I arrived at the farm on Saturday after dropping Julia at work, to find that the pink bale pigs guarding the entrance to the centre.
A couple of hours later I found someone leaving one of the polytunnels with a handful of tomatoes and chillies, all bright red and bursting with ripeness. I could have let it pass, but when you see the results of your year’s labour disappearing with someone else it’s difficult to stay silent. I was, however tactful.
It seems she had gone for a look round (people seem to treat it as a tourist destination) and found three tomatoes and two chillies on the floor. It was tempting to ask her if I could visit her house and purloin anything that was lying on the floor, but I didn’t. It was tempting to express scepticism, but I didn’t do that either. This turned out to be a good thing, as a quick survey of the polytunnel revealed that someone had indeed stripped the plants of all the ripe tomatoes and chillies.
It’s not the first time we’ve suffered losses, but it’s the first time someone has gone in and stripped a polytunnel. Well, they left the courgettes, marrows and cape Gooseberries, but they stripped everything red.
It’s annoying, but I have a plan. Actually I have two, but Julia won’t let me inject laxatives into things…
The group has been seeing to the poultry today, a some needed moving out into a larger pen, and found the smallest egg we’ve had so far. They have also picked anything else that is nearly ripe in the garden, done the composting and helped prepare for the Rainbows who are coming tonight. We are now planning what to do on Wednesday – it’s a good activity for a cold, rainy afternoon, as it makes Wednesday more productive and keeps everyone dry and warm.
I’ve made a replacement for the Wheatsheaf Loaf that broke at the Flintham show. I have to have one for the church at the weekend and need one for our visit to the Care Home tomorrow so I daren’t not have a back-up. As a bonus I made two small ones, which we can leave at the home tomorrow. The pair of them took me less than an hour to make, whereas the big ones are still taking nearly two hours despite my efforts to speed it up.
The only trouble with the small ones is that the mice are really tricky!
Love the bread!
Thanks – they are now decorating a local Care Home.
Been through the disappearing veggies thing myself – personally I favour rigging things with a “very light” electrical charge – but I was not allowed to that either! A neighbour did however, albeit to discourage raccoons – proved a useful example of why things that work well in your head don’t necessarily do so in real life!
I got in enough trouble when a visitor’s child touched the goat fence and we didn’t have a warning notice up. 😉
It is tempting though…
Oh dear! Or should I say goat.
😉
I think if you were allowed to apply the laxatives that would make them give a shit
ha ha! or LOL – never sure how to write laughter – but yes it would. (Julia has just asked what I’m sniggering about and has voiced the opinion that men never grow up…)
🙂 – that’s how I do laughter, with additions such as chortle
That’s because you have a wide vocabulary. I bet you can even remember when the guffaw was in fashion. 😉
🙂
I am so sorry you have lost so much produce. Things like that make me so angry.
Thanks, it’s just so mean-spirited. It’s not as if it amounts to much, apart from to the people who have grown it.
Quite.