Empire Farm

Organic farming trumps conventional farming in 30 year trial

2012-01-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

The results from a 30-year long farm trial, comparing conventional with organic farming by the Roedale Institute are fascinating.

Here are the headliners from the study

organic farming over the 30-year period was found to be 3x more profitable
organic farming uses 45% less energy than conventional
conventional farming releases 40% more greenhouse gases
soils are healthier under organic crops
during times of drought organic crops do much better

To read more visit http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/fst30years

2012 off to a flying start

2012-01-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

It was a busy weekend at the Farm School. Marc had a full house for his Curing and Smoking Course, the first course of the year. This is one of our most popular courses and it had been fully booked for some time. Another lovely group of people. We had the pleasure of the company of Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi who run the well known La Cucina Caldesi in London, as well as Monique Borst. Monique is running her Food Business Start-up Boot Camp at the Farm School in March.

Monique is London-based and came down by train. She was unlucky that the trains were diverted around Woking, so the journey was 2.5 hrs and not the usual 2 hrs. She was busy with her camera and some of her photos of the day can be seen here.

Marc covered a range of cured products, including gravadlax, bacon, ham, pancetta, duck ham, and biltong. We had both the hot and cold smokers in action and there were plenty of cured and smoked foods to taste at lunch. This time we had a play with our new smoker, a ProQ Excel with the cold smoke generator which we will use as a cold smoker. We tried smoked sea salt and garlic. Despite only having 4 hours of smoke, both picked up a smoky flavour. Thanks for Alison at Hot Smoked for giving us a good deal on the ProQ! She also sent up a few samples of speciality woods which will be interesting to try out on future courses.

It was Dan's turn on Sunday with Pork Butchery and Sausage-making. This time we had had people attend from as far afield as Lincolnshire. They combined their course with an overnight stay in Salisbury to make a super weekend away.

The morning was spent covering all aspects of pork butchery while the afternoon was devoted to making sausages. As usual everybody had a chance to make up their own recipe of sausage, so this time we had herby sausages, spicy sausages and some made with apple and cider. This group proved to have really good hand-to-eye co-ordination and linked their sausages in record time! There was enough time during the afternoon for Dan to prepare a coppa ham for air-drying, and cure another piece of rib eye muscle for the next course.

The next Curing and Smoking Course takes place on 24 March but if you are interested don't delay as we only have a few places left.

If you are interested in sausage-making, Marc is running an Advanced class on 28 February when he will be covering sausages such as chorizo, boudin blanc, mortedella, and salami.

Curing and Smoking with a Christmas Twist

2011-12-02T09:26:00.001-08:00

The last of the Curing and Smoking Days took place last weekend and Marc was asked to provide a Christmas twist which he did in style.

The course, which had long been fully booked, was jammed packed with ideas. During the morning Marc brought out the two whole salmon which he filleted and cured in gravlax style. Fortunately there was enough left for me to have some prepared for Christmas - excellent, I hope I can refrain from trying it before then!

Everybody prepared their own piece of salmon and then made a wet brine for their poussin. After soaking for a couple of hours, the poussin were boned and rolled up with a piece of guinea fowl, pork forcemeat and wrapped in bacon.

After lunch Mark tackled the pork. There was a piece for everybody to dry cure. He also removed the neck muscle from a piece of shoulder which was used for coppa. The rest of the pork was minced and used to make a stilton sausage which was cooked, wrapped in bacon and placed in a kilner jar with pork fat. This confit of stilton sausage can be stored until Christmas when the jar can be heated to melt the fat. The sausage wrapped in bacon can be pan fried for a few minutes to reheat.

As usual the group has a hot smoked chicken for lunch along with other cured goodies and a piece of hot smoked salmon for try later in the afternoon.

Full marks must go to the supplier of the salmon Real Scottish Salmon from Westeross (http://www.realscottishsalmon.co.uk/shop/fresh-salmon). I ordered Wednesday afternoon and the fish arrived the next morning, looking super on their bed of ice. The fish were fresh with bright gills. If you ever have a need to buy whole salmon online, look no further than this company that operate to very high RSPCA welfare standards.

Meet Vivien at the Bookshop in Bath

2011-11-25T06:48:00.001-08:00

Vivien Lloyd is appearing at The Bookshop in Bath for a delicious evening of preserve, jam and chutney tasting.

From The Bookshop: "With over 20 years experience of making and demonstrating award-winning preserves, Vivien is recognised as a leading authority on domestic preservation. With a number of prizes and accolades behind her, including numerous first prizes for her preserves at the Royal Welsh Show, Vivien’s passion for preserving has seen her featured in the Sunday Telegraph, on ITV Central’s ‘Heart of the Country’ programme and on BBC Radio 4 ‘Food Programme’. Passionate about ensuring the age-old traditional recipes are not passed over in favour of more modern (and often incorrect) interpretations, Vivien is now keen to share her expertise and knowledge and to revive what she feels is a declining and misunderstood art. There will be plenty of samples on offer, and this will be the perfect opportunity to think about buying – or making – your own tasty Christmas gift."

Venue: The Bookshop, BA1 5LS

Tickets £6 with £6 off First Preserves.

for more info http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/vivien-lloyd/

New books

2011-11-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

Here is some essential reading written by two of our tutors .....

Marc Frederic has published his long awaited book on charcuterie,entitled 'Le Charcutier Anglais' which covers many aspects of charcuterie plus some stories and hints and tips. Price £30

Vivien Lloyd has published 'First Preserves', a book aimed at people new to the world of jam, marmalade and chutney making. Its full of lovely photos and even has a section on competitions. I am sure this section will be well read, following Kirsty Allsop's Handmade Britain. So Vivien was well ahead of the game there! You can buy a signed copy direct from Vivien (£17.99 incl postage) http://www.vivienlloydpreserves.com/marmalade/shop/

Two great books which come highly recommended.

Three-day butchery course

2011-11-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Last week we held the first of our three-day butchery and charcuterie courses and I must say what a lovely group of people. As on all of our courses, the students come from varied backgrounds, Charlotte and Gary were leaving the military, Rosie was taking some time out to do some woofing, Suzanne ran a large farming enterprise in Herefordshire, Andy a keen foodie, Robert (Yogi) chef and smallholder, and the youngest Michael, straight out of college and looking to set up a farm shop. The three-day format gave plenty of opportunity for the group to get to know each other and I am sure some friendships and links have been established.

