first photo shows the field behind our land with one lone fabulous oak in the top hedge, a smattering of battered trees in the lefthand edge and a good copse in the righthand hedge which is stuffed full of pheasants and pheasant feeders. This is the only good thing about shooting in my opinion - it encourages farmers to keep wooded areas because they can earn some income from the rights. I naively imagine a world where one day farmers might think of a more positive reason to keep a copse full of wildlife.

The tiny whips struggled the first couple of years in this exposed position, open to the south westerly winds and rain. Then they started to put on some weight and fill out, particularly the thorns, field maple, some beech and the hazel.

Then one day early this year I went out to discover the farmer's hedge contractor had cut this tiny hedge to within an inch of its life without our knowledge, stopping the growth of any hedge trees for good probably. After writing a letter, making several calls and finally running up the field after the tractor waving like a lunatic (have you ever tried to talk to a tractor driver in a modern vehicle, 10ft up in an insulated cab with headphones on!) we agreed to wait later in the year to see how the hedge progressed. I felt this was pretty generous of me not to make a massive fuss.

It continued to thicken quite well, although the growth upwards has been curtailed substantially. Then one October morning I went out to make a regular check to find the same thing had happened again! Here's a particularly lovely beech that probably won't grow into a fine tree now.

On the positive side, I love to see how our wildlife still manages to work its way under/through a strong stock fence and across the tufty grass to the haven of a large briary. Fox, badger and now rabbits abound here.

All ideas welcome on creative ways to improve the situation with my neighbours without ranting, gnashing my teeth and suing....

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 22:30:00 +0000

The land here in completely waterlogged, with a sponge-like feeling to much of the meadow and lawn areas. The marsh grass seems to love it but everything else is looking rather grim and sodden. The hedge along the back field, which has been mercilessly flailed by my neighbour without so much as a word, is struggling to survive. It has taken several years for it to reach 3-4 feet high and it seems such a shame to see it damaged so quickly and in such a thoughtless way.

The badgers between us and the lane are leaving a path across the road of branch debris and mud on their nightly forays across to the fields opposite. The also seem to enjoy rooting up the ground further down the garden, where the old gravel path meets the soft grass under the beech trees. Sometimes in the morning it looks as if a herd of pigs have been at work!

No owl in the owl box this year so far but last week I saw a barn owl for the first time flying low from the field into our trees. Nothing else that size, that pale and that majestic. I have my fingers crossed that it might find the box and make it a home...

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 15:03:00 +0000

Time is flying again and we are about to launch a newly done website thanks to the wonderful Steve Olive in Taunton.

We will be signposting courses and people in our local area who we think do a good job, plus offering consultancy as before, and a range of fairly traded Himalayan shawls direct from the makers. This is a tricky one for me, as I believe in local produce and yet I also think it is important to trade freely and fairly. So what should you do when someone contacts you wanting to sell Indian products into our wealthy market?

Manoj contacted me via Facebook asking if I would be interested in selling his family's homemade traditional shawls. The family live in a village beside the Ganges deep into the Himalayas, so shipping goods out to anywhere in India can be tiresome and risky. His whole family are involved and they usually lose a lot of the value to middlemen; so here we had the opportunity to make a difference and buy directly.

The price was not low and I was surprised but also happy not to be paying a pittance. A normal markup allows us to retail them for £49 plus postage, which seems fair and offers everyone a good deal.

The shawls are all natural colours and I am not sure if they will compete well against the brilliant pashminas available. The wool is also not supersoft like pashminas, but it is super warm. It is up to me to tell the story and make it happen.

The Evolution of Learning From The Land

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:22:00 +0000

Learning From The Land is still alive but working in a slightly different way - the three of us have all gone on to do other sustainable projects, which was of course the whole idea in the first place.

George is now running Scarlett's Garden cafe in Langford Budville, Frank is building compost loos in his own business and Nicky has been helping to build The Woolly Shepherd.

Learning From The Land Ltd is now a sustainable consultancy run by Nicky alone but signposting people to wherever they need to go.

Please continue to support us as we evolve!

