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A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
to all of you from all of us at North Down Farm.

FOR SALE:
A range of DEVON RUBY STORE CATTLE.
GLOUCESTER OLD SPOT PIGS - breeding stock, weaners ready to finish, and all ages from 3 months to 10 months, many finished and ready to go for pork, bacon or ham.
Please phone 01363 85115 for details.

15 December 2009
Elsie Pig farrowed ten piglets at 4am this morning, just a few days after her sister Persephone farrowed eleven piglets. Elsie is now the happiest pig after a rather grumpy labour involving much bashing about of rubber buckets and nesting with them. This is her third litter and our thirty-fifth. Some more pedigree registered gilts have gone to new homes in South Devon, Somerset and East Sussex where we hear they have all settled in well.

11 November 2009
The cattle are all housed now for the winter and happy to be indoors and out of the recent stormy weather. Some more pigs and cows and calves have moved to their new homes.

27 October 2009
Lots of comings and goings at the moment. Some of the cows and calves have gone to their new homes, including to our vet's farm, which is very nice. Esther and Esmerelda farrowed 25 piglets between them last week. They have been visiting each other's litters in a very sociable way.
5 October 2009
The last calf of the year was born on October 2 and she is named Pink and is very pretty.
Even more piglets now that Estella has just had her first litter. She's a quiet young sow, unlike some other boisterous members of the herd I can think of! Such as Eyebrows who tried to eat my watch and made some good pig-teeth shaped dents in it and Esther who pulled a hose pipe under her fence and turned the tap on.

23 September 2009
This glorious autumn weather continues and all the livestock seem to be enjoying it and basking in the sun. The swallows left on the 18th and the Canada Geese arrived on the 17th in a massive honking flock.
Penny Pig had her first litter two days ago at lunchtime. This was much appreciated by us midwives. I have been known to nod off in the ark along with a new-born litter of snoozing piglets after finishing midwiving at 3 in the morning.....We've now had well over 200 piglets born to the herd.
Yesterday a group of seven porkers lifted a metal gate off its hinges and went walkabout, still in the field, until they found the smelliest cowpat and then they all rolled in it. They are all happily back in their paddock, with the gate hinge now pinned in such a way that even a pig can't demolish it, but boy, do they pong and they are covered in dried green poo. You know that saying - happy as a pig in ****. Well, what can I say! I don't know what the attraction of a cowpat is because pigs don't roll in their own poo.
6 September 2009
We moved lots of pig families about today. The first thing a sow does when she goes into a new paddock is to find the muddiest part and then roll about it.
1 September 2009
Another litter of piglets was born three days ago to Petronella Pig. She produced eleven boisterous squeakers in two hours and is a very happy mother. New born piglets are about 100th of the size of the mothers.
Some of the older litters of piglets have discovered blackberries and spend a lot of time standing on their little hind legs with their heads in the hedge.

27 August 2009
Peaches Pig farrowed last night. This makes our 28th litter to date. She'd spent the afternoon nesting in typical pig fashion including collecting buckets and bits of string. The nesting instinct is very strong in a sow about to give birth and her choice of objects can be very original. See 29 July! I sat with Peaches while she farrowed, as I usually do with all the sows, and it was very peaceful and harmonious.
23 August 2009

We have once again been accredited by Freedom Food. This is the RSPCA's farm assurance and food labelling scheme and means that we meet their high welfare standards for the care of all our farm animals.
11 August 2009
I have renamed one of the lambs Menace the Ramlamb because he thinks nothing of leaping into my barrow at every opportunity. While this skill is much to be admired in one way, it can be rather inconvenient. The ram lambs have now been moved in with the senior rams where they can't get up to such mischief. This is a great success because they follow the adult rams about adoringly and the adult rams accept such adoration graciously as their due.
7 August 2009
We are now selling Scotch Eggs that we hand-make using our Gloucester Old Spot sausage meat. And though I say it myself they are yummy!