Day 1 was devoted to venison and lamb and Marc showed the group how to skin a deer and butcher it, followed by the butchery of one of our Dorset x Southdown lambs.The group made venison sausages with a spicy seasoning and some chorizo made with venison and pork.

Day 2 was led by Dan who arrived with a whole pig (from the abbatoir!). The morning was spent on the butchery of one side for meat cuts rather than curing. Then we all departed to the Stapleton Arms where chef Mark had prepared a lovely meal for us. The tasting platter of seafoods was delightful as was the spicy squash soup (using crown prince squash, my favourite). Back to the classroom to complete the butchery, with some hands-on practice and lots of butcher's knots. By the end of the day everybody had had a go at linking sausages, wrapping pork in caul fat to make faggots, and pressing out some apple burgers.

Day 3 and it was Marc's turn again. This day was devoted to curing and processing. The group made bacon (streaky and back) and were shown how to make pancetta and coppa. Then onto processing, making pork pies, pates, and rillettes. Lunch of course was bangers and burgers which were really tasty - everybody was really pleased to think that they had made them all themselves.

So a great first three-day course. Hopefully some photos to come!

Alan Titchmarsh Show

2011-10-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

We were delighted to see a pig arc made by Green Frog Designs on the Alan Titchmarsh Show on Wednesday 19 Oct. The feature was on keeping pigs and there were two adorable kune kunes in the studio. The researchers wanted to show a selection of different arcs. The Green Frog Designs pig arc is made from recycled plastic and is the perfect size for a few kunes. They are made in a workshop on the farm and we have been using them for our kunes for a couple of years. They look good and are so easy to keep clean. They are easy to move too and can even be taken to pieces if you need to move them some distance.

Kune kunes are a great choice of pig for the beginner or for somebody who only has a small amount of space and doesn't want their field or orchard completely rotovated! Kunes are friendly, inquisitive pigs that love attention and soon learn to roll over for a tickle. They are easy to handle and train.

Kunes do dig but they prefer to graze and do not do a lot of damage. You can keep 4 or 5 on an acre of land, or less if you regularly move the pen onto fresh ground. They don't eat as much as the large traditional breeds and can be fed grass, fruit and veg during the summer months. In winter they need about 1 kg of sow rolls (about 16% protein) and some fruit and veg. Some people feed sugar beet or grass pellets soaked in hot water.

They are hardy animals but they do need some shelter. This can be a stable or a pig arc. Some people make temporary shelters using straw bales covered in tarpaulin.

For more information on this great breed, check out the British Kune Kune Society website where you find out more about the breed and find registered piglets for sale.

For more info on Green Frog Designs pig arc, and their duck house which made an appearance on Alan Titchmarsh Show last month, visit www.greenfrogdesigns.com

Autumn wildlife

2011-10-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Walking around the farm this autumn has been a pleasure - we have had some lovely warm, sunny days and plenty of wildlife viewings. Today was no exception. While wandering round the large pond, a flash of blue shot by - a kingfisher. Kingfishers had been regular visitors for the last six years, but I wasn't sure they survived last winter's severe weather. With no sightings all year I feared the worst, so I was thrilled to see one today, no doubt attracted by the shoal of rudd basking in the sun.

The hedgerows are groaning under the weight of haws, sloes, blackberries and seeds so the finches are have a great time. The squirrels have been busy collecting cobnuts and I have been watching them from my desk, burying the nuts in my lawn. I fear I will have a forest of saplings next year.

Our ancient walnut tree has had a heavy crop too, which we have harvested and spread out in the polytunnel to dry. Mind you I wasn't so pleased to see that a vole had relocated quite a few walnuts to the compost bin! Fortunately I found the stash and reclaimed them. The warmth of the polytunnel has attracted other wildlife to, lots of late butterflies - red admirals and peacocks - and even a pair of partridges that I disturbed foraging under the tomatoes.

Outside the house the mass of ivy is in flower and is buzzing with honey bees, as well as a few late wasps and flies. Ivy is an important source of late nectar for honey bees and this will help them build up their supplies to survive winter.

Dusk is always a good wildlife viewing time and in recent weeks we have spotted roe deer, badgers and barn owls. The hedgehogs have been active this month too. They have a regular route through the fields nearest the house and often end up trapped in the covered yard, from which we have to rescue them and relocate them to the fields.

On the livestock front, my two kune kune gilts have a new friend - Salt. Salt is a lovely small, black and white kune boar (Pumpkin Andrew VI) owned by Sue Rankin. So all going well we will have some kune piglets for sale next spring.

Chicken Radio

2011-08-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

It seems that others are discovering the benefits of using the radio to scare away the fox. Many years ago I heard of a smallholder who was playing Radio 4 at night in the hen house to deter the fox. Radio 4 was the station of choice as it was voices rather than music. Now it seems that Abbotsbury Swannary nr Weymouth are doing the same. They have a fox proof fence on the landward side, but are open to the Lagoon on the other and foxes have been known to swim across. A few radios attached to posts and playing Radio 4 seems to be keeping the foxes away from the cygnets.

So what else can one use to deter the fox? Some swear by male urine on fence posts, or human hair, either scattered along the bottom of the fence or in suspended in tights at regular intervals. Others have tried chemical repellents or even lion dung.

However, the only trusted way to keep out the fox is either by erecting electric netting or electric strands, or having a mesh dug into the ground to stop the animal digging under.

August can be a bad time of year for fox attacks, many of which are by young inexperienced foxes hunting with mum or venturing out on their own.

The World's Hottest Sausage

2011-07-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Marc loves to do something different on his courses. Sometimes the experiments work, sometimes they don't. Those on the curing and smoking day back in May know that the hot smoked mussels over hay were not a hit. However, Marc scored a bull's eye with the World's Hottest Sausage which made an appearance at the Advanced Sausage Day in June. Marc's friend Franco, who runs www.sausagemaking.org, sent Marc a sample pack of season to try. It was called Apocalypse Now and boy did it lived up to its name.

Here is the blurb from the Sausagemaking.org website:

This sausage mix makes the world's hottest sausage, too hot for the butcher's and farm shops we supply, available only to the very brave. This sausage seasoning includes the world's hottest chilli: Naga jolokia or Ghost chilli as it is sometimes known. It also contains Jalapeno, Habanero and cayenne powder. Due to the very high cost of Naga chillies this seasoning costs considerably more than our standard lines.

