February 2020

Farm Tour

February kicked off with a farm tour for members of various Slow Food communities in the Midlands and people interested in starting their own farms. Let’s not pretend that this didn’t involve days (weeks?) of mad rushing around to tidy up and make everything presentable! Although this is always a good thing, getting all of those hundred and one thousand little jobs done. You can read the full post here.

Gorgeous summer blooms

pasture raised chicken

At the beginning of the month we moved one lot of chicks out onto pasture, and a second lot at the end of the month. They are responding well to the lush green grass and warm summer nights - growing strong and quickly. As we head into Autumn it becomes a little more tricky - cooler nights and mornings, with the odd surprise cold snap can be detrimental at the wrong time. But for now, they’re soaking it all in!

eggs, eggs, and not enough eggs

Packing and packing and packing eggs each week! A good problem that we have faced recently is a higher demand for our pasture raised eggs than we can currently supply! We are working on meeting the demand with the addition of more chickens soon. Thank you to all our customers for this support!

For now, our ladies are happily scratching away in the grass and dirt bathing in the February sunshine.

forest raised pork

Our pigs are growing steadily, although they keep taking themselves on wild adventures through the forest and burning off a lot of energy! They are too clever - they hop in and out of their enclosure, thinking we haven’t noticed!

Lady and her adopted Duroc piglets were moved out to join the bigger pigs rotating through the forest after enjoying some time with the chickens and geese rootling through the end-of-season vegetables in the market garden. The piglets start off being rotated in their electro-net within 3 large permanently fenced camps as a double predator barrier, and are stabled at night for protection. As they get older, they can move into the forest.

Lady and her piglets enjoyed tilling up the end-of-season vegetables. We hand seeded into this area two days before the pigs moved out so that they could trample the seeds in. We’ll keep you posted on the experiment…

We’re getting kids!

Meet Jessica, Shirley, Rae-Rae, Smiley, Pineapple, and Van-the-Man. Our latest addition to the farm was 5 female goats and 1 ram. Each goat belongs to a member of our staff, and ourselves, and the ram is shared for breeding, as a little investment business together. We’re taking bets on which goat kids first! The goats will be rotated through areas of shrub in an effort to manage growth and eradicate alien species and weeds. They have thoroughly enjoyed Chinese Maple, Black Jack, and Bramble berry vines so far.

markets

REKO continues to grow steadily and provide a solid, reliable market stream for us and many other local small scale producers. The new Earth Route Market in Nottingham Road has been a great way to network and spend time with our immediate community. Check it out - every Saturday 7.30 - 11am at the Farmers’ Hall.