With Christmas wrapped up, we took some well earned time off. But the apprehension of what lays ahead in 2026 didn't rest up. Here pictured on the left is hazel trees, on the farm in full flower taken on the winter solstice, December 21st, 2025. One would think it was spring already!

Last years drought was extreme, now we are starting to see some of those later knock on effects. Brassicas, thirsty and cooler loving plants are typically abundant going into January. Their absence is notable. Some other winter produce is smaller than usual, carrots and parsnips for example. For us farmers this means less crop and often the labour cost is higher to harvest so we have less income. For customers smaller vegetables take a little more washing and prep.

Personally I love the smaller parsnips, they are really tasty. Sadly, on our friends farm they lost most of their parsnips so we are having to
get them from Organic North where they received more rain.

Radicchio is not a vegetable we are used to cooking. It's bitterness can be off -putting to some, but prepared well and paired with the right ingredients it is delicious. Especially this variety, the thick juicy leaves and bitter sweet
flavour is great. Try chopping them up and adding in for the last few minutes when making pasta sauce or casserole. They keep their colour and really beef up a saucy dish. if the bitterness isn't your thing, cook or dress it alongside sweet and acidic flavours like balsamic or citrus fruit to mellow it out.

We can see so many worm casts in these beds, they're ready and waiting to devour those leaves left behind. We will be planting peas into these beds soon.

In other news, Kesh completed a hedge laying course last year, over winter he used these new skills to lay our hedgerow, this gives thicker growth and will provide lots of low cover for our resident wrens.

This time of year the farm is mostly green, I worry that our cover crops and pasture are not thick and green as they could be. The constant rain in previous winters has felt bleak, but in hindsight a winter drought would have felt worse.
Each winter shows up areas where we failed to get good cover crop established and so we still have a way to go to work out how to undersow the autumn
produce, so that when harvested there are plants there ready fill out and take the crops place throughout winter. Having a green winter is the most important thing we can focus on to build soil health, so the farm and the beings we share this space with can be resilient in extreme weather.

Pictured here some of our beds going into winter. The orange and white flags are left over reminders from which beds had had cover crop sown into them. The blue flags however, are marking particularly good celeriac that we selected to save seed from, this will be the beginning of our very own Oxtons celeriac flock.

We had a surprise lamb this week, those little ram lambs were fertile last summer when a young ewe came into season.

She made her debut on a horribly rainy February morning, but despite the miserable weather she is one happy, confident and healthy little chunker. Lambing is not due to start until the end of March... So for now she'll have to make the most of being the only child in the paddock!

And finally, after months of chipping away, our brand new website is here! We really hope the transition for you all has been as smooth as possible and that you all enjoy the new interface.

With hope and respect,

Jayne, Ruby, Emma, Kesh and Julian x