Blog: Real-Time Thoughts and Updates

In the dark, and with the rain still lashing down, we needed to get the chain saw out and cut back the tree fallen into the road. It took a while to dry off afterwards

It can be helpful to supplement the income from the smallholding with other external income. In our case, we carry out garden transformation and maintenance projects. Hannah is the expert with her extensive knowledge in this area. This week amongst other things, she has planted a rowen tree, magnolia, and hawthorn for one client, rescued a beautiful but trampled acer and moved fragile pot plants from a patio into a greenhouse ahead of the cold spell next week.

We've managed to grow some great cabbages again this year. Some do get attached by caterpillars, slugs, and pigeons. That said, today, we've harvested 10 cabbages, washed, cut, and salted them, ready for doing our next batch of sauerkraut. Please see the photos below:

One day we'd like to have own cow for our own organic raw milk. In the meantime, we regularly buy in raw milk and use it for producing Kefir. 

Hannah ran her latest Organic Sourdough Master Class during October. She had a lovely group of young ladies in their twenties. Here's a flavour of the master class below. 

In 30+ years of the orchard on our smallholding, I don't think I've seen as many apples as this year's harvest. Below are some of the windfalls collected for the sheep. This is just one wheelbarrow full of our Blenheim Oranges (...apples :) )

We managed to get short break away to the Peak District and enjoy some lovely autumn weather along with some beautiful colouring with the trees.  Below, we are on a small bridge crossing the river Dove.

The online auction closed on Sunday 5th October. There were almost 500 lots in the auction. It took from 11am through to around 9.30pm to get through such a large number of lots. Well done, though, it was the culmination of a lot of hard work. The online auction pages will eventually be removed, so we've taken some screen shots of a few of the lots. The prices shown are per bird.

The cooler autumn mornings have set in but we're still catching the early morning sun and keeping up with the early morning grounding

With the latest two rams, we've run an intensive two day Master Class, taking the lambs from the field and through to the freezer. Both days require early starts to work through all the processes. Day 1 is the humane slaughter and skinning, through to the eviscerating. On day 2, we carry out the butchering and produce all the fine lamb cuts: loins, legs, shoulder, and chops. Finally, the cuts are vacuum sealed, labelled and placed in the freezer.

The finished result. Many different ways of butchering to produce the cuts to meet one's own family. Below are all the cuts of meat from one of the ram lambs, raised and grass-fed on our smallholding. In this case, I've finished the leg by taking off the shank and having it separate from the chump. I've kept the front shank on the shoulder for a good sized roasting joint. I'm hard pressed to say what's my favourite cut. I do enjoy roast lamb, but also have a soft spot for the chops.