Autumn, sheep dreams and festivals

Hey guys!!!

A little Autumn update to keep you all in tuned with future happenings.

Excited to announce that we have a tiny addition to our flock!! Well bigger 🙂 Now the 6 sheep in a 20 acre field doesn’t look ridiculous anymore. 20 happy Llanwenog ewes all battling to stuff there mouths on fresh grass. Photos to come soon!!! We have a ram ready to hire for November and are looking forward to be lambing in April 2017!

Website Google Chrome issue fixed!!

Also we fixed the little problem with our site on google chrome is now fixed!! Have a fully functioning website. Just need to update a few photos and some text and add some recipes to the cooking page.

Veg patch beds have begun!!!!

We have finally started on the veg patch!!! Took a lot of strength, a helping hand and plenty of tea and biscuits 🙂 🙂

The dogs thought they might help but then decided to just sit back and doze off.

Molly having a cheeky rest.

Can’t forget the sheep!!! They just pondered the 20 acres eating as much as they could.

And our final product!! 12 posts and a trench for the netting!!

Festival time!!

Only two days till Powderham Food Festival!!! All go go go with cooking prep. So many onions to cut, that I might cry 😦

But hopefully to see some lovely faces, new and familiar their. And just experience our first time selling masala dosa, tomato chutney and dhal at a festival.

 

Food photography, hugelkultur and festivals

The madness has been slowly increasing!!

I’ve been attempting food photography for the website, social media and Instagram. Using inspiration from Jaimie Oliver and David Loftus. Managed to get a few lovely shots that I’m proud of. Just need to keep practising and practising. As soon as dad is out of the house, the spices and camera come out!

We have started planning a little ahead now. Managed to get a stall space at Dartmouth Food Festival on the 21st/22nd/23rd October and Powderham Festival on the 1st and 2nd October. Our first two festivals, which is a little scary. Need to find someone to help as Molly will be at Uni and I’ll be in Brighton.

Have written around ten other food and music festivals that sound perfect for us. So when the time is right we’ll fill in the applications.

We also have a few new dishes we want to try out – idli,  vadda and chutney and kothu roti. I’ll try and get dad to try out the new 50 idli dish steamer next week!! We’ll see.

As for the farm side, we are going sheep shopping for an additional 30 sheep in September. Purebred Llanwenog sheep from a nearby farm in Devon. Just hunting for a ram and then we can tup them in November for lambs April next year!!

Our sheep we have now – 1 Charollais x Masham, 2 Charollais x Mule, 1 unknown and 2 xxxxxxxxx

Our flock of Llanwenog sheep we had back in Kent

The barn will hopefully go up by the end of the year and we are planning to try out our hands on a bit of hugelkultur!

Pretty mad right?! Well we’ve had a few ideas from my sister’s friend in the States who is interested in permaculture, and gave us a few alternative ideas to have a mini veg patch to grow potatoes and onions for the markets.

Apparently Hugelkultur is no more that no-dig raised beds but the impact is greater.

“They hold moisture, build fertility, maximise surface volume and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs. Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, petroleum-free newspaper, manure, compost or whatever other biomass you have available, top with soil and plant your veggies.” –https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur

We’ll start small and see what happens. The aim of this is to try and grow most of our produce on our land.

Photo from – https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur