Welcome to our October newsletter 

(We appreciate it's now November but we didn't have chance to send this out until now so this is Octobers news!)

Photo credit to Megan Boardman - An old barn provides the perfect scratching post for one of our cows

Turkeys

It was very sad earlier in the month to hear and see the pictures of dead swans at Shaftsbury Lake in Swindon and the news that it was confirmed to be avian influenza. This was quickly followed by reports of dead waterfowl at Coate Water and then Lydiard Park. Although I don’t know what the outcome of these tests are I’m assuming the worst and taking as many precautions as possible.

Sadly the turkeys are no longer spending their time grazing and pecking at the windfall heritage fruit and the bright red gobstoppers remain un-eaten beneath the ornamental crab apple. Instead I restricted them to a 6 metre strip around two sides of their barn as soon as I heard the news of local cases, this was reduced to a small pen on one side which will probably be reduced down to a 3m x 2m netted ‘porch’ area outside their door**.

   It’s tricky, I’m proud of the fact my birds enjoy a long and outdoor life, and normally I measure my success by the amount of turkeys outside pecking, chirping and enjoying what is best described as turkeying! Trying to reverse all this is odd. Reducing their ranging area in stages appears to have reduced stress. If I had simply left them shut in this would put a huge stress on the flock who in the mornings become agitated if I’m even a little late letting them out. Increased stress would make them more susceptible to disease and increased density would increase speed of transmission.  They do have 25% more shed space this year as I anticipated the increased likelihood of having to house them. 

I always change my wellies when going in to see the turkeys but have now been evaluating all other bio-security so I now have foot dips for anyone going beyond the farm yard and I’m not having any non essential visitors beyond the car parking area at the farm. I’ve got everything crossed that I can keep the turkeys safe.

We can all do our bit to help prevent the disease and would strongly recommend avoiding areas of high risk, for example the lawn at Lydiard Park, Coate Water and anywhere with ducks, geese, swans and gulls.

Since the BBC had a story on the news about how turkeys were being affected by avian flu and the potential shortage in the supply there has been a spike in sales, but I can’t take any pleasure from it knowing how devastating the disease has been to our internationally important sea bird colonies and knowing other turkey farmers will have lost their entire flocks. Having said that if you’ve not already ordered, I wouldn’t leave it too long.

** I wrote this piece a few weeks ago for the local magazine and since then a compulsory housing order has been brought in for all poultry in England from Monday 7th November. This includes back yard flocks as well as commercial enterprises. Sadly this has been a common occurrence for the last few years but isn’t usually brought in this early in the year.

Pop-Up Farm Shop - Saturday 5th November 10am - Noon

The next pop-up shop will be on the 5th November where we’ll have lots of local food including Honey from the hives right here at Park Farm. As well as Handmade jewellery and wool products perfect for Christmas presents. We’ll also have for the first time, micro greens from www.coadmicrofarm.co.uk One of our aims is to support local farmers doing amazing things so we thought we had to try some! Micro greens are just the first few leaves sprouted from the seed, they are nutritious and packed with flavour. They come in packaging which ticks all the boxes, it contains recycled material, it can be recycled but best of all it can be reused! Simply return your box to us and it’ll be used again.  This first order is a test and we’ll have tubs of mixed salad, if it sells well we’ll have more varieties. I hope to go and visit Sophie’s micro farm at Leigh shortly to see what she’s up to.

Also new for this shop we have a selection of cheese! Buying cheese in to sell on might seem simple but believe me it’s not. To fit with our ethos it has to be as local as practical, come from farms where animal welfare and the environment is a priority and not just the minimum standard and, it has to be a great product. We need all these factors to combine before we can consider it. We also importantly need a small minimum order as we just have a 2 hour opportunity to sell it! Lindsay (she has now added Head Cheese Buyer to her job title) got in touch with a small cheese wholesaler to make it happen and we settled on the following selection:

• Grassroots Cheddar is made by a co-operative of organic dairy farmers (2 of which we know personally – Manor Farm, Ashton Keynes and Wicton Farm, Bromyard)

• Bix is made from Nettlebed creamery at Henley on Thames and was winner of the best soft white at the British Cheese Awards

• Simon Weaver’s organic blue brie is made at Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire. It’s a soft white moulded cheese with Roquefort blue mould running through the centre.

• Sinodun Hill Goats Cheese is from south Oxfordshire and is made using a traditional slow and gentle process to bring out the complexity in the flavour and texture.

