Thursday 26 November 2009

Farm update

Wow, nearly ten weeks since the last Blog..It wouldn't feel too bad if I was reporting a load of progress but as usual things haven't gone according to plan although the wet weather did hold off longer than we thought, it's now here to stay. I won't whinge too much given the worst it's been for us is the clay has turned to sludge and is sticking to everything whilst in Cumbria people have been flooded out of there homes or worse. A trend seems to be developing with these late, mild but very wet winters. Hopefully Christmas won't make a bad situation all the worse for those affected by the floods.

On a more positive note we have some new additions to the farm. The 'Christmas Herd' has been established with us buying ten head of dexter cattle. Some from a rare breed sale in York and others from another local, organic smallholding. They have settled in nicely, getting on with the various mixes of horses, sheep and pigs without problems. We hope to halter train a few of the cows, making it easier if we decide to show them as our cattle skills develop. We have got two finished dexter's coming ready for Christmas too..hung for nearly four weeks this will be the best beef we have had and the thought of a nice thick steak and some quick fried greens on Christmas Eve has got me salivating more than the following Turkey! We still have a few turkeys left, so if your leaving it late to get your order in now is the time. Order online before 1st Dec to save any disappointment.

Another addition to the menagerie are the hundred hens that arrived a few weeks ago. They came as sixteen week old point of lay pullets which should be laying an egg a day after in the new year. They are working there way through the organic pellets we are feeding them at a vast rate but seem to spend most of the energy provided jumping over the fences to rake around in dirty puddles!

The building work has slowed, but with help from a few committed volunteers we've managed to get a field shelter up to use for winnie foaling and getting 'Big Daddy' the naughty escaping sow trained to not go back to her piglets. She's been inside for nearly two weeks and still shouts for them if she hears any small pig like grunts. Another few day's and we'll shift her in with the others on the potato field and see what happens.

Work on the big shed must resume over the weekend as the concrete man is booked for Tuesday, just need to book the dry weather and we'll be ready. Beth's been drafted away from the coffee shop for a day on the other end of a concrete tamp, multi-talented doesn't come into it.

We had yet another complaint put into the local planning office, this time complaining about our 'summerhouse' on the farm which we use for getting out of the rain when it's hammering down. It's essential to have somewhere to wash the dirt off and have a hot cuppa sometimes but we'll have to move or lose it by the sound of things. A shame considering that you can barely see it from about fifty metres away, never mind the roadside which is at least three hundred. The inspection with the planning team went well though and resulted in another route being pursued..watch this space.

Beth's getting excited about decorating the coffee shop with the Christmas stuff, more of which we accumulate every year. December's menu is replacing all other options with turkey, so any guest will be forced into the festive season whether they like it or not. Do pop in and have a sneaky early Christmas lunch if your passing.

My thoughts are also turning to pigs, (nothing unlawful of course) as we've added a thirty acre block of mixed woodland to our organic license thanks to a trusting neighbour who would like the patch rejuvenated. I'm sure our mix of Tamworth's and Saddleback's will love it and really thrive in the sheltered and entertaining environment. We are currently shopping for a big electric fence ticker to keep any strays wandering to close to the perimeter fence. It's a great way of keeping pigs in provided they are trained from youngster's, the first time you leave a battery to go flat and the fence not working all the pigs will get out and never be scared of the wire again. If they get a good shock the first time it's hard enough trying to get them out of the field again they are so scared of the boundary.

The woods need a little clearing to get in for fencing and we need to make up some arcs but we hope to get this sorted out ready for stocking in the new year. All that's left is to argue about the recipes we'll use for our home made chorizo's and salami's, but i'll wait until Beth's finished with that concrete tamp first!

Monday 14 September 2009

we did get a tiny crop of the plum trees this year but only one apple from 70+ trees was a bad crop even if they had only been planted as three year old trees in the winter.
pleased that mums gone

mums back!


the new pig paddock, loads of space, grass, potatoes and feed should keep them happy over winter

Big daddies in the house (and she's found a potato, and another, and another)




After spending most of the day yesterday setting up a new paddock for the pigs it was a bit dissappointing to wake up to noise of Big Daddy snoring outside her previous residence next to her babies. Somehow through the night she has gone through one electric fence, two steel gates and one pig netted stock fence in order to be back with the nine week old piglets that she was so desperate to get away from only hours before. The piglets didn't really notice that she was missing and had been happy to have the extra free space at the feeder for all nine to get in at the same time. We reluctantly let her back in with the youngsters and will have another attempt at weaning her soon.

The other sows and the new boar were all very happy in the new quarters as its a while since they have been in a bigger social group and the fact that we left some of the potatoes in the field for them to dig and munch made the transition a little smoother than usual. They gorged on the tatties so much that I couldn't wake any of them this morning to see how they were settling in.

The shed progress has ceased due to lack of tools and power but will commence as soon as we get some time (and cash) to go generator shopping! Instead we have spent some time making up a small field shelter for the old ewes which we can also use to house lambs overnight before trips to the abattoir hopefully making chasing sheep round the field in heavy rain just a memory. Winnies also getting a similar home built on skids so we can move it round the farm so she can follow the best grass.

Lambs are now all ready and we are looking for some stores that will finish what grass we have before heading into winter.

I collected our 'new' big poly tunnel last week and we're all hugely excited about the possibilities of growing for the boxes right through the year although Beth's developing romantic notions of fig and peach trees the truth will be more like early pots and carrots, spring onions and pak choi, and a good amount of space to give to cucumbers and tomatoes. The tunnel has come from Harry at Cheviot trees as he isn't taking the oldest tunnels when he moves site. I'm pleased to be buying it from a seemingly very patient person as I'm sure a few phone calls will be made during the re assembling stages. It looks like we've just bought a load of bent scaffolding tubes at the moment.

Speaking of veggies I was amazed at the weekend to be awarded quite a few prizes in the vegetable classes of our first village show. It was quite daunting going into the show hall with some fantastic veg laid out on display, some of the entrants obviously take it very seriously rather than just running round on the morning of the show grabbing a few things from the field. This time two years ago we had objections from the village parish council who said we would never be able to grow anything on our land and were not a genuine organic business. Who would have thought that some of those same objectors would have possibly judged our leeks, potatoes, fennel, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, chillies and courgettes to be good enough to get prizes. Some may have even eaten there words as the vegetables were all auctioned off at the end of the day.

Having just ordered garlic, broad beans and onions it will be back to planting shortly. It should put us in good stead for next season and will be the first year we have tried to overwinter any crop. Learning slowly seems to be the way forward, along with the gradual introduction of drainage and another 1200 trees we've just collected from Harry to plant out this week should see us having better years as they roll by.

To celebrate organic fortnight Beth's cooking a three course meal with all the ingredients (exempt the home made ice cream) coming from the farm in the coffee shop this Friday night and we still have a few spaces left if you would like to come and try the best in low carbon, low food miles food do give us a call asap to book places.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Monthly Update

The containers and assorted bits and bobs to be replaced by the new sheds.
Our potatoes looking good with a range of salad to jacket in size!

The new and improved garden with gravel and paving slabs, never throw any slabs, roof tiles or any othe potential building material out without contacting us. Most of the garden has been build with stuff that would have gone into a skip.


The outdoor kitchen space ready for catering for hungry potato digging volunteers, just waiting for some volunteers now.


The makeshift area before the outdoor kitchen was ready!




Rows of lettuce, fighting the weeds as best they can. Most have been taken and the ground is ready the pigs now.



En route to the outdoor kitchen



The black pig is the new guy in town, but needs to grow a little before meeting the old girls.



The value of our tractor was doubled this month when we finally replaced an arm that had been welded about eight times before!

Sorry, a bad pic of warkworth castle..we took the wwoofers for a morning off on a sunny day.



Alexander, father of the german wwoof family drawing the short straw or should that be grass. Cutting the grass around the orchard.


Feeding the wwoofers could be a bit of an uphill battle somedays! Its always nice eating with good eaters who like honest food.


Half gravelled garden area



Not sure??




At last, two years in we finally have a sign on the gate.


The past couple of months have been great, things are growing brilliantly in the 'walled' garden and we've had at least two crops from each bed for the boxes now, with lots of Brussels, Kohl Rabi, leeks, cauliflowers, fennel, beet and kale to come. The lambs are pretty much all ready to go and even the field scale veg is doing well.

We've been digging potatoes for the boxes and it looks like a good crop to come so we'll be taking them all up in the next few weeks, out of the lettuces in the field it seems like we've got two for every one we've planted, unbelievable after a really poor show from the salad crops last year. In the field leeks, celery, artichokes, carrots and more salads are showing promise and the cabbages and broccoli are looking healthy but not really growing enough. As always the weeds are doing the best by far and we may have trouble harvesting leeks and carrots unless we get onto the weeds with a gas burner soon.

The new boar and gilt are settling in and out on the area that was cropped for peas and beans, enjoying the greens.The old sows have been moved onto new grass to bring a bit more land into veg production. We've ordered 100 hens which will arrive in November which should produce all the eggs we need for the box scheme and are searching for some organic geese to run up the drive and the orchard to keep the grass down.
We've had quit a few people camping over the summer, all have really enjoyed the experience of getting back to basics. We are going to continue with camping all year round and will try to get set up as a certified location with the camping and caravan clubs. This should send a few more people down the drive and will give us more potential customers for the box scheme.
The main projects at the moment are getting our new packing shed up and I'm writing this during a wet weather break, we've got three posts up so only another seven to go which we should have done before stopping to do the box packing later on tomorrow. Once the shed is complete we'll get back to doing all of our own butchery work too, which means more odd cuts going into the meat packs for customers and we hope to do more cured meats..hams, chorizo and bacon in many different guises. An office too which will help to get us a bit more organised and professional rather scribbling notes on the back of diesel receipts in the van when we get a phone call from a customer! The whole 'business' side of G and S needs a bit of care and attention as soon as the sheds up and we get everything in its place.

We managed to get a sign on the gateway to the farm without any complaints to the parish council which should make it a little easier for people to find us and a little less annoying for our neighbours who constantly have people going down the drive looking for us.

We celebrated the naming of Christmas Farm with a trading standards inspection to go through our animal movements paperwork and I was extremely impressed with a government organisation that were helpful and actually showed us ways of doing things easier than I had been. I really expected the big bad wolf to be coming to stir up a load of trouble for us but the inspector gave us loads of advice on both the legal side of things and the practical side too. A pleasant surprise...

A not so pleasant surprise was having a Northumberland County Council asset manager turn up at the coffee shop this week to tell us that they have had formal complaints about the coffee shop entrance invading the councils property. This is true of course, unfortunately as part of our planning application to the aforementioned council we had to build a walkway suitable for disabled access which meant going onto the village green by twenty centimetres but as all the plans had been approved by the council we just went ahead and did as instructed. Due to the formal nature of the complaints the council now have to draw up a lease agreement to let us occupy the strip of grass without having to close the shop due to not having disabled access. All this will no doubt come at a cost to the residents as tax payers of thousands of pounds which is a little sad but will hopefully resolve the problem. Unfortunately it is not the only visit we've had from the council. A different complaint about our signs on the coffee shop meant another council officer had to come out and check the size and stature of signage which was followed up by a highways inspector coming out to check everything was ok. Again with the following reports and necessary paperwork has probably cost the council another couple of hundred pounds which with a little common sense could have been saved.

Is it a British trait that makes some people think that if your in business your making loads of money, exploiting everybody and flouting laws. Because the truth is that we want to make a difference to our environment, make the best use of our own produce and create employment in an area where there are very little employment opportunities. If we both had real jobs we would be a lot better off financially, in fact if we didn't work at all we would still be better off but if everybody thought like that there wouldn't be any jobs to get because no business would thrive and employ people.

Whilst I'm on the bad side of things, it was sad to have to get the local deadstock collection man to come and put down a lamb that had been mauled by someones dog this morning. Why some people think its fine to just let your dog run round in somebody else's field attacking sheep is beyond my comprehension, but to then just leave the animal lying in the field is something else.

Our visit from the local W.I. group went well last night, it was great sight to see the group leaving with lettuces and fennel like a bunch of flowers. We all agreed to make it an annual event in order to benchmark our progress.

Things to look forward to are the eagerly anticipated 'big tunnel'. 100' x 40' of undercover growing space that should see us providing veg for the boxes through out the year providing we can get through the planning application unscathed. (Although we are not sure if need planning either? it seems there are arguments for both so any ideas or previous experience would be helpful) It would help to keep costs down by not going to far down the planning route but I'd hate to have to take it down again too.

Beth's and some friends have got some bee based plans coming together, I have to say I'm not hugely excited by the extra work but love the idea of honey for the boxes and the pollination help around the farm.

Rather than put a months worth of stuff up I've been pointed in the direction of twitter which will hopefully mean more regular blogs coming up as one line every day sounds like the time I can spare. I've put a load of pics up which will show what we've been up to too (if that makes sense)

Saturday 18 July 2009

Soph & Scott - the first Aussie additions to G&S Organics

Being our first time Wwoofing, we weren't quite sure what to expect. Two Australians from the city of Melbourne looking for a change in the English countryside. Were we going to be running around herding the sheep ourselves or havesting 500kg of vegetables each day? It was hard to be sure! However after the first couple of hours with Lee and Beth we were more than certain that the next five weeks were going to be a great load of fun and an amazing experience that we would remember for the rest of our lives.

So far I've learnt that you cannot rely on English weather. The week started well and harvesting, weeding and cleaning was enjoyable in the sunny, mild weather. Waking up on Friday morning to a bleak and grey day, described as 'horrible' by the locals, only reminded me of what my fellow friends and family back in Melbourne would be witnessing most days at this time of year.

We quickly had to get used to having four four-legged friends constantly around us after having no animal interaction for the past two months. Two black labs, a nutty Jack Russell and Sidney the new, not so intelligent, addition to the family have kept us entertained, annoyed and smelly since our arrival. Farm cat Fernley - probably the friendliest cat in the world - reminds me of my feline friends at home whom I miss so much. There is also Winnie the thoroughbred mare, the cocky cockeral (who we discovered to be the mastermind behind the kale harvesting), the lambs and ewes, and the pigs who of course, will eat anything.

