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

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..

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".

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.

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!