Salle Christmas Tree Shop will open on Saturday 23 November. We’re here to make your holiday season special, with everything you need for a magical Christmas. We’re open daily from 9 am to 5 pm until Christmas Eve.

Our shop offers a stunning selection of Nordmann fir and Norway spruce trees, all locally grown and freshly cut.

Not sure which tree is right for you? Our friendly staff will be on hand to help you choose the perfect one and will even carry it to your car.

Need it delivered? We offer local delivery, with costs based on distance, for your convenience.

We’ve got your decorations covered too. Alongside our locally sourced gifts, the much-loved felt baubles are back this year by popular demand, and we’re excited to introduce a new range of glass baubles in all shapes and colours. We will, of course, have everything your tree needs, from tree stands to lights in various colours.

Make sure to visit us on the weekend of 7–8 December, when we’ll be hosting a special craft fair. Local artisans and craftspeople will pitch up to showcase their handmade and bespoke Christmas gifts, offering you the chance to find something truly unique while supporting our talented community.

To add to the festive cheer, we’ll also be serving mince pies and mulled wine, so you can enjoy some holiday treats while you shop.

At Salle Christmas Tree Shop, we’re dedicated to making your Christmas stress-free and joyful. Whether you’re decorating, gift shopping or simply looking for a festive outing, we’ve got you covered.

Mark your calendar and bring your family and friends to celebrate the season with us. We can’t wait to welcome you and help make your Christmas truly magical.

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Visitors can stroll through the picturesque Victorian kitchen garden with its array of vegetables, herbaceous borders and cut flowers, followed by the greenhouse, filled with exotic and seasonal plants, then wander though the woods to the Georgian pleasure gardens where refreshments will be served in the orangery.

All entrance money will be donated to NGS selected charities, and proceeds from the refreshments will be split 50/50 between the East Anglian Air Ambulance and YANA charities. There will also be a large plant sale.

The gardens will be open from 10 am – 4 pm. Admission: adults £6, children free, well-behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Parking available in the Christmas tree shop carpark off the B1145, between Cawston & Reepham.

For any enquiries, contact Tom Barwick 07717 575965 or email.

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Six Inches of Soil tells the story of young British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food − to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.

The screening will take place from 7 pm on Friday 26 April at Eves Hill Farm, Reepham Road, Booton, and will include a post-film panel discussion between the audience and invited guest speakers.

The film follows three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey: Anna Jackson, a Lincolnshire 11th-generation arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture-fed beef cattle in Cornwall.

As the trio strive to adopt regenerative practices and create viable businesses, they meet seasoned mentors who help them on their journey. They are joined by other experts providing wisdom and solutions from a growing movement of people dedicated to changing the trajectory for food, farming and the planet.

Jeremy Buxton of Eves Hill Farm said: “We’re excited to host this screening and to share the positive messages in the film to help shift UK food and farming towards more regenerative, agroecological practices for a more resilient system. We can’t wait to see the ideas and thoughts that come from the meaningful discussions that will follow the screening.”

Claire Mackenzie, Six Inches of Soil producer, added: “Community screenings are a hugely important part of our impact campaign. It’s really important that people have discussions at a local level to find ways to move forward to create profitable food systems that benefit the community while looking after our soil and the environment in the best possible way.”

Six Inches of Soil aims to inspire UK farmers to adopt regenerative agroecological farming practices and encourage consumers and policymakers to support their efforts.

The goal is to inspire farmers with the confidence to shift to a more regenerative mindset and approach; to give consumers the impetus and information to rethink their food choices; and ultimately create a groundswell of public opinion leading to policy change, support and funding for a British regenerative farming and an agroecological revolution.

Tickets for the event are £12 + £1.70 booking fee, available HERE.

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The farm shop is planned to open on Saturday 5 November in a converted barn at Eves Hill Farm, Reepham Road, Booton.

The shop will sell the farm’s own grass-fed beef, free-range pork and free-range eggs, as well as fruit and vegetables from other local producers.

Jeremy Buxton runs the farm, which has been in the family since the 1960s, with his wife Kathryn and parents Robert and Rita.

It is planned that the farm shop will be followed by a tea room next spring to coincide with the start of the camping season at the farm.

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Photos: Salle Farms

All the Christmas trees on sale will be transported from the farm’s plantation just half a mile away and wrapped in in VacuBioNet, which is made from 100% biodegradable polylactic acid that is typically sourced from renewable resources derived from plants.

Christmas tree manager Tom Barwick said: “We have been working hard all year to ensure our trees are looking the best they can – and we think they have never looked so good.”

The Covid-19 pandemic almost prevented the shop from opening in 202. “It wasn’t until three days before we opened our doors that we found out we were allowed to, having been classed as a garden centre,” said Mr Barwick.

“Last year more real Christmas trees were bought nationally than ever before, and the industry expects a busy season again this year.

“We took the decision to sell only trees and stands last year, so customers didn’t need to come into the shop when paying for their tree.