29 July 2009
Portia Pig farrowed her first litter this morning a week earlier than expected. Should have known something was up yesterday when she dragged 100 feet of yellow hosepipe under a gate and into her house and coiled it into a nest.
Some neat recycling was achieved last week by donating hairs from our cows' tails that had got stuck on fences to a fisherman who sells his hand-tied flies at South Molton market.
20 July 2009
This is a good time of year for topping the fields, to encourage good grass growth and stop the spread of injurious weeds like thistles and nettles. I have been doing some by hand using a long handled scythe. This is great fun and excellent exercise, though using the tractor is much quicker! The orchard is always done by hand because of the trees and it has really benefited from a combination of my thwacking and the ewes munching. I usually leave some thistles in the hedgerows to encourage butterflies and bees.
Ella Pig farrowed just over a week ago. Her piglets are much warier than Prudence's recent litter but I am expecting them to jump on my wellies any day now.
6 July 2009
From Thursday 9 July we will have a stall at South Molton market on Thursdays for six weeks, as well as every Saturday. We're looking forward to that and we'll be selling sliced ham as a new product.
The first week in July has been very productive with the arrival of two new calves and thirteen new piglets, thanks to mothers: Generous Cow, Cupid Cow and Prudence Pig. I suppose I ought to thank the sires too: Erik the Red and Pedro Pig. The new calves are named Gossip, a traditional Devon Ruby name, and Arthur because his ear tag is 42!

28 June 2009
We're been sheep shearing this week, resulting in very cool and relaxed sheep and wonderfully soft hands for the shearers. It's all that lanolin in the fleece!
We've got a lovely new pork terrine for sale. We hand make it using our Gloucester Old Spot pork, liver, cream, brandy and spices. You can buy it at our Saturday market stalls on 4 July at Crediton and South Molton.
19 June 2009
Another busy week. Petra calved a little bull calf at 2am this morning and is a very calm and attentive mother. We're very nearly finished calving with only three more to come. Elvira Pig farrowed her 7th litter and our 24th on Tuesday. Elvira is a pig with lots of character and she always gets very grumpy towards the end of her pregnancies, turning her water trough over every two minutes and barging her way into the farmyard for a walk and change of scene. But as soon as she's farrowed she settles right down to peaceful motherhood. At least she will until her brood are about four weeks old and then she will start wanting to go for a walk again.....
13 June 2009
We found out today that we won a prize for our sausages at the Devon County Show in the Speciality Pork Sausage class. We are completely thrilled to bits! The competition was judged by the ‘Black Farmer’ Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones and well respected Devon butcher Gerald David. Entries came from all over the country, not just Devon, and the competition organiser and Show Steward Deborah Custance-Baker said: 'I am really looking forward to welcoming both the judges to the County Show and in particular to the Sausage Competition. They will both have a tough job selecting the ultimate sausage, as the quality of sausages has risen in the last few years. Real sausages are so tasty these days, we regularly get comments such as “they taste like sausages used to taste” – they are pork in a skin. The animals are traditionally reared and the meat is allowed to mature, giving the sausages a fuller flavour. These are a real meal instead of just a filler!' We entered three varieties of our sausage: our famous Pork & Marmalade (with my home-made Seville Orange marmalade), Honey & Ginger, and Leek & Spring Onion. We also want to say a big thank-you to John and Richard Coles, our butchers, who make our sausages from our ingredients and to our specification.
11 June 2009
Weather wise June has been something of a roller coaster. In the space of a week I have gone from filling up pig wallows (mud makes excellent sun-screen) and hosing down pigs to keep them cool in temperatures of 80 degrees, to splashing about in water proofs and sudden ponds created by forty-eight hours of non-stop torrential, and I mean torrential, rain. Our pigs never seem to mind the weather, being very adaptable and easy-going. The important thing is for them to have shade and plenty of dry bedding. Of course they pull their bedding out of their arks in really hot weather. And they do love a hose pipe shower. Pedro Boar loves it so much that he follows the hose pipe if you stop spraying him.
Continuing my watery theme the cattle barns have now all been mucked out and I have been having fun pressure-washing and disinfecting them. Nearly as much fun as having a bonfire!