The line 'we love good food and wine and we hope that you do too' in the G&S Organics Wwoofers advertisement probably caught our attention the most. After knowing this, the cooking had a lot to live up to! But I couldn't say a single negative thing about Beth or Lee's cooking - they have cooked us fresh, tasty and satisfying food each and every meal since we arrived. From fresh fennel to potatoes, lamb to sausages, and sourdough to breadworms on the open fire, we have throughly enjoyed every ounce of foods to hit our tastebuds. Having opened the 'Village Coffee House' eight weeks ago, Beth is busy baking and making coffees non-stop. I have eaten more cake this week than I had in 2009 so far! We painted the shop bathroom yesterday and have to say that the chosen shade of 'magnolia' and our Australian paintwork skills have come up an absolute treat!

We look forward to week two on the farm and hope the weather clears up enough so that we can spend a bit more time out on the farm. I have all faith that week two will be just as eventful and exciting as week one and hope to learn some new skills.

Skills learnt for week one:
coffee machine (now a master barista)
advanced painting skills (have been compared to Michelangelo)

Monday 29 June 2009

A wwoofers eye view

My name is Brigitte, I`m from Switzerland and I have been wwoofing on the G & S Farm since one week now. It is the first time that I`m doing this and I`m really lucky, because Beth and Lee are very nice people and so are the boys Billy and Gerorge.
Beside work there is lots of time to talk, eat, have a glass of wine or stay alone for a while as well.
I`m sleeping in a nice room in the cottage, but it is also possible to sleep in the caravan on the farm.
I like the work on the farm, till now I have been planting, watering, helping with the box scheme and some other small works. They have got four pigs, lots of sheep, three dogs, a cockeral and a horse.
I came to England in order to improve my English and I think therefore it was a good choice to come here, because we converse and they would also ask me whether I`m fine or take me with them to the sea or to another place - today we are going to visit a castle.
So I can definitely recommend this place for wwoofing!

A Wwoofing hosts view

Planting by hand due to gravel like soil
A huge cabbage about to go to the piggies after being infested by caterpillars

Old tractor looking on...as much use as ?? add your own caption


More lettuce, this time showing the wind break we are trialling. if it works and produces better results we'll give it a go around all of the beds.



The brilliant Bridgitte has been staying with us for a week now and is fitting in like of the family. It's always a worry that a new guest may not appreciate our lack of modern living, with no t.v. and only a shower for hot water it may seem a little odd these days. Couple that with dirty dogs and cats jumping around every where you try to sit down and a rather full compost toilet on the farm and it probably isn't the nicest place to stay!

We firmly believe in taking a relaxed attitude to living and bridgette seems to have similar thoughts, sharing our love of food and being outdoors makes things easy to organise. A trip to the beach at Alnmouth was a good excuse to get away from the planting for a few hours and have a dip in the good old North Sea.

The fam is going nicely, more hands made light work with our dedicated planting team (box scheme customers and now stiff legged friends Gary and Michelle) of around 3000 lettuce yesterday but with another 10,000 plus plants of variuos types yet to go in the work is far from over, but with bridgette staying for another two weeks we should be finished in no time.

We still need to get sheep in for shearing and need to source some turkeys to get ready for christmas, we are already too late if we can't find organic poults as conventional birds need 26 weeks of rearing to organic standards before being slaughtered and labelled organic.

Our annual review with the bank manager this morning confirmed we are still in need of extra customers but with the vegetable harvest looking promising we should have a better financial outlook this year. On the subject of finances while listening to the radio the other day I heard a women complaining about lack of resources given to people who couldn't find work. How hard it was to struggle by on £1500 per month, after paying her bills she was only left with £500 per month to pay for food for herself and her two children. She had been in this position for seven years and saw no way of ever getting a job and increasing her income. I think its great that we can all know that there is some kind of fall back if needed but is earning less than £30,000 per household really the poverty line. We earned £8,000 last year and this is probably larger than some farms as we have a retail aspect which helps prop up the other less profitable enterprises. Although we do little other than work and all food/social/travel tends to come under this banner we never feel any where near poverty stricken. Surely poverty is not knowing where your next meal is coming from or how your going to pay for an urgent life saving operation not deciding how your going to spend a tax free hand out of £1500 each month.

Monday 8 June 2009

Looking good

lettuces after planting..note how stony the ground looks!
Our ancient planter..not quite horsedrawn but close

the polytunnel a few weeks ago, i'll take some more pics to show how quick the basil comes on.


Gary's grade 1. I'm sure your meant to do a real bad job and then you don't get asked to do it again!



This weeks lettuce from the pretendy 'walled' garden, coming to boxes near you on Thursday.




