Snippets of Apley news

The first Apley 2014 calves are in the fields (Continental cross Limousin & Hereford herd), producing excellent quality lean beef for our Apley Farm Shop customers – very topical for National Butchers’ Week next week, 24-28 March.

Ten members of our staff have just completed a 3 day First Aid course, run by Tutor Care, complying with First Aid at Work regulations.

For the Jousting Fair on Saturday 3 May, one of our Apley Holiday Cottages, Forge Cottage is available http://apleyholidaycottages.co.uk, giving someone a very Apley weekend. Jousting tickets are available online at http://www.apleyjoustingfair.co.uk

I’ve been invited to write for a blogging tour by someone who asked me to write a column for her national lifestyle magazine. It’s based on the chain letter principal, but with more publicity. It got me answering some pertinent questions – what I write, why I write & who for etc.

Gavin met with Phil Allen in Apley Walled Gardens yesterday to see the fruit & vegetables being produced for this year, including edible flowers & eventually some soft fruit – strawberries (see photo of Phil here in the melon house with them) & possibly also some raspberries & other berries. We’re just looking into recyclable packaging. Now the website is now up & running http://www.apleywalledgarden.co.uk/, I’ve written an article & put together before & after photos to send to national press journalists.  We very quickly took a few tour bookings online which is great.

The photography course run by Karen Hartnell-Beavis was so popular, she’s running it as a one-day course on Wednesday 7 May – more on my blog tomorrow.