Welcome to our January newsletter 

The ewes are grateful that it has stopped raining!

On Saturday me and Andy (Brother) had a great afternoon's canoe trip on the Thames and out onto North Meadow at Cricklade. In the summer we make our amazing species rich hay here but now the whole site is covered by water from the Thames and the Churn. Water depth was between 20cm and 100cm. It's this annual flooding that makes the site so special. The trip ended with an on board snack of scones and sloe gin.

Oxford Down Mutton & Hogget available

The first mutton boxes and the first, and probably last, hogget boxes of 2023 are available to order now for collection at our pop-up shop on Saturday 28th January 10am – noon.

Mutton is our absolute favourite. It is very versatile and can be cooked in a variety of ways - slow cooked curry and tagines or quick cooked chops done in the oven. It does have a firmer bite and deeper flavour than lamb, with a slightly higher fat content, but this makes the best homemade burgers when using the mince, with no binders needed just a bit of dried mint or apricots. Delicious! We will have individual cuts of mutton available on the chill counter at the pop-up shop if you don't fancy a selection box.

Hogget is much sought after as it is in between lamb and mutton in age meaning it is just as tender as lamb but a bit bigger in size of chops and joints. We rarely offer hogget and only have three boxes left.

This year rather than a New Year’s resolution I’ve decided to embark on more of a New Year challenge….

I have a reasonable idea of the birds and butterflies on the farm and a splattering of plant, mammal and dragonfly knowledge but that’s about where it ends. So I’ve decided to try and broaden my taxonomic awareness of what we have here on the farm and open my eyes a little wider and see more detail. I’d love to know what species of worms, beetle, fungi and spiders we have hiding, unidentified in the corners and crevices.

The starting point has to be thinking about all the families of living things.  Other than the really tiny stuff (bacteria and archaea) life divides into four kingdoms, animals, plants, fungi and protista (basically things that don’t fit in the other three categories – like slime moulds). Of these four, I’ve started thinking about the animals - these are divided into phyla of which seven are likely to be present here on the farm; segmented worms, flat worms, hair worms, molluscs, hydra, Chordates (things with a back bone) and Arthropods. Arthropods are going to be the big group to investigate here as they contain anything with paired jointed appendages so moths, flies, beetles, spiders, millipedes, mites, springtails and many more.

I do hope that wasn’t too boring, I find the taxonomic classification fascinating and it demonstrates there’s so much more to learn about than just the pretty birds and butterflies! I’m sure you’ll appreciate this is more likely a lifetime’s work rather than a year’s project, I’d best crack on!

As of now I’ve listed just over 200 species, mainly birds (101), mammals (14) and insects (74). I’ve only just scratched the surface but already learnt a lot about what we have crawling and slithering about the place.

One of the most interesting things identified so far is a Horse Hair Worm. As its name implies it’s a long thread like worm, I spotted it swimming happily in a puddle but they’re not as innocent as they look. Their small eggs are eaten accidently by tiny insects which in-turn are eaten by crickets or beetles. All this time the worm is growing and digesting its host but not quite killing it. Finally, it somehow manipulates its host’s brain, forcing it to jump into water and drown. The worm then promptly burrows out of the unfortunate creature to find a mate and continue the cycle. Who knew such horrors were taking place!    

In other (arguably more exciting news) Kingfisher sightings have increased lately. In fact, I’ve ticked them off on my monthly list for 6 consecutive months which has never happened before. They will have been having a very hard time with the cold weather in December and now the high flows in the streams. I’m hopeful that the one we have hanging around may be doing so because of the improved habitat we have. Kingfishers can suffer very high mortalities in hard winters with youngsters being particularly affected so I hope the improved fishing opportunities are being appreciated.   

I have my eye on a section of bank along the brook, which with a few tweaks may be suitable as a nesting habitat. Kingfishers require a vertical bank in which to tunnel into for a nest, but the bank must be tall enough that it won’t flood and can’t be accessed by predators from above or below. I’ll keep you posted.  

Pop-up farm shop - Saturday 28th January 10am - noon

Park Farm, Hook Street, SN5 3NY

This month we will have a full range of fresh Oxford Down mutton and our 100% pasture fed beef on the chill counter.

In the freezer we have a great offer on our free range turkey legs and also some turkey breast joints.

As well as all the usual goodies: Jams & chutneys from Brinkworth, milk & butter from Wroughton, bread & sweet treats including lardy cakes from Pewsey, a range of British beans and pulses, a small selection of veg & cheeses plus more!

Lindsay's shepherds update

Well, it will soon be time to move out of the house and into the campervan with Colin (the cairn terrier) for lambing time. I park it in the lambing shed so I am on hand day or night, it’s handy as it means I only have to roll out of bed and straight into my wellies 😊

There are plenty of jobs to do before then, some of which we did last week. One job was crutching the ewes – this means tidying up their “lady area” so that there is less risk of any contamination from dirty wool getting into the lamb on arrival and it also makes it easier to see exactly what’s happening! It’s pretty back-breaking work and does make Chris fairly grumpy as he has the job of securing them and they are usually a bit wriggly, and he also has to contend with me shouting at him to be gentle (which he always is) as they are very pregnant (a fact he knows very well as he has to listen to me discussing all my lambing plans most days!) The next job is pressure washing and disinfecting the lambing shed. This will keep me entertained for the best part of two days. The scanning results at the end of November weren’t as good as usual with a few ewes that are empty (not pregnant) and we are expecting a lot of single lambs, however just over half of them are expecting twins which is good. Ideally, I would like a ewe to rear two lambs as she has two teats and enough milk for twins. I believe the main reason for the poorer scanning results is down to the incredibly hot summer we had. The ewes were putting all their energy into maintaining body condition (which they did a bit too well) and perhaps didn’t ovulate as many eggs as they would normally have done. Every year is different and of course whatever the results there’s always something I’m not happy with – last year I had too many triplets! I now just need to hope the weather is kind and they all pop out with little issue.