The Year Round: There's peas in our time

Every step is taken to ensure that the green peas arrive on the table as fresh as possible.

Starting at 6.30pm on the Friday, their first job was to cut right round the headlands of our first two pea fields.

These wonderful viners are too expensive for individual use, so a number of farmers form a group and rotate the machines among themselves.

All growers in the group have practical experience of how to harvest peas at the optimum time.

We at Low Fields Farm have silt soils which stand for longer droughts better than either sand or clay.

Our forebears made these rich riverside areas by allowing tidal floods over them and releasing the water to allow a deposit of silt.

In preparation for harvest, our fitter has renovated the telescopic lifter, a vital part of modern machinery.

One field of spring sown wheat here is Canadian Hard Red.

It is a speciality for Hovis and grew so rapidly that it looked in danger of withering before ripening properly.

Winter sown corn looks very nice here. The earlier fields of our oilseed rape have been dessicated by cutting the standing corn and leaving it to dry in windrows.

Several of our neighbours have abandoned this technique and charge directly into the ripe crop.

While on the sprayer, I heard alarming shrieks and calls from behind.

On stopping to investigate, I discovered a baby fawn lying completely motion- less.

After a few minutes it shot off like a coiled spring and was obviously unhurt. It was a very close run thing.

CW 17/7/10