What’s in this issue?
When you recall your dog, are you hoping your dog comes back, or do you actually know? This is the question posed by dog trainer and behaviourist Caroline Menteith in her regular column this month. It includes lots of useful tips on how dogs aren’t good at generalising and how owners sometimes inadvertently punish good behaviour. If you’ve got a dog who just won’t come back, it’s definitely worth a read!
Elsewhere in this edition we’ve got a 15-page smallholder special that looks at how to get started with your dream smallholding project, how to establish boundaries (from fences to hedges), staying on top of pests, courses to take, and Instagram sensation Lucy Hutchings (aka @shegrowsveg) looks at five unusual vegetables to grow in your garden or smallholding this year.
Finally, we’ve got all the latest news on efforts to stop the family farm tax in its tracks.
Also
in this edition…
- All the latest news on the NFU campaign to stop the family farm tax, which could undermine family farms and food production across Great Britain.
- Three things I can’t live without with chef James Martin. Popular chef James has published more than 20 best-selling cookery books, has his own restaurants and cookery school, and tells us his must-haves in life!
- Miranda Gore Browne looks at five foods for love on Valentine’s Day. Recipes include a one pot wonder with beef stew and dumplings, a chicken, cabbage and kale gratin, and Valentine’s cookies.
- Dog advice – Caroline Menteith gives some useful advice on how to ensure your dog always answers recall.
- Time to get that grey matter working! Tackle our crossword, wordsearch and topical quiz!
- Gardening – Pippa Greenwood gives some timely and practical tips for your garden and veg patch.
- Smallholder Special - If you’ve always wanted to start a smallholding, but aren’t sure where to start, we’ll give you the information to get your business off the ground – looking at everything from flower farming and veg plots to chickeneering and opening a farm shop.
- Buyer’s guide - In the market for a new car? Our regular tester James Andrews runs the rule over the Subaru Forester, which NFU Countryside members can also benefit from a discount on.
- Blooming good Britain - Nicola Stocken meets some of those working behind the scenes to ensure the ‘Britain in Bloom’ competition continues to bring colour and joy to villages and towns around the UK.
- From horse racing to machinery shows, we have dozens of dates for your February ’25 diary!
- Herefordshire is an English county like few others. Close enough to big cities, but far enough away to feel truly rural – with farming at its heart, beautiful black and white villages, and wonderful rolling countryside.
- Farming - From rough weather to funding problems, the challenges are coming thick and fast for farmer Joe Stanley.
