Vegging out

My first veg box of the summer.  What a joy, foraging around the plot to find the very best to offer up like a one woman harvest festival.  In this box artichokes, new potatoes, broad beans, beetroot, tomato, cucumber, basil, spring greens, onions and a lovely summer squash.  Plus the camper gets to have a bag of freshly cut salad whenever they're ready, so it doesn't wilt 

What's this wet stuff

Blimey.... after SEVEN weeks without rain we've finally had some drizzle!  Ran is forecast, but worry not this afternoon sunshine is due after lunch.

And not forgetting the artichokes

I thought the winter snow would have seen off my artichokes but no, they're back with a vengeance and it looks like we'll be eating them all summer long.

Veg boxes

Ahh the tomatoes are a day from being ready, the cucumbers are ready, the summer squash is bright and bursting and strawberries are piling up.  I love a glut!  But this year there will be no glut as campers get to order veg boxes!

Sunshine

Well another beautiful day here.  We've had the kind of weather that's made campers say "you must be wishing for rain?".  Well no.  The grass is cut and drying in the fields and like everyone else we like a little sunshine with our summer.

Here's a pic taken by one of our lovely campers who holidayed last week. Greg and Louise sent us a set of pics which really captured the spirit of the farm and made me proud.

This weekend another full set of visitors then we have some tents free from 21st June.  Anyway who wants a few days away in the country I'd book those dates - well yes I would say that - however, you don't see a weather forecast like this very often http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2141?area=EX22  so I insist that everyone grabs a little piece of the sun.

Kittens!

Haven't had time to take a pic this morning but Rosie our lovely farm cat had kittens early this morning.  Five beautiful beautiful babies, two tabbies and two black and white dotty ones.  In love!

Life's a beach

Well that was a weekend it was hard to find fault with.  Friday night tea on the beach with sizzling sausages and children jumping in the waves.  Saturday with a very useful friend who is a dab hand at beach paella.  Then Sunday at Crackington Haven. 

Here is our favourite beach, just 15 mins from home one of the most reliably empty beaches on the coast.  On Friday and Saturday we went to this beach and had a lot of space to run around which was in contrast to Crackington Haven on Sunday.

I guess you put a pub on the beach and it's always going to be busier.  Mind you, I think I'd prefer to take my own beers in a cool box and enjoy a long empty vista of wet sand.

First sight of a tomato

The sun is definitely out and urging on the tomato plants in the greenhouse.  Today while giving a thirst quenching feed I spotted my first toms on two plants.

This year have three varieties of toms, an ugly gnarled Italian beef tomato, a cherry tom and a traditional English garden type.

Reading through Sarah Raven last night she said she will sow another lot of seeds in June in order to get a late greenhouse crop which I will try this year.  I can't believe they'll have time to ripen but will give it a go.

Garden moves

This weekend saw blazing sunshine on Saturday so a day spent in the garden, planting out bedding plants, sowing more seeds, potting up seedlings, planting out Hooligan Pumpkins under fleece.  I'm incredibly pleased at how the yard garden is coming up (above).  Looking at the photo below from the last week of March it really is bursting into life.  The delphiniums are even avoiding the usual slug buffet.

I try and keep the yard in good order as this is where the shower and pantry are based. It's a nice peaceful area which catches the sun and there are few places I would rather be on a sunny day with a newspaper and an espresso.

After a sunny Saturday, Sunday was drizzly but it was good to see the newly transplanted plants drinking up the water after so many dry days.

I wish we'd kept count last year on the dry vs wet days, this year does feel much dryer and sunnier.  It's impossible to look back retrospectively at the weather forecasts as they are so often so very wrong.  Heavy rain forecast when it's dry and steaming hot, sunny intervals forecast when in reality it's a drizzling grey tupperware sky day.

So from now on I'm going to keep my own Berridon Farm weather record.  And today... is sunny!

Blackberrying in the country

Oh lord is this what life has come to.  Sitting on an old sofa in the farm yard looking like a refugee from Shameless.  Beer balanced on tum.  Buttock firming clogs on.  Frowning on my blackberry.  Not taken this morning I hasten - beer is not taken before lunch!  Well at least not on a school day.

When I moved to the country to pursue my love of blackberrying, this wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Taking the trail

The new nature trail is going down a storm this year.  Signs are placed in the field and the children can scout around to answer the questions and then... win a lolly!  Ok, it's hardly the lottery but when you're five you'd so much rather a lolly than a boring old cheque.

Some children would like to do the nature trail twice a day... naming no one in particular... you know who you are.  (Conrad, aged six, bless).