Things have been going reasonably well both on the farm and in the shop. The shop being reasonably busy from its first day of opening which is a great relief as it could have gone the other way quite easily. Putting our faith into the hands of the locals has paid off and there support has been consistent.

We now have leeks in the field and the garden, the lettuces we planted what seems like only a few weeks ago will be going in to the boxes this week and hopefully most weeks after that. The difference across the range of planting areas is quite amazing. We have the polytunnel lettuce which are pretty much ready now, the lettuce in the raised beds of the 'walled' garden are maybe a week behind, the lettuce in the lower beds of the walled garden are probably two weeks behind that, with the lettuce in the open field probably at least six weeks away from any thought of being cut.

Carrots are just poking through after the little splash of rain. Chillies are being moved from propagating trays into there resting places in the polytunnel, replacing salad leaves that are coming to an end. Beans are looking good now but the peas are still being hammered by the birds and we really need to get some mesh rolled out to protect them. However the old digger is out of action at the moment so we can't move the nets anywhere, frustrating when the net is about fifty feet from the top of the bed. But i suppose about 150kgs is heavy no matter how far you need to carry it!

The fennel is racing away with so much vigour it's even managed to turn up in another bed. Not sowing on windy days would be advantageous but i don't think we could do all of our sowing in such a short time. Radishes have been and gone, but will go in again a bit later in the season. We managed to start shearing the ewes yesterday with a much needed hand from a friend who came up not knowing what was on the cards. Gary then proceeded to put me to shame with the skills of a barber despite never doing anything like this before, his fleece coming off in one nice, neat and usable piece and mine coming off in many uneven lumps leaving the sheep with the appearance of being attacked by a fox rather than a John Gerrard stylist. My only consolation can be taken from knowing how his back will be feeling this morning. I'll try to get the rest finished today before the damp and warm weather that's being predicted comes.

Of the farm things are hectic too. The vans developed a rather painful noise coming from somewhere that sounds expensive but we've managed to replace the old estate car with a pickup truck that the kids are much happier travelling in. As will the lambs be when the time comes for the trip to the abattoir.

A much needed night out was had on Friday. After hearing a lot of recommendations we went off to Barn Asia in Newcastle to see what all the fuss was about. We let the owner choose our dishes for us hoping to get the best of the offerings. The food, decor, atmosphere and host were all great the only downfall being the lack of ingredients provenance. It would have been the icing on the cake to know the chicken used was free range and the beef British. Surely it takes a huge effort to run a restaurant like this, especially in the recession. Would it really be too much to source meat, fish and poultry that has been produced locally to a high welfare standard?

My other task for today is too secure a new post box, the last one being stolen from our road end. I wonder if its illegal to put our electric fence charger on the box each night after the posty has been. I'm surprised with the amount of invoices in the box lately the thief didn't bring it back with a £5 contribution added out of pity. Still it must have made someone who is down on there luck pretty happy now they know it could be worse!

Monday 4 May 2009

The Village Coffee House opens

Lambs are growing aswell as the grass, and starting to venture off in little gangs looking for fun games to play. The later lambs are just starting now, with a pair of strong looking twins coming yesterday morning. Hopefully the young hoggs will fair better than the old girls in the milder weather.


Finally after much work, some tears and a little swearing we opened our coffee shop in the village. Its been a long time coming after much wrangling with the usual suspects.

We haven't said much about whats being going for fear of being stopped before we got started but have been working on the idea and the building for six months now. Its such a great business to run alongside the farm and the box scheme as we already have excellent food around us and its seems a shame not to be able to go full circle and prvide it on a plate aswell as a box.

The locals have been very supportive luckily as Longfram is a very tightly knit community..maybe the hard work in the shop has changed peoples perceptions of us 'organic types' or maybe its just the anticipation of B's cup cakes.

Things are going slowly on the farm after a little excitement last week when the rain came and the seeds turned to seedlings, with broad beans, peas, celeriac, romanesco's, fennel, artichokes, horseradish and brussel sprouts all making a little progress which has now stopped as the temp has dropped to averages of 10 degrees daily..i seem to remember this happening last year but the rain never stopped from April right through. The long range forecast is that we are all in for a really hot year though so fingers crossed.

We still need to get all the potatoes in, along with carrots, turnips and parnips and I was hoping to have had all the beds worked ready for the cabbages, leeks and lettuce plugs which arrive next Monday but the new tractor is now dead. Replacing some worn blades on or power harrow with nice new ones has made the tractor work too hard and its unwilling to start again. Lesson learned and the last time I replace old parts with new..sometimes older really is better.

B's horses went away yesterday. Mr. Lovage being sold but mum and his big sister had to go along for the ride so he would go in the trailer, I hoping they won't come back but instead be replaced by some cattle but B's got ideas of a putting Winnie to a heavier smaller horse so we can have a foal that we will be of some use pulling a trailer or roller round the fields. Sounds like lots of work to me but then the horse will never get stuck or break down which would obviuosly prove handy at the moment.