This seasoning makes a dangerously hot sausage, it is not suitable for children, the elderly, the infirm or any one with a respiratory illness. When using this seasoning it is essential that a face mask is worn along with eye protection and gloves.

The verdict - not completely inedible, but there was a lingering burn. Perhaps not one for dinner, but interesting to see people's reaction to just a taster. Needless to say Marc made plenty which are now in the freezer, so there is usually a hot sausage for the brave to try at lunch.

The Whole Hog Two Day Course

2011-04-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

We have just finished our latest course - a two-day course on pork - its butchery and charcuterie. We had 10 people attending, ranging from pig keepers, chefs, foodies and people looking to keep pigs.

Dan took Day 1 when he butchered a whole hog - one of our large kunes that had been grown on to 12 months so there was plenty of fat. Fat is essential for good charcuterie and this pig had plenty of it. The carcass weighed in at 86 kg. Once butchered, the belly, loin and legs were cured, using either a dry or wet cure. Everybody got to cure their own piece of bacon too. The belly was so large that we got 3 kg of pancetta as well as some streaky. A spicy cure was used on the cheek to produce guanciale. Later in the day we cooked the head for brawn, or to give it a more appealing name - pork terrine, and slow cooked some shoulder to make rillettes.

Day 2 was taken by Marc who started off with his superb hot water pastry for the pork pies. Then a sausage-making session with bangers and chorizo. Some of the pork and liver was used in a pate which was cooked in small terrines. Finally, each person made their own mini-pork pie which was cooked ready to be taken home.

The course looked at what could be made from a single pig, so we started with 86 kg carcass and produced the following:
Leg - three joints with were placed in a sweet wet cure, second leg was cured whole
Hocks - dry cured
Two tenderloins
One loin was cut into two joints, a rack of loin and a French trimmed loin
One loin was cured for back bacon
One belly was made into pancetta and the other streaky bacon
Shoulders were boned and diced ready for processing into sausages (12 kg of trad. breakfast sausage and 11 chorizos), pate, pork pies and rillettes, plus a couple of kilos of mince for making into other products such as burgers or faggots.
Spare ribs (eaten for lunch!)
Head was cooked together with one of the tongues and the meat used in pork terrine
Pluck - liver was used in pate, and the rest made into dog biscuits

Everybody had a lovely time and went home with a large bag of goodies. Best wishes to Louise and Mark Earl who are off to Bulgaria to start a new life as smallholders, and to Maureen who is starting up a new sausage and pie making enterprise in Jamaica.

There will be a three-day butchery and charcuterie course in October.

Piglets have arrived

2011-03-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

Harriet's piglets have arrived. This time she had 5 good sized piglets that are doing well outside in an arc.

Once again their arrival coincided with heavy rainfall - fortunately the storm and accompanying hail was relatively short-lived. Previously we have had torrential rainfall that has threatened to flood her arc and, on another occasion, we had water coming up through cracks in the concrete floor of a converted stable (see my 2009 blog) . It almost seems as if she senses rain is on the way and labour gets underway.

We will be keeping these piglets for meat so if you are interested in our Raise-a-pig scheme please get in touch.

Curing and Smoking

2011-03-03T15:11:00.001-08:00

Another successful Curing and Smoking Day thanks to Marc. Great group, good banter and some excellent filleting skills on show.

Marc started the day with fish. There were some mackerel for practicing filleting and then a couple of whole salmon which were filleted and cut into portions. Everybody made up some gravadlax cure for their portion with the instructions to take it home and leave in the fridge for 5 days. In true Blue Peter fashion, Marc produced a piece of gravadlax that he had made earlier and everybody had a taste which was delicious. I am convinced that none of the group will ever buy shop cured salmon again. Curing salmon is so easy and you can experiment with all sorts of cures.

Next on the agenda was meat - a piece of belly pork and loin were dry cured for bacon, and a leg of pork was boned and jointed into two pieces that were also dry cured. A piece of beef was cured to make bresaola.

And then to smoking. We have a Bradley smoker, so first thing I popped a brined chicken in the smoker (hot smoked) for lunch. Brining a chicken keeps the meat succulent and enhances the flavour and the hot smoke treatment cooks it perfectly. Marc hot smoked the mackerel in our small hob-top Cameron smoker. During the afternoon the group went outside to build some cold smokers from cardboard boxe, bamboo canes and empty cans!

To read a very entertaining account of the day I strongly recommend that you read the blog written by Jonny http://boozeandbresaola.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html
Its a cracking read and hopefully give you a flavour of the day. I am sure Jonny won't mind me mentioning that he runs the Gowlett Pub in Peckham www.thegowlett.com

Sausage-making day with Marc Frederic

2011-02-08T02:36:00.000-08:00

The 12 people gathered for the sausage-making course on Sunday had a busy day and Marc was on great form. He started the course with the traditional banger, and soon 3 kgs of sausages were hanging on the side ready to be cooked for lunch.

Everybody was busy getting the ingredients ready for the next sausage on the agenda - the spicy merguez, this time made with pork and lamb. The merguez is usually made in lamb skins rather than hog casings so its a much smaller chipolate-style sausage. Marc recommends that they are stored in olive oil for future use.

The spicy theme continued with chorizo. Chorizo is a popular sausage, often used by TV chefs to spice up a quick meal. It's a semi-cured sausage made with plenty of back fat, and spices such as chilli and paprika. Marc also included some cooked ham.

Finally, a boudin blanc or white sausage, which contained pork, chicken and seafood. This delicate sasuage is poached in milk and has a delicious flavour and is one of my favourites. A number of people weren't sure when they heard about a sausage containing fish and mussels, but they were converted by the end of the tasting session.

Thank you to all those that attended - you were a great group and I hope you enjoyed your 'party bag' of sausages.

Marc's next sausage-making course is Saturday 9 April

Funding for Courses

2011-01-31T02:56:00.000-08:00

We have linked up with the Duchy College in Cornwall and can offer funding towards to costs of some of our courses.

If you are a farmer or smallholder, or work in agriculture or forestry, in the Southwest, you may be eligible for up to 50% funding of the course fee for some of our courses - please contact us to see if you are eligible. These training events are supported by the Duchy College Rural Business School through the RDPE Skills Programme, which is a SW RDA initiative, funded through the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a few wintery scenes from the farm taken in December 2010.

This is one of my Southdown ewes in the front field. This field has a number of stunning oak trees, including the one below that has a perfect umbrella outline. Judging from its girth it is at least 300 years old.
The drive has remained covered in snow for the last week and is now a bit like an ice-rink. Hopefully it will melt soon!