Never mind the dandelions

My lord they are everywhere these dandelions.  Weaving their way through the garden, veg plot, courtyard, lane, fields... everywhere.  I'd originally taken this pic to show my peonies which are popping up all through the garden but the dreaded yellow peril managed to get in this shot too.   Grrrrr, pass me the round up!

Salad days

This summer for the first time we're offering produce boxes for campers based on what's in season in my garden.  This time last year we were eating broad beans and peas but the snow put paid to my overwintering seedlings, but we've just started cropping, radishes, spring onions, lettuce, rocket and a abundance of herbs.

Last week a dear friend died suddenly and unexpectedly and I've been taking real solace over the past few days sitting in my new greenhouse and tending to the fragile seedlings, planting new seeds in rows and pots.

While the rest of the country seems to have had a washout bank holiday I'm happy to report that, bar a downpour on Saturday night, we were blessed with steady sunshine and blue skies all the way.  All the better to spend time in the garden, losing myself in the steady work of bringing in the summer crops.

Sunny day pics

We asked Conrad who stayed at the farm recently to send us a pic representing his stay in the sunshine... and he sent us this.  Beer in the sunshine, now that's what I call a holiday!

Swinging centre

One of the things we've done this year is to hang loads of tyres on the trees in the camping field creating a swing city. In our egocentric way we imagine that everyone's dream weekend is to sit in the sun reading the papers, eating freshly made scrambled eggs from eggs laid five minutes before, drinking freshly ground hot coffee and hearing the sounds of the children playing happily somewhere.  Somewhere.  Somewhere, over there.  Not here.  Somewhere where you know they're going to be relatively safe (as long as they don't fall off... or get knocked over).  Just an hour of peace and country quiet, that's the dream.  Well our dream anyway, don't know about anyone else... but we've made the swing centre in the hope.

Into the woods

the joy of the sunny weather is seeing the tents open to let the sunshine into the tents.  As well as the front flaps opening up the entire sides of the front can be rolled up.  This tent, number five of the five we have, is at the top of the field, it's a longer walk to the shower but is so private it's my favourite.

Wash time

Mopping out the shower room has become a quite therapeutic activity.  Mop mop mop.  We didn't scrimp when we 'did up' the old farm shower room and the showers are better than the ones in our house.  How did I let that happen!

Abi and the lamb

Here's a sweet pic of Abi who stayed on the farm last week.  I loved her cute as a button outfit and headscarf, she looks quite the shepherdess here feeding one of the lambs.

Abi wants to be a farmer when she goes up!

Safari so goodie

Big hit of the season so far has been the farm safari.  Children pile into the mini trailer and are sped around the fields by the quad bike.  They get to see the animals close up without being too feared of those great big Highland cattle horns and there is something quite exciting about being trailed across a field.  I get thrown in the back quiet often, and it still brings a smile to my face.  Next safari tonight!  And the sun is shining, there will be some happy little faces later to shoot I'll wager.

Little red tractor

It's amazing that there's nothing like sitting on a tractor to bring a smile to anyone's face, man, woman or child.  Apart from Dave that is for whom it is just... work... spoilsport!

Ginger biscuits or squeaks?

As you can see from the rather blurred image the new piglets are fast movers.  On the left is Mighty and the fellow on the right is called either Squeaks or Ginger Biscuits depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Some people don't name the animals that will end up in the pot, however, our children now completely understand the process and have lost their sentimentality.  They still have a lump in the throat when the animal takes its final journey, but when the smell of sausages is wafting across the yard from the BBQ they soon come running.

ANOTHER glorious sunny day in Devon today.  All the tents are full and we have a lot of happy people heading off to the beach today.  Some checking out the surf, some the sand, and some who don't care as long as there is a loo close by... mmm wonder which are parents of toddlers?

Loafing around

Cooking in an outdoor wood fired oven takes some getting used to.  In order to tell people how long to cook things for I'm trying my best not to just fling things and play it by ear, but to actually clock watch and, deep breath, take notes.

Last night made seed buns of varying sizes (cooked in 15 to 20 mins) and mini loaves (15 mins).

The oven is fired up next on Saturday night.  This time I'll put the rolls directly onto the stone of the oven, they'll start cooking from beneath straight away - and not keep the oven door open while I faff around taking pictures.  Think the small rolls in a high heat should cook in ten.  That's the plan anyway!

Little lamb

When you have a tiny little three day old lamb on the farm being bottle fed what do you call him?  Well for this adorable little chap there was only one name, Micro! 

