Articles by JaneB

We celebrated at the Visit Devon Awards last night having won two of the Food and Drink Devon Gold Awards for our Dexter x Devon Sirloin steak and Gloucester Old Spot dry cured bacon.
The Awards recognize the very best of produce from Devon and our steak and bacon was described by the judges as being ‘full of flavour’ and ‘available from a good range of local outlets’.
This follows our success at the 2011 Taste of the West Awards where we received an award for each of the seven products entered.
We are delighted to win these awards and would like to thank all our loyal customers for their support and hope they continue to enjoy our meats.

Can’t believe the last one was January! well 8 months have passed and the weather is still dark,wet and miserable and it’s August!

As usual the weather is as predictable as me burning tea every night- as soon as you hear the first combine you know that rain is in the air.As much as we need rain to help the grass grow we really could do with a little less of the stuff landing on the straw which is waiting to be baled.
While we wait for the sun to return to dry the straw ,we have Chagford Show to enjoy. We went down this evening to set up the stand,and hopefully will have a fun day there tomorrow. Okehampton Show was great success for us last week , but a very long week preparing for it!

We also had great results from the ‘Taste of the West Food and Drink Awards’this year . We entered 7 products and won 2 Golds, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze awards for our beef,pork and lamb.
We have started to sell the lambs born this spring, Blackspice one of our Dexter cows calved this morning and Iggy our pet piggy has 10 piglets.

The B&B has been really busy with guests from all over and a lovely couple have just arrived to stay for two weeks, so hopefully the sun will come out for them ,if not for us!!!

Happy New Year to all of our customers!and to anyone else who may be reading this. Hope you all had a Happy and healthy Christmas.
Our Christmas was not a healthy one(bad colds) and if you call defrosting water pipes all over Christmas a happy event ?!

Glad to say we have made it to the New Year with running water from the taps and now all across the fields,as we have had so much rain. At least in the cold weather the fields were dry.

Summer must be on the way with the B&B bookings coming in. The weather is sure to be better for those arriving in June.Having had Ben last year we have plenty of baby equipment for those wishing to come and stay with a baby, ie baby bath/toys/ spare clothes!

The ewes are due to be scanned on the 10th February, at which point we will know how many lambs are due or not.This is when we discover if the rams were working or sleeping!
Anyhow, thats about it for now, as nothing much as happened apart from surviving the snow and frosts, and you all know about that!

The cows are back in!
Monday was spent getting the cows that are due to calf over the winter into the sheds so that they can have their calves on a lovely nest of straw. Which is exactly what ‘Katie’ one of our Dexter cows did that very night. A little boy!
Our little boy Ben is not so little now and is beginning to get about, so is never where I leave him!
My other son has just reminded me that it is only 52 days until Christmas, and Christmas meat orders are coming in each day.
The B&B is still going, with guests still enjoying the delights of Dartmoor, in the glorious weather we have been having.
Off to get some sleep now before Ben awakes. He hasn’t yet realised that the clocks have changed, so thinks it’s Ok to get up at 4.30 am!

It has been crazy here the last few weeks!
Since the last write up, we have weaned the lambs from their mothers (not impressed!) have brought in the straw for bedding the stock next winter and have attended the two local agricultural shows with a stand in the Food Hall.
It takes alot of work to prepare for the shows,setting up the night before etc as well as preparing the meat for the day. Both shows were a huge success and it was so lovely meeting customers (existing ones and new).
We had some friends help on the stall who were fantastic and helped Simon survive the day, so a HUGE thanks to Emma,Louise, Ellie ,Molly and Harri(plus Molly’s friend).
Iggy (the pet piggy) Isis and Blacky our three youngest sows have all had piglets in the last few weeks.Mothers and babies doing well!
Talking of babies I must go and check Ben, he’s been fast asleep since 6.30 ,so I think I will go and join him.

Can’t believe I have left it so long to tell you all that has happened!!
A quick summary of the year so far!
We survived the frost and snow in January-it was a long month, with so much extra feeding and bedding up.
February -was wet and cold, a miserable husband came back in each day. I was 6 months pregnant and beginning to find it harder to climb into the tractor each day.We scanned the ewes to see how many lambs each ewe was carrying- or not! The results were good,as lots of lambs were due .
Sky had 6 puppies on the 14th.
March- the sun came out!!! we all got excited and six layers of waterproofs came off.
April- lambing started on 1st. We had the help of a student this year as I was not allowed to help lamb because I was pregnant. I just supervised and went off collecting silage for the stock. By now we had run out off feed, so had to buy some in. The roads seem very bumpy on a tractor when you have a large bump to support.
May-the lambs are bonny and skipping around in the sun. I by now am not skipping, I can hardly walk,but then on the 16th May, baby Ben arrived and not only could I see my feet again but I could also get into the tractor-no problem.
June-never ones to plead for rain but we really needed some by now. The fields we had shut up for silage we had to offer back to the stock for grazing, so didn’t bode well for the number of silage bales we will make.
July- we have no grass, so cut our corn for silage instead.and then it rains!
Still not enough to get the grass going properly.
At leasrt we haven’t had to mow the lawn much this summer and the B&B guests have had a lovely time, with walking on the moor and not getting soaked.
You are now up to date with events on the farm and I will try and keep it that way.
We arfe currently getting ready for weaning lambs, (if we can find some grass to wean them onto!) and preparing for the local shows where we have a stand in the food hall, promoting our meat.

At last the wait is over and Iggy our handreared, bottle fed piglet has now become a mum to 8,though her maternal instincts leave alot to be desired.
Blacky had 12 yesterday and all doing fine, sotty pugs everywhere.
Just waiting now for the combine to cut our wheat and then it will be time to start all over again planting next years crops.Where does the year go??

We have had an amazing month so far, with fantastic guests coming to stay and two local shows (Okehampton and Chagford) with a stand promoting our produce.
We also have a new puppy ‘Midge’, a ‘Westie’ cross ‘Scottie’ terrier who is a complete nutter and has learnt to swim very quickly having fallen into a lake and the garden pond within the first two weeks!
Sadly, we lost one of our favourite sows ‘Molly’, who left us with 10 piglets to feed.
Fortunately, Simon loves this job and you often see him crossing the yard with some warm milk, to top up the Yorkshire pudding tray and other dishes which the piglets drink out of.
We have just weaned the lambs (off the ewes), so have had a few noisy nights but as we are so tired we tend not to notice!