Country diary: It's amazing what one family farm can do for wildlife
Howside started out as a small 100-acre National Trust farm back in 1998, but it has greatly expanded since then, as they changed mindset from being focused on food production to considering nature as 'essential', as Richard puts it.
First they took on land on Pillar, one of the tallest mountains in England, where they now graze a hefted flock of Herdwick sheep about nine miles from the farmstead. The stock of wethers (castrated males) was removed from the fell due to a government environmental scheme, and this made a massive difference to the abundance of bilberry, heather and mosses.
Then they took on a forest from the Forestry Commission (they were the only farmers to turn up to the commission's meeting on the matter). After that, there was a domino effect, with more opportunities coming up.
In 2008 they changed from productive continental cattle to native galloway cattle, as part of the Wild Ennerdale project, and since then bird populations have soared, especially willow warbler, wren and chaffinch. Red-listed ring ouzel territories have increased, and dippers and green woodpeckers are new to the valley.
We saw the herd of galloway cows with their calves – physical fencing has been removed and the cattle use Nofence collars to target grazing in particular areas, benefiting species such as the marsh fritillary butterfly (which was extinct in the Lake District not long ago).
Other measures include farming without fertiliser or imported nutrients; introducing more trees, in the form of new hedgerow corridors; and oxford sandy and black pigs to help disturb the land. We were glad to see the pigs before heading back to the farmhouse for tea and cake.
What the Maxwells have done is inspirational. They've made such a range of changes, taken lots of opportunities, and nature is benefiting as a result. It just shows what a family farm can do.
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: King Charles III's fussy eating habits from his peculiar eggs request and premixed martinis to his 'groussaka'
King Charles III, like many Brits across the country, is what you might describe a fussy eater. In fact, according to YouGov, a whopping two in five British people would consider themselves picky eaters but the King's preferences are perhaps uniquely royal. But, Charles allegedly has an ability to make simple dishes extravagant in order to suit his palate. Tom Quinn writing in Yes Ma'am - his bestseller about the history of the royal servants - claimed there was a very particular way the monarch likes his eggs cooked for his afternoon tea. Quinn wrote: 'He [the King] had never once cooked his own eggs and muffins. Because, like many people, Charles is fussy about how his own eggs are cooked, and because eggs are notoriously difficult to get just right, he insists that six eggs should be cooked so that at least two will be just as he likes them.' If true, this means if Charles was to enjoy his eggs and muffins every afternoon, the royal kitchen would go through an average 42 eggs a week in order to provide the King with his perfect eggs. However, the royals have in the past denied this allegation that the King has multiple eggs cooked at once. Charles is reportedly not just particular about how his eggs are cooked. Writing in her royal biography The Palace Papers, royal insider Tina Brown claimed that the King travelled with a premixed martini on hand when he was attending dinner parties. 'Unlike the Queen, who always ate what she was served, the Prince stipulated his menu preferences up-front, and sometimes arrived at dinner with his protection officer bearing a martini premixed and ready to be handed to the butler and served in his own glass,' Brown wrote. Away from eggs and martinis, Charles has other interesting eating habits. Up until a few years ago the King was known to not eat lunch. However, at the request Queen Camilla and doctors, Charles has now started eating a midday meal where he enjoys half an avocado. Charles also occasionally swaps meats for a plant-based diet to reduce his carbon footprint. He told the BBC in 2021: 'For years I haven't eaten meat and fish on two days a week and I don't eat dairy products on one day a week.' The King also likes putting his own very unique spin on classic meals. These fresh takes on popular dishes often involve using game meat - which is known to be a favourite among the royals. When he was guest editing Country Life in 2018, Charles revealed that he invented a grouse coq au vin and a grouse moussaka which he calls 'groussaka'. Magazine also featured his favourite recipe - pheasant crumble pie. Charles also foregoes English Breakfast tea, preferring to drink Darjeeling tea with honey and milk. It isn't just his food that the King is allegedly fussy about. According to Brown, Charles is accompanied on his travels to meet friends by a truck full of his furniture. Brown