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Crataegus monogyna


JDog
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The flat lands between the Lincolnshire Wolds and the sea not only provide excellent soil for cultivation but contain a relic from the past in terms of permanent pasture paddocks. Some of these have never seen a plough or a cultivator ever. Many are surrounded by Hawthorn hedges which have never seen a hedge trimmer. 'Tidy' arable farms trimmed their hedges in the autumn. Surely they could have left them until the spring, especially on the roadsides where they have easy access?

This is the best year I have ever known for Hawthorn berries which reflects the perfect pollination conditions in the spring. Hedges are covered in the berries to an extent that I have never seen anything like it before. The Fieldfares and Redwings are feeding on these berries in their thousands, and so are pigeons, blackbirds and resident thrushes.

 

 

Hawthorn.jpg

Hawthorn 1.jpg

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JD the roadsides and hedgerows around the top of Cambridgeshire and bottom of Lincolnshire are indeed loaded with these gloriously colourful berries.

I too have wondered why Farmers do not just cut the inside of the hedgerows and leave the other half for early the next year and in so doing it would provide extra food for our native and visiting species.

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Lord Geordie - same where I live in Bucks, just about every hedge locally has been scalped to within an inch of it's life - talking to a keen bird watcher just yesterday and she was saying that millions of migratory birds starved in the UK last year due to this practice - nothing for them to eat. How hard can it be to maintain a hedgerow for the benefits of all?

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32 minutes ago, Scully said:

Is it true the stones/pips whatever they're called, are poisonous? 

The flesh is fine to eat but I believe the seed contains a very small amount of toxins, has do apple pips, but you would need to eat a lot for it to do you any harm, my Nan used to make Hawthorn jelly, and I can remember my granddad eating it with cheese and biscuits or a bit of crusty bread.

You can also use them to make wine and jam.

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22 minutes ago, old'un said:

The flesh is fine to eat but I believe the seed contains a very small amount of toxins, has do apple pips, but you would need to eat a lot for it to do you any harm, my Nan used to make Hawthorn jelly, and I can remember my granddad eating it with cheese and biscuits or a bit of crusty bread.

You can also use them to make wine and jam.

Cheers.👍

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2 hours ago, JDog said:

 'Tidy' arable farms trimmed their hedges in the autumn. Surely they could have left them until the spring, especially on the roadsides where they have easy access?

 

 

EU legislation only permits hedge trimming between 1st September and 28th February.

Fitting it in during the winter months, when fields can be too wet to drive on let alone all the other farm tasks, means one has a very small window during the dry part of early autumn to get the job done.

Certainly here, with our high rainfall, it has to be done before the end of September or I wouldn't be able to get on the fields.

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3 hours ago, old'un said:

The flesh is fine to eat but I believe the seed contains a very small amount of toxins, has do apple pips, but you would need to eat a lot for it to do you any harm, my Nan used to make Hawthorn jelly, and I can remember my granddad eating it with cheese and biscuits or a bit of crusty bread.

You can also use them to make wine and jam.

Your bang on with the apple seeds, i think the program is called food unwrapped the lass always eats core and all and they were talking about how the seeds are poisonous but you couldn't eat enough apples to do yourself harm.

 

2 hours ago, CharlieT said:

EU legislation only permits hedge trimming between 1st September and 28th February.

Fitting it in during the winter months, when fields can be too wet to drive on let alone all the other farm tasks, means one has a very small window during the dry part of early autumn to get the job done.

Certainly here, with our high rainfall, it has to be done before the end of September or I wouldn't be able to get on the fields.

Lets hope they do away with that then next year, makes no sense.

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