The Start of a Great Adventure…

Geesh.  It has been a while…

But, I am going to give myself a bit of a pass because Adam and I took a little time off, which is rare.  Not to mention, during this time away, we were checking a major box off our Bucket List. 

Throughout dating and our first few years of marriage, travel and experiences have been things that we value.  And, its seems like since Day 1 Europe has been a goal of ours.  

Then New Years Eve 2014 happened.

As the clock flirted with midnight, a Champagne influenced conversation started between Adam, me, his fraternity brother, Kendal, and his wife, Kylie, about plans, dreams and goals for the next few years.  Turns out that Europe was a goal of theirs as well.

(Likely overly…) Excited, we decided that it would be a great trip to do together.

So with an accountability partner, we finally started narrowing down where we wanted to go and began making plans.  The plans were so good that Kendal’s brother, Kory and wife, Kristen, asked to join us.

Thanks to a contact of Kendal’s and my love of London after a long weekend there while studying abroad, we knew that England was a great place for our group to start.

Kendal’s boss is good friends with a farmer from Norfolk, which is about two hours north of London, who kindly opened the doors to his farmhouse to us for a night.

Wait.  

Okay.  So, I am not telling the whole story.  

This farmer’s name is Sir John.  He has been knighted.  

And, his farmhouse?  Let’s just say that it was pretty different than farmhouses in Indiana in more ways than one.

Reason Number 1: Um.  Hello.

Take that Air BnB.

As we arrived at the Salle Farms and we were greeted by the very sweet house keeper, Hillary. After getting us settled in our rooms, Hillary led us to a large, formal dining room.  She had prepared a great lunch of quiche, potatoes, ham, and salad.  For dessert she had strawberries, meringue and cream.

Hillary really took care of us that weekend.  She and her husband chauffeured us to dinner in town to a great restaurant where we experienced our first English pub fare… and beers.  Of course.

Reason Number 2:  The home on the estate was built in the 1760’s. (Note: this was before America was a country…)

It is complete with two different wings, the main house and two gardens.  The first was a traditional, ornamental topiary garden that made for fun photo ops.

The second was tucked a little further away from the home behind walls ten feet high.  When we discovered it and opened its’ doors it felt like walking into The Secret Garden.

I was so in love.  There were huge beds of lettuce, great looking fruit trees and bushes, as well as a cold frame styled greenhouse that was home to tomatoes and grape vines.  It was amazing.

While in the garden, we ran into the estate’s gardener who let us know that the garden dates back to 1780. Today, it serves as a model of what was done then to ensure there was enough food to last the winter.

The tall walls help to break the wind and to keep the temperature warmer in the two acre space.  The walls also help the production of the garden as the fruit trees are shaped to grow right on the walls to provide the trees with more heat.

We asked how the food is used and, for the most part, it is used at the estate for guests and Sir John when he is in town.  The gardener mentioned that the new potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries are great right now.

We realized that we already knew that: We had had all of them in our great meals prepared by Hillary.

Reason Number 3: Farms in Indiana typically rotate two crops: Corn and Soybeans.

Salle Farms operated on a seven year crop rotation with many crops such as canola oil seed, sugar beets, beans, barley, and wheat.

We received a tour of the farm ground and many barns by farm managers, Poul and James.  Both Adam and Kendal, who are in the agriculture industry, were in heaven.

They talked crops, weather, combines, grain equipment, and tractors. (Sir John actually collects antique tractors and has filled two barns with hundreds of them featuring brands like Case and John Deere from his travels to the US.)

I was super intrigued by just how innovative the farm was.  They went above and beyond on stewardship practices.  

Large rain barrels sat on the corners of multiple barns gathering run off rain fall creating a sustainable water source.  A relatively large leach field was utilized to catch any chemical run off.  And chemicals were used sparingly and, if needed, they would be sprayed at night so to protect the sleeping bees.

I was also very curious about the sugar beets crop.  Prior to this trip I had never seen a sugar beet but I had heard about them.  Sugar beets in the United States tend to have a bad reputation.  They are used as an alternative to sugar, but are GM, or genetically modified.  

Not one crop in the UK is GM.  In fact, Genetically Modified Organisms are illegal.  

The farm does use hybrids and conventional practices, and he did indicate that the introduction of GMO crops is being discussed.  

Both managers took a very neutral stance on this.  There is an invasive weed called Black Grass that is taking over some of the fields in the area and farmers are running out of options to combat it so there may become a need.  But, they also understood and were aware of its controversy.  If any moves were to be made it wouldn’t be for at least ten years.

In addition to the crops, Salle Farms also is home to 90 hectares of land just for Christmas Trees.  These trees are sold in local garden centers and at the estate’s own farm shop.  The photos of the shop decked out for the holiday’s are seriously everything you would think Christmas in the English countryside would be.

Like the farm shop, and even with Salle Farm’s grandeur, there was a relaxed, rustic, down to earth vibe to the estate that we were hoping for when we set up arrangements for our first night abroad.  And, as we took our last walk around the grounds our last morning, we talked about wanting to see more and said little prayers hoping to come back again someday… But, London was calling.