29 May 2009
Our chorizo is available from today which is very exciting for us. This air-dried sausage is made from our Gloucester Old Spot pork blended with dried red peppers from Andalusia and some chilli.
6 May 2009
Spring turnout for the cows and calves today. This is always a joyous event with much kicking up of heels and flying of tails. Getting the timing right for turnout is very important. If the cows go out before the new grass really gets going then they eat it right down and it can never catch up over the summer months.
Another litter of piglets arrived at three in the morning yesterday. That's our fifth litter in as many weeks. I have tried to tell the girls that farrowing in the daytime is more civilised but litters come when they want to. And these piglets were just thrilled to be born and were immediately scampering about all over the place. Eyebrows Pig (you have to see her facial markings, a sort of permanent look of surprise) is a young first-time mum coping very happily with her new spotty brood.
1 May 2009
Our latest batch of salami will be on sale from tomorrow. This is a delicious blend of pork, red wine, garlic and chilli which has been air-dried for four weeks.
Persephone and Elsie Pigs have both farrowed in the last week so there are lots of spring piglets squeaking about. These two mothers are sisters and both have been taking an aunty-ish interest in the other's new litter - sticking their heads into the other's ark to say hello, and holding a conversation of grunts back and forth from ark to ark.
May Day traditionally heralds the coming of summer with warmer weather and the blossoming of flowers and fruit trees. Our orchard cider apple trees are gloriously in bloom, although the different varieties don't all flower together.

21 April 2009
More than half way through calving now and the cows have organized their crèche system. This includes Erik the Red, senior bull and father of most of the calves. He takes his turn sitting with the new calves while their mothers are eating and has even been known to give them a quick wash. Mind you some of the cows have given us a quick wash too (a quick swipe of a sand-papery tongue over a sleeve or whatever happens to be in reach). This means they accept us as part of the herd which is an excellent thing and the cattle are always very relaxed when we are in among them. Brimstone, our young bull, has just fathered his first ever calves, so it's cigars all round.
We've just had the fields limed which maintains the PH level and ensures good grass growth in a natural way. It's also very sustainable because the limestone has been recycled after being used in the processing of sugar. So believe it or not our limestone came from British Sugar plc!
5 April 2009
Heaps going on here at the moment as we all take advantage of the sunny dry weather. Outdoors we've been spreading the farm yard muck on the fields, all entirely natural and only from the livestock themselves. We've been reinforcing some pig fencing which is an on-going task with a herd of digging inquisitive pigs. We've farrowed 23 piglets and calved two more calves. We sold out of salami as soon as it was ready and we're curing several more batches. Jim has made some new pig houses with a lot of help from Esther Pig who wandered off with some of the tools. Typical pig behaviour in my opinion.

29 March 2009
We're now a quarter of the way through calving. One of the new bull calves is particularly bouncy even for a calf so he has been named Tigger. When not butting our wellies or chewing our trousers he likes to shove his head under our jackets. He's shown no signs of shyness from the minute he was born and while all of our cows are friendly and relaxed we've never had one so effusively delighted to see us as he is.
The first swallows arrived two weeks earlier than usual on March 25 and were zooming around the sheep.
19 March 2009
'Spring has sprung, the grass has riz' as Ogden Nash would say. It's been a gloriously sunny spring week here in every sense. Two more calves arrived in quick succession. The farm hens are laying prolifically with a lot of loud and proud squawking afterwards to make sure we know they've just laid an egg. Esther and Esmerelda Pigs are due to farrow this weekend and are looking large and contented. The hedgerows are bursting into life with primroses, celandine and wild daffodils. And there has been a lot of pinging and dancing on hind legs by the sheep who are showing their pleasure at the change in the season.
9 March 2009
A weekend of twos has just whizzed by. We had stalls at two farmers markets and the first two calves of the year were born; one named Plum and one named Brian. And if you are thinking Brian is a strange name for a calf it's all to do with his being named in honour of an Exmoor farmer we know. The farmer's wife is called Edna and Brian the Calf's mum is named after her. We are delighted to be selling meat to The Lazy Toad at Brampford Speke and to Lewis' Exmoor Tea Rooms in Dulverton.
1 March 2009
From this month we will have a stall every Saturday at South Molton's Pannier Market (8.30am-1pm), selling pork charcuterie, hams, bacon and salami, all produced from our own pigs.
There is a new litter of piglets thanks to Peaches Pig, another first time mum. Old Spots are really great mothers and Peaches' offspring have been sleeping under her lovely lop ears. It must be very warm under there! We usually put pairs of sows to the boar at a time which is why we get new litters born so close together. This has lots of advantages, including the right amount of company for our two boars, George and Pedro. And as we get up in the night a lot to check on mothers-to-be when a litter is due it makes good sense to be doing it for two sows rather than one.

