Rejuvenating the willow coppice was a mammoth task of felling 0.5 acres of mature, densely planted willow and hazel trees. We processed the timber for firewood and woodchip.
In the spring of 2018, we saw the first new growth from the coppice stools, and by summer 2018 we had useable willow rods with diverse colours of bark. Since 2018, each winter we cut the willow rods as a coppiced harvest.
From leaf fall (November) until the first buds (February) is the window in which the willow is cut by hand, using secateurs or loppers, bundled in bushels and stored for use in crafts.
The hazel is on a longer coppice rotation, to be cut every 4 or 5 years to produce long hazel rods.