Country Diary by Sarah Todd


4/8/07

OUR first trip out of the school holidays was strawberry picking. Unlike last year, when we were in sun dresses, it was wellies and waterproofs.
It was heartbreaking to see the strawberries sat in mushy mould, so many made rotten by the wet weather.

Obviously higher up, the rasps had faired better but by the time we got them home they - like the strawberries - were fit for nothing else but jam making. It was eerily quiet to find ourselves the only people in fields that should have been basking in sunshine.



Time to settle up and the cost came to almost double what we’d have paid in the supermarket for fruit that a) we’d had to pick ourselves and b) disintegrated by the time we got home. Just being devil’s advocate, how come this was the case? Is the price never reduced to get the field picked before the crop perishes? There’s maybe a very sensible explanation. On reflection, it didn’t really matter as the children had a great time playing hide and seek up the rows of fruit and challenging each other to see who could find the most berries. The price just didn’t seem to tally with the quality and, of course, it gave The Husband ammunition for calculating - then laughing - at how much each jar of jam had cost to make!

On a more positive note, the dog’s diet has had a real boost thanks to the advice of an old-fashioned pet food shop. Regular readers will remember my concern about the well-known brand of puppy food we were feeding him only having 4% meat and pretty much all the rest water and artificial additives.

We tried, but fresh meat just didn’t work out. While we’ll always get him bones, the odd rabbit or pheasant and occasional tasty treat from the butcher’s, the preparation always seemed an extra job.
We’ve ended up with a dry dog food, interestingly made in Ripon, which has 46% meat content and no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. It’s incidentally no dearer than the household name brand. We also came up with some “all-fresh-meat chunks in jelly” that also contain nothing artificial and aren’t bulked out with cereal or Soya. Again, the meat content leaves the previously used leading brand standing.

It’s no exaggeration to say that in the fortnight he’s been on this new regime Tetley’s coat seems smoother and certainly has much more of a shine about it. It’s an experience that’s reminded me of the importance of going on gut feeling with animals. I just didn’t feel we’d got his food right and the change in his condition has proved it was worth persevering.

Finally, thanks to the farmers’ daughters who were kind enough to get in touch. The arrival of my baby niece - the latest farmer’s daughter in our family - was the inspiration behind the appeal.

Wherever they’ve ended up in life, be it in a city or far-off land, there’s something (haven’t quite got the right words to describe it yet so keep the letters coming) that they all have in common. Alternatively, e-mail stories@farmersdaughters.co.uk

25/8/07

NEW school shoes, we can’t really put off buying them any longer. There will be much more excitement when we go and get some riding boots.
She came back from her whole day at the riding school with a big toe rubbed raw by her old ones but it didn’t stub out her enthusiasm.
Her three year-old brother has been so sweet wandering around in the old ones, looking like a cross between Frankie Dettori and a farmer at the market in his dealer boots.

A farmer at the market, now there’s halcyon thought. We’ve just got hold of a picture of our local market, with the pub and the rusty old cattle pens, and it’s taken pride of place over the fireplace. Poignantly, there are also a few farmers on it sharing a bit of banter.
There is a distinct lack of home-baking in our house at the moment, the effort that went into competing in the village show - the last cake coming out of the oven at 2am - has rather knocked my enthusiasm. My family keeps coming in and rifling through the kitchen drawers looking badly done to. “What about a banana?” I ask hopefully.
The second reason for the lack of anything calorific is that the daughter asked, as we came home from the show, “Why don’t all mummies have big tummies?”

There I was, changed into Laura Ashley’s finest to collect the silver salver (secretly thinking I’d scrubbed up quite well). How does the saying go? “Out of the mouths of babes …”

Somebody told me about a child who asked his mother why it was against the law to drink a cup of tea after 6pm. She said it wasn’t and asked what on earth had given him that idea. “Because as soon as it’s 6 o’clock you put the cups in the dishwasher and pour a glass of wine!”

This term, I’ve decided, it’s time to stand next to larger mothers at the school gates. My main pal is an exercise teacher and even Kate Moss would look a little round next to her toned tum. In fact, she’s the only woman over the age of 30 I know who shouldn’t be arrested for wearing jogging bottoms. She’s also had three children, so that excuse can’t be used as a cop out.

The purge on my weight also means the horse won’t know what’s hit him once the summer holidays are over. At the moment we only seem to be getting out for a ride on a weekend, puffing and panting (both of us) our way up the odd stubble field.

Last time we went out it was a whole fortnight since I’d last clambered aboard. He has his moments, but when you talk to other riders spending small fortunes on “schooling issues” you realise what a relief it is to be able to get on after such a long gap and not worry about being sent into orbit.

Finally, thank you to all the people who’ve written asking for details about Tetley’s dog food. The company that makes it had deliberately not been mentioned as I wondered whether it was bad form to drop names. However, seen as it is made in Yorkshire and it would take me until Christmas to reply to all the enquiries, the dry food we are now using is Vitalin. It’s a Ripon-based business that can be contacted on 0870 062 4445 or via www.vitalinpetfood.co.uk. Incidentally, the meat our shiny-haired hound is now on is the additive and general nasty-free Butcher’s, which is widely available.