We've been open four days now and have had SUN, with cloud and rain too of course, but the bright blue sky and sun was a joy to see.  Campers wrapped up warm and headed to the beach (and pub!) while we gardened, let the buffalo out of the barn to enjoy the spring sunshine.

We held out first farm safari of the year, with Dave pulling the mini trailer packed with children across the muddy fields to see the cattle and sheep in close up.  Lots of muddy ruddy faces at the end of that!

Today is changeover day!  Right now where is my mop...

Sheep, what sheep?

Here's the lane to our farmhouse from the main road (well, let's be honest, it's not a main road like the A1 is a main road, but it's the main road from the village to our house).  On the right out of sight is the gate to the camping field, straight up is the house.  Round about NOW this image should have sheep wandering up it as the blighters have escaped again!  Gggrrrrrr.

Workshop working

Only three days to go until we open for the summer camping season.  I have a list of jobs as long as both arms and a leg.  Dave is spending a whole lot of time in his workshop fixing things, pictured is his 'power tool area'.  He looks quite proud when he says it, like me showing off my carrot seedlings or presenting a home grown salad.

The field is muddy and wet so now I have to call all the campers who will arrive on Friday and remind them to pack wellingtons - is it normal to feel personally responsible for the rain?

RIP Dave

There is always a danger of naming your animals when they're destined for the pot.  However, sometimes we can't help ourselves.

In the last lot of lambs there was one pushy, bullying, greedy fellow that was always knocking the little ones off their bottles and trampling over anyone, sheep or human, in the hope of a little more milk.  So obviously we named him Dave after our own greedy, plate finisher (though I must say that Dave has never actually knocked me over to get to the last chip on my plate).

So it was with sadness this morning we discovered that Dave had died in the night.  Like some biblical warning to the danger of greediness his tum had split - this is Dave the lamb by the way not Dave the husband.  Never again will we have to hold him in a headlock to let the others finish their milk, we'll miss him.

RIP Dave

What size chicken laid that?

This is a selection of the clutch of eggs collected this morning.  Lovely petite olive and blue eggs from our fancy chicken friends, dark glossy speckled eggs from the Marans and something which although it was found in a nesting box, is surely not a hen's egg?

Well of course it is, we have a couple of larger feathered chickens who not only lay like clockwork everyday but have a propensity to the double yolker - when you hear violent, crazed, squawking coming from the hen house it's a sprint to be the first there to pluck out the huge warm egg and heading back to the house to make a fried egg sandwich.  Happy easter indeed.

Meet the family (2)

The Berridon big cat, camouflaged against the famous Berridon weeds.  There she strides up the broken stairs, little Rosie.  Blythe's kitten and the most adorable cat.  Loved by all, even Dave, who will tell anyone who mentions the C word "I hate cats".

The library

OK, not so much a library more of a box with books in.  But every year I try and get together a selection of books that the campers can borrow.  It's not as easy as you'd think to try and get books to cover every taste.  So we have everything from Dorothy Parker to Stephen King, from Paul Auster to Barbara Trapido.  There's a bit of Walter de la Mare and a couple of Mary Wesley's.  There's Camus and Harlan Corben.  And there snuggled in the middle is a nice bit chunk of chic lit.

Last year the box, ahem I mean library, grew as campers left everything from Jeffrey Archer (yes really) to Sadie Jones, let's see what comes of this year's visitors - will it be Mollie Panter-Downes or Dan Brown?

Know your onions

Spent a calm hour this weekend sat in the sunshine picking over the trays of stored onions and shallots.  Last year's harvest was mammoth, at one point in sunny August I had three large wire panels strewn with hundreds of bulbs in the courtyard.  Any which looked slightly soft around the neck were eaten straight away as this is a good indicator that they won't keep.  The rest were stored in trays on my vegetable rack in the farm pantry, which is a cool airy building which doubles as the camp site information and storage room during the summer.

So this weekend I checked the harvest, trimmed any leftover wiry roots and peeled off the top muddy layers of papery skin to reveal the rich colour of the onions and shallots.

Meet the family

Meet Lucy one of our baby buffalo.  Lucy is just over a year old but already MASSIVE.  The plan is to put her in calf when she's old enough and make our own mozzarella.  But for now she is just a lovely soft big baby girl who likes to be stroked.

The Eden project?

Much excitement today as we've found out that a bid we placed at a local auction site has won!  A house is being knocked down and we will be going to take away their geodesic greenhouse!  I've always wanted one, they are a bit star wars and allegedly the best design to keep a constant warm temperature, much better than my little glass pagoda.

