Getting round to the blog after such a long break it feels like there is a lot to write about..some crops have been and gone through the 'garden' since the last blog with lots of salads, some spring onions, broad beans, baby turnips, radishes, garlic, mange tout all doing well. we had a great salad last night which consisted of everything in the garden so all of the above plus beetroot the flavours were amazing but the best it was the fusion of all the colours..why is that baby versions of sliced winter veg like turnip and beetroot look so good and in winter look so unappetizing?

The garden and polytunnel have faired better in the driest spring and early summer we have had in the region for over 80 years than the field crops. After two of the wettest summers on record we decided to grow the field veg on ridges this year, which has been a complete disaster.

I got a bit of a shock when I went to water the polytunnel and found piglets sleeping in amongst the tomatoes, squash and cucumber plants. They got a shock too and tried to bash out of the sides of tunnel ripping the plastic and loosening the sheet further. Beth has had to chase geese of the kids early potatoes and her own beans a few times too. This particular batch of pigs have caused a regular headache as they seem unwilling to stopped by electric fences, I assume that the ground is just too dry for them to get a good contact to earth as all the sow's still get a shock and are rarely spotted outside there own paddocks. Strawberries have proved a particular delight and those that were not chopped of by the plastic mulch flapping in the wind have now all been eaten by them, luckily the blackcurrants aren't quite as tempting for them.

We have an acre of what should be secong early potatoes that we should be harvesting in about two weeks time which are no where near ready, some having not shown any growth and all still far of flowering. An acre of carrots will mostly have to be written off, a few leaves are showing but even if it rained heavily and the temperatures maintained this level it would still be too late. The broad beans and parsnips have been a total failure with about 3% germination. We have some hope for the onions, greens and turnips as these were later going in and have had some rain but still they should be up and away by now and are nowhere near. It's amazing the difference water and wind protection makes..some of the seeds like the beans were sown in the field the same time as the garden but in the garden the plants have grown, been cropped and are now being replaced compared to maybe an inch at most of growth in the field. We can see that it's not impossible to grow veg up here provided we break the wind, improve the organic matter of the soil to retain moisture and add irrigation. Nothing a few hundred thousand quid wouldn't sort out anyway!

Speaking of cash it's the worst time of year financially for us at Christmas Farm. We have yet to get any of this year's lambs finished for the box scheme as the grass just is not growing as we would expect. We've paid for the turkey's, duck's and geese for Christmas and they'll be eating us out of house and home for another five month's before they meet there demise and we get some cash back. So order your turkey or goose now and you can come on Beth's Christmas prep courses free..the crops in the field being a write off will cause us more financial hardship as we normally rely on these providing staples like carrots, beans and lettuce for a large part of the year and whilst the garden crops keep us going for boxes during the summer they will not provide much to store for winter.

To try to get some cash in Beth's been doing evening meals the first saturday evening of every month which have been incredibly popular but I do feel sorry for her after being stuck in the shop all day and then coming back to do it all again on a night. I've also been trying to add to the farming fund by doing some fencing and building jobs locally, which is taking us both away from progressing the building work on the farm that we had hoped to get done this summer. It's a difficult time of year recruiting new members for the box scheme too, as a lot of people are growing there own or away on hols and don't want to commit to regular deliveries. Still as we always remind ourselves 'we eat well for peasants'.

We'll get an open day organised as soon as we can get the place tidy enough not to be embarrased soon but we may see you on our Steak night on August 7th. Check the website or call in the shop for details.

Hello
my name is Sarah. I am a WWOOF from Germany working with Beth and Lee for the past 4 weeks. To be honest, it's quite hard work, especially getting up very early in the morning. But to see all the animals being happy, makes it all worth it. And that is my main task on the farm. Make sure that everybody has enough water and feed. That includes the sheep which are now having their lambs, the pigs and their piglets (which are nice and fat now), the hens and chickens, the horses and the cattle. Apart from that, there are always quite many things to do. Yesterday, we got all the posts for 2 new fences sorted out, so that we can start putting up the fences very soon. It's to separate the horses, some sheep and two pigs from each other and make them move into another field, so we can broadcast seeds for having nice and rich grass for the animals this summer.
Today, we had a new lamb. It was the first time ever for the ewe having a lamb and in the beginning she didn't really know what to do with it. So, it was up to us to keep the lamb warm, milk the mother to give the lamb its first drink, which is very important because of the colostrum and make sure that the she doesn't abandom its lamb.
Last weekend we caught some black lambs from last year, measuered the weight and moved them into another field. It was quite difficult to get them all together and catch them. If you have ever seen a sheep running away from you, you defintely know it's hard work to be quicker and grab them. Sometimes, it even seems impossible. So, instead of being quicker, we just thought of being smarter: we put up some hurdles to make a small path which had on either end the weight scale. We waited till the sheep went it. It all went very quickly as we just had to move a little closer to them to make them go in. As soon as their were all in, we took another hurdle and closed the construcion which made it appear as a little shed. One by one, we wrote down their weights and numbers and released them into the new field.
What is really fabulous about working on a farm is all the machinery we have to use to get things done. Beth and Lee let me use their quad bike e.g. to take posts to where the fence is going to be, to take new and fresh straw down to the pigs stables and hens house to make nice and cosy beds or just to carry heavy things from one end to another.
As now the weahter is getting better day to day, it even makes more fun to stay all day outside and get things started.