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 11:43:00 +0000

An update for Learning From The Land...a lot seems to have happened in the last couple of years and we have morphed accordingly to respond to the changes.

Frank Blaker is still building compost loos for people and helping to reduce the amount of water wasted in our green and pleasant land.

George Aykroyd has recently married and is running Scarlett's Garden with his wife Aurora, serving fabulous teas and lunches, with occasional pizza evenings at White Post Nursery, Langford Budville. He is always up for an interesting eco challenge.

Nicky Saunter has been helping to build the company Woolly Shepherd Ltd from a wool insulation and felt company to a natural acoustics business working nationally. She has also been consulting on business strategy for environmentally interesting companies.

The permaculture project at the old site is going well, with fruit trees flourishing, veg beds moved closer to the working area, more than 30 native species trees planted (oak, ash, birch, beech, field maple, cherry) and an enormous improvement in wildlife. So far this year, apart from the usual full range of British garden birds, from finches to yellowhammers, we also have tawny owls, with barn owls sighted closely, swifts and swallows, woodpeckers, cockoos, grass snakes, adders and a huge number of butterflies.

Not spring

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:20:00 +0000

Learning From The Land is unfurling after the winter's hibernation and we are stretching out legs, digging out the wellies and looking forward to the spring.

Courses are on the backburner, as everyone and their badger are now running courses...so we are working directly with schools, community groups and anyone else who will have us to build compost loos, pizza ovens and the like.

Contact us via the website if you are interested

Meanwhile, it's time to plant those veggies and prune the fruit trees (a bit late I know)...

Rocket Stoves from Scrapwood

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:19:00 +0000

A ROCKET STOVE ABLE TO BOIL A LITRE OF WATER IN SIX MINUTES MADE FROM A SCRAP OF DRY WOOD.

This stove made from scrapwood has four nails at the top to hold the kettle in place and allow burning gases to pass around it, an L shaped hole through the timber block and a stable base. Made by students from Heathfield School on their Rocket Day. Our scenario was " how do you make water safe in a refugee camp when all that is available are hand tools, old palettes used to deliver supplies and the packing you would find round UNESCO medical aid etc .

We set out to learn by doing, not talking. A safety talk, repeated during the day with our teaching points, didn't stop the atmosphere being one of self guided intense activity.

The second picture shows how students demonstrated that the rocket principal applied to fibre board scraps and old palette nails gives a clean, efficient burn making the most of the limited fuel supply and giving the least harmfull pollution. Brick rubble from our imagined war zone and some background information about the importance of boiled drinking water, hot food and smokeless cooking facilities made the day have meaning as well as fun learning.

In both cases the fuel was also the insulation that allowed the intense heat a rocket stove gives.

Our new, developing, site in Bovey Woods allowed a full and active day despite the heavy rain. Reclaimed materials including old tin cans, sawdust, palettes and some tools were gathered under a high open barn roof. Ample parking and the added benefit of lovely woodland views.

Mark College Cob Oven

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:02:00 +0000

Three pictures showing day three of the complete package - the oven tempering day.

We burnt out the cardboard former used to support the chimney while the clay was wet. This shows a good rainproof roof as well as a good waterproof plinth, both essential to any cob structure be it a house or a wee little oven. It also shows how cob is immensely fire proof and able to sustain huge thermal shock despite not being included in permitted materials under building regs since all the timber and straw houses of London burnt down in the Great Fire of London.

The pictures also show how a bowsaw, newspaper, axe and dry pine are used to prepare good fuel for the oven; a swift burning and well oxygenated fire make for efficient fuel usage, with maximum heat energy for minimum outlay.

burning out the cardboard former in the chimney

everything you need to make good fuel for an oven

smoke gets in youre eye

Nicky Saunter

saunteralong@googlemail.com

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Very excited to be working toward two new ends this year - one is working with Charlotte and Roy on a programme that uses hands-on practical stuff like making rocket stoves to get people engaged in change and sustainability. The second is our relationship with Bovey Woods, our potential new partner near Waterrow, where we hope to hold this year's courses. They will have camping eventually and the atmosphere in the woods will be great - as well as offering a range of woodland courses for us.

