February 2010

Our February/March issue of Natural Horsemanship Magazine has been very well received and there's been lots of moving along with the business development side of the publication. We have a new advertising helper in the form of Sylvia, we visited BETA (one of the equine trade fairs) to have a look around and see if it's somewhere we'd like to take the magazine next year... and we're talking with a few people who, it seems, might be good connections for taking us forward.

There are some really great people producing really great produce and we are blessed to see them very regularly at the Farmer's Markets that we attend. Jim and Carol of Pippin Doughnuts (www.pippindoughnuts.co.uk) are up near the top of our Christmas Card list (yes, we start this early!)... then there's Sara and Rob from the Artisan Bakery in Compton Bassett. They are all chefs. Carol used to work in St John's in London and lent us the book Head to Tail Eating, which has some fascinating recipes for odd bits of the pig (!) and Rob and Sara used to run a pub somewhere posh and now make really great breads... we thought it would be a good idea to get them together. So, using one of the recipes from the book mentioned above, I made a Bath Chap with the pig tongue sandwiched between the two cheeks. I had actually put it together and salted it a few weeks before (forward planning don't you know!). Once it was boiled I made a "Green Sauce", again from the book, with parsley, olive oil and lemon juice. The meeting was a hit... not just the tongue-in-cheek with sauce, but the meeting of hearts and minds... most enjoyable.

There are some things that the ruling bodies require us to do that we really wish there was an alternative to. Ear tagging of cattle is one of them. Each cow is required to have 2 ear tags. Generally a metal one (which is nigh-on impossible to read unless you're right up on top of it - that's not part of the requirement but is the way they are!) and a bright yellow plastic one which is nice and readable from a distance (as long as the animal in question doesn't have furry ears and will keep looking at you as you're reading!), but keep breaking :-( Phyllis had her calf this month, a little boy. They arrive, as you might expect, all unaware and unafraid. Within 3 days, we have had our grubby paws on them, taken his nuts off and clipped both his ears. It takes a while for them to get over that bit - unsurprisingly.

They're not much better when they're older. It was Solomon's turn to go to the abattoir this month. He had lost his yellow ear tag so another was ordered. We separated him from the herd, drove him into the crush and inserted the new tag. Whilst this is not the end of the world (bad choice of phrase in this particular instance), it does cause a deal of stress to the animal and they really don't like their ears being touched. It's another great farming plan, thought up by someone in an office somewhere... OK, I'll stop there, I'm whinging... sorry.

The farmer's market in Old Town, Swindon is often a windy affair. It's held on the last Friday of every month, just outside Chris Attwell's Estate Agents in Godwin Court - 9am - 1pm in case you want to drop by! This month the weather was particularly gusty and just as we'd set up, nailed everything down and started to serve our customers, my gazebo turned inside out... just like you see umbrellas do in the wind. I'm pleased to say no one was hurt during this stunt, but sadly the gazebo needed to be laid to rest. The wind continued to gust and picked up quite strongly, so we wrestled all the other coverings to the ground (no mean feat) and basked in some rather chilly sunshine for the rest of the morning. I took the sticks of my shelter back to Dougal on the farm, just wondering if he could magic it back to life, but the replacement pieces are going to cost nearly as much as a new one. RIP.

As the month comes to an end, Spring is tickling the edges of the farm. We're in that place where it could either get really cold and collapse back into Winter, or the sun could just keep shining and Spring could arrive. The animals have started moulting and in hopes of warmth, we have planted some tomato seeds in our conservatory. Time will tell whether or not we've been too hasty!