Our nearest large farm that almost surrounds us must have been one of the last to practise a traditional way of mixed farming. It is a large farm with several thousand acres and employs dozens of local folks from the village.
For a start when we first moved here, they reared pigs, but that ended 30 years ago. Also, just to show what a rural area this is, the local school also kept pigs in some styes, as well as chickens and a large area growing various crops on the school grounds.
Close encounters
The variety of stuff grown on the neighbouring farm was enormous. One of the unusual things they grew was a large acreage of spinach. Our first introduction to this crop was early one morning, not long after we moved here. At 1am we were woken by what seemed like a clip from a science fiction film. Close encounters of a certain kind come to mind, flashing lights, weird screaming noises, engines revving, and men shouting.
We found out when daylight came that the spinach had to be harvested at night, loaded into trailers, and delivered to the canning factory at Long Sutton at 7am so it could