Lambing starts

Heavily in pig Welsh sow in her favourite position

In-lamb ewes, making the most of the excellent red clover silage we managed to get hold of this year. We would have suffered a shortage of forage without the help of a fellow local organic farmer to keep us topped up.

Frozen veg can still be fresh veg?

Triplets up and about within 10 minutes of being born.

The new hen house. Pleased it wasn't too windy when I erected it, as my arms weren't quite long enough in the first place.

Ginger, a few weeks off farrowing.

The packing shed progress.

Pleased it's 4x4 - snow mobiles would have been used if available!

When the lady loves good hay.

Sunrise, out delivering one morning.

A few memories of summer to cheer us up.

Fearnley helping prepare for our annual organic inspection

Spring has definitely sprung here at Christmas Farm - we've had clear skies and fair weather for at least a week now. It's amazing how cold it must have been when you start to think 3 degrees is a good opportunity to work in a T-shirt.

The slightly better weather has coincided with the first lambs being born, and it's going well so far with only one single in the flock, and a set of strong triplets has made up for that. Piglets are all doing well and are desperate to be out of the farrowing shelters they have been in for nearly four weeks now. It's the first time we've housed pigs inside for farrowing at Christmas Farm, which says something for the lousy weather we've had. To keep in with organic standards the finished pigs can only be kept inside for a fifth of thier lifetime, so we need to get them out as soon as the ground dries up.

The cattle are going through a frustrating time watching the ewes get the best silage, nuts and high energy lick blocks, whilst they have some straw and crushed barley. The smaller ones have worked out that with a little limbo'ing they can get underneath the creep bar that should be keeping them out, and once the bigger ones see this they just jump over the fence anyway.

Winnie is coming up to foaling time and is being fed like a dairy cow, again this must be frustrating for her welsh pony companion, who is on basic rations but stands and watches closely at feeding time.

New stock arrivals have been kept to a minimum with lambing coming up, but we did manage to get a new batch of table chickens put into the newly fenced off orchard, which should help us keep the grass down this year. It feels like I spent ages last summer just keeping the grass down, so this year we are trying to maximise the under-utilised areas for stock, which will not only keep the grass down but also fertilise and condition the soil.

Jobs we've been busy with:

• Fencing off the orchard and veg beds


• Lambing


• Attempting to tidy up


• Moving the little polytunnel


• Digging ditches


• Planting garlic, beans, and radish


• Putting black membrane onto beds in the kitchen garden, ready for planting


• Building a new hen house that we can pull around the field to clear up after the veggies have been harvested


• Planting trees for a windbreak


• Having our organic inspection


• Delivering boxes, feeding the animals etc

Jobs we should have been busy with and need to get done before April:

• Building the big polytunnel


• Planting the 1000 strawberry plants, 200 blackcurrants, and 100 raspberry canes that have been waiting for the ground to thaw


• More ditching, and scraping out a duck pond


• Filling in the bare patches in the hedgerows


• Cleaning all the mud off the entrance track, and filling the winter's pot holes


• Getting the old tractor fired up after sitting out all winter (fingers crossed)


• Laying the rest of the concrete for the new packing shed base


• Finding some more customers for the box scheme (any ideas?)


• Pruning fruit trees and bushes, and trying to get the veg beds sub-soiled and mucked by a contractor

It feels like we've still got a winters worth of work ahead of us, and only a few weeks to go before we need to start planting this season's veg. The plan for this year is to use more WWOOFers at the busiest times for planting and harvesting. They can be a lifeline for getting jobs done that we otherwise wouldn't have time for, and our current volunteer (Sarah, from Germany) is saving us a lot of time with the feeding and bedding duties each day, although the 5:45am start is six hours ahead of her usual wake up call, she says!

It would be nice to get some volunteers from the UK through the scheme, as nearly all come from Europe and need a reasonable length of stay to make it viable. Most also want to use it as a summer break too, which is the time not much is going on other than weeding and harvesting. As a host, it would also be good to be able to call on people for a weekend for jobs that need lots of hands for a short period, like re-sheeting polytunnels, or digging potatoes.

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!

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.

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)

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)