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.
Stay up to date with what is happening down on the farm.
This Sunday we will be at Castle Drogo for their Festive Food Fair. We’ll be selling meat and also have a few special offers for Christmas, so pop by and say ‘hello’.
For more details please see http://bit.ly/6yUDB6 (Dartmoor Events Website) or http://bit.ly/6fmjoZ (National Trust Website – Search for ‘Castle Drogo’).
In the run-up to Christmas we are going to be cutting Beef, Lamb and Pork every week. Please contact the farm to get your order in.
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??
This summer Lovaton Farm had its most successful year so far at the annual Taste of the West awards. These awards are given “for excellence in quality for appearance, texture, aroma, packaging and of course, taste”.
This summer we won five awards:
Gold for our Dexter-cross-Devon Rib on Bone;
two Silver awards for our Dexter-cross-Devon Sirloin Steaks and our Lleyn Lamb Rolled Loin;
and two Bronze awards for our Gloucester Old Spot Leg of Pork and our Lleyn Lamb Valentine Steak.
You can get you hands on all of these delicious cuts of meat by contacting the farm on 01647 231649.
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!
People are always asking us what’s been happening on the farm, and Simon is often out with his camera documenting new arrivals and recording the changing seasons.
Now, you can keep up to date with all the latest news and photos from Lovaton Farm with our new blog.
Every so often we’ll post an update or a photo of farm life, and from time to time, we’ll let you know about special offers and limited produce. Next week, for example, we are going to be cutting pure bred Dexter beef, so drop us a line if you want to get your hands on some of this lovely meat.
We would also love to hear your comments and ideas and if you e-mail recipes or photos of what you did with our meat, we’ll try and include them here as well.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Jane and Simon