said: 'When he travelled to stay at friends; country houses, a truck arrived the day before, bringing his bed furniture and even pictures, which his pampering aide Michael Fawcett ensured would be hung in his allocated bedroom in place of the possessions of his host.' Charles isn't the only royal who has a unique palate when it comes to popular meals. The late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a fish and chips but with the traditional haddock or cod swapped for hake. Similar to cod and haddock but softer and with a more mild flavour, hake is usually used in curries and soups rather than in fish and chips. Darren McGrady, the Queen Elizabeth's personal chef from 1982 until 1993 ,revealed in a YouTube video how the Queen liked her fish and chips cooked - and it wasn't only her choice of fish which departed from the usual ingredients. Darren said: 'The Queen wouldn't really eat the fish fried in all that crispy rich batter - a little bit too much for her. She preferred a more refined fish and chips. 'The chips were all cut the same length - every one the same length, perfect rectangles.' So, instead of deep-frying the hake in batter, it was dunked in flour, egg yolk and butter before it was rubbed with panko crusting and popped into the oven at 200C for ten minutes. While most Brits might enjoy their fish and chips with a healthy dollop of tartare sauce and a side of mushy peas the Queen's choice of condiment was a little more off-menu. She enjoyed homemade tarragon hollandaise sauce made of egg yolks, lemon, tarragon, clarified butter with salt and pepper as well. Presentation of the dish was also crucial. The perfectly asymmetrical chips had to be stacked into a square. Then the hollandaise sauce was drizzled around the side of the plate before a flower was placed on top of the fish for decoration. Answering the question of whether the Queen did eat fish and chips, Darren said: 'Sort of I guess. 'I love the combination of flavours in this dish and we'd serve this a lot when the Queen had guests for lunch.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
I'm a boomerang kid at 38
The hallway of my mum's new-build maisonette looked like the 'after' pictures of the world's least fun car boot sale. Huge blue and red laundry bags bulging with clothes, battered suitcases, baby toys, coats thrown carelessly and a rogue bag of cables that even the Dalai Lama wouldn't have the patience to untangle. Standing to one side, trying to remain calm, was my 78-year-old mum. 'How long are you staying for?' she joked. 'TBC,' I grimaced back. This was in January when my partner and I, along with our one-year-old son, moved in with my mum while the 'fixer-upper' house we bought as our first family home was, uh, fixed up. It saved us thousands but everyone — apart from the baby — was nervous. I'm definitely not the only one moving back home. A recent survey by the British bank TSB found that 80 per cent of first-time buyers moved back in with their parents to get onto the property ladder. My mum has been living alone for more than 30 years. First in the house I grew up in, then in the pristine new flat she downsized to a few years ago. She's no Hyacinth Bucket but she was used to having everything just so. When she left a room in the morning it would look the same way when she returned at night — and the same could very much not be said once we moved in. For me and my partner, there were other worries. There's only one TV, and our viewing habits, dinner timings and entire routine were different from my mum's. The space was small. Perfect for one, maybe two people, but three adults and chaos monkey? Nope. Too small. There's nowhere to escape. We also had to go back to sharing a bedroom with our son again after finally getting him settled into his own room. And I don't know if you've ever tried to work from home with your boomer parent in the house but I'd compare it to trying to work in a room with an affectionate labrador that happens to have the stealth of a monster truck and the street smarts of an undercover spy. However, in the five months we spent living with her, I learnt some valuable things. The first I knew before we moved in but I really knew it by the time we left: how lucky we were to have the option to do this in the first place. To have family in the city you live and work in isn't a given. To have them in London, the most expensive place to live in the UK, and round the corner from your life, your work and your kid's nursery is like having a winning lottery ticket in your purse. Mum was patient and kind. She kept our son entertained while we made him dinner, put up with him wrecking her curtains and carpet, and coped with my snapping at her that I was 'trying to work' for approximately 12 hours a day. The second was that you really only know someone when you live with them. Like most children, my relationship with my mum was previously frozen in time. We revert to type