pigs The patter of tiny trotters We made our annual trip to Kenilworth a couple of weeks ago to collect seven weaners (8-10 week old pigs) from the breeder that we source our pigs from. Collecting the pigs is always a highlight of our smallholding year to as we love to have pigs in our field.
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 we write this however, the sun is shining, the puddles are drying and
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, it feels like a good time to update you on some of the highlights since
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 little busier than usual. Whilst you could mistake a lack of posts for a lack
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 from an award-winning breeder in Warwickshire. It was a bit of a squeeze to get them all
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 and sausages then please take a look at our pigs [https://www.limesendcottage.com/tamworth-pigs/] page for
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 home cured bacon. There's a few good reasons for making your own bacon as a
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 was one of our busiest days of the year but the end result was hugely
fencing Our first pigs What a week! In only a few days we’ve gone from keeping just three chickens to three chickens, five pigs and two ducklings. If you’ve been following along with our Twitter account (@limesendcottage [http://www.twitter.com/limesendcottage]) then you’ll have an idea how busy things have
growing Leaps and bounds Whilst the weather’s been a bit cooler this week, the warm sunshine we’ve been enjoying of late has really helped to move things along in the veg patches. Everything’s coming on leaps and bounds (including the weeds!) so we’ve been spending at least an hour or
pigs Pig racing That's right, you read the title of this post correctly. We took this video of a 'pig race' (never knew such things existed) when visiting Cholderton Charlie's Farm [http://www.choldertoncharliesfarm.com/] over the weekend. We hope you enjoy the race as much as
pigs Piglets The countdown has begun. On Friday we got the great news from our local pig breeder that one of her sows had given birth to 14 healthy piglets. That means in approximately six weeks time we'll be able to collect our first ever group of weaners and bring
fencing Pig fencing (part II) At the end of last week’s [https://www.limesendcottage.com/pig-fencing-part-1/] post I wasn’t quite sure whether the last few things I needed to finish the electric fencing for the pigs would arrive. Well, thanks to some efficient shipping from Electric Fence Online [http://www.electricfence-online.co.uk/
fencing Pig fencing (part I) Continuing the theme of fencing from our last post [http://limesendcottage.com/new-fencing/], over the weekend I managed to find some time to make a start on the semi-permanent electric fencing ready for our pigs. Our plan is that we'll use the fence to stop the pigs from
