The Great Outdoors... and pigs love the fodder beet which we have had to thin out as (once again) Jenny didn’t read the instructions and planted it too close together. All the veg planted in last year’s pig pen is doing well, the pigs manured and rotovated the plot and then gave us a tasty end product - yummy pork. The first two ram lambs of the year went to the abattoir in July. They grew very quickly and our first lamb customers had between 20 & 22 kilos of delicious meat.
Life on the Farm...
by Peter & Jenny Sebborn. Wow another month gone and here we are now at the start of August! Thank you to those that have contacted us with an interest in keeping animals and to those of you looking to stock up the freezer and buy fresh meat from us direct from the abattoir. As we were finishing last month’s article our blue Flemish giant rabbit was just giving birth to what appeared to be a very large litter. One of her previous litters was 15 and this time she has 14 of which 9 survived. The buck then went in with another of our rabbits - a New Zealand White crossed with a Flemish Giant and she has just had a litter of 6, mum is black and white and the bunnies are 3 black, 2 ginger and 1 spotty black and white just like her mum. These youngsters will soon be ready to go to new homes as pets.
Peter & Jenny Sebborn. Breeders of pigs, lambs and poultry. La Gauteliere, 79220, Pamplie. Tel: 05 49 28 38 57.
Abeilles (Bees)
by Tania Dominey
Here’s a lovely cake recipe that always goes down well at our house!
Honey Fruit Cake Ingredients: • • • •
8oz Margarine 8oz Honey 3 Eggs 12oz Self Raising Flour
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon • 8oz Mixed Fruit • 6oz Glace Cherries
Method:
Cream the margarine and honey together, add eggs with a little flour and beat well. Fold in the rest of the flour and cinnamon and add the fruit. Put in a greased 8” cake tin and cook in a medium oven for about 90 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.
Also recently arrived are our breeding pair of unusual Violet Guinea Fowl. These are very dark in colour with a lovely purple sheen. They don’t have the spots of regular guinea fowl but a more overall colour. The hen lays eggs that are a strange shape, almost triangular or pointed at one end and much smaller than a chickens egg. We hope to raise some keets once they settle in. Another addition is a very naughty kitten (a ginger tom) who we have called Aldo. He was only 10 weeks old when he arrived and he loves to play. He came from a loving home with 4 children who loved to give him cuddles. Lively and playful, on the first day he hissed at the dogs but on day two they were best friends. He’ll soon be our second mouser. We have bought another 3 more piglets, one pure Gloucestershire Old Spot who we have bought for breeding and two GOS/Large Black cross whose meat we will sell. I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches to a new pen in our field with a lovely new home made pig ark. After two pigs returned from the abattoir Jen decided it would be nice to make the liver into dog treats. She found a recipe which included liver, eggs and garlic, but anyone who knows Jen knows that “following a recipe” is not her thing. Then she discovered we didn’t have eggs (we had sold them all!) and we hadn’t any garlic. So in went just liver and flour to the smoothy maker (it was supposed to be into a food processor) which promptly blew up. And mixing liver puree by hand was not one of her best ideas. The treats turned out – well - edible if you’re a dog! Whilst we are still looking for a tractor our neighbouring farm kindly cut and bailed our hay ready for the sheep for the winter. We have also ordered straw (when he cuts it) for the animals’ bedding for the winter. It always helps to have a friendly farmer for lots of help and advice. The veggie patch is doing well considering we haven’t had much time to spend on it. The broad beans, peas and the garlic have all been harvested. We have a continuing supply of new potatoes, strawberries and raspberries. The sheep 18