Monthly Update - September 2025

The start of this very dry summer brought back vivid memories of the summer of 1976. We had just moved into a newly-built, dark brick house with no shade, and an oil fired Aga for cooking. We roasted day and night.   That year promise was high, with autumn and spring crops well sown.  For some farmers yields were good but here there was plenty of straw but not much grain and no grass.  This year the autumn and spring were very wet, and then no rain, so seeds were planted in bad conditions and developed poor root systems.  Some crops did thrive, like oil seed rape, but generally wheat yields are down 5%, with very good quality but hugely variable yield. Prices have hardly altered, so it is challenging times for farmers.  For those with cattle and sheep it has been hard to keep food in front of them, with no grass, and the ground too dry for the usual sowings of turnips and kale for autumn feed.  Supplies of straw are also very short and expensive.

So, it is amazing that in spite of it all nationally the grain stores are full and we thank God for His provision.  Of course there have also been masses of soft fruit, apples, pears and plums.  The oak trees are laden with acorns.

 But those of us growing vegetables have despaired. It seems to have been too hot for runner bean flowers to set or well-meaning cucumber plants to produce a cucumber.  Even tomatoes have struggled with poor yields. And leeks; well they really want rain, don’t they?

All is not lost though! I was encouraged when a child with her class was visiting the chickens and she asked me what I did.  It always takes me a long time to answer questions but I did my best, without boasting.  The child looked confused.  The teacher standing by intervened, “He is like the caretaker, like Mr Roberts who brought us here in the minibus” she explained.  So, it is a new sense of freedom and purpose that this autumn brings.  Interestingly, I was cleaning the toilets a couple of days later when a young man came looking for a Thames Water meter.  With our own bore hole and septic tanks I was able to send him on his way.  As we parted, he said “I hope you have some glam this evening.”  I said “It’s OK, I’ve met the King.”  He replied “Humble man, humble cleaning toilets when you have met the King.”

John Bishop OBE