Tuesday 4 August 2015

Harvest 2015

In case you were not aware, this week sees the official start of Harvest 2015. This is the six weeks during which most of the UK's harvest is gathered. Round us the harvest actually started a couple of weeks ago, and there was then a sudden surge of Oil Seed Rape being harvested last week.

As with many things, Harvest is something new for us following our move to the country. We were, of course, aware of it as something that happened, but now we see it as a part of the life going on around us. It is a wonderful thing to see at close quarters. The machinery involved can be quite modest or huge and slightly overwhelming in its size. And the sudden change in the our surroundings from beautiful golden swathes to dark rich earth is staggering.

Something I had not appreciated is that some fields appear to have more than one crop planted, and a common mix seems to be Oil Seed Rape and Wheat. To me this seems to be an odd combination, but clearly it works. What this means from a scenic point of view is that there are a number of fields that are currently both golden and dark.

I am looking forward to watching the progress of Harvest 2015 round us over the next few weeks.

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