Mad as a March hare – and I’ll look out for them on our drier grassland, crazy, heedless of everyone else as they caper in the chill March winds, mating crazy.  All of nature is on the edge in March, shedding the quiet signs of spring approaching at the beginning of the month, and starting to really shout about it by the end.  Birds are everywhere busy with nesting material, that busy sound on fine days.  Our egrets have returned, enjoying wet pasture and even our slurry lagoon.  Somehow wherever they are, they keep their feathers their hallmark brilliant white.

CROPS  -  The wheat starts spreading, the one plant that overwintered turning into multiple plants on the same roots.  Each plantlet will produce an ear, so we want enough to have a decent number of ears, but not so many the ears are small, starved and overcrowded.  So we fertilize towards the end of the month, when the ears start forming deep in the plant and they stop making plantlets, all set by the daylength. 

We start preparing the ground for spring crops after winter stubble (kept to feed overwintering birds).  The soil is beautifully friable after the frost which makes that beautiful frost tilth – a perfect soil structure for plants.  The minimum we can do to that, the better, because it’s perfect just the way it is.  We put in spring barley which helps spread the workload and means there is always somewhere with established plants for those birds that depend on cultivated ground.  We’ll leave the little skylark strips, where fledglings can go in rain to avoid soaking their fluffy feathers (which can chill and kill them).

COWS  -  The cows are now into the second and third three week cycle of calvings – most get in calf to the first matings, which calved in February, but the next two cycles are so important that they calve easily so we can get them back in calf so they are at their milkiest and greediest when the grass is at the fullest flush in May next year.  So we watch and wait, checking cows that have calved to make sure they ‘clean up’, produce all the afterbirth, or we wash them out.  Cows can put up with dirty wombs in a way that would kill a human, but they need to be clean to be able to conceive again.  The cows who spent some gruelling time on the kale in the frost have come up trumps – three or four weeks outside walking up and down hill seems to have toned their calving muscles, and we are having easy calvings even with twins.

CALVES  -  We are dealing with the mass of calves, the dairy cows of the future.  Again, they’ve got to grow well to get in calf at the right time to eat the grass when they come in to the herd in two years’ time.  So we tend and feed and watch –  are they the right weight, are they looking plain.  They just do look very sweet, with trusting eyes.  When you turn up, they crowd around, licking their lips (people = milk).

YOUNGSTOCK  -  Their big sisters, the year old and older heifers start agitating to go out, the growing grass scenting the breeze.  We make the judgement when to put them out – is the soil right, is there enough grass, is the forecast warm enough.  That might be this month or later, but the countryside starts looking right with cattle out grazing.

CHEESE  -  the milk now is much easier to make good cheese, as the lower fibre in new grass produces a naturally lower fat milk.  The milk starts really increasing in volume, up two then three times our lowest volume back in January.  Our hand made process means more vats, more curd to cheddar, to mill and salt, and more to press and lard and dress for three days, and more to bump out and take to the store.  Then more to turn weekly, all by hand until they are around three months old.  We have two new cheese men, Bruce Rowan and Lee Mitchell, and the rest of the team tell them of the work to come.  The cheese men have been cleaning cheese in store and packing cheese; now they haven’t so much time, so that squeezes everyone else.  Our milk peak is around mid April, so by the end of the March, milk is still rising in a white and inexorable tide.

RECIPE  - We had a wonderful dinner at the Grove Inn, Kings Nympton, with two couses serving our cheese, and some lovely wine to match, check their website www.thegroveinn.co.uk for more events of local food beautifully prepared.  I loved the Smoked Clovelly Haddock with a Welsh Rarebit Topping of Quickes Extra Mature Cheddar: 

Welsh Rarebit Topping:
350g (12oz) Quickes Extra Mature Cheddar
85ml (3fl oz) milk
25g (1oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
1/2 tbsp English Mustard Powder
A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Salt and Pepper
 
Put the cheese into a pan and add the milk.  Slowly melt them together over a low heat, but do not allow the mix to boil as this will separate the cheese.  When the mixture is smooth and just begins to bubble, add the flour, breadcrumbs and mustard and cook for a few minutes, stirring, over a low heat until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan and begins to form a ball shape.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and leave to cool.

When cold, place the mixture into a food processor, turn on the motor and slowly add the egg and egg yolk.  When the eggs are mixed in, chill for a few hours before using.
 
4 large Smoked Clovelly Haddock fillets, cut in half down the centre
8 ripe tomatoes
Vinaigrette ingredients:  3tsp balsalmic vinegar, 6 tbsp olive oil, Salt  
                                   and Pepper, 1 tbsp finley snipped fresh chives

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and pre-heat the grill to medium.
First blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 seconds.  Cool them quickly in iced water and the skins should peel off easily.  Slice the tomatoes and arrange overlapping on the centre of individual plates.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.

Arrange the haddock portions in a buttered flameproof dish.  Split the rarebit into 8 pieces and pat out on your hands to about 2-3mm thick.  Lay the pieces on top of the haddock.  Colour under the grill until golden, then finish the haddock in a pre-heated oven for 4-5 minutes.

For the vinaigrette put all the ingredients in a screw top jar and shake until mixed.

Spoon the vinaigrette over the tomatoes.  Sit the haddock on top and serve  -  serves 8

Note:  If you have any rarebit mix left it is delicious grilled on toast.  It will keep in the fridge for up to 10 days and freezes well.

MARY QUICKE