• Organic Halloumi – Caws Teifi cheese Ceredigion has won many awards in recent times including the top level of 3 stars at last years Great Taste Awards. Great served grilled, fried, barbecued or baked!

I hope there’s something here for every cheese lover’s tastes (Limited quantities) I just hope I get a chance to squirrel away a bit before it all gets sold – something I normally forget to do with the lardy cakes!

We thought long and hard whether to have a shop this time with the avian flu situation but we will go ahead with some precautions. I will have disinfectant mats out and would also very much appreciate it if you could wear shoes that have not recently been in high-risk areas (Coate Water and Lydiard Park). Please also remain within the designated parking and shop areas.

Lindsay’s Shepherds update

Well tupping is over for another year and all the sheep are back together. When I reintroduce the rams back into the group I put them all in my sheep handling system and pen them together quite tightly so they can't take a run up to each other and butt heads. I've known several farmers that have just chucked them back together and it has resulted in death, so in my opinion it is never worth the risk, I would rather they get there tussling out the way in a confined area. They sort out the pecking order and go back out together and are the best of friends for their 11 month holiday!

All the girls are back together in a big group which includes last years ewe lambs. Some of which I will keep for breeding from next year and the others I will sell to other Oxford Down Breeders. Pregnancy scanning will happen in about a month, so for now all they need to do is remain quiet (so minimal handling) and on a level plane of nutrition.

We will have some fabulous homemade woolly items at the pop-up Farm Shop if you are looking for unique and sustainable Christmas presents. A great selection of hats, mittens, wrist warmers, hanging decorations and knitting/crochet kits. All made from Wool from my sheep and knitted or crocheted by the Lovely Bev (Our shop helper) and Bev's friend Dawn.

Wildlife

Photo credit: Megan Boardman

The Goldfinch flock peaked this year somewhere near 500, they’re tricky to estimate as they never lift off as one flock. Instead they tend to pour out of the hedge and onto the chicory stalks. I invited a local amateur photographer to get a few pictures which she managed despite fading light. She took a much better photo than my attempt that featured in last months newsletter!

On the 15th October I saw both Swallows passing overhead travelling south and Redwings arriving in from the north west. I’m not sure I’ve seen overlap between these summer and winter visitors before. 

This month off the farm

As a last opportunity to leave the farm before Christmas we’ve just had a couple of days in spectacular Pembrokeshire.  We were visiting our good friend Elissa who many of you will know from always being on the front desk (dressed as an elf) on turkey collection day. When not assisting us, she now manages a thriving farm and campsite just between Tenby and Saundersfoot. Although the main business is farming tourists she also runs a flock of sheep and a small herd of beautiful Welsh Black beef cattle. The stock run on rugged fields which has the coast path running through them and contain some great wildlife. Since the cattle are not routinely wormed the dung is teeming with insect life, a quick look at just one dung pat showed dozens perhaps hundreds of dung beetles (the most I think I’d ever seen) across two of the three major groups. These beetles are particularly important to have here because as well as all the fantastic work they do in the dung (I’m sure I’ve talked about this many times before) they also make up a large part of the diet of the very rare Chough – a member of the crow family with a long curved red beak and matching legs! Choughs are still very rare in the UK, Wales has the majority with about 200 pairs living around the Welsh coast. They are synonymous with grazing cattle which they require to create shorter grass and dung for feeding on.

The campsite shop sells local goodies and Elissa is keen to add her Welsh Black beef to this list. We were able to give some ideas about how to do this and share some of our experience.

When not on the farm or rowing gigs across the bay Elissa makes stunning jewellery from glass beachcombed from near by. A selection of these will be available to purchase from our next pop-up shop – they’d make a fantastic Christmas gift!              

And finally...

A few weeks ago I did a series of top turkey tips on the Lydiard Turkeys Facebook page, this was the most popular post:

 At this time of year I always get asked "Should I buy a whole bird or crown?"

Well, it’s easy - a whole bird will always be better value and be easier to cook. When we crown a turkey as well as removing the legs we also remove the back, this may not sound important but that’s where a lot of the fat is. By cooking a whole bird breast side down, as we recommend, the fats gradually drain through the breast meat keeping it moist. This doesn't happen with a crown.

The leg meat has more flavour, some people aren't keen but they can easily be removed before or after cooking and given to someone who loves them.

Some people have a crown if they don't want too much turkey but I suggest considering a small whole turkey.