The cows are home, it's wonderful having them back, I open the back door and I can sniff cow, lovely!

We arrived at Rectory Cottage at 10am prompt,  Simon had brought up some gates to assist us, and Sally who has been looking after them for us was rather tearful, she has grown rather fond of our Dennis and although its not time yet, he won't return to Rectory Cottage next year. 

They loaded a treat, up into the yard and straight up the ramp and in.  What good little Dexters. 

They are enjoying being home, they have made their bed their own and decided who is eating out of each trough.

We also brought the last few ewes back form their summer grazing, Fred the ram has been put in with them after fitting his nice new shiny raddle. So far this week lots of bottoms have been coloured in.

Maurice and I managed to put the last roofing sheet on his new rotevator home and they are all parked in a nice line.

This week has been busy so far, we took the last two pigs to the abbatoir yesterday morning a 4am start.

They are such lovely people at the abbatoir we use Fowlers Bros in Burnham on Crouch. They are gentle with the animals and patient with us when we have a tearful moment.  They very kindly delivered the carcasses home today and hung in the fridge ready for our last batch of sausage making for the year.

We have 30kg of sausages ordered for collection on Sunday. I no what i will be doing on Saturday! I also hope to prepare 20 pheasant so I can make the pheasant, port and cranberry recipe again. 

I find myself writing this post sitting in front of the fire drinking tea, whilst Gareth is  boning out the pork at 9.30pm.  Never a dull moment but we wouldn't have it any other way!

​​What a wonderful, successful weekend!

It was my birthday on Sunday, I had pressies all weekend and what a lucky girl I was. A new Stihl Strimmer with cow horn handles,I do love a good strimmer! Mum and Dad have brought me some lesson in preparation for my trailer test. My father in law has carved me the most beautiful spinning chair out of oak from a local wood. I have an IPAD from my wonderful husband which I can currently typing this post on. Plus loads of chocolate and smellies and money towards my next lot of fruit trees. Thoughroughly spoilt! 

The long weekend was also our first weekend selling sausages from the farm gate. We had  a wonderful time, breaking the carcass down and mincing all the meat, before turning it into sausages on saturday. We SOLD out and had to delay some orders until the next pigs go on Tuesday.

Everything went really well and we were very pleased with the packaging. Although time consuming I think it really finishes our special product.

We also made some pheasant sausages with port and cranberries for customers to try, they went down really well and we will be selling these next time.

The order book is now open for Sunday 24th November, please email me your orders to avoid disappointment, as before sausages will be priced at £8 per kilo. Danielle.perkins@yahoo.co.uk

We have now sold 11 out of 15 turkeys and more hams. 

We really are enjoying sharing our small holding life!

The cows are coming home this weekend, I can't wait. Tilly is really big now, we are pretty sure she is in calf and due at the end of April. 

Nite nite

I've finished work for the weekend, the pig has arrived home, sausage making here we come!

We are pleased to share our Hygiene Certificate:

We have had all of our T's crossed and I's dotted by Environmental Health and Trading Standards. 

We are pleased to say that next weekend will be an exciting time for us! We will be making our first batch of Furzedown Smallholding Sausages that will be For Sale.

They will be made using our home reared Oxford Sandy and Black pigs that have been reared in our woodland. 

The flavours will be:

Breakfast Sausage

Furzedown's Fiery Dragon

Toulouse

Hungarian 

Cumberland

We are taking orders now, as only one pig is going to be used. 

We will only being offering sausages up to six times a year, so don't miss your chance. 

They will be priced at £8 per kilo and collection is only on Sunday 10th November. 

Small orders excepted.

Wow i'm so pleased to have finally posted that! Such an achievement for us. So order you sausages now, by email or phone: danielle.perkins@yahoo.co.uk or 07854595640.

Apart from preparing for sausages, we have been busy with other things. 

As much as I try to be good with a camera, I'm not very clever with it! But here is me having a go!

We took Lottie and Annie over to meet Mrs Stockwells unrelated ram on Saturday Morning. It was Annies first time on a halter and what a good girl she was. A little tickle on the bum by Mrs Stockwells Daughter riding her pony made it a swift walk up the field. 

We collected the rest of the grapes from Langford where the sheep have been grazing and I have another demi john of wine brewing and more bottles of juice. I'm so pleased we have made use of them, rather than them being put on the compost heap. 

We also popped into the orchard and collected some more good windfalls. I didn't have as much juice left as I had hoped for cider making from the apple day. So instead of getting the press out, I decided to extract the juice with the pasteuriser.  Much less mess and two demi johns brewing away!

We are trying to work our way through the game in the freezer so Saturday night Mum served Oak Smoked Wild Duck, its was delicious. 

We are a little later than normal but on Sunday we collected the first of our game birds for this season. We are having them from a different local shoot this year and what lovely people they are. Fingers crossed we will fill our freezer with a great variety over the winter. We hope to have Muntjac, Hare, Rabbit, Duck, Pheasant and Partridge. 

We checked the bee's at lunchtime, we started with the small colony, little buggers! I have a nice sting on my thigh now. They are doing well, although we are supplementing them with Fondant, what sticky stuff that is. The older colony seem well, they are so quiet and gentle. When you open them up you just get a little hum, whereas the others are much noisier and in your face!

Well i'm having a cup of tea typing this post before an early night, up at 4.30am in the morning to run the pig to the abattoir ready for sausage making.