Events are a go! We kick off this season with several events both on and off the estate over the next month, alongside the activities taking place as part of the Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor Festival there’s certainly plenty going on for everyone to enjoy….
On Sunday we welcome back to Stourton Woods the Lincolnshire Makers Spring Artisan Market.
These events are so much more than just a fabulous market – with not only a wide selection of Lincolnshire creatives, food producers, makers and artists showcasing their goods in and around the Roundhouse in the woods and you can really make a day of it with:
PLUS a great selection of quality hot food & drink vendors on site so you can enjoy food to eat whilst shopping!
With relaxed music playing throughout the day it is an event for you to relax and soak up the atmosphere. Portable toilet facilities will be provided near the roundhouse and additional toilet facilities are located near the safari tent, a short (& beautiful!) walk up into the arboretum where there are more picnic tables available too.
There is no entry fee for this event, it is £5 per car to pay on the gate for parking (cash please) which goes towards the upkeep of the venue.
Parking is within the field off Clays Lane, we encourage visitors to car share, fill your car & come in groups which represents excellent value for a day out.
We hope to see you here on Sunday!
Saturday 17th May marks the beginning of the Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor festival – a two week celebration of all that the Lincolnshire Wolds has to offer. There are over 90 walks, events and activities taking place – take a look at the www.woldsoutdoorfestival.com to get booked in and enjoy a guided walk, fishing, water sports, cycling, navigation, dancing or even gliding taster sessions!
The festival launches at Gunby Hall with an activity day from 10am – 4pm where we will be with the Stourton stand. It would be great to see you and tell you all about the events at Stourton this season and you can also pick up some of our estate produce!
The day will begin early at 9am with a 5 or 10km trail-run through the grounds organised by Horncastle Runners.
From 10am there will be a mini farmers’ market with top quality, fresh local produce available to buy.
We will be running Farm Safaris so you can take in all that the estate has to offer from the comfort of our accessible tractor and trailer. Make sure you book a slot to see our newly arrived Angus cattle and see if you can spot a deer calf or two!
Wilderness Ways will be in the woods hosting bushcraft sessions so you can learn some key survival skills.
Zoky Saunascape will be here with their NEW wood-fired sauna and plunge pool so after you’ve walked any one of our trails (or run them!) you can relax and unwind and enjoy the views from the Old Hall Lawn. Book your space NOW…
Don’t forget to 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.
In the arboretum we are holding a wedding fair in the safari tent with our Wedding Co-ordinator Amy Lauren Weddings on site with a range of suppliers attending. Pop in and see the options – from garden games, décor options, bell tents, food samples from The Food Dude as well as celebrant services, photography and a DJ on site with our FAB bar team so you can see how the safari tent might look set up for a wedding and talk to them about ideas you have and picture your perfect day here. You could also win 50% off a gown from OSH GOSH Gowns – only available to enter on the day!
Please save the date – it’s going to be a great day!
We have been busy getting visitor ready in and around the estate.
We have levelled and graded the farm tracks so you’ll have a beautifully smooth ride on our farm safaris. We have felled some dangerous trees and have mowed the grounds and trails to look neat and tidy.
We have also harrowed and spiked the grassland. This aerates the soil and reduces compaction which all helps to stimulate grass growth for our deer and Angus cattle.
The exciting new additions have arrived! We have taken delivery of 50 Aberdeen Angus calves, these are a mixture of heifers and steers, they are about 4/5 months old and these will be grazed on our herbal leys from mid May onwards. These are in quarantine in a shed in the farmyard so we can keep a close eye on them and until we have substantial grass growth for them to go out onto. The grazing of cattle on our herbal ley will bring diversity to our rotation, cycle nutrients in the soil through them eating and defecating and add organic matter to the soil. We are aiming to paddock graze them so that they will get fresh grass every day, this is better for the animals as they get fresh food and better for the herbal ley as the plants have a short period of being eaten and a long period of recovery. This system should help consistent growth through the year and good drought tolerance if we get a very dry summer.
When we keep them in the shed over winter we can also spread this manure on some of our arable fields that will add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. All of this will improve our soils and mean we have to buy less inorganic fertiliser for our crops. Keep an eye on social media for turn out when they will see grass for the first time this year!
We have had an incredibly dry spring with just 34mm falling in March and April! The winter crops have managed to keep growing as they have an established root system. Our spring crops of barley and sugar beet desperately needed the recent rainfall we had and has now germinated and emerged. The sugar beet is grown in rows 50cm apart and the spacing between each plant is approx. 16cm. We aim for a plant population of 100,000 plants per hectare, this is the optimum to maximise yield. The next job is spraying the weeds in the sugar beet as they can be very competitive against the beet until it becomes well established.
On the 24th April we hosted the upper Bain chalk streams cluster group – a group made up of local farmers and advisors who meet regularly to discuss ideas about improving water quality in the area. Will Marris from Terrafarmer gave a very informative presentation on regenerative farming and how we can apply these principles on farm.
We discussed different methods of feeding plants, soil structure and how diversity specific herbal leys help the fertility and organic matter in soils. After coffee & the presentation in the safari tent and a brief deer spotting mission(!) we moved to a field of herbal ley. Here a couple of soil pits were dug and the structure and rooting depth assessed to decide on the best management strategy. All in all this was a very enlightening morning with everybody having taken away some useful learning to apply.
We managed to turn out the deer slightly earlier this year to coincide with the sunnier & warmer weather at the beginning of April. Remarkably they all left the roundhouse in an orderly way (for deer!) and they enjoyed the fresh spring air, space and lush grass in their new enclosures (see video below). Shortly after the deer were evicted, we mucked out and power washed the roundhouse so it’s ready for our event season.
The stags new antlers are growing apace & Neve is doing a weekly measurement of these to show just how quickly they grow… more on this soon.
Every animal has had a copper bolus to keep them healthy & the calves will have an additional multivitamin when they next go through the handling centre.
Reared here on the farm, professionally butchered & packaged for us by local butchers and labelled here, we deliver direct to your door in our veni-van across Lincolnshire, freshly frozen venison is also available for delivery nationwide!
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