11 February 2009
Petronella Pig is Top Mum and farrowed her first litter last night. This is also the first litter of this year. Petronella is a very tidy pig and she made herself a beautiful nest in which to give birth. She's been very attentive to her new piglets, not to say indulgent, grunting happily as they scramble over her snout and under her ears and wobble about on her back.
7 February 2009
Our first ever batch of North Down Farm salami was ready today and sold out at Crediton Farmers Market. We've already got orders for the next batch which is curing as I type and will be ready at the beginning of March.
The recent snow has been a source of great entertainment to the pigs, giving them something new to dig about in. They made me laugh by collecting rings of snow around their noses and being completely unfazed by the sudden change in the weather. It was extra straw all round for everyone.
4 February 2009
FOR SALE: we are selling our Ashford Spinning Wheel for £150. In very good condition.
Please telephone us on 01363 85115.
1 February 2009
A good week for the birds here. I rescued a house sparrow who had found his way down a chimney and was sitting inside the woodburner, which wasn't lit I hasten to add. I wasn't fast enough to catch him when I opened the woodburner door and he flew up the stairs and spent the night roosting on the landing light. He rejoined his sparrow gang the next morning by flying out of the landing window none the worse for his night as a farmhouse sparrow. I also did the annual RSPB garden bird watch and got myself a good tally.
We have two kinds of pig arks on the farm. The majority are built in situ by Jim and made of corrugated prebend and tannelised timber. They are immensely heavy and can only be moved by roping them to the tractor. Then there are the two prefab plastic arks we have that can be moved by two humans in case of an emergency. Well, it turns out that they can be moved by industrious pigs as well. The three sows currently sleeping in one of them keep pushing it about as if it is a football. The previous occupants were a litter of six month old porkers and they kept pulling out the pegs that anchor it. We kept putting them back. And every time they pulled them out they piled them up in a heap in the same place. Pretty amusing if you're a pig, unless they thought that us dim humans wouldn't be able to find the pegs if they piled them up somewhere else.

18 January 2009
We have just sold Bruno, a very handsome young Shetland ram, to a farm in Dorset, where I think he will enjoy a lot of attention both from his girls and his new owners. He has an excellent fleece and a fine set of double curled horns. We weaned Elvira's piglets this afternoon and now she is very grouchy indeed and is growling away to herself. She usually calms down after a day or two and returns to her sunny natured self. She only gets annoyed about the process because she is such an attentive mother.
I have been making Seville marmalade all week and so the house has been smelling fruity and Mediterranean for days. That should keep us going for a year's worth of breakfasts and for putting into our Pork & Marmalade Sausages.
7 January 2009
The cold spell continues, and when I say cold I mean absolutely freezing with temperatures down to -5 and not coming back up past 0. The river has frozen right across and the garden pond has metamorphosed into a fabulous ice sculpture. The pros of all of this are that it looks gorgeous, it's rather nice to be working outside in it if you're wrapped up properly, and then you can come into a roaring log fire. The cons are that outdoor jobs take much longer, everyone needs a lot more straw and the ten littlest pigs refused to come out of their ark (breakfast in bed, please, Mrs Human) until they'd got used to the chill.
We always like to feed the birds whatever the weather and we usually get blackbirds and fieldfares in the orchard over the winter eating the windfalls. But this year there are hundreds of them carpeting the grass and taking off in great clouds of black and grey when disturbed. It's a glorious sight.
1 January 2009
Happy New Year to one and all! It's been a wintry start to the year. It was so cold on New Year's Eve that my wheelbarrow froze to the farmyard. We have put little insulating jackets on all the outdoor yard water taps. Luckily for us we have just had some of the water pipes re-plumbed inside the barns and so now they don't freeze up. We had a very peaceful Christmas and are now in the process of making Salami, a new charcuterie adventure.

