Greenwood Holding: 2010

Thursday, 9 September 2010

New Arrivals - Dorset Down Polls

Thanks to Craig and Jayne we now have two new arrivals at Greenwood, two lovely Dorset Down Poll Ewes. After Helen and Craig drove down to Taunton, they came back with these two 5month old ewes. They didn't get back to 9pm and it was pitch black, didn't take long though to get them unloaded and settled in. Further updates will follow. Next project to start the haven for the Ex-Battery Hens.

Friday, 3 September 2010

'Flushing'!!?? No not the toilet!!

Helen and Buddy (our black labrador) have been scouring the land today! Buddy managed to 'flush' out 4 pheasants, 1 hare and a very peeved off family cat!!! (sorry Tommy!)
But they did bring home, wild plums, sloes and blackberries, all to go in the Greenwood delights....Hot Spiced Plum Chutney, Sloe Gin and Vodka and the old favourite..Blackberry and Apple Crumble..Yummy.....
Eliza (our breeding sow) will be AI'd in about 3weeks time, can't wait, hopefully piglets will be due in January..(Helen hopes it will be around the 15th for her birthday!!) meanwhile Jordan, her daughter, will be AI'd in Jan/Feb for her first litter......exciting times ahead!!!!!

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Foraging on the land today!! WOW! 8lb of juicy Damson's, a good bucket full of Cobnuts, Elderberries are ripening nicely and a few more days for the wild plums!! Can't wait......trying a new recipe for Damson Jam..we'll let you know how it goes, and if it's any good we'll post the recipe on the blog.
Rabbit traps have been laid and we know they are there, but as of yet 'no show'....we'll get you 'pesky vermit'!!!!! Watch this space......................

Sunday, 29 August 2010

We have had a very productive day down the land today. Parents are down and they gave us the drive to carry on clearing. Dad and Helen made a nice fire and started to clear all the rotten wood. Mum spent all the day in the Polytunnel tending to all the tomatoes and peppers. Me, as usual clearing all the rubbish. Special finds today include, slow worm, toad, Adder and proof that we have rabbits. Luke go get me traps!!!! We'll see if they are productive.

Piggy Update

We have 4 new arrivals. 8 week old Saddleback pigs. The plan is to have Eliza our logo sow AI'd next month. We will keep you posted.

July 2010 - Two of the Porkers have gone to the abbatior, this wasn't as harrowing as we thought it would be. In fact the experience was quite enlightening and the people there were very helpful considering we are complete novizes. Three halves of pork were collected later that week and WOW how much pork did we have. We have sold two of the halves and the other is for our own use. The other half went to the butchers to be turned into sausages and we collected them the following week. We thought we were doing well when the butcher came out with a huge black bag of sausages. But he then went out the back and came out with another two. 380 pure pork sausages in total. Beautiful!!!!!

The Land

When we first took over this 3 1/2 acres, it was in a right state. It looked like it had been previously used as a dumping ground. So much so that after two weeks of clearing and it not looking like we were getting anywhere, we very nearly handed it back.

One tea time we put down a plan of what we want to do with it and came up with the solution that we needed to make another entrance half way down the hedge and make a start from one end. So off we went and Shawn made a start on clearing the hedgeline and putting in a five bar gate. Helen made a start on strimming and clearing what we call the bottom field. Hey presto, two days later we could see where we were going and more importantly we could let the kids in.

We have now turned this area into a sheep paddock (with mini tree orchard) and two large pig pens. At last we can now start at looking livestock down there.

Greenwood Holding

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