Enjoying the Rooftop Tour of Lincoln Catherdral

Rogers’s fifth and final year of agricultural studies at Seale Hayne College was a year of advanced management studies with only 26 other students. The year was very intensive educationally and the group of people really gelled and enjoyed each other’s company. On leaving the usual promises were made ‘must meet up’ etc, only in this case they did, and have continued to do so for 30 years!

This was the 30^th meeting of the SHAMS ( Seale Hayne Advanced Management Society) and 17 of us met up to enjoy a weekend of chatter and good food and some lovely visits in the Lincoln area including a rooftop tour of Lincoln Cathedral.

Dining with good friends - SHAMS 30th Reunion

‘Us wives’ have become firm friends as well; we met up earlier this year for a breakaway cookery weekend and several of our children are also in contact and use each other’s sofas as crash pads on visits up and down Britain. A truly wonderful group of friends! One of our group lives and works in Fiji so that is a destination for a holiday in the future. A few of the group members are teachers and some others, like us, work in the holiday world so we are going to have to wait until we are all working a bit less for that trip.

Rhubarb in the vegetable garden at Little Comfort Farm

Asparagus is so special just at the time of year when you are getting a little fed up with brassicas and root crops the new seasons shoots emerge and are sweet and tasty and delicious. Combined with one of our fresh poached organic eggs or some homemade hollandaise sauce, it is a really lovely supper.   Planting an asparagus bed is a long term project as for the first three years you must not pick any spears at all or only very lightly, but it repays you many times over as it will go on producing for up to 15 years. It is not an easy crop to manage as the roots from the ‘crown’ grow near the surface of the soil and so you have to hand weed the bed to keep it clean and weed free. In our opinion it is worth all the time and trouble.

Rhubarb is also a great favourite of ours as it is so tasty, grows strongly and seems to be fairly resistant to most pests and diseases. We love it slowly stewed in the bottom of the Aga or underneath some crumble. At the moment I am making lots of jam with Rhubarb and last season’s saved redcurrants from the freezer – a wonderful combination much enjoyed by our holiday guests in the self catering cottages.

For all of you who have been helping us feed the lambs who are on the bottled milk, we wanted to say that they are all VERY well. Last week we brought one more lamb in from the field. Little Bart as he has been named was one of the set of quads, his mum has been doing her best to bring up two of the four but she put so much effort into having the four lambs she has not left herself with many reserves to feed them all so we are now feeding two for her, Bart and Baaaarry, she has one and another ewe has adopted another one so all are doing well.

By the River Caen at Little Comfort Farm

The walk along the leat at Little Comfort Farm is lined with bluebells at the moment; they are such a pretty flower and their scent is wonderful.

We are blessed with some wonderful gardens here in North Devon – Marwood Hill Gardens, Docton Mill, Tapeley Park and the award-winning RHS Rosemoor at Torrington which has been awarded top position in a Which? magazine consumer survey as the UK garden with the highest customer satisfaction score. Well done RHS Rosemoor!

There are so many to visit and I am really passionate about gardens and gardening. Yesterday I travelled along the North Devon coast to Porlock and visited Greencombe Gardens, a really pretty spring garden looking out over the Bristol Channel. Gosh! The drive from here through Lynton, Lynmouth, County Gate and down into Porlock is beautiful – we are so lucky to have such wonderful scenery so close to us.

At the west Down Garden Club meeting last week the speaker, who was from Sutton Seeds, said that if the weeds are growing well it is a good sign that it is time to get growing your vegetables as the soil conditions are right. Well, by the look of the weeds in the garden at Little Comfort Farm, I’d better get sowing fast!! We are really enjoying the last of the purple sprouting and the new season asparagus and rhubarb.

A giant egg at Little Comfort Farm

When chickens are either starting their egg producing lives or when they are getting older and egg production is slowing down, they occasionally produce very small, very wonky or very big eggs. We call the big eggs here the whoppers and they have a great following as they often have a double yolk which is always quite exciting. Last week, when all the holiday guests were helping Roger collect the eggs a really big whopper was found and, with much excitement and great care, was brought back to the farm for weighing . Now, bearing in mind that a medium egg is between 54 and 64 grams a large egg between 64 and 74 grams, imagine the delight when this one was discovered to be 120 grams!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lily Rose, Mia and Daisy took it carefully home for breakfast and hoped it would be a triple yolker, but sadly no, just two enormous yolks. Not bad for a hen that weighs about 2kg her self!

