Exciting start to the year

It has been an exciting start to 2012 with news that Steve’s Leaves is now available from Tesco. This together with selected Sainsbury’s stores, Waitrose, online at Ocado and all good foodie outlets makes it easier for all of you to find us.  We are also in Olive, Delicious and Jamie Oliver magazines suggesting ideas on how to beat the winter blues with healthy eating tasty recipes!

In other news, we have the results from the Conservation Grade/ Nature Friendly Farming research on barn owls. It shows that there has been a 25% increase in barn owls on Conservation Grade farms. This was covered in a great feature on the BBC news. Let us know your thoughts if you saw it.

We are happy to announce that on our own farms several successful broods of baby barn owls have been hatched. That’s on top of all the farmland birds, bumble bees, butterflies and bats. And that’s just the “B”s!

Steve’s Leaves and other like minded farmers have been engaged with Nature Friendly Farming from the start by dedicating 10% of the farm to wildlife habitats. We follow the Conservation Grade model by growing crops that produce pollen and nectar to feed insects which feed the mice, voles and shrews. Then we add areas of fine and tussocky grass for them to live in. Finally we erect barn owl nest boxes and sit back and wait! A successful pair of barn owls raising a brood get through something in excess of 10,000 mice, voles and shrews over the course of a year! And you don’t get that many small furry mammals in a barn owl’s territory without a really healthy ecosystem. That’s what Nature Friendly Farming creates and we feel privileged to be part of it.

x Steve