[Gpdd] CARE Hay making

[Penny Charlesworth]

Further to Birdie's post, I have a screen made from four wooden battens with a square of chicken wire stapled over it, which I use to dry onions. I stand it on some bricks in the veg garden when it is needed and turn the onions each day until they are ready for storage. This year, most of the crop has rotted in the dreadful rains and we have had no sun to ripen them.

I suppose that a small quantity of grass could be dried in this way to make some hay. Years ago, farmers would have used a scythe to cut the grass and it would have had to be turned by hand to dry it for winter feed so it must work on a small scale. 

I expect that there will be a hay shortage here in England as well as in France, having seen news footage of hundreds of acres of crops ruined in the floods. I have quite a stockpile in my garage but perhaps I should be trying to make my own.

I think that this would work better if only it would stop raining as it will be hard to get the stuff dry in the first place.

Debbie, do let us know how you get on with this as, if this weather is repeated next summer, all of us in Northern Europe will need to be making our own hay. I understand that buttercups, once dried, lose their toxicity although I think that I would try to remove them anyway.

Love to the Dolly Mixtures,

Penny and the Piggyfriends in England, where it is still raining.