Community allotments

2010-10-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

The Farm has put aside an area for community allotments which are managed by Tim Hamblin of the Well Bean Project in Wincanton. The project helps people, especially families with young children to grow their own vegetables. Now in its second year, we have 10 local families growing their own veg. Its really great to see the land being put to such productive use and to watch young children enjoying the experience. Of course, being an organic farm all the families have had to grow their veg using organic principles.

Last month the allotments were visited by John Homan of Somerset Farm Radio and TV, who came with his camera and filmed the allotments and interviewed some of the allotmenteers, so we are looking forward to seeing the results.

Sausage making day with Marc Frederic

2010-09-06T13:31:00.001-07:00

The novice sausage-makers on Saturday made about 20 kg of sausages under the watchful eye of tutor Marc Frederic. Marc started with a lamb merguez - a spicy lamb-based sausage from North Africa and then moved onto a traditional English banger. Chorizo was also on Marc's list. This sausage gets its red colour from paprika which is mixed with chilli powder. During the afternoon the group made a cooking chorizo and a larger chorizo in ox-bungs for air drying. They also put together some crepinettes, tiny parcels of seasoned sausagemeat wrapped up in caul fat and made some sausage rolls for afternoon tea.

Chorizo is one of Adrian's favourites and he was delighted to learn that his supplies have been replenished. The cooking chorizo is a fresh sausage that must be cooked, whereas the semi air-dried chorizo has been cured. It will not required cooking, instead it will be sliced thinly and served as a cooked meat.

Award winning cider

2010-08-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

We are delighted that Alan Berry who teaches our cider and apple making courses has won top awards at the recent Mid Somerset Show. Alan beat all the competition in the cider classes, taking the top cider and reserve best cider in show. The key to Alan's success - the apples. He never picks them from the tree but prefers to wait until they fall so he knows they are perfectly ripe. All the apples come from unsprayed orchards in South Somerset. He has his own brewery - Blackmore Vale Cider and sells a full range of traditional sweet, medium and dry ciders.

Well done Alan.

We are hoping to run a cider making afternoon this autumn so please get in touch if you are interested in joining Alan's course.

Chutfest at Barrington Court, Somerset, 2-3 October

2010-08-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Due to the rise in popularity in making jams, chutneys and pickle, the National Trust has organised the first-ever Chutfest - a festival celebrating home-made preserves to be held at Barrington Court on the weekend of 2-3 October. Vivien Lloyd, who takes our preserving courses, will be on hand to answer questions about chutney and will be judging the chutney-making competition along with the Managing Director of Tracklements, Guy Tullber. As well as the competition, there will be a chut-swap where people can swap and even sell their preserves together with a Food Festival.

Vivien said: 'I think it’s really important that we don’t lose our age-old traditional recipes in favour of modern and often incorrect interpretations. Properly made chutney tastes much better and lasts much longer."

The competition has 4 classes and the overall winner will spend a day with award-winning chutney makers, Tracklements, in Malmesbury. Besides seeing how the professionals do it, the winner will see their own recipe being made by Tracklements to be sold at the 2011 Chutfest, with profits going to Barrington Court. The winner will also be the first name to be engraved on a special preserving pan – Chutfest’s official winners’ trophy.

The four classes:

Jam - single stone fruit
Jam - single soft fruit
Rhubarb & Ginger Chutney following Vivien's Rhubarb and Ginger Chutney recipe
My favourite chutney (with an explanation or story about why)

The Chutfest website is http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-barringtoncourt/w-barringtoncourt-chutfest.htm

Rhubarb and Ginger Chutney (Recipe by Vivien Lloyd)

2kg rhubarb, trimmed
450g onions, peeled
750ml vinegar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Grated rind of two oranges
15g salt
2 level tablespoons ground ginger
2 level tablespoons mixed spice
2 level teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1kg brown sugar
60g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

Wash the rhubarb and cut into 2cm lengths. Peel and mince the onions. Soften the onions in a little simmering water then drain. Put the rhubarb and onions in a large pan with 300ml of the vinegar, the fruit rinds, salt, spices and crushed garlic. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the rhubarb is tender (about 1 hour).
Add the remaining vinegar, the sugar and the chopped ginger. Dissolve the sugar.
Simmer the chutney gently in an uncovered pan until it is thick and there is no excess liquid on the surface (up to 2 hours). Stir regularly during cooking to prevent sticking. Pour into jars and seal with vinegar proof lids. Keep for 2 months before eating.

Makes approx 6 x 450g

Vivien's tip - if you are intending to enter chutney in the competition make it as soon as possible as chutney improves with age

Seasonal Preserves with Vivien Lloyd

2010-08-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Spicy tomato jelly, tomato ketchup, chilli marmalade and raspberry vinegar were just a few of the seasonal preserves demonstrated by Vivien over the last weekend. Vivien ran three masterclasses - Raspberries, Tomatoes and Chillis. In each she showed us how you could make best use of your glut making a range of preserves. Her raspberry jam was sublime and the tasting pot soon disappeared - liberally spread on scones at the end of the afternoon.

Vivien's husband Nigel is a keen chilli grower and he had a lovely display of chillis from his greenhouse including the attractive, but seriously hot chocolate Habanero, the oddly named Bulgarian Carrot and the milder Calcutta.

I have been making preserves for years, taught by my grandmother and I was surprised at just how much I learnt. Simple things such as not to use ripe fruit for jams, rather it should be only just ready, the riper fruits being better suited to chutneys. I can't wait to have a go at some of these preserves myself.

If you are interested in chillis and local to Somerset, then look out for the Chilli Days at the Walled Garden Nursery, home to Simpsons Seeds. They have Chilli Tasting Days, which will begin in mid September and are organising the Wessex Chilli Festival in Frome on Sunday 10th October 2010, see www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk for details.

Vivien has a busy couple of months coming up. She is helping to publicize the forthcoming ChutFest at Barrington Court in Somerset - more on this in the next blog.

Keeping our heritage alive

2010-05-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well the season for learning never seems to end and as we have moved from the game season to spring we are still inundated with enquiries from people of all walks of life wishing to take on skills from times past.

Some of these skills have included bee-keeping, chicken and pig rearing, basic butchery and for the more adventurous curing and smoking along with other forms of charcuterie.

