"There's just nothing anywhere," Harriet Cowan says, standing at the highest point of her family farm in Belper, Derbyshire, and scanning across its 100 acres.
It's August, amid the fourth of the summer's heatwaves, and spread before us is a patchwork of ochres, khakis and dull browns. Every field is a rash of dusty stubble; every hedgerow is thirstily clinging on; every scrap of grass is gasping. As they watch from a dry-stone wall, even the sparrows look enervated. It has been a long, long summer.
"We finished harvesting in July, over a month ahead of schedule. Barley, winter wheat… There was nothing much to come up. But it's the same all round the country," Cowan says straightforwardly. (She says everything straightforwardly.) "It's scary. But I do think this is just a spell. It was really wet a couple of winters ago, and everyone said, 'Well, that's it.'" She shrugs. "I don't know. I think it'll pee it down for the rest of the summer now." With that, she turns on her heel and sets off towards a stile.
'We finished harvesting in July, over a month ahead of schedule. Barley, winter wheat… There was nothing much to come up' - Joe Hart for The Telegraph
Though she's just 25, Cowan has reason to be more relaxed than many in her position. Over the last few years, she has already achieved the farmer's ultimate goal: diversification without selling out. All she had to do was gaffer-tape a camera to the inside of her tractor cab, be entirely herself, post the clips on social media, and wait for her audience to find her.
#finished #harvesting
It's August, amid the fourth of the summer's heatwaves, and spread before us is a patchwork of ochres, khakis and dull browns. Every field is a rash of dusty stubble; every hedgerow is thirstily clinging on; every scrap of grass is gasping. As they watch from a dry-stone wall, even the sparrows look enervated. It has been a long, long summer.
"We finished harvesting in July, over a month ahead of schedule. Barley, winter wheat… There was nothing much to come up. But it's the same all round the country," Cowan says straightforwardly. (She says everything straightforwardly.) "It's scary. But I do think this is just a spell. It was really wet a couple of winters ago, and everyone said, 'Well, that's it.'" She shrugs. "I don't know. I think it'll pee it down for the rest of the summer now." With that, she turns on her heel and sets off towards a stile.
'We finished harvesting in July, over a month ahead of schedule. Barley, winter wheat… There was nothing much to come up' - Joe Hart for The Telegraph
Though she's just 25, Cowan has reason to be more relaxed than many in her position. Over the last few years, she has already achieved the farmer's ultimate goal: diversification without selling out. All she had to do was gaffer-tape a camera to the inside of her tractor cab, be entirely herself, post the clips on social media, and wait for her audience to find her.
#finished #harvesting
8 days ago