Wednesday 8 April 2009

View of the orchard and some of the veggie beds from on high


1 ton of seed ptoatoes arrives - 6 months in the soil and they will hopefully multiply by 7



rhubarb bed coming along nicely


as is the pond digging..




Broad beans and peas finally sown.. lambs starting to come on strong too


Leah the canadian wwoofer busy weeding apple trees.



the 'new' tractor replaces our last old but untrustworthy beast! She may not be a looker but does the job fine...no need for nothing fancy honestly.



the road finally in right through the farm upto our steading area which means an end to wheel barrow commuting.



Even had chance to take the wwoofers to see Embleton Beach and the lovely dunstanburgh?? castle. A good chance to get the dogs in the sea too welcome after shedding there winter coats I imagine.

Some pics..hope they tell a thousand words as we are a bit too busy at the moment

Monday 30 March 2009

We've been away from the blog for ages largely due to an unexpected early spring. The weather has been great for this time of year and is a much needed tonic after the winter of discontent!
The biggest jobs are under way with the road finally getting started today...this has been 18months in the planing, waiting and saving so when the big shiny digger turned up on Saturday morning it wasn't just digger envy i was feeling but an overwhelming mixture of anticipation, excitement and satisfaction that things are finally coming together.

Its been a long slog since we first bought the land back in sept 07 and some days i don't feel like we have made any impact at all, but what a difference when the sun comes out. The pond is underway and took no time at all to fill itself, we have cut into an existing clay field drain which should been we get a constant flow of water helping to keep the pond clean which is essential if we ever stock it with something for the pot.

Our first live lambs arrived this morning, two happy things which are straight up jumping around. Quite a contrast to the first arrival of aborted twins last weekend. Despite getting plenty to eat the older ewes seem to be losing condition quickly and we can only hope the situation improves once lambing really gets going. 2 out of 4 really doesn't stack up commercially or morally and the decision has already been made that the oldest will go to the pasture in the sky once the lambs are reared.

We have all of our seeds in place but are yet to make any significant sowings. Beth has got garlic, rhubarb and peas coming away nicely and we have been kept in greens from the tunnel but not sadly not enough for our box scheme just yet. I tried working the soil today but its still a litle too wet for us and i have certainly learned from last season that it just causes more damage to the soil and my mental health to try to get things moving too early. I think the site of bigger farmers out in the fields working the land makes me think that we should be doing something but this really is detrimental to the condition of the soil and is only made possible by the use of massive machines with 4wd systems. I have heard a lot of old farmers tales like not planting till wimbledon starts or not working the soil until the ground is warm on your bare backside and can't help but think we may have lost some ground in the name of progress.

We have had lots of help recently from friends, customers and also from our first wwoofers Rob and Leah. The wwoof system works on the host farmer offering accomadation and food in exchange for a fair amount of labour. Its a great way to get an insight into other cultures and is what introduced me to the farming way of life when i spent 3 months wwoofing in Australia years ago. We've got volunteers staying with us pretty much right through the summer and are looking forward to meeting new people with open minds that are doing such a great thing with there time. Wwoofing is open to pretty much anyone and we've got people of all ages some bringing children and dogs etc from all other the world coming to join in. The wwoofers first day has been spent sowing chillies in the tunnel and helping move the pigs onto a new bed which should keep them content for a few weeks. Pigs love grass, which was a surprise to me...you alsways see apples and barley and that type of thing in images of pigs but they do love nice fresh grass to graze too.

Planning permission has at last been granted on the coffee shop for the village so while Beth work out her menus of organic goodies I'm working out how to get out of fitting the laminate flooring! I'm more an outside job person. There is loads of work to do yet but we hope to be open to catch the last easter weekend and get the opening underway when there are lots of people around.

Things are at last looking up for us and whats going to be the best season for us both is about to get underway...the gut wrenching feeling of excitement can only be compared with the night before christmas but the day never comes..

Sunday 22 February 2009

New research published

Horticulture Week
20 February 2009

Home deliveries of fresh produce may be better for the environment than shopping locally, according to new research by the University of Exeter.

Researchers compared carbon emissions generated from trips to a farm shop with deliveries of organic vegetable boxes. They found that if the average car journey was a round trip of around four miles (6.4km) or more, home delivery accounted for fewer emissions, even if the farm shop used no lighting, heating or chilling.

Researcher David Coley said that while food miles had been useful to get people to think about the issues around carbon emissions and food transport, the many factors that lie behind putting food on the table needed to be looked at "before we can say what is better or worse for the environment".

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Self suffiency for all?