Last lambs born at Little Comfort Farm in 2012

Our last ewe has lambed and produced two bonny happy lambs enjoying the sunshine in long Lane. The last ewe is always much watched by all of us to make sure that all goes well, but in spite of many pairs of eyes, the lambs were born in the peace and quiet one afternoon when all the guests were sunning themselves on the beaches.

Help bottle feed the baby lambs at Little Comfort Farm

Well, with wall to wall sunshine, lambing in full swing and the holiday cottages all full of guests who have stayed with us up to 10 times before, life is pretty good up in North Devon. Last week saw uninterrupted blue skies and a great swell, one of our guests was on the beach for sunrise and surfing each morning then home for breakfast and the day with his gorgeous new baby. This week it is play time on the farm as all the  holiday guests have been before so many times and very often together,  that they know each other really well and the fun starts as soon as they get out of the car. With 4 lambs on the bottle there are always willing hands to help with the feeding. Joining Louis and Ben we now have Gerry and Larry all doing well although Larry, who is one of a set of quads, is taking a while to be quite as bouncy as the others.

As we have had no rain, the level of the river has fallen and stopped feeding water into the fishing lake through our leat, so yesterday two Dads with a great number of tools and lots of enthusiasm and many willing helpers all set off to dam a little bit of the river Caen to send some more water into the course fishing lake. What fun they all had, and what a lot of wet clothes and boots! But it was a very successful exercise, the leat is now running well and the lake filling up, not bad for a city gent and an academic-minded headmaster to whom damming rivers was quite a novelty. The new chickens are doing well and laying us lots of little baby eggs, they are lovely quiet, gentle birds who are enjoying the attentions of the children feeding them every day.

Spring at Little Comfort Farm

Wow isn’t Britain amazing in the spring!

We are enjoying just the most fantastic sunny warm weather and the farm and North Devon is looking great. Our holiday guests have been sunning themselves on the beaches, surfing, walking and enjoying all the wonderful daffodils, primroses and other spring flowers. Our ancient Magnolia is in full bloom and looking at its stunning best.

North Devon is obviously so desirable that we were treated to a visit from a very rare visitor indeed – a Night Heron. It was with us for a few days last week, with its dark shiny blue black cap that runs right down his back and two long white plumes that start on the head and lie almost to the bottom of the back it is very distinctive. After enjoying a feast of frogs by the lake and the peace of the valley, it has moved on now, perhaps to join up with some others that were seen locally as it is a communal living bird.

Lambing and calving are in full swing, with our first bottle fed little chap ‘Louis’ the lamb enjoying the warmth of the heat lamp. He had been abandoned by  Mum and was very cold and flat, but the combined efforts of the Aga, some fresh warm colostrum milked for him from his mum and Ruby  our cocker spaniel who licked him clean and loved him and loved him, he is now thriving and should go on to do well. No doubt he will be thoroughly spoiled by all our lovely holiday guests throughout the summer.

Oh and last but not least, poor Roger, who in his efforts to get on with the new building of the fishermen’s loos and laundry room when really far too tired, managed to cut himself on his brand new Stanley knife! What was even more ‘special’ was that, although he is left handed, he managed to cut his left thumb!  Six stitches and a long evening in casualty, he is back with a suitably big bandage to elicit lots of sympathy, but no damage to nerves and tendons so it will be mended soon.

Pouring the concrete for the new office

Two more calves were born last week and are both thriving. Roger will soon be turning them out on to the fresh spring grass so they can enjoy the sunshine and their mothers will produce lots of milk for them.

The refurbishment of the barn is underway with the concrete floor being poured last week then floated and smoothed by the local Devon Build builders. There will be 2 new loos, laundry room, a ‘snack’ room for our fishermen, a brand new office for Caroline and I, a multi-purpose space for school visits, snooker, table tennis etc a secure store room for bikes, fishing rods, surfboards etc – then last, but not least the rubbish and recycling centre.

So all very smart!

