A Week on the Estate: BBC Countryfile, Moving a Coop & Talking Gin

South Ormsby Estate will take centre-stage in the programme. Our commitment to sustainable agriculture, conservation and mitigating climate-change will be examined, as well as the success of our home-grown artisan gins and original population Lincoln Red beef.

Viewers will also be introduced to two talented young women. Graduate trainee Emma Wright is learning a range of estate-management skills, while Keira Rhodes is developing new products for the Lincoln Red beef range.

The programme will show that we’re both proud of the rich history of this estate and focused firmly on a bright future. In our day-to-day work, we’re working to develop a sustainable rural economy that will generate jobs and incomes for this and future generations, while restoring local biodiversity and helping to mitigate climate change.

There’s no doubt that this is an ambitious plan, but with careful management it’s certainly achievable. We’re using natural in place of chemical solutions and ancient farming techniques which give quality over quantity. We’re also making the best use of the resources at hand, not least of which is the talented and caring local community. With this approach, we’re already making a big difference.

Elsewhere on the estate, our industrious young people continued to make a difference. The Saturday Club spent last weekend re-locating a newly built chicken coop (we’re sure the Lincolnshire Buffs will be grateful!) and putting away a whole trailer’s worth of logs. They also enjoyed an enrichment talk from our resident master distiller, Tristan Jørgensen. While the team were all too young to sample his wares, they were suitably refreshed by his insights into building a business and creating a range of fine, widely praised gins.

Finally, Kath Brown’s memoir, ‘My Days’, has been very well received. Its evocation of life in the Lincolnshire Wolds in the first half of the 20^th-century has resonated very strongly with readers across our region and beyond. We’ve just published the third of eight instalments, in which Kath talks about her first days in service, and her brother’s role in building the mighty Chain Home radar towers at Stenigot – one of which survives as a familiar Wolds landmark.