the minute we're in the same room: I am always the mouthy boundary-pusher and she is always the warrior-like matriarch whose word is final. But the truth, of course, is that we're different now, both made softer and harder by the toll life takes, by age and by motherhood itself. Living with each other forced us to reckon with the people we actually are, rather than the family personas we used to take on. Three years ago my mum was diagnosed with Parkinson's, something we've all been in denial about since. But I needed to see how it affected her life. At present, the answer is not much. However, I now know the ways in which that will change and what I can do to help when it does, because I am under the skin of her day-to-day life in a way you can't be when you check in by phone once a week or see each other for Sunday lunch. In the reverse, she knows what type of mother I am and that I am finally, for the first time in my adult life, in a relationship with a functional, kind man. Some nights, after I'd go to bed, my partner and my mum would sit up and chat. I only found this out afterwards, and how much he enjoyed it. And lastly, that time she had with her young grandson was precious. They imprinted on each other in a way I never could have predicted. His face still lights up when Grandma enters the room. He took his first steps on her velvet-soft rug. He runs into her place and goes straight for the window they'd look out of together, counting the cars on the street below. We all cried when the time came for us to finally move out because we knew that blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in time meant more than anything. Amy Grier What it's like to live with my parents at 23 by Esme Gordon-Craig When I was younger I enjoyed imagining a 23-year-old-version of myself. She was living in a small but elegant flat in London, maybe with a boyfriend, but I also considered that a couple of best friends would be fun too. I pictured having the perfect office job with the perfect office outfit, along with all the emotional and financial freedoms that would follow. This fantasy, a product of overwatching The Devil Wears Prada, is yet to come true. Instead, having now reached the great age of 23, I find myself living at home with my parents, cushioned among all the emotional and financial security that brings. This is increasingly common for my generation. The cost of living crisis has ensured that those of us in our early twenties who have the opportunity to live at home will happily sacrifice our independence for the sake of saving, or even just affording to live. We see it as a temporary situation, one that might one day lead to the ultimate goal of adulthood: having a home of our own. Having the option to live at home as an adult is both a blessing and curse. It's a blessing for many reasons, an obvious one being no rent. Then there are the added extras: I have my washing done for me, bills are nonexistent and a home-cooked meal is guaranteed every night. • The reality of living with your parents in your twenties However, as much as I love my parents, there are downsides. Number one, if you want the perks of being supported like a child you have to accept being treated like one too. There are no drunken nights out ending in early-morning cereal binges and no hungover lie-ins that blend beautifully into a day-long movie marathon. I can't even guarantee access to the TV. World War Three can kick off with the simple act of not turning off a light switch or forgetting to open the gate for the postman, and remoulding one's life around the routine of one's parents can be exceptionally challenging when everything down to the hot water has a regimented schedule. Then there's the problem of socialising. I had a boyfriend who was living at home after he graduated. I wouldn't say this was the reason we ended it but coming downstairs to be greeted by his parents every morning added an element of awkwardness. The big issue for me is that, unlike my ex, home is nowhere near London. It's nowhere near anything, really, and to make matters worse, I can't drive. Yes, I still get lifts on nights out.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Breakthrough in efforts to reintroduce rare bird to Kent
A young red-billed chough has successfully fledged from a nest in Kent, marking the first such event in the county for over two centuries. This milestone follows a reintroduction programme initiated three years ago by Wildwood Trust, Kent Wildlife Trust, and Paradise Park. The red-billed chough, a bird with strong cultural links to Kent, vanished from the region over 200 years ago due to habitat loss and persecution. The reintroduction efforts aim to release up to 50 birds in the South East over five years, supported by long-term chalk grassland habitat restoration. Conservationists view the successful fledging as a significant step, confirming the birds are finding suitable nesting sites.