It’s not long now until the Easter holidays and the arrival of our guests – many old friends who have been several times before. We’re delighted to be celebrating our 12^th year at Little Comfort Farm and this month we launched a very special offer giving away 20 hampers, each containing 12 locally produced goodies to anyone who books a week’s holiday with us from now on, it’s been so successful that we’ve already given away 6 so just 14 more to go….. http://www.littlecomfortfarm.co.uk/offers.php

Spring morning at the coarse fishing lake, Little Comfort Farm, Devon

We are so lucky to be enjoying this amazing weather here at Little Comfort Farm with the garden and farm, trees, plants and animals all bursting into life. One of the Devon Cattle calved last week – always special, but the first new calf of the new year even more so. Mother and baby are thriving and it won’t be long before there are some more calves to play with by the look of the rest of the herd.
The Ewes are still out on the far side of the farm, where Roger takes them fresh silage every day and checks them twice a day as lambing is not due to begin for another two weeks. This weekend we will be moving them nearer home as we will start to check them more regularly as they are all looking very imminent. Ben Weatherdon delivered our latest batch of new young hens, 150 smart ‘Brown Nicks’ and a rough grey ‘Maran hybrid’ – who got in by mistake! They have settled quickly and were out grazing on the fresh spring grass within 24 hours which is unusual; they often take a day or so to feel confident enough to venture out doors. With the rotation system Roger practises on the farm, the hens have moved to the field just above the fishing lake so that I can see them from the house which I always enjoy.
At this time of year the kitchen garden can be running out of steam a bit as the winter veg comes to an end and the spring stuff has not really got going. But this year, we can boast of being able to pick leeks, parsnips, spring onions, Russian kale, curly kale, sprouts, purple sprouting, red cabbage, swedes, cauliflowers and scorzonera or black salsify. Scorzonera is a root vegetable related to the dandelion family with black skin and pale creamy flesh reminiscent of artichokes and asparagus, it is good in soups, creamed or fried in butter. I’ve just had a great cooking weekend, away with friends – more of that next time.

Spring Haven at Little Comfort Farm Holiday Cottages, Devon

I love going to London we are so lucky to have such a beautiful city as our capital, everywhere you walk the buildings are amazing, the diversity of food, people and produce so interesting. I enjoy everything about it from the train trip up onwards. Then I have the amazing luxury of when I have been ‘citied’ out after a few days, I just hop on the train and return to the peace and tranquillity of lovely Little Comfort Farm tucked away in our own green and precious valley here in North Devon…….. Perfect!

The Soil Association, whose strap line is healthy soil, healthy people, healthy planet, had two main themes this year: ‘Facing the Future’ looking at the scientific and technical progress being made in organic and low input farming and ‘Good Food for All’ looking at food, public health and social justice. Both things as you can imagine very close to our hearts and philosophies we try to apply here at Little Comfort Farm, one statistic among many that will stay with me is that in the world there are approximately  1 billion people malnourished and 1 billion obese – how can that possibly be right?

Phil Bloomer from Oxfam told us that 13% of the world go to bed hungry every day and hunger is such a debilitating thing, if all you can achieve in the day is to try and collect enough calories in some form or another to stay alive you have no energy or time to move forwards, to make your life easier, to be educated or anything at all. Roger and I saw this at first hand on our trip to Ethiopia where something we take completely for granted such as access to clean water can take up hours and hours of time each day – a project that Action Ethiopia (Sunarma) has made such a difference with, drilling and capping wells. Another shocking thing that we can all make a difference with everyday is the amount of waste there is AFTER we have bought our food, 1/3 of food never gets to the supermarkets because it is too small or the wrong shape or a bit discoloured or something but a STAGGERING 1/3 is thrown away by us after we have bought and paid for it. All a complete waste of natural resources and our own money.

I have to say it is something that rarely if ever happens in our house as I am a dab hand at what the children call fridge soup or, if it is more lumpy, fridge casserole – I have always been very, very against any waste of any description. If someone has spent hours growing food for me (or in our case I have spent hours growing it) waste is not an option and, whilst we enjoy meat in moderation, we strongly feel that you should respect it and waste nothing. Gosh what a rant – sorry about that! There was a lot more to tell which I will keep for another day. On the farm front all is well and the leaves are beginning to break as spring starts to stir in North Devon.