For those who have attended a sausage-making day, they have been bewildered at just how easy it is was to make products both familiar and not so familiar. Past courses have seen people gasp at the demonstrations and instructions on how to make sausage, starting with skinless varieties like the Scottish Lorne, the Welsh Glamorgan, the Cornish sausage and sometimes the French Crepinette. The classmates always seem to have some fun in making Octopus from skinless German Bockwurst, and after breaking the ice with fun the students then get to make Chorizo, Merguez and even Mortadella. Of course traditional British sausages are also covered but not before the students design their own variety, choosing ingredients such as dried apricot and prunes, stilton cheese and apple and the good old fashioned Leek. If you were on a sausage course, what ingredients would you choose?

Those who arrive to master the art of curing & smoking meat and fish soon find themselves not just learning about British bacon and ham, but also they find themselves filleting and smoking their own fish, whether it’s mackerel or salmon some of which usually appears on the lunch table. Confident with having prepared their own lunch, tackling curing Continental cuts such as Parma, Coppa and Culatello style hams seem effortless.

What’s inspiring is the joy on peoples faces as they begin to understand and master some of these crafts, some people arrive to broaden their food skills in order to have more control in what they eat and others arrive to improve their skill set for they have set their sights on becoming Artisan producers themselves. But whatever their reasons for attending these courses, they are contributing to keeping our heritage alive!

2010-04-07T11:26:00.001-07:00

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Toads galore

2010-03-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

We dug our large pond / small lake 3 years ago and each year we have seen more wildlife. Last week we were delighted to find that toads had discovered the new habitat - in fact there must have been quite a few toads making their way to the water as we could count 70+ in one area alone. The margins of the pond are now covered in strands of toad spawn. Not to be outdone, there are a few clumps of frog spawn too. Hopefully the shallows will be full of tadpoles in a couple of weeks.

However, I was not so pleased to find that herons and little egrets had been feasting on the frogs and toads. There were a number of discarded bodies of toads along the banks so I can only imagine that these birds grabbed the toads thinking they were frogs, only to discover that they were distasteful.

Farm birds

2010-01-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

Last year the farm participated in the RSPB Volunteer and Farmer Alliance bird surveys. Volunteer Alison Rymell visited the farm at dawn on several days during the summer of 2009 and surveyed the birds. We were delighted to be told that she observed 46 species during her visits, of which 7 were red listed species, that is species of most concern where their population has more than halved over the last 25 years. There were 11 amber species, species that have shown a decline of between 25-49%.

Red listed - cuckoo, herring gull, house sparrow, linnet, skylark, song thrush, starling

Amber listed - dunnock, green woodpecker, house martin, little egret, mallard, reed bunting, stock dove, swallow, swift, whitethroat, willow warbler.

Green listed - blackbird, blackcap, blue tit, buzzard, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, collared dove, feral pigeon, garden warbler, goldcrest, goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, greenfinch, grey heron, jackdaw, lesser whitethroat, long-tailed tit, magpie, moorhen, pheasant, pied wagtail, raven, robin, rook, wood pigeon, wren.

I knew the cuckoo and skylark were at risk, but the inclusion of some the other species in the red category such as house sparrow and starling was quite a shock to me as I consider them to be common. These are birds that I could identify from a very early age and to know that their numbers have fallen by more than half in the last 25 years is really concerning.

Obviously Alison was not around at other times of day or year, so she didn't record all the birds on the farm. From our observations we know we have barn owls, tawny owls, mute swans, and kingfishers. At just recently we had seen teal, snipe and woodcock. Alison thought she heard a tree sparrow but was unable to confirm this - but that would be great news as the tree sparrow's numbers have really declined.

The farm is part of the organic entry level stewardship scheme, so we have uncut margins to fields, three-year cycle of hedge cutting, ditch management, and we plant wild bird seed mixtures to provide winter food. We leave the cutting of tussocky margins until late in the year to benefit birds such as the reed bunting. This year all the seed-eating birds had a bonus as we were unable to cut about two acres of wheat so that has stood through winter providing valuable seed. Since its been such a hard winter, it may have saved many lives.

For more information on the RSPB Volunteer and Farmer Alliance visit their website.

What we are harvesting

2009-09-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

With the new kitchen garden in full swing, I thought it would be useful to jot down what we have been harvesting - if only to remind me next year!

Polytunnel
Aubergines
Chilli peppers
Cucumbers incl. gherkins

Mexican gherkin - baby fruits that look so cute

Rocket and salad leaves

Tomatoes various, but we have loved the beefsteaks with their pink-red skin and tasty flesh and the profilic Diplom.

Kitchen garden
Beetroots - Cylindra proved the most popular as it was so easy to slice - had this weird growth habit of growing up out of the ground

Carrots - Nantes

Chard - Rainbow, red and white

Courgettes - my favourite has been Defender with a paler skin, we have just started harvesting Trombolino with an even paler skin but not sure about the flavour.
French beans - climbing, we picking small pods to eat whole and leving others for drying seed
Onions (red and white) and shallots

Potatoes - Bambino as earlies, Sante for maincrop - no blight and no eel worm!!! They were grown in large tyres and this proved very successful, although in a drier year it may be different.

Runner beans - Scarlet Emperor
Squashes - Petit Pain - I think I prefer these to courgette, especially when they are small and tender. Butternuts to come.
Spinach - Tarpy and perpetual
Sweet corn - looking good until last week when some animal had a nibble - they know just when the fruits are filling with sugar!

Being a Charcutier brings many rewards

2009-09-21T02:19:00.000-07:00

Being a Charcutier brings many rewards, one such reward recently was a call from the BBC who asked if I could cook and share a recipe with the Hairy Bikers and their guests for their new series “Mums know best” which is scheduled for our screens this coming January.

Of course I was delighted to oblige as I am a proper foodie (Anorak) and I have many a hand-me down recipe to share, and given this event was built as a Recipe Fair, my two chosen dishes were perfect. The day came rather quickly and I found myself in a big circus top tent in the middle of a field at the Cotswold Farm Park surrounded by Blue Smurfs (BBC staff in light blue hoodys). Was I dreaming?

I produced two dishes for the day and given the fact I do not wish to give anything away until the screening in the New Year, I’ll refrain from telling you how things went until nearer the time. I can tell you though, that over the years I have been lucky enough to meet many a celebrity chef, however the Hairy Bikers were the most generous of them all. If you hear of the Hairy Bikers being in a town near you, then you will not be disappointed if you go along to meet them.

