Orchids galore

In 2007 with the introduction of the farm worker naturalist we identified 2.5 has of the farm to manage specifically for wild flowers. The majority of these areas are unimproved grassland, south facing and with limestone outcrops.

This winter was exceptionally dry followed by a fair bit of rain in late March and April resulting is an abundance of wild flowers this spring.

Of the 9 species of orchids we identified on the farm last year 6 of them are now in flower and can be seen from the farm trail, including this Woodcock orchid shown in the photo.

Starting the blog

Hi

This is Nigel starting what he hopes will be an interesting blog reflecting what we are doing at the hotel and in particular the aspects which relate to food and farming. We hope to talk about what we do on our organic farm and the areas we have dedicated to wild flower meadows and show over time what is happening on the farm. We also want to talk about our suppliers, the problems they have and how we think our buying decisions also affect the enviroment. It would also be nice if we can get around to discussing different asspects of the subjects we feel passionate about such as: organic farming, agroecology, food, biodiversity, sustainability, gaia and may be even rural turism.

This is just a small start and lets hope with time we can develop this into an interesting blog