The recent snow has got me thinking about self suffiency and the ways of modern life. I was wondering how long we would survive as a nation if we were shut down completely by something like freak snowstorms or such.
Not that long I would imagine...how would we live without shipped in food, electricity, commmunications via internet and phone, no gas or oil? Of course we are not set up for this but should we be? And could we if we needed too?

It might be fine for people like us with a little land to prepare for this eventuality but not everybody has some land to grow food, wood for heating and harness wind, water or solar energy. I would like to know if there would be enough room for each family to live in a self sufficient way, and if not then how many families could this island support.

Could we even make smaller changes like no electricity for one day each week or would this be unbearable. Being able to stop the torture simply by the flick of a switch may be too much temptation. What if we used only a little grid supplied heat and power only in the 'off-season' of late autumn and winter and then focussed our energies through the summer to grow, harvest and preserve enough food, heat sources and power sources to keep us. Surely in the summer we would all be to busy to need television, heating and elaborate meals. Would this mean more people could enjoy the pleasure of this life we have today? Would we be prepared to do it even if it meant the earth and its resources as we know them would last twice as long?

Personally I'm a both a wishful consumer and dreaming self supporter. The dream for me has both sides. I would like to grow enough fruit and vegetable to keep our family and friends generously for 365 days a year but wouldn't want to have to pay the mortgage aswell. I'd love to build my own house from materials gathered from the land..hand hewn timber beams, strawbales, sheep fleece and clay are available locally, but I still have a dream of owning a Range Rover one day!

Maybe as a generation we've grown up confused about what we should be doing. The marketing men have done a fantastic job of telling us we can't live without the latest fashion or gadget and we believe them but we also believe that we should be doing more to cut our energy use or fuel consumption. I'm sure there is a growing movement of people out there starting out on the road to self suffiency but if you look in magazines like Smallholder its full of adverts telling you that you need a fancy hand built poultry shed costing hundreds of pounds to keep a few hens or that people are living on a smallholding on weekends and the husband spends the week in the city earning the cash that pays for it all.

So basically my thoughts are that we could do it, we have before and I'm sure we'll do it again before long.

Just a thought...

Snow, snow and more snow..

Old bessy stuck in the mud again! I've asked for a four
wheel drive version for my birthday but don't think anybody
was listening.

Silly hat season..
Fantastic views but I couldn't see a foot in front of me on
Saturday morning. Thick skinned pigs don't seem to mind
though as long as there's food on the 'table'




A great week for the kids but not really condusive to on farm progress, but it does give you a bit of a lift being out in the bright sunshine after being in the dark for what seems like ages. A bit of a contradiction I know but it seems like its been dark permanently for the past 3 months but when the sun comes out an dthe days start to get longer its as if the summer wasn't that long ago..maybe its the promise of spring that brings the positivity out.






Anyway nothing really to report on this week. Growth in the polytunnel has stopped due to snow blocking out the light and the sub zero temperatures, not helped when a cheeky robin thought that the relative warmth of the polytunnel seemed a good place to nest. All would have been well had he then not decided to go out a few times during the day..unfortunately putting some holes in the plastic skin on each attempt.






The fruit trees are starting to bud up and we are hoping they don't come too soon to be killed by the heavy frost that we usually get in April. The hares have started to annihilate the christmas trees we planted last year as these are an easy source of food sticking above the snow. Must get some mesh guards made up before they eat the lot!






The sheep are getting some of the older hay that we made 2yrs ago to tide them over until the snow melts and the piggies are eating everything they can get hold of now the grounds too solid to root the carrots up. The carrot bed has been well turned over by them and will benefit from the deep frost getting down to a good level and aerating the soil.






Tuesday 3 February 2009

Ketchup comparisons

Our thanks go to a customer who recently pointed out the difference in ingredients between the organic ketchup we sell and heinz organic ketchup..with all we read these days about food labelling and understanding whats going into our food it still surprises me what gets into some food products.

A lot of our customers are buying 'organic' for health reasons but may not look further than the initial organic label. Organic may have connotations of health and a less processed product but this may not always be the case now that the big corporations are also selling organic lines. you really must check the small print, the labels placed on products being sold by supermarkets may give you the wrong impression.

We are seeing more labels with photos of farmers outside in the fields yet the animals that produce the packed meat may have never seen those fields. I don't believe this should be allowed and it should not be up to the consumer to arm themselves with the finer details of the food standards agency guidelines for labels when popping out to get a chicken for dinner!

The traceability of a product can help to understand what has or has not gone into the food your buying and also give you an idea of how the animals have been raised. The best choice is surely to buy from a local producer who can tell you or even show you how your food is being produced without any spin like 'traditionally reared beef' or 'Scottish smoked', which may mean beef that has been produced in an American intensive feed lot as it has been 'traditionally' or salmon that has been intensively farmed in Scandinavia and then frozen, shipped to a factory in Scotland where it can be chemically smoked and become 'Scottish smoked salmon'. These statements are based on the truth but it doesn't give a fair representation.