Watch this campfire space...

All things Cob

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:57:00 +0000

These guys are making it all look very easy, but it was towards the
end of a recent busy day learning all about the fundamentals of cob
(mud, straw, sawdust and sometimes - but not this time - cow poo).
Frank was in his element as he is just obsessed with all things muddy
and is only too happy to spend the rest of his life convincing others
of its beauty...

You can see the cob blocks in the background - all hand made by the
course participants and now stacked in the shed ready for a great
creative masterpiece. Suggestions on a postcard please.

Just thought you might like to see a course in action, with no posing
for the camera - I just had to duck and dive between them and I don't
even think they noticed me.

A week of compost loos

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:50:00 +0000

Can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Time is surely flying in Somserset. Partly this is because I have recently taken over a local wool insulation company called The Woolly Shepherd from the amazing Val Grainger and it fun, furious and fast. I love that rush you get when you start a new business - addictive and exhausting and exhilarating.

Learning From The land meanwhile is positively BOOMING with George now taken over at the helm and Frank out there giving it large with the cob. He taught a new course last week in cob fundamentals and it went well - participants loved it, everyone covered in mud, the usual thing. I now have a line of beautiful cob blocks to step over every time I walk through the greenhouse...and next week is one compost loo after another, with a weekend at T he Woodland Play Centre in Crowcombe, then at the Neroche Forest Woodland Centre, then over to Cannington for our first course partnering with Rodway Farm. So if anyone out there wants to learn about building a compost loo - NOW IS THE TIME!!

Can you all get raindancing please...

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:45:00 +0000

Another struggle session with the hedge outside Secret Meadow, which I am attempting to lay with the help of wonderful Nick and today only, wonderful Tony. We got to a bald bit where all we have is a lot of brambles and my billhook is not as sharp as it could be. Nick says I need to "take the shoulder off it" which sounds technical and quite violent at the same time. I am going to beg Hughie at the sawmill to do it for me as I have had a go by hand and all I did was cover my sharpening stone with horrible grey stuff - some sort of paint the bald is covered with.

Here is the only hedge pic I have so far but will take some more as soon as George brings my camera back - that was a hint George! Why when I type George does it always become Geroge?

Advisory Board

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Last week we ventured into the world of the "advisory board" and it was a pleasant surprise. We had approached a small number (5) of individuals who we thought might be interested, able to contribute to our aims and with whom we thought we could get on well - and it worked! We had a great 2-hour meeting full of honesty, quite a few laughs and loads of helpful advise as to what we might do next.

I have been involved with an advisory board for a co-op before and felt that it was more of a reporting place or a talking shop full of funders; this was different - a real collaboration of peers. So, thanks to each of them and a recommendation to other small organisations to try it out. You might find it revitalises and refreshes!

Meetings not being what you thought they were going to be..

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:20:00 +0000

Today the board of Learning From The Land (me, George and Frank) met at a secret secure location (the sofas in the Genesis Centre cafe) to plan our next few months of global strategy and world domination. Frank brought pastries so that became top of the agenda, then we had one no-show and a misunderstanding, meaning that we had no one to meet.

However, if you sit around in one place long enough laughing, eating and having ideas, people turn up. So we met two other very interesting people and still have the no-shows left to meet in the future.

Plus we came up with some ideas for Power of Water (March 2011) and Power of Food (June 2011), including naked chocolate strawberry dunking and waterboarding for beginners. Sorry I am having trouble reading my notes - that should have been wild food foraging and how to make a water filter. Honestly, the things some people will do to get found by google!

The Power of Fire last weekend was our best open day yet with Frank firing up his wood-fired kiln so that it looked like it was about to take off - it was red hot with a 2-ft flame coming out of the top. Philip's charcoal burner was promising (thanks Dean for making the drum) until he opened it before it has cooled down, oxygen rushed in and ignited the contents, burning our tiny charcoal sticks to smithereens. What a great word that is. George made pizzas and raved about rocket stoves and Daniel made a dipping candle, which is a soothing and drug-free way to get over a serious hangover, apparently.

