The barren moonscape of a wilderness that was the 25 acre field behind the house has now been cultivated, harrowed and pounded to a fine tilth and today this season's coming pea crop has been drilled by the isolated farmer in his tractor cab. Now all it needs is a little steady and gentle rain to moisten the ground but the forecast promises nothing in terms of precipitation for ten days. The farmer will just have to be patient.
Now the real bonus of the freshly drilled pea crop is that when the young shoots and sprouting plants finally appear they are loved by those flying defoliators and all-round agricultural pest and vandals, the wood pigeons.
There's a perfect synchronicity to their love of peas in that fresh garden peas make a quite beautiful accompaniment with pigeon breast, mashed potato and shallot gravy. So when the pigeons appear we'll harvest them as they try to harvest the peas.
Drove past someone liming a field today. Wonder how much actualy settled on the soil?
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ReplyDeleteWith today's wind not a lot. I think it's a bit of desperation because of the weather. John