John Walton: Keeping the kids entertained

We have been very busy with the open farm as the school holidays give rise to an influx of fraught parents seeking an outlet for their little angels to let off steam.

One thing that we have been pushing this year is how good the farm is, no matter what the weather, as it seems that the days are gone when we could rely on good summers and easily-planned days out.

A new word in my vocabulary appeared last week. It was ‘yurt’, which for those of you who don’t know, is a round Mongolian tent.

It arrived at the farm last week, courtesy of Riverford, who are travelling around the country cooking meals for as many people as possible, extolling the virtues of fresh, local organic produce.

It is a great way of extending the message of how good their restaurant in Devon is.

The restaurant is called the ‘Field Kitchen’, hence the yurt goes under the name of ‘The travelling field kitchen’. I bet it took them ages to think of that one.

Meals are served over eight days, with two sittings per day, totalling more than 1,300 over the period. It’s hard work, but the food is excellent.

As we come to the end of the summer rush on the farm, it only remains for me to say a big thank you to all the staff who have worked so hard over the last few weeks, especially Nik, who hasn’t seen the inside of her caravan for seven weeks. All she needs is a bed setting up in the tearoom, then she could spend 24 hours in there, instead of just the usual 18.

I have just seen sight of a letter in the FG responding to my comment about the feed merchants.

All I want to say in reply is that these articles are a little tongue-in-cheek and not meant to offend, but feed prices did take a good few months to come down by the £15 or £20 the letter writer mentioned and if any of you reps out there feel hard done by, I apologise.

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