The hay arrives

 

We have bought hay from the neighbouring farm rather than make our own this year as the sheep are on our hay field. We took delivery of 2 bales on Friday which were dropped into the goat paddock. They were all over them in no time!

Name the new ram

 

We have a new ram (see video above). He is a Cheviot and we bought him to breed with our Texels. But he needs a name. Fell free to post up your suggestions and we will choose the best.

Game casserole in orange sauce

 

This was dinner earlier this week - game casserole in orange sauce. All ingredients except the oranges were either produced by us or swapped. Very enjoyable!

Self-sufficient omelette

 

Lunch yesterday: potatoes grown on our farm and eggs from our hens. There is goat cheese in the omelette. A very pleasant lunch.

Moving the goats

 

Until recently, we had two of our milking nannies and one of the kids on our Nearside allotment. Penny, one of the nannies, is our best milker but we have been waiting for her to stop lactating at which point we would move them to the farm to be with the other goats over the winter. Alas, she just won't stop milking so we decided to take her to the farm anyway along with the other two and put them in the nannies' paddock. The milking operation has therefore moved with them. The Nearside allotment was starting to get too muddy and with the autumn rains already with us, the mud was set to get worse.

Leek and bean soup

 

We were sorting through the contents of our freezers recently (to create space) and discovered a bag of venison bones and some broad beans. Away from the freezer we had some leeks that urgently needed to be used up. So I invented this recipe for leek and bean soup in venison stock. 

Hawthorn for the goats

 Autumn is a good time to trim hawthorn hedges. We have lots of them on our allotments and the farm. The goats love them but the time to cut back the hedges is limited to September and October. The hedges are popular nesting sites for birds so we need to wait until the end of August before cutting them back. And from mid October onwards, the hedges are not worth cutting back for goat feed as they have lost most of their leaves by then. So a 6-7 week opportunity needs to be seized. Blink and you will miss it!

The branches left over once the goats have stripped them make good kindling. Noting wasted.