So tomorrow we're heading out to figure out how to dismantle it and then re-erect it at the farm.  So, get ready for harsh words and arguments...

And the price £330!  bearing in mind I've seen a similar model for £3,000+, and this one had lovely wooden staging, I think I've got a bit of a bargain.... well that's before D and I fall out over my own version of Eden Project of course...

See you at the baa

Feeding one lamb is lovely, however bottle feeding lambs en masse is slightly more tedious. To get around the problem Dave's dad created this lamb bottle rack from bits of old wood. It's not very portable (weighs a ton!) but you simply slot the bottles into the holes and the little fellas can suck away while you stand there with your hands on your hips saying "aaahhh".

Although when the camping season starts (15 days and counting) there will be no shortage of lamb feeders.

Garlic growing

This early sunshine has given the garlic I planted before Christmas a real growth spurt. The two rows to the right are regular garlic, while the next two rows are elephant garlic which, you guessed it, promises huge chunky bulbs.

Together with the garlic planted earlier this month and a proper storage system the plan is to be completely self sufficient in garlic this year. It's one of those small things that is thrown in the shopping basket at every trip with little regard to the cost but actually those little white bulbs will add up to quite a large annual bill. At least that's the plan, it could be rotted bulbs and back to Waitrose before Christmas...

That's one big pig

Haven't quite captured the scale of my friendly piggy friend here. He was enormous, like a baby hippo. We had a visitor to the farm this week who marvelled at the size of our baby buffalo. They're about 15 month old now and the size of a Reliant Robin.

Perhaps there's room in the North Devon area for a farm of GIANT animals, The Giant Pig, The Impossibly Enormous Cow, The Chicken The Size Of A House. Yes. There's definitely something there... now where's my book on genetic engineering using a kettle and a hand whisk.

A new pig (or 14)?

We are currently without pigs on the farm. Well, that’s not quite true as we have six parma hams currently maturing, a plethora of salami hanging in the drafty rafters from a barn and a large (very large) deep freeze packed to the brim with pork chops, joints and the last of the sausages and meatballs.

But, spring is here, almost, and the time has come to get some pigs back on the farm. It takes a few months for the ground to recover from the daily puddling and rooting of pigs but now the grass is back and lush, just ready for a complete trashing at the trotters of a couple of rare breed piglets.

Still searching for the perfect pigs, but the image above shows a beautiful sow and her litter at the market last week. Dave was off at the machinery auction and if I wasn’t holding a child and a large bag of cake my hand would have been shooting up to by this lady. Not sure what him indoors would have said, there’s a world of difference between two pigs and 14!

Sunny daze

The weather is just stunning and it's beautiful to see the trees burst into life in the woodland in which our Featherdown tents are situated.

Sunny Saturday

After The Worst Winter Weather in 30 years (according to the Daily Mail) we've had non stop sunshine for well over a week. Bitterly cold of course but wrapped up warm you can almost, almost, imagine it's a summer's day. This morning we headed to the beach and lay in the sun on the dunes while the children dug a large hole. Simple pleasures.

Then a grilled lemon sole at Life's A Beach overlooking the beach in Bude (whole sole, WITH chips and peas for under a tenner! Bargain!) and back home to plant some garlic.

I'd planted some already earlier in the winter but realised that I needed to get some more in so planted a further four bulbs. Each clove will produce a whole bulb to be harvested late summer which should keep all the way into spring.

Little lambs

I'm already missing lambing live on BBC2 with Kate Humble and the ginger farmer. But to keep me company I'll head up to the stables and visit our own orphan lambs. Nine poor tiny little lambs arrived a few days ago in the back of an estate car and we've been feeding them three times a day.

Lambs are adorable and the lamb bottle feeding is one of the most popular things with the children of our campers. The only bad thing is they grow up! Last spring we were still bottle feeding the lambs over a month after they should have been weaned - sometimes the lambs were bigger than the children!

Chickens and foxes - not best of friends

Today we're been slightly sad as a less than fantastic Mr Fox has been having fun with our faithful chickens. We've been incredibly lucky that our farm has been fox free for years, but someone has now discovered our free range flock and in the last two days eight of our girls have gone.

These girls are the most prolific layers we've ever had and have laid six eggs a week each all through the winter so we're really sad that some foxy fiend has been on the attack. On that note am heading now down to the field to check on the girls.

Only a short few weeks until the Featherdown season starts again so now as well as all the other prep we also have to get some new chickens - one of the things that our smaller campers love is collecting fresh eggs so we mustn't let them down!