Surrey Homes | SH38 | December 2017 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Jane Howard’s
Fables from the Farm
Jane reflects on a bountiful year at Coopers Farm
It’s been quite a dry autumn, so
this year the cows stayed out right
up until the end of November.
They’d happily stay out all winter if we
gave them half a chance and plenty of
hay, but weighing in at a hefty 700kg
a piece they’d turn all the fields into a
soupy mush with not a blade of grass
in sight come the spring. So I’ve just
brought them in and love the novelty
of having them up by the house,
bedded up and cosy in deep, clean
straw. Having the cows in the barn also
means that Christmas is
coming (though no geese
to fatten here as they’re
one of the few animals
not to feature in the
Coopers Farm line-up).
And that means I go
into festive overdrive. My
efforts extend far beyond
the hall, as I deck every
corner of this old farmhouse
with industrial quantities
of greenery gathered from
around the farm. There’s
nothing like swags of ivy
and twigs of holly to create
general Christmas loveliness and such
abundance has the added advantage of
hiding all the cobwebs. And ladies take
note… the pagans considered holly
to be male and ivy female, whichever
was brought inside the home first
would determine who would rule
the roost for the following year!
“the pagans
considered holly to
be male and ivy
female, whichever
was brought inside
the home first
would determine
who would rule
the roost for the
following year!”
And then there’s the seasonal menus.
2017 was a great year for fruit and
foraging and I’ve managed to store a
fair amount of interesting produce for
the Christmas table, though my girls
make it perfectly clear that Waitrose
would be the preferred option. I’ll be
serving Dabinetts and Jordan’s Weepings
– interesting old-fashioned apple
varieties – exotically perfumed Meeches
Prolific quinces and bowls of creamy
medlars to go with the mince pies.
The walnut tree went into overdrive
– even though we forgot
to beat it, which is
apparently the key to
success – and produced
about twenty nuts. And
while on the subject of
beating, this year we got
there before the squirrels
and so will have cobnuts
to go with the walnuts,
and huge juicy sweet
chestnuts, for which it
was also a bumper year.
And the table will
twinkle with homemade
beeswax candles which
are quite easy, though time consuming,
to make. In the autumn the wax frames
full of honey are spun to remove the
honey and then the wet and sticky
frames are given back to the bees to clean
up. The older, scruffier and now dry wax
frames are then melted down to produce
a pan, ideally a tall asparagus pan, full of
molten beeswax. A long piece of wick is
then dipped at either end into the pan of
wax and hung over a chair back to cool.
Once set, they can be dipped again and
again and again until the desired length
and thickness of candle is achieved. If
I’m being completely honest, it’s jolly
difficult to end up with a perpendicular
candle, but heck, lean as they might
they cast a far more interesting
glow and smell utterly delicious.
However, when it comes to alcohol,
the family very firmly put their collective
foot down and insist on the real thing
– branded, bottled and bought – rather
than obscure home-made hedgerow
versions. It’s not for debate, although
I do manage to slip in some sloe gin
just to make the point! Cheers and
Happy Christmas to one and all.
Follow Jane Howard – and the farm
– on Instagram @coopersfarm
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