By asking a local producer or retailer how and where it has been produced not only will you get the information you need to make an educated decision regarding your purchase but also send a message that 'you' the consumer is looking for good quality, local produce and understand what this means.

Labelling can provoke some discussion regarding businesses like ours that sell local produce but also sell items such as bananas, mango etc. Do we need to state 'not local' on our organic bananas or should we take it for granted that customers understand this? What about locally sourced? if we buy the bananas from a local wholesaler is that a fair statement? We could buy them cheaper from a national wholesaler with a centralised distribution system as the supermarkets may do and not support any local jobs but that is not what we choose to do. Where should a local box scheme draw the line when sourcing produce 10 miles? 50miles? What if the seasons don't accommodate local growers and we need to go further away? Should we stop trading until we can source or grow more produce? And then where do our customers go? To someone who is not concerned with these issues?

Its difficult for us to know what to do sometimes but we are guided by our customers, our own ethics and what 'feels' right. This may not seem good enough for some and may be too picky for others...as a consumer its your decision that makes the world go round and there are many problems that could be solved by consumers making more educated decisions.

As the blind date guy used to say..the choice is yours!

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Inspection complete

I'm pleased to announce our soil association inspection went well yesterday, all records present and correct!
Its the third year in a row we have had this particular inspector so will have a change next year to ensure impartiality, which i think just goes to show the integrity of the soil association and those that work within it.
We were please to hear how wet she thought the farm was especially as she is out inspecting farms all over the north every day. We seem to have picked the worst year to move onto such wet land and the year after has been just as bad. Although the average air temp seems to be picking up.

Beth and I are feeling a bit of a 'food hangover' this morning. We took the kids ice skating in times square again last night with me being forced to be on the ice as a a guardian for George. Not sure who was more fearful but he ended up doing laps with me hanging on to the side watching and getting in the way of all the other unsafe parents waddling round the barrier. We finished the evening with in a chinese on stowell street as a special request for Billys birthday and ended up eating the usual noodles coated in greasy salty sources and even more unforgiveable the pork ribs. I can see how this may be contradictory to what we believe in and for the most part we make ethical decisions but occasionally our resolve is weakened. I'd like to think that the intensively farmed pork and chicken that is sold into this industry isn't kept going by our few visits each year. Does anyone know of a good asian restuarant with an ethical sourcing policy?? We love asian food and would love to eat out without the guilt that comes with it.

We once had a butcher who worked for a local butchers shop before coming to us who liked to tell us about the barrels of red sweet and sour chinese source they used to make the 'value' suasages a 'good' colour! Needless to say he didn't last long.

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Christmas Part 2

the fruit bushes bordering the 'walled' garden


some more bushes - blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and jostaberry.


odd mushrooms growing in the polytunnel!



salad coming through..




in 3- 4 weeks we'll be cutting this for your salad bags!












the new fencing back under water







We hope to put a rather large duck pond in to use the excess water for meat although we may end up with norths wild duck population coming to stay and don't fancy paying for all the organic feed that i'm sure they would help us get through.


















a pic of the long gone turkeys, have to say they look a lot nicer on the table!










Its been a fanatstic weekend here at G and S with Beths brother and family returning from an extended stay in Australia. This was the perfect excuse for Christmas dinner II.

We boned and rolled 2 big fat turkeys that we had frozen before christmas, stuffed them with a mix of pork mince, sage, lots of crushed garlic, oats and some cooked chestnuts. Topped off with plenty of streaky bacon. We cooked it under foil for a couple of hours and then crisped the bacon with the foil off...it was the most succulant and tasty turkey i've tasted and was so easy to carve. In fact we are still carving our way through it! We'll be offering this as a service this year i think although it is a bit time consuming when we have the least time.

All the rain and snow from last week has left us underwater again, the good news is that it has loosened the soil round the carrots that had previuosly been frozen in which means the pigs got through them in no time. we moved them further down the carrot bed yesterday so they are happy again. The bed they have left will then be rotavated as soon as the weather allows or we may try just running our discs over and then harrowing to create a seed bed. Needless to say whatever goes in that bed will get a good start to its life.

More good news is that the first sowings of lettuce/salads are showing themselves...its amazing to think with the lack of daylight hours and low temperatures that thay are willing to make a show of it so eagerly. They were sown on new years day and have een pretty much ignored since in the polytunnel. (which the winds are taking there toll on now, we'll have to get the duct tape out soon)

The ewes have pretty much finished the grass and will be fed hay, or haylage from now until we get some new growth in spring. We will start feeding them with some barley and beans around end of feb early march to make sure there lambs have plenty of nutrients during the early stage s of growth. Hopefully we will have some good weather for lambing this year..pleased we only have 23 ewes to do..some of the locals will have upto 1000 ewes to work with!