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The food here is absolutely scrumptious! I love seeing the chefs gathering fruits and vegetables from around the gardens and cracking open fresh eggs from the wandering hens. They have really creative ways to incorporate farm products into the wedding meals, like: pumpkin ravioli, meringues, currant jelly, mini quiches, raspberry sauce, spring rolls, pesto, and on and on. Every wedding has assorted steamed vegetables - potatoes, carrots, baby courgettes, beets - so they are practiced in cooking them to perfection. It still amazes me to see a hundred plates all prepared and ready to go out to guests, still piping hot and immaculately presented.

What I've learned this weekend:

- Chickens are used to being fed first thing in the morning. If I walk past their pen before their breakfast, they follow me around while clucking expectantly.

- Planting winter cabbages.

- Teaching climbing beans to climb by winding them around a metal hoop and loosely tying them in place.

- The farm follows a seven year crop rotation system. One component is a combination of alfalfa and clover, which are good nitrogen-fixing plants to help convert nitrogen gas into usable nitrogen compounds in the soil. Clover is also used as ground cover around the climbing beans where it also acts as a weed suppressant. There are several different fields with their own seven year cycles, but in general they involve: nitrogen-fixing plants, potatoes, root vegetables (beets, carrots, parsnips), cabbages, legumes, squashes and aubergines, and smelly vegetables (garlic, onion, leeks). Tomatoes, cucumbers, and more squashes and aubergines are grown in the polytunnels, and leafy greens are grown elsewhere in smaller beds. Berries are also grown separately, completely contained in a "cage" to keep away curious animals.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. - Rachel Carson