Farm walks / Camembarry / Honey - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 13 August, 2018

by Rosemary at 10:53am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 6 August

John topped two paddocks this morning – mainly to take off the thistle flowers. Some of these were quite short and he had to cut a bit lower than I would have liked – just as well we’re getting a bit of rain now to bring the grass on. Moved the tups to Home paddock. Four have slightly squitty bums and are under observation.

Did my paperwork and some prep for the Smallholding Scotland meeting with ScotGov officials tomorrow.

Tuesday 7 August

Rainy and cool today, but brightened up later. Woke up at 3am, unable to get back to sleep panicking about the Festival, the ScotGov meeting, squitty lambs and hay. Not good.

It’s 21 days since I saw Rosie bulling (17^th July) and there’s no sign of her coming back. If she’s held, that means she’s due around 26^th April, so we may have our first indoor-born calf. Ace will have to be moved elsewhere, since he’s a pain with the newly calved cows.

Dan made Camembert and paneer. The Camembert (we call it Camembarry) looks fantastic – and in three week’s time, we’ll be able to taste it! We have honey too.

Tell them about the honey, Mummy.

Wednesday 8 August

Lovely day for our second farm walk – seven adults and nine children this time. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves – including us. And milkshakes to Dan’s secret recipe seem to be the thing. Sold some cordial, jam, marmalade, meat and eggs too.

The walk was enlivened, if it needed it, by a David Attenborough moment of Blizzard jumping Ace and Ace reciprocating. She wouldn’t stand for him and I’d guess this is her “cleaning out” season.

Thursday 9 August

Cool this morning – definitely a change in the weather.

Dan made a big cheddar – twice the size of the previous ones, so it shouldn’t dry out so much during the maturation process.

Made a list of our entries for Carnoustie Flower Show next week – determined to enter in advance this year, rather than on the day.

We’re getting a very poor egg yield from our young hens – I think they are laying away but it’s too hot to shut them in the house for the whole day. But the first cool day, I’ll do just that.

Friday 10 August

Ooft, heavy showers today and hot sun in between. Gwenna went in for her spay; all went well and she seems absolutely fine. She’s on 48 hours “box rest”. This is going to be fun.

Dan made more paneer.

My chum Karen called in on her way to Aberdeen; great to catch up. Karen was one of the founders of the Scottish Smallholder Festival, but we see less of each other now, sadly.

Saturday 11 August

Lovely day. Took Bryn to Kinross Show, to do a wee stint on the RBST stand. It wasn’t busy. Bryn was a star – he’s such a good dog.

Dropped Bryn at home, then shot up to Monikie Flower Show to get some showing tips from Alistair. He’s worth listening too – he exhibits very successfully but was saying that, because he shows, the quality of his fruit and veg has improved because he takes more care over all aspects of his growing. So don’t poo poo the show bench!

Sunday 12 August

It’s rained all day – sometimes drizzle, sometimes heavier than that, but it’s barely let up. Cool too – I had to put a fleece on for the early feeding and milking and I had porridge for breakfast. I decided to do some office stuff – and had to light the stove. Winter is coming.