24 December 2008
The Christmas mail order meat boxes have all arrived safely and all the local deliveries are done. Time to put another log on the fire and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet after a hectic few weeks. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas from all at North Down.
15 December 2008
Christmas is coming and the sheep are getting fat...well, fluffy! We've had a strange mixture of hard, glittering frosts and torrential rain recently. We straw out the cattle and pigs every day when the weather is like this. The youngest piglets are becoming very bold and swarm around my feet at every opportunity, chewing whichever bit of me is in reach. Mucking out takes on a surreal quality when a piglet is hanging off your knee.
We've been doing extra Christmas farmers markets this month, including Crediton Christmas Market this coming Saturday on 21 December, where we'll be selling seasonal gammons and hams, chipolatas and bacon.

29 November 2008
We've just walked the cows, calves and our bull, Erik the Red, up the lane and into the barn for the winter. They are happy to be indoors because the fields are getting wet and muddy with the seasonal weather. It's all a big adventure for some of the calves who were born outside and have never even seen a barn. They stick close to their mums and peer at their new home and bounce about in the straw.
25 November 2008
We'll have a stall at Hittisleigh Christmas Market this Saturday afternoon, November 29. We're also taking orders for Christmas including hams and joints and chipolatas and sausage meat for stuffing your turkey.....
The first frosts of the year have arrived together with a flock of fieldfares. They make a colourful commotion in the orchard eating the windfalls. We've also got a huge roost of jackdaws in a stand of oak trees. They squabble noisily and robustly all day and then perform magnificent synchronised acrobatics at sunset.
3 November 2008
The kitchen piglets are now back outdoors with their mum. The Farm Cat took their temporary presence in the house in her stride with great nonchalance. Jim became known as The Hogfather for being such a good nursemaid.
Then Elvira Pig had nine piglets in the middle of last night. This is her sixth litter and altogether she has had 45 piglets. So I say she is definitely the matriarch of the North Down herd.

30 October 2008
Well, we have piglets in the kitchen. Two little scraps who were born yesterday and needed some extra bottle feeding. They are in a box in front of the Aga and the kitchen is full of squeaks and straw and the occasional ouch. Piglets have razor sharp teeth and can't always tell the difference between the bottle and the fingers holding it. They drink about 1oz every hour or two and so are keeping us busy!
18 October 2008
FOR SALE: we are selling our 2004 SIROMER TRACTOR 304S, 30 hp, complete with front loader, bucket and four feet link box. This has now been sold.
12 October 2008
The Crediton Gazette newspaper has just done a feature on Crediton Farmers Market which is held on the first Saturday of every month in the town square. They took some really good photos of this vibrant market, including one of us on our stall. The market has just won another award for Best Farmers’ Market of the Year in the Devon Life Food & Drink Awards. This market prides itself on having produce that is as locally based as possible and it also promotes itself as a community hub bringing together different aspects of Crediton and the surrounding area.
See www.creditonfarmersmarket.com
10 October 2008
This is a month for outdoor jobs on the farm: checking the guttering, disinfecting the barns,  pulling up the carpet in my study and painting the floorboards. Okay, so that's not an outside job but it is something I really want to do, livestock permitting. They always come first. The rams will go in with the ewes in a few weeks so another important October job is to work out the family groups for tupping and check everyone's feet and teeth.

