Laurel Farm
Andrew Wells is known in the area for his funny poems and songs . This is what he came up with on Facebook a few months ago after the band had its longest lay-off .
‘ It ’ s Thursday night , the Pub Lads are rehearsing ,
All around Skeffling the neighbours are cursing .
“ My God , it ’ s got worse ” the long-suffering cry ,
Well , that ’ s because we haven ’ t played since July .’
‘ We ’ re in Charlie ’ s lean-to , a space that we share
With a tankful of fish who also live there .
We ’ ll never be handsome , we ’ re coy and we ’ re sharp ,
The fish by coincidence , are Koi , - but they ’ re Carp ’.’
‘ I have commitments around harvest time that means I can ’ t play so that leads us to a break
in the gigs but this time it was a 14-week break . That ’ s the longest gap we ’ ve ever had and we needed a short while to get back in the groove that first night of rehearsal .’
Farming is conducted between the villages of Skeffling and Paull including Auster Grange Farm and Paull Holme ; and Windsetts Farm in Skeffling as well as Laurel Farm . The main wheat variety grown is Beluga a soft wheat that Charlie anticipated going for feed or biscuit if it made the grade when I saw him in November .
‘ Tests were favourable and we ’ ve also grown spring milling wheat at Paull that has done very well . We ’ ve drilled Beluga again for 2017 .’
Charlie ’ s land generally varies from Grade 2 to 3 .
‘ We have some very light sandy land that had potatoes in last time and then we have some land at
Skeffling that comes up like concrete when it is dry or cat muck when wet . We had 250 acres flooded in 2013 when the Environment Agency effectively allowed the River Humber to burst its banks by not maintaining them . That land is now badly contaminated with salt . It has become compressed , has not recovered at all as yet and is pretty much dead . I checked nine inches of topsoil over quite a patch and found just one worm . That tells you everything .’
‘ We ’ ve worked it over as best we can and have put in a cover crop as a trial with a mixture of black oats , two types of radish and a bag of old rape seed . We ’ re just trying to put some root structure back , encourage the worms and bugs and get some
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www . farmers-mart . co . uk Dec / Jan 2017 51