What I can tell you now is that I will be appearing on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish over the next few weeks representing the South West Region, again I won’t give the game away, so you will have to tune in to see how well I did with my dish a Pea & Ham Verrine. First programme 5 October 2009 ......

Marc Frederic

Butchery revival

2009-09-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yet more journalists have picked up on the butchery story. The latest is Chloe Scott, the Food and Drink editor at Metro. Chloe interviewed Sally about the butchery courses and the people who go on them. Chloe's angle was slightly different from the previous articles, focussing on the new film Julie & Julia that is released soon, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Its is based on the book by Julie Powell who decided to blog about her attempts to cook all 524 recipes in TV Chef Julia Child's cookbook. Her blog became a book and of course spawned the film.

Dan Green our tutor on the butchery courses was featured in the article which appeared in Metro on 1st September and this has resulted in calls from several TV production companies, so watch this space! He could be appearing on your screens.

DIY Butchery

2009-08-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well, there has been a lot of media interest in our butchery courses over the last few days. On Sunday 9 August, there was an article in the Independent by Susie Mesure on the 'Rise and Rise of DIY Butchery'. I was interviewed for the article a few days ago and was delighted to see that I was included in the final version. A few days later I was interviewed by Jeni Barnett on LBC Radio about our courses. I hope both these features make more people intrested in butchering and processing their own meat.

The people who come on the butchery courses are absolutely fascinated by the meat. Dan who takes the courses, always puts the joints back together at the end of the session, so they can see how all the different joints relate to each other.

Butchery is very straightforward and although there are safety issues to consider, most people can manage to cut up the meat. OK, some of the cuts won't be perfect, but all can be eaten! Courses are ideal as they bring you up to speed quickly, and although you can buy a DVD or read about it in a book, you can't beat seeing it done for yourself. Our courses cover where to get the meat, the equipment you need, safety, food hygiene and then demonstrates the butchery of half a pig. The afternoon session covers sausage making and that is always great fun!

Our next butchery course in at the end of September - so if you are interested book soon.

Read the full DIY butchery article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/the-rise-and-rise-of-diy-butchery-1769703.html

Podcast of the Jeni Barnett's radio show on LBC can be found here but you do have to pay for it http://lbc.audioagain.com/index.php?sid=1&player=showchannel&channel_id=230

Summer Wild Meats and other course dates

2009-07-31T02:33:00.000-07:00

Marc's first course here at Empire Farm was the Summer Wild Game Day. We had six people attending and I think they all had a great day. Marc got the 6 participants straight to work, giving them a rabbit each to skin and joint. Some of the rabbit disappeared into a pot of diced pork shoulder and pork fat which simmered on the hob for the rest of the day. Then they made up some spice mixes, a mild one and a spicy one. Next was the turn of the roe deer which had been hanging for 10 days. It was skinned outside, with everybody having a go. Then back to the butchery to cut it up. Some the rabbit loin together with fresh pork forcemeat was used to make some game sausage rolls - they came out of the oven in time for lunch - and they were yummy and a lovely twist on the standard sausage roll.

Lunch was a feast of various meats - Marc had bought along his popular rillettes of pork, some pate, but the highlight was probably the venison loin, rolled in black pepper and cooked on the hob, served with a Jaeger sauce. I must admit after such a large lunch it was difficult to get going again but there was no time to waste. Marc told everybody to retrieve their ramekin or jamjar that they had bought with them, so they could fill it with potted rabbit. This was prepared using the rabbit and pork that had been cooking all morning. Next it was game pie using pigeon, rabbit and bits of venison and pork. Everybody made their own pie which was popped in the oven. While the pies were cooking, the last part of the day was spent making venison sausages. Marc made it look so easy! Some had a go at linking but soon discovered it was not as easy as it looked!

By tea time, all the meat had been used up, the pies were cooked and the sausages linked. Hopefully everybody enjoyed their pie, potted rabbit and sausages when they got home. I managed to sneak out a pie and I must say it tasted great. Having seen how to make a game pie, I think it's something I am going to try for myself. Just need to buy some small pork pie tins.

This was the only Summer Wild Game, but Marc will be taking a winter wild game day using venison, pheasant, partridge, and rabbit. We have still to agree a date, but likely to be in November once the local shoots are up and running.

Marc's next course is the eagerly awaited Curing and Smoking Course on Sunday 4 October.

Marc Frederic - Le Charcutier Anglais

2009-07-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Last week I drove down to meet our new tutor, Marc Frederic, who lives in the pretty Devon coastal town of Dawlish. Despite his name, Marc is British but has lived for many years in France and he has a German wife. Marc is a larger than life character who is passionate about charcuterie. Trained for many years in France, he is possibly the only Englishman who is a French registered Boucher-Charcutier-Traiteur.

Once sat at the table, I was soon tucking into some freshly made mackerel pate. We got on the question of sourcing meat and Marc tells me that he is keen to see local breeds promoted, so his pork comes from Devon lop and black pigs and beef from Devon red rubies. He disappears for a minute and returns with some pots of pate, rillette of pork and some good old-fashioned pork dripping. I can take them home - great! Can't wait to try them. The conversation, naturally, leads on to charcuterie. So what is charcuterie? Its a French word that refers to the processing of meat into high quality cured or cooked products, such as bacon, ham, pate, terrines and pies. Marc shows me some photographs of cured products that I had never heard of before. It all looks fascinating. What about the courses? With Marc's vast experience, its difficult to decide what goes into which course. Finally, we decide that he will kick off with the summer game course at the end of July. Many years ago, Marc used to be a gamekeeper and has some great ideas for venison, pigeon and rabbit. That course is going to be fascinating and I'll have to make sure that I can listen in! [course details http://www.empirefarm.co.uk/summer-wild-food-day-947-0.html]. The next one will be a curing and smoking course, probably in August and then a charcuterie day later in the year.
If you can't get to one of Marc's courses, you may spot him on TV over the coming months. Watch out for further updates. If you want to know more about Marc and his products, you can visit his website www.moorishfoods.com

