Wednesday 9 December 2020

The Courtyard Dairy and Camphill Trust

It has been quite a while since I have driven up through the Yorkshire Dales and even when I did do the journey for work I rarely had time to stop and explore. So, whilst going to collect my youngest from university, I dropped in for a break from driving at The Courtyard Dairy just off the A65 beyond Settle

At the moment, there are of course safeguards and restrictions to protect transmission of Covid-19, and so the coffee hut in the foreground of the picture below was self service, but still a nice cup after quite a long drive!


However, the main reason to call here was to get some cheese and they have an amazing selection of small producer cheeses from all over the UK. 

A perspex screen seperates the customer from the staff in the entrance, which is just around the corner from the end of the path by the far building. However, there is a slot in the barrier, with a cheese board upon which samples of cheese are put by the staff for customers to try!

I opted for two cheeses, Young Buck - a blue cheese made in Northern Ireland and Dale End, made at Camphill, Botton, North Yorkshire, a community of learning disabled people. 

When buying the cheese, I wasn't aware of this community, but having supported learning disabled clients in care work it was very pleasing and interesting to me to find out about the work of the Camphill Trust  and that I have bought a product which supports this community. 

As I have said many times, it is so important to support local businesses and food producers and this will be especially important over coming months and years given Brexit and the UK Government's proposals for the farming sector. 

https://www.thecourtyarddairy.co.uk/

https://www.camphillvillagetrust.org.uk/how-we-work/









Tuesday 1 December 2020

Tuesday 1st December - Lockdown - Day 27 - Allotment Update

 Well, tomorrow the present lockdown is over for me and I go back to work, so after a lovely walk with a friend this morning I went up to the allotment this afternoon to do some digging over. 


The broad beans have been doing well, although one or two appear to have been nibbled despite the brambles round them to try and keep the slugs away. There's some more in the lean-to greenhouse at the house, which are getting very big to be honest and maybe I need to plant them out. 


This is the sprouting broccoli for early Spring next year which has done really well, the trick is to try and keep up with the picking once it starts otherwise the flowers come really quickly. 


This net has been a good investment. This particular apple tree, a Gala, is really late fruiting and so if it isn't netted the birds come along and have a really good peck at the apples. It is not big enough to protect every single apple but we've had a lot more off this tree than in previous years. 

The nasturtiums have finally caught a little bit of frost, apart from around where the parsnips and leeks are I will let these rot down as a kind of green manure and ground cover, saves me having to weed over the winter!