After all the scythe hullabaloo of last week, it’s been good to be back in the workshop and carving cooking and eating spoons from some lovely local cherry I got hold of. The colours in it are just fanstastic and will look even better once they’re oiled.
Continuing the stream of media attention that scythes are getting since Poldark, my mate George Montague was this mornings mystery guest on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. A big man with a big personality, George is the perfect man for the show.
For those of you interested in knowing about the man behind the voice, here’s George in action and the two of us (he really is that big!) after his win in 2013.
Listen to the show on iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052hz6f#auto – George is on air from 2:11:45
Since Poldark, the whole BBC has gone a bit scythe crazy with features and interviews on Farming Today, the Radio 4’s Today programme and countless local stations. Here in the north-west I’ll be on Radio Lancashire tomorrow morning talking to Graham Liver who is so keen that he drove up to Kendal today to meet me and get a taste of the scythe.
We struggled a bit to find some grass that needed cutting and he seemed mainly interested in posing by the river with his shirt off but I managed to get him to cut a few strokes with the scythe first and his efforts weren’t wasted.
Friends often send me links to articles, tv clips or websites related to my work, whether that’s Ross Poldark scything on the BBC or a video of traditional woodworking on YouTube. Some make me cringe, some amaze me, some make me wonder what my friends think I do all day…
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This week I was sent a link for a recent edition of Woman’s Hour featuring the author Bee Wilson promoting her book, Consider the Fork. While making bechemal sauce with a wooden spoon in her kitchen, Bee talks about the history and importance of the wooden spoon, her “most trusty and lovable of kitchen implements”.
It was lovely to hear someone reminding us of the significance of the wooden spoon in our lives, it’s often underplayed importance in how we cook and the special pleasures in a handmade utensil:
“The thing that would have been magical about most pre-industrial spoons is that they would have just been hand whittled by somebody in the family or somebody in the local community and they might have been made specially for you; they were personal objects.”
Finally, she sums up what we all know already: “nothing does the job of the wooden spoon better than the wooden spoon.”
Well, the hand carved spoon is alive and well today and the feeling of personal connection people make with them is just the same.
Though she does resort in the end to using a whisk for her sauce she admits that this is partly due to being distracted by the interview and, in my mind, just another example of using the best tools for the job in hand.
Listen to the Woman’s Hour interview here, (wooden spoons start at 18:54).
A few years ago, I travelled over to Romania for a haymaking festival at Gyimes in Transylvania. It was a fantastic experience in an absolutely beautiful area and the event has gone from strength to strength since then. The film below includes a slideshow of last years mowing along with footage of the farmers collecting the hay from mountain sheds in deep winter snow.
You can learn to scythe and make hay in the mountains of one of the most unspoilt parts of Europe at this years festival 9-16 August 2015. The memories will stay with you forever. More details at http://www.treasuresoftransylvania.org/haymeadow-biodiversity/hay-making-festival
Sunday is International Peening Day, the global day for maintaining and sharpening your scythe so it’s in tip-top condition for mowing. Whether you peen using the jig or freehand peen on an anvil, it’s a day to connect with other mowers, share your experience and talk plans and tales of scything, haymaking and land management.
Please send me any photos you take of your peening and use #learntoscythe and #PeeningDay if you’re posting on social media.
Here’s a few events being organised by friends of mine over the weekend. There’s sure to be more that I don’t know about and, if you can’t find one near you, call up some of the mowers in your own area and organise an event. I’ll be peening in Cumbria, getting ready some vintage blades I bought last summer.
A good article today about scything on the BBC website following on from Aidan Turner’s scything debut on Poldark the other week. It’s great when this kind of thing sparks interest in a traditional skill and journalists make the effort to follow it up by researching the subject.
Pictured is Simon Damant, a National Trust ranger on the Wimpole Estate and current British scythe champion.
Last night, viewers in the UK were treated to episode 3 of Poldark, a BBC tv drama featuring a scene with the main character, Ross Poldark, hard at work with his scythe.
Working hard he certainly was but there seemed very little in the way of results all his effort, no wonder he looked exhausted.
Now, I’m fully aware that the programme is a fictional drama rather than farming documentary and I’m not criticising the actors, however it’s always disappointing when traditional skills are badly portrayed as being inefficient, ineffective or worse. I would have been happy to give the actors some instruction so as to make the scene more believable and show them the satisfaction and relaxing efficiency of scything, as I do on my Learn to Scythe courses.
You can see Ross Poldark at work on iplayer for the next month (skip to 52min for the scythes) or enjoy this short film of real mowing in Cumbria.
Two lovely photos sent to me of the scythesman featuring in the stained glass window at Two Temple Place in London.
Can you feel the excitement and anticipation in the air? Though many parts of the world are still under snow or just heading into winter, the appearance of wild crocuses as I walk to work can only mean one thing: it’s almost time for International Peening Day on Sunday 5th April 2015!
This is the day to bring your scythe out of the shed, clean it off and sharpen it ready for the mowing season to come (or put it to bed following the summer, for our Southern Hemisphere friends – hi Marshall!) Peening is the process of hammering the blade to lower the angle of the cutting edge, a skill that is almost unique to scythes. If you’re new to scything, this can be a daunting proposition so International Peening Day is an opportunity to learn together, get help from more experienced mowers and connect with other scythespeople in your area. Feel free to organise your own local event or just peen on your own, if you prefer.
Feel free to send me photos of youself with your hammer and blades.