Ladybirds Under Threat

2009-07-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

Over the last 5 years, the Asian Harlequin ladybird(left) has spread across the UK as far as the Orkney Islands, and now the native ladybird is under threat from this aggressive alien species . One thing that struck me this week was the sheer numbers of ladybirds in the walled gardens of Empire Farm, and this is something I fear may not be the case in years to come.The Harlequin is most common in South East England (with a large London population), and it crossed the English Channel from The Netherlands, where it was being used as a means to control aphids on crops. The Harlequin population is growing rapidly, and this is not helped by the warm summer, which allows further growth of these ladybirds.
Unlike British ladybirds, Harlequins don’t require a cold winter to become sexually mature, and so they can reproduce at an earlier age, allowing Harlequins to hatch earlier than British ladybirds. The Harlequin Ladybird can devour more than 10,000 aphids each year, as well as valuable lacewing larvae, meaning they have a greater environmental impact than their British cousins (right) as they eat more. It is their large appetite that worries many scientists, who fear that the Harlequin will drive out our British ladybirds due to their vast consumption of food. British ladybirds simply cannot compete, and face dwindling numbers as a result of this issue.
It is said that this Asian ladybird also eats soft fruit, as well as nearly 1000 different types of insect, and this will have a catastrophic impact on so many of our native species. Scientists from several different organizations will publish a report on the Harlequin menace at this year’s Royal Society Summer exhibition, with the intention of warming people of the threat posed by the Harlequins, and the dire ecological consequences that could happen if they are not controlled.
Other scientists believe harlequin numbers could be controlled using other organisms, such as fungal disease, male-killing bacteria, parasitic wasps and flies and a sexually transmitted mite that makes females infertile. However, people are warned not to try and help reduce harlequin numbers, as this could kill other native species, and would have zero effect on the total Harlequin population. The threat posed by Harlequin Ladybirds is serious, and if we do not act, then we will lose hundreds, or maybe thousands of native species.

First harvest in the walled garden

2009-06-18T03:17:00.000-07:00

The rich compost used to fill the raised beds has certainly boosted leafy growth this season. The warm weather has also pushed on the crops, so we are already harvesting loads of spinach (Tardy, perpetual, and red chard), carrot (Nantes), beetroot (bolthardy), turnip (purple top Milan) and broad bean (super aquadulce). The pea, Ezethas Krombek Blauwschok, has beautiful violet -pink flowers (see below) and I am looking forward to seeing the blue pods.

The one-foot bed has proved to be really successful, the tiny plots are brimming with plants, so much so that overcrowding is beginning to cause a problem. The turnips grew in just 7 weeks, the first large beetroots and carrots have been pulled and broad beans, pea, chard, spinach are close behind. For such a small area, 12x4 feet in our case, the productivity is really impressive and the plots are so easy to maintain.

In the polytunnel we have plenty of courgettes, cucumbers and salad, and the tomatoes plants are fruiting. However there is a downside to the hot weather. High temps int he polytunnel have caused some of our seedling to suffer from scorch, while the aphid army is growing. The cucumbers and courgettes are their main target, although I have seen them on the larger borad beans in the walled garden. We are tackling the problem with jets of water and a strong nettle water. Sadly, there are few predators to be seen, so we may have to introduce some lacewings and ladybird larvae.

Walled garden - renovation has started

2009-03-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, the walled garden has come to the top of the 'to-do' list - hurrah. The ground has been cleared and levelled and the main paths have been laid. There are four quarters: a kitchen garden with raised beds, a small orchard, a cuttings garden and a chicken area, all based on the plans drawn up by Nick Williams-Ellis a couple of years ago. There is also a small herb garden in the decked area behind the Coachhouse. This is an area of recycled black plastic decks immediately behind the schoolroom which faces SE - this will be perfect for people on courses. They can have their coffee outside, surrounded by herbs. The planting scheme for the herb beds was drawn up by Jekka McVicar of Jekkas Herbs and we can't wait to start the planting.

Lambing - halfway there

2009-02-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

A bit of a roller coaster week with the sheep. After the unexpected bump start, we got all the girls in the barn - just in time given the monsoon weather of the week. On the lambing side it has been straightforward and amazingly its 7 ewes lambed and 7 sets of twins. There was one slight emergency. I had to go out early one morning, so checked the sheep and all was fine. I got back 90 minutes later and wondered why the geese had not been put out. Unbelievably, within 30 minutes of me leaving one ewe had started to lamb and there was a problem. A head had appeared but no legs. My husband had no idea what to do, so he call a local farmer. Fortunately the lamb was duely delivered and no harm done.

The first shearling's lambs were the smallest, but my 3rd crop ewes are producing good sized lambs. So I'm really pleased with that. I suspect the wet summer weather has meant good quality grass so the ewes have not been short of quality nutrition.

The downside - we lost a ewe overnight. A couple of days ago she went off her food and was very quiet - we thought she would start lambing, but overnight she went downhill - drooling, breathing heavily, and with a rattly chest. The symptoms had us guessing, it wasn't twin lamb, pneumonia, bloat, acidosis. We called the Vet, who was baffled too - a virus, bacteria, listeriosis?, heart problem. She was getting weaker but all he could was give ABs in case of a bacterial infection. Sadly she didn't make it, just 24 hours away from lambing.

So some ups and downs and 9 more to go.

Monsoon and piglet drama

2009-02-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Rain, rain and rain and then torrential rain. Can't believe that we had so much. Apart from creating new 'lakes' around the farm, it created a bit of a drama for a newly arrived litter of Gloucester Old Spots.

My sow, Harriet gave birth to 6 healthy piglets. We had just managed to get her back from the fields into a dry, and warm sty, when she gave birth. All went well and we congratulated ourselves on managing to get the trailer to the field and back without getting stuck.

Two days later it was still raining. I fed her at 5 pm and all was well. By chance I looked in on her again an hour later and to my horror I discovered her standing in about 3 inches of water, madly building up her nest to save her piglets. There was so much rain, that the water table had rise and now water was erupting from a crack in the concrete floor.

I grabbed the piglets and popped them in a wheelbarrow, ready to take them to a dry barn across the yard. That was the easy bit - Harriet of course, had other ideas. Distressed by the squeals from her babies, she searched frantically around her sty. By pushing the wheelbarrow into the sty, I managed to lure her out but there was no way that she was going to follow me across the dark yard.

Typically, I was on my own, so there was no way I was going to make her go!!! Plan B. She stays in her sty and I man the flood defences. First I piled up her nest with new bedding and returned the piglets. Then I found some blocks to make a flood barrier around her nest and swept out the water as it poured out of the crack. OK so far. .... I'm now very wet, cold and tired.

Three hours later and the rain finally stops, the water on the ground drains away, the water table subsides and the water stops coming out of the ground..... hurray!

