A weekend of scything

What a fantastic weekend to be teaching people how to scythe, the weather felt like summer at last and I had two lovely groups who’d come to Cumbria from across England and Scotland for my Learn to Scythe courses at Sprint Mill.

With most of the fields cut for hay several weeks ago, we were using the scythes to mow some of the headlands and edges that the tractor had left in order to tidy the fields and make those areas into hay by hand. This is a great use for the scythe and mean the students were contributing to the running of the smallholding as well as learning new skills.


The session on sharpening the scythe was slightly upstaged by the goats who insisted on hanging out with us!

The orchard grass we mowed on friday was being turned and Edward gave us a demonstration of the hand hay baler so we got to see the complete process of making hay.

A terrific couple of days mowing in good company and a huge sense of satisfaction at 15 new mowers heading out to manage their land quietly and efficiently with the scythe.