By the way, I have been asked to write a guest blog by Jan our locally grown flower guru, who can be found at JW Blooms. She grows the most stunning flowers on her field in Hillcommon, Somerset, and makes gorgeous wreaths and bouquets and dangly ball things in an apparently effortless manner. Particularly amazing was a wreath she made for a funeral, where everything was edible by the birds and was made to biodegrade naturally. Give it a whirl.

Autumn blues, news and shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:19:00 +0000

It's definitely autumn now and almost all the leaves are off the trees around the Secret Meadow after some spectacular bursts of colour. The mud is also taking over thanks to the contracters who harvested the maize in fields around us, building a vast silage heap after several thousands tractor movements (of GIANT tractors) up and down the field edges...the field edges are now like slurry and I do hope they are not being paid for those 3m margins as all the plants that struggled to grow back after this year's total wipeout spraying have now gone completely. Plus the cow muck they used to weigh down the tarpaulins has leached into the drainage ditches and killed everything there too.

Enough gloom. It's welly time again and I would like to sing the praises of the good old dunlop welly - which now seems a bit longer than when I was a kid, or have my legs become shorter? - as I have reverted to the cheapo versions after a brief fling with the designer welly. I was bought a beautiful pair as a gift, which promptly acquired a tiny hole and a strange wheezy sound before developing into a fully fledged leak. Wets socks means new wellies as far as I am concerned!

Last Saturday we held a How to Build a Cob Pizza Oven course at Learning From The Land, attended by a bunch of brave souls who went home a great deal muddier and more exhausted than they arrived. Frank the dragonslayer Blaker took the young innocents through the basics of oven building before letting them loose on a heap of seriously sticky clay, straw and sawdust. The resulting construction is a work of art and I look forward to eating many a fine pizza from it in due course. For those of you who faffed about too long, flaked or failed to sign up, you missed a fabulous day. Ha ha.

By the way, congratulations to the Olive Shed restaurant in Bristol, whose owners were on the course - they have just won a runner up prize in the Observer's Best Restaurant competition, which is a feather in their cap indeed. It's down on the waterfront by the old steam crane - try it out.

Other news...George Aykroyd's rocket stove pizza machine was cranking out the FINEST pizzas on Sunday night here. There are rumours he is going to organise a film night with pizzas too; this is a man who has a serious addiction to pizzas. We are just trying to help.

Coming up is the Power of Fire open day on November 28th with rocket stoves, wood-fired kilns, yes - you guessed it - pizza ovens, woodfuelled stoves and even a good old fashioned bonfire...FREE entry, 2-5pm at TA4 1QE. Look on our website for directions and details.

Learning From The Land lift off

noreply@blogger.com (Saunter Along) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:58:00 +0000

So after years of trying to avoid blogging, I have finally succumbed. It may be a good way to spread the word about Learning From The Land, a social enterprise (which means a company that gives its profit back to the cause it works for) dedicated to getting more people in Somerset thinking about sustainable living for themselves and learning skills that will help them to get there. We run courses, open days, do activities in schools and anything else legal that will help promote living a little more lightly on this gorgeous planet of ours.

This all sounds very glam but it is mostly me, George and Frank messing about with mud, trying to build things using no money, scrounging materials and trying to convince other people that they can do the same. However, despite a strong showing with our compost loo course and How to Point a Wall for Beginners, we are finding it hard to fill our public course places with enough people to pay a decent tutor.

At the moment, our school projects are going well - we have done some fab building of pizza ovens made of cob in Bridgwater and Taunton, and hope to be doing one in Wiveliscombe maybe...We are also helping out at a big ECO event at the Genesis Centre in Taunton frm 8-9 October. Entry is free and there will be our Power of Mud roadshow, plus pizza making in a cob oven, making a greenhouse out of plastic water bottles, and lots of other stuff inside run by people who actually get paid for a living - PV manufacturers, heat pump makers - all sorts of green technology info.

All ideas welcome - have a look at www.learningfromtheland.co.uk and see what you think.