“A normal year sees our shop full of artisan food and crafts, all produced and sourced as locally as we can.”

This year, the Christmas shop will again have a range of food items produced on and distributed from the Salle Estate, including cooking oils, salad dressings, chutneys, chocolate, coffee, tea, cookies, breakfast cereals, stuffing, flowering seasonal bulbs, wreaths, mistletoe and firewood.

The shop on the B1145 will be open from 9 am – 5 pm from 25 November – 23 December, and 9 am – 12 noon on 24 December.

See our earlier story:

• Salle farm given green light to sell Christmas trees

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The Salle Estate has 34 hectares of land used solely for growing Christmas trees and supplies thousands of trees to garden centres and farm shops across Norfolk, as well as such venues as Norwich Cathedral, Norwich Castle and many villages and towns, including those to be installed in Reepham Market Place.

Tom Barwick, Salle Farms Christmas tree manager, said: “All the talk on Twitter and other social media platforms suggests that people are looking to get their tree earlier than normal, so we were keen to be allowed to open as planned.

“Some great lobbying during Prime Minister’s Questions from another Christmas tree grower and their local Leicestershire South MP [Alberto Costa] helped allow us to open.” See Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reply HERE

The Salle Farms Christmas shop on the B1145 will be open 9 am – 5 pm from 28 November – 23 December and 9 am – 12 noon on 24 December. All required Covid-19 safety measures have been put in place.

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He has previously held several advisory roles in East Anglian farming, including within Morley Research and Agri-Tech East Stakeholder Group, and in 2014 he won the national Farmer of the Year award.

Last year, Mr Hovesen, who moved to the UK from his native Denmark in 1987, was elected to the Royal Agricultural Society for his work within the industry, including the development of a modern seven-year crop rotation using reduced tillage and cover crops to enhance drainage and improve soil health.

“Over the years I have had the privilege of working with creative and innovative farmers, researchers and international companies like Väderstad,” said Mr Hovesen.

“Together we have both a practical and theoretical basis for creating new agricultural practices and technologies for the future. My ambition is to help ensure that we remain at the forefront of machine and method development for agriculture.”

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UK. This new legislation has been introduced to protect British woodlands against the risk of pest and insect infestations that imports of plants can cause.

It is estimated that the new legislation will drive up the costs of large Christmas trees alone by around 200%.

The UK market is heavily reliant on Christmas tree imports, with trees worth £3 million imported last year, mostly from Denmark, Belgium and France.

This, combined with ongoing uncertainty over Brexit, is expected to have a huge impact on the availability of large trees for 2019 as costs continue to increase.

Reepham is fortunate in having a number of locally grown trees for sale in the district from the Salle Park Estate, garden centres and the Reepham Young Farmers’ Christmas tree stall at this year’s Festival of Light on Thursday 5 December.

Judy Holland

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The Norfolk Beef Company is a partnership between two farms that breed Hereford beef cattle – Jeremy and Kathryn Buxton of Eves Hill Farm, Booton, near Reepham, and Clive and Paula Bidmead of Rockland Herefords, Rockland St Peter, near Attleborough.

The company can provide 5 kg and 10 kg beef boxes with steaks, roasting joints and mince and/or burgers. The boxes are vacuum packed ready for the oven or freezer, and delivered in eco-friendly packaging made from wool, which is 100% compostable and biodegradable.

See the full story HERE

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The grass on the field turned from green to brown over a couple of days.

Broomhill resident Helen Lindsay at first thought the field was dry from lack of rain, but said it “soon became apparent the grass had been sprayed with what must have been an extremely strong herbicide. It killed everything on the field and I guess it must have been an industrial-strength glyphosate.”

Ms Lindsay has been watching and recording the badgers that lived in the field over the past few years. The many dog walkers who use the path will be familiar with the four or five large setts at the far end of the field and the badger path up to the cemetery.

“I don’t know of any reason why any field would need to be sprayed to the degree that every plant is killed,” she said. “Even months later in July the grass is still dead, although the field is now full of weeds.

“Then I noticed that all the badger activity around the setts had ceased and I realised that since Easter there also haven’t been any footprints or digging, and now the setts have become overgrown.”

The field is designated as a site for a housing development, and the National Planning Policy Framework says that badgers on a site have to be given a 30-metre perimeter or relocated.

Ms Lindsay said: “I have no direct evidence, apart from the timing, that these badgers have been poisoned, but it does seem like a coincidence. And whatever anyone thinks of badgers, they are protected and it is a criminal offence to harm them.

“While I don’t know for sure that these badgers have been poisoned, if the field is subject to an environmental impact assessment or planning application which says the badgers, who have lived there happily for many years, have suddenly disappeared, I think it is quite clear that poisoning is exactly what has happened.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has no evidence to suggest that badgers can be poisoned directly by the use of glyphosate, which is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant.

Herbicide use could, however, affect mammals such as badgers by removing plant food sources and changing the microclimate.

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