September 2025 at Stourton

It’s been a busy and exciting few weeks here, and we wanted to share a little roundup of what’s been happening — from weddings and fayres to venison, logs, and life with the deer.

Food & Drink Fayre – A Great Success

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported our Food & Drink Fayre. It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the day and, most importantly, celebrating the brilliant local businesses who took part. Your support makes all the difference to these producers, and we’re delighted the event was such a success.

Weddings in the Woods

Our final wedding of the season has now taken place – what a lovely way to round off the year! We also recently attended the Wedding Fair at Walled Garden Baumber where we met some fantastic couples. We’re now taking bookings for next year and beyond. Whether you’re looking for full venue hire or an inclusive package, we’d love to help create your perfect day, do take a look at what we offer at Stourton Woods and get in touch to find out more. With the colder months arriving, we’ll soon be “de-wintering” the venue to prepare for the new season ahead.

Sunday 5^th October – Our Final Mini Market & Open Day + Trail Run

Our final open day and mini farmers market takes place on Sunday 5th October. There will be meats from The Gleeson’s Good Life, heritage fruit and vegetables from Top Farm Enterprises, artisan loaves from Bread & Cheese and home-made preserves from Heather’s Kitchen; all producers that are less than 10 miles from the farm gates. Our lovingly reared home grown venison will also be available; it’s the perfect time to stock up on hearty winter-warming cuts and steaks.

We’re open from 10am – 4pm – however, if you’re feeling energetic you can join Horncastle running club at 9am for a 5km or 10km trail run. All are welcome, children with adults please & well behaved dogs on short leads / canicross are welcome (one dog per runner).

Post-run you can refuel and relax with tea, coffees and cakes from The Dancing Dungarees and as well as breakfast rolls, hot-dogs and burgers from The Ginger Pig which will be available to purchase and enjoy in the grounds.

Throughout the day we will be running our signature farm safari tours at a special price of only £3 per person. You can book your slots now.

It’s your last opportunity to visit us in 2025 – we hope to see you here!

Enchanted Lights – An update

Unfortunately, there will be no Enchanted Lights event this year. We had hoped to bring back this much-loved attraction, but without a partner to run it alongside us, it’s not possible for 2025. Fingers crossed it will return in the future.

Logs & Winter Warmth

With the temperatures dipping, Tina has been hard at work processing log orders, while Ed has been busy delivering them — and lending a hand with building the new chicken house!

Our log order book is open so please place your order here to get stocked up for the winter

On the Farm

The recent rain has been a blessing for our oilseed rape, which is growing strongly with very little cabbage stem flea beetle pressure. That’s allowed for a solid establishment this season. The challenge now is keeping the pigeons away through winter!

Alongside the rape, we’ve planted a companion crop of buckwheat. This clever addition not only deters flea beetle but also scavenges phosphorus from the soil. Once the frost arrives, the buckwheat will die back and release that phosphorus, providing a nutrient boost for the oilseed rape in spring.

Our cover crops are looking healthy too. They’ll protect the soil from winter weather while improving its structure, before we move on to drilling spring barley.

Winter wheat drilling has also begun. We’ve chosen fields with lower blackgrass pressure to tackle first, and where blackgrass has germinated, we’ve sprayed it off with glyphosate ahead of drilling. Pre-emergence herbicides are also in place, targeting grass weeds before they compete with the wheat. The goal is simple: protect yield and quality for harvest.

The cattle are still making the most of a late flush of grass brought on by recent rain, and we expect them to stay outdoors for around another month, weather depending. As the nutritional value of the grass declines, we’re giving them supplementary feed to maintain steady growth. Soon, that ration will be home-mixed: our own barley and beans combined with molasses and minerals, ready to be fed with silage once the herd moves indoors.

There’s also been some new arrivals in the pasture — thirty brown laying hens. These busy workers are already scratching around the fields, spreading cow manure and enriching the soil with their own contributions. With access to bugs, grubs, pellets, and grit, we’re hopeful they’ll soon reward us with high-quality eggs. The chickens will also feature in our educational visits we hold here, allowing our visitors to see what ‘Farm to Fork’ means.

Finally, we’ve said farewell — for now — to Jamie, who’s headed off to Tungamah, Victoria in Australia for their summer. While it’s quieter here over winter, he’ll be gaining valuable experience combining on large-scale farming operations with Bourke Harvesting ‘down under’. We wish him well on his travels and look forward to welcoming him back in the spring time with fresh stories and new ideas.

Deer Diary

Life with the deer is as lively as ever. The herds are being separated ready for the rut — and to stay safely out of the way of the upcoming 5/10K run.

All of this year’s calves are being weaned from their mothers and moved into the roundhouse to keep them cosy ahead of winter.

Now that the deer’s velvet has come off their antlers, we will begin de-antlering. We do this ahead of the rut to minimise the chance of injuries to the deer and to ourselves in any handling that we may have to do.  Our placement student, Will, will be getting hands-on with this new task!

That’s all for now — thank you, as always, for supporting everything we do here. From weddings to wildlife, and from logs to local markets, it’s a joy to share these moments with you.