pigs Four legged rotovators Rain, rain, go away... Like many other parts of the country we've had a very wet end to winter and it seems as though it's taken forever for spring to properly arrive. As
cider Making cider Our small collection of mature apple trees have done very well this year, producing loads of fruit and leaving us with the very enjoyable challenge of wondering how we're going to use them
website A fresh look If you're a regular visitor to this site then you might notice that we've made a few tweaks recently. Most of these are to the template that's used for our page layouts, but
summer Summer 2017 As you may have guessed from our lack of posts, it's been a busy summer on the smallholding. Now that the days are getting a little cooler, and the nights a little longer,
overwintering Overwintering veg One of the real assets on our smallholding is our polytunnel. It came with the house when we bought it and, whilst we were initially unsure if we'd use it all year round,
chickens A busy start to the year You'll have to excuse the lack of posts so far this year. We welcomed our second child (a healthy little boy) into the world at the end of January so have been a
2016 Looking back on 2016 Early January is a good time for reflecting on the previous year. With not much to do out in the garden / field and weather conditions often not being conducive to working on the
courgettes Courgette glut recipes Whilst it's pretty much the end of the courgette growing season in the UK, if you still have a few left that you're wondering what on earth to with then you could do
sheep Views from our field One of the joys of doing morning and evening rounds every day is that we get to see our land in all weathers. The last month or so has been particularly good as
honeycomb First honey harvest After keeping bees for a little over a year, last weekend we were finally able to take our first proper harvest from one of the hives. Smallholding can definitely be a game of
aylesbury A growing flock Last week we moved the final two ducklings from this year’s hatches out to their permanent home in our field. Having reached that little milestone we thought it was a good time
vegetables Summer harvest As well as rearing our own pigs, lambs and poultry for the table we also enjoy growing as much of our own fruit and vegetables as time permits (we are only part-time smallholders
pigs Pigs 2016 Wow, that two months went by quickly! Time to bring you up to speed on how some of our livestock are doing... At the end of May we brought home six Tamworth pigs
bees Swarming bees It's been six months since we did our last full hive inspection so the recent warm weekend gave us a long-awaited chance to see what the colony had been up to over the
marans Marans chickens Regular readers will know that we hatched out three Cuckoo Marans chicks towards the end of last month. Being slightly disappointed with only getting three chicks from a dozen eggs (and realising that
pork Rare breed pork boxes We’re now taking orders for this year’s rare breed pork boxes, which will be ready for collection or local delivery in September. If you’re interested in buying some delicious joints
marans Marans chicks The weekend after our last post we had four little Cuckoo Marans chicks hatch out in our incubator. One of them was sadly a little too weak and didn't make it through the
incubation Getting ready for spring The first day of March marks the official start of spring in the meteorological calendar but things have already started to get a little busier for us as we gear up in anticipation
chickens A new arrival Towards the end of January we came across a bantam cockerel wandering around the entrance to one of our local woods. It was getting dark and we found the headless remains of another
bees Feeding bees in winter After a week of snow and frost it seems as though we’re back to the combination of mild and wet weather that’s been the backdrop to most of the winter so
turkeys Christmas turkeys 2015 Happy New Year everyone! With the festive period already feeling like a distant memory we thought we'd look back at our second year of rearing turkeys to remember what we got right and
pigs How to make home-cured bacon Now that the weather is finally getting colder a whole host of opportunities for home curing, smoking and air drying meat become possible. One of the easiest of these is making your own
autumn Autumn round-up After the flurry of activity in September, the last few weeks have been relatively quiet for us. The shortening days are the biggest factor in our winding down as, once each weekend’s
pork Home reared pork It's been a little over a month since we collected our pork and sausages from the butcher and parcelled up ten 10kg boxes and one whole pig box for friends and family. It
Making space One of the things we lack most around our smallholding is storage space. As far as we know no livestock has ever been kept in our field so we lack some things, such