June, 2004

And so it is that at this time of year our thoughts turn to Christmas! Our baby turkeys arrived... cute and black and ancient looking. It is such a delight to hear their giggling once again. Started with 50, 2 have popped their clogs without any prompting from us... if you want a rather special Christmas dinner, get your order in now! Whilst they are safely tucked up in the barn right now (because they're pretty small and would be a very nice morsel for the Sparrow Hawk or the Owl or perhaps even the Rat), they'll be going out in the field just as soon as we can move the turkey house onto clean grass and get the electric netting hot. Mrs Fox has been seen in the front field playing with her babies.

On the subject of docks (following on from last month - this isnt' just thrown together you know!)... we've spent quite a lot of time digging/pulling them up. Seems rather a thankless task, but as someone told us that one plant holds some ridiculous amount of viable seeds (60,000 or so?), is seems a good idea to prevent every one we can going to seed. We had a visit from Michael, from Sturts Farm, a biodynamic enterprise. Michael has worked the land for many years and walked the fields of Vowley with us. He brought gentle conversation and some interesting thoughts about the cycles of life, soil, plants and animals. Docks with their deep roots bring minerals for healing up from deep below the topsoil. Perhaps this is a reason why we have so many here! The general approach is to plough the land and reseed, but as dock seeds remain viable in the soil for up to 80 years (!) and just require light and a little moisture to be reactivated, this seemed a bit dodgy without the heafty use of some chemical or other. We have started researching the possibility of acquiring a topper, which at the very least will enable us to trim the tops off the docks before they go to seed. We have negotiated another day of consultation and are hoping to be able to use that to pay for a BioDynamic specialist to come and help us make better use of our wonderful, fertile land. In the meanwhile, we have put in place the practice of field rotation - a little tricky as the weather has been so wet the little paddocks we've set up are more muddy that we'd have hoped at this time of year. We're thinking "thank goodness we didn't rent any of the land out for grass keep this year"!

Once again, whilst Mark's back was turned during the time consuming process of making 350 or so bales of silage (well, the carting and stacking bit anyway), his horse, Crystal, decided to have an attack of laminitis ~ we have a sneaking suspicion that this is as much to do with lack of attention as it is to do with hoof management. Anyway, he promptly got to trimming and soaking and Jules and Keith made a great hoof pool one weekend with which we had a communal play!

Although we have less beef available than we'd like, we are finding the markets as good as ever, helped by the pies, the lamb that we're getting from Arend and some wonderful home made burgers which we're cooking now at Calne Farmers market. They are beef patties which we serve with produce from the markets ~ organic buns from Wallingtons Organic Bakery, and some lovely home made Tomato and Marrow Chutney from Rosemary ~ mouthwateringly delicous! As it's not "health & safety" OK for the same person to serve cooked burgers and raw meats, Aimee is our Calne-Market-helper-outer and she does a great job handling the money and serving the meat whilst Lorraine does a lot of talking and some burger cooking too! Calne market is on the 2^nd Saturday of the month at The Pippin near Sainsburys. Catch us if you can. Mention this web page and I'll give you a free burger!

And finally, Phyllis gave birth to her second calf, Spirit of Freedom appeared one afternoon. She's a fine, bright white calf and all is well... we love these cows!