December… The harvest is a hazy memory, the wines are maturing slowly in the vats. The vines are bare and the thrushes have deserted the hedgerows.  You might think it’s a slack period in our calendar.

But you’d be wrong!!...  Broad bean, oats, vetch and clover have taken over our vocabulary and the vine rows: tilling and winter sowing will, a few months from now, produce the organic matter and nitrogen our plants need, the result of loosening the soil and allowing the root systems of the vines to explore these mysteries a little deeper…right here, beneath our feet.