“Lying down in the field at night,” writes John Lewis-Stempel, “ear close to the ground, I can hear the Pleistocene crackle of nature breaking up the soil, tiny cave by cave.” His latest book is a paean to his corner of the world – south Herefordshire – yet it was written “with some anger”, as the author contemplated the ravages modern agriculture has inflicted. “I have had a gut’s-ful of chemical farming,” he says.
Lewis-Stempel has 70 acres spread over five lots, but this volume, the latest capitalising on the vogue for nature writing, tells the story of the acquisition of 15 new acres on a two-year farm business tenancy. The parcel included an arable field, and the author sets about, over the course of a year, sowing wheat and wildflowers. Where possible, he follows traditional ways, often deploying non-traditional methods to achieve his goals: he buys an antique seed fiddle on eBay for £150 and cuts his wheat into sheaves rather than bales.
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