As I get back into the house, the phone rings. Its my husband - he has arrived safely in Spain and had meal with his Mother...... he is really disappointed that he missed the fun and games! Hummm

Looking through my diary, I notice that we had a similar experience with Harriet in summer. She gave birth to a litter outside and two days later there was a summer monsoon and our stream broke its bank. We arrived home to find a river running through the pig field, and Harriet with her two day old piglets in their ark, surrounded by a lake. Once again we were lucky as there was so much straw in the ark that it was above the water level and once the rain stopped, the water level subsided quickly.

Hopefully this is the last drama for a bit.....

Lambing goes on - but not without problems

2009-02-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

Lambing has almost finished with just one shearling to go. Not so good towards the end as the first timers started. We had two give birth to their lamb and abandon it. Hopefully the maternal instinct will kick in better next year. Despite the fact that the sheep were in a barn, it was bitterly cold on some nights and their water froze hard.

We had problems with two very small twin lambs born to a very attentive mum. Mum had loads of milk but her teats were huge and the lambs had real problems latching on without help. This meant I had to go out regularly to make sure that they had some milk. I thought they were feeding well when assisted but I wasn't completely happy with their behaviour - being a bit slow. The extreme cold took its toll. Small lambs have a large surface area so lose a lot of heat, and despite regular checks I found the twins curled up in the corner, one was dead and the other semi-comatose and very cold. It was rushed inside and placed on the aga to warm up. Its mouth was cold - a classic sign of hypothermia. In this state it can be fatal to feed the lamb, although one's instinct is to get some warm milk into it. Instead it has to warm up and then get some food. I decided that I would take the glucose route, so once warm I syringed a glucose solution into its mouth. You can inject glucose into the abdominal cavity but I didn't have any sterile glucse for this job (reminder to add this to my lambing list).

The lamb came around and once holding its head up, I inserted a tube down its oesophagus into the stomach and gave it some milk. It took three more small stomach feeds before I was really happy that it could be left for a few hours. By the next morning it was up and about and I took it back to a disraught mum. Mistake! One hour later it was curled up and cold again. Back to the aga. This time its temperature returned to normal quite quickly and the lamb was alert. I decided that it would be better to strip milk from the mum and keep the lamb indoors where it was warm and much easier for me to feed. Getting the lamb to take the bottle was almost impossible as it wouldn't open its jaws enough to get the teat in so I syringed the milk into its mouth. Two days later and I felt we had turned the corner when it took the bottle and suckled properly. By now it was strong enough to go with me to the barn to get milk. Its mum would allow me to milk her if the lamb was standing beside me. This way the lamb stayed in contact with mum and the smells of the barn. It was an exhausting week, getting up at 4 am every night to go the night feed, although by the fifth night my body clock was adjusting and I was awake before the alarm went off!

By now the lamb was a week old. It had grown, and was taking a lot of milk, but something wasn't right. It was its lack of interest in any stimuli that worried me. My instinct was right, on the 8th day the lamb started to have fits and sadly died. Looking back I wonder whether its slowness at the start and inability to grip the teat was early signs of brain damage, or perhaps the lack of glucose getting to the brain when it was cold was another factor. Many would say it was a waste of time and it was going to die or cause me endless problems later. They would probably be right, but when you find a helpless newborn there is no choice. You have to give it a chance to survive.

Hunting with a barn owl

2009-01-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

Well almost. I took the dogs out for our usual circuit of the fields. Despite it being wet underfoot, it was sunny and scenting conditions were good. The dogs were busy hunting the hedgerows when I was suddenly aware of something white out of the corner of my eye. It was a barn owl and it was following us along the hedge. I can only assume it was hoping that the dogs would disturb a vole or two.

These owls do not normally fly during the middle of the day, but looking across the fields I could see bonfire in front of the barn where the owls nest. I suspect it had sought an alternative roosting spot because of all the smoke and did a bit of hunting on the way.

These are wonderful birds and its a great privilege to see one up close. We are so lucky to have nesting birds in a neighbouring farm and they hunt our fields. We leave the grass long in summer so it forms tussocks with a litter layer thats good for voles, the barn owl's favourite food. The Barn Owl Trusts says a pair of owls raising a brood needs up to 4000 voles. These are short-lived birds and populations can fall quickly in bad years. Fortunately the local population is steady and we see them a lot in early spring when nesting and raising their young. In fact one year we could almost set the clocks by them flying down our front field and perching on the fence in front of my office window at about 5.30 pm! My London clients were rather incredulous when I said, 'you will never guess what is sitting on the fence in front of my window!'

The owls seem unbothered by our presence and that of the dogs. Last year they would appear at dusk while I was putting away the geese. I think they knew that the dogs would be out hunting. My heart was in my mouth when I spotted one hovering low above my working bitch, Chani. She looked up and spotted the owl and then made a lunge. Fortunately the owl was up and away, but for a horrible moment I though I would be faced with the dog retrieving a barn owl.

Seeing the owl again reminds me that on my list of things to do is put up a barn owl nesting box in our tallest barn.

Lambing underway

2009-01-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well our lambing session started unexpectedly yesterday morning. I woke up and looked out the window to do my my usual morning check on our 17 Dorset Down ewes, now heavy with lambs. Due date 20 January onwards. To my horror one of my shearlings was lying down in the middle of the field and there were two dark blobs beside her. She had popped twins about 7 days earlier than planned. Two days later and she would have been in the barn. Not only must the ram have caught her on day 1, but she was early as well. Typical of sheep! I rushed out with towels, twin lamb drench, lamb kick start and my bucket of bits. Fortunately the event must have only just happened as the smaller lamb was still in its membranes, but breathing. They were a bit cold but soon towelled off and dry. Mum was lying down, not stressed but not interested in the lambs. I dosed her with the drench and then she promptly jumped up and ran off. Great. She decided that food was more important and started grazing. We coaxed her over with a bucket of food, grabbed her and put on a halter. Then the fun started. She decided she wasn't going anywhere, but after a lot of huffing and puffing we managed to manhandle her into the barn. Fortunately she decided to behave in the barn, and allowed us to get the lambs on the teats for that all important first feed of colostrum.

Needless to say the day that I had planned was tossed out of the window. Instead it was spent going to and from the barn on lamb watch, making sure the twins had a feed, especially the smaller one. It paid off and by dusk they were up and about, feeding well.

So one down, and another 16 to go. There are seven more shearlings so I dont think the fun (?) is over just yet.