A rabbiting right-and-left

Let Storm Ciara do her worst; Simon Whitehead and friends don’t care a jot for the weather so long as they can keep catching bunnies

- Simon Whitehead

To say it was stormy would be a crashing understatement. Ciara was in town and she wasn’t happy. What was originally booked as a “catch and cook” day for two women with a knife-sharpening demonstration quickly morphed into a few hours harvesting some fresh rabbits for lunch.

The weather wasn’t conducive to a full day on the hill but, being an avid wildfowler, Alan from Danum Blades still made the hike north. I couldn’t think of a better way to demonstrate the full field-to-fork ethos than taking Alan ferreting, using what we harvested for our lunch, prepared by knives made and sharpened by Alan’s own hands.

The day started in typical fashion. First, we had a power cut, then we had to negotiate severe flooding on the A66. Once we arrived at the farm, a torrent of water running through where we usually park threatened to run over the tops of our boots.

At times it was a struggle to keep upright and, with the sideways lashing rain, we had possibly the worst ferreting weather imaginable. The biting wind, plummeting temperatures and driving rain ensured that the simplest of jobs, such as collaring the ferrets, became hard work. We had no dogs as I saw no point in having them out in these conditions.

I was apprehensive about the rabbits being skittish in the storm, especially with the water running through every nook and cranny on the land. Would they be more inclined to stay under, preferring the damp, peaty pipes to bolting in the open in high winds and driving rain?

Buffeted