28 September 2008
Both Prudence and Ella farrowed their second litters in the last three days, producing ten and five piglets each. They are relaxed mothers and this helps the new babies learn about the world more quickly. Every litter behaves differently and they do tend to operate as a gang to begin with. Some litters are off en masse exploring their surroundings within minutes of being born, some are quicker to work out how to get their milk and some litters are very vocal and some are not. All are always completely adorable though and it is impossible not to smile when watching piglets.
21 September 2008
All the August piglets are now out and about and exploring their new paddocks, twirling their tails with excitement. Ella and Prudence are due to farrow soon and so we've been moving all the pigs around again. The herd stands at 54 at the moment so it takes patience, planning and a good sense of humour. Oh and it's very noisy.
We solved a mystery for one of our neighbours who walks her dog past the farm at 6am every day. She was puzzled by strange rumblings coming from the other side of the hedge. It turned out to be George, the senior boar, snoring rather loudly.
The weather has been glorious lately, with pearly misty mornings, perfect autumn days, masses of hedgerow berries and hips, skeins of geese passing overhead, fat red sunsets and a harvest moon. Good garden bonfire weather too, so I had one.
15 September 2008
We will be one of the stallholders showcasing local produce at the Rangemoors’ Winter Warming Party and Open Day at the Airfield, Torrington Road, Winkleigh on Saturday September 20th. Judi Spiers, from BBC Radio Devon, will open the festivities at 10am and then Chris Archambault,
 the Head Chef of the Hotel Barcelona in Exeter, will give a cooking demonstration using our Devon Ruby Beef. There will be live music and other entertainment. We hope to see you there!
2 September 2008
We will be at Crediton Farmers Market on the first Saturday of every month (10am-1pm) from next week, selling our Gloucester Old Spot pork, bacon, gammon and sausages.
Joe the Ram has just left us for his new home in Somerset where he will be squiring Shetland ewes and living in an orchard with ducks and geese. Which sounds lovely and he's got very kind new owners in Tracey and David.
Just spent a happy five minutes watching three very small piglets disappear into an empty feed bucket and push it about. I think I will leave it in their pen as a toy.

17 August 2008
Our ten-month old pedigree Patrick Gloucester Old Spot boar was sold today and we're pleased to say that he's gone off to a good home near Dartmoor. He's a very sociable and chatty pig and he'll be very happy with his new harem.
We did a charity Cider'n'Sausage Tasting evening last Friday in Hittisleigh. The cider was provided by a local producer Barney Butterfield from Sandford Orchards and we provided the sausages and everyone had to guess what was in them. (Honey with root ginger, spring onion, apricot, and sun-dried tomato with basil in case you're wondering). It was lots of fun and these flavours were so popular that we will be adding them to our regular repertoire.
The recent unseasonable weather brought down most of our rather large peach tree. I had been mulling over how to prune it as it was cascading into the courtyard garden in a rather opulent way. But I didn't get round to it and now it is out of my hands which will teach me.
Two pairs of Shetland breeding ewes have also just left us for new homes in a neighbouring village and further afield in Somerset.
12 August 2008
The glorious 12th indeed for us! Persephone Pig had her first litter of piglets early this morning with no fuss. Then Elsie Pig had her first litter of piglets in the middle of the afternoon. Mothers and children are all well tucked up in a lot of straw away from these torrential summer showers.
Then Generous Cow had her calf at the same time as Elsie was farrowing. So I mid-wived the pig while Jim mid-wived (mid-husbanded?) the cow. We've named the new bull calf Mustard and he is the last of this year's calves. So all is very well on the farm today.
The sheep in the orchard are scoffing up all the windfall apples which they regard as a great treat. They eat them whole, very delicately, and then dribble a lot. The pigs love apples too and eat them in much the same way as sheep only with more vigour, or fewer manners depending on how you look at it. The cattle also get very excited about their apple treats which come in the form of pulp; the by-product of our autumn apple pressing for juice and cider.
11 August 2008
We had a visiting Sparrowhawk in the cider barn who couldn't seem to find his way out. We rang a falconer for advice, duly given but with the cavil that when one got lost in the Barnstaple pannier market recently it took two weeks for it to come down from the apex and find the door. Ours took two days and we enticed him out using bright lights in the dark. The first night we tried this he ignored us completely, asleep on a beam with his head under his wing and wouldn't wake up even for my banging about. He was very handsome indeed and I am glad that he is safely back in the wild.
4 August 2008
We have a pedigree Gloucester Old Spot boar for sale at £150 who was born on the farm in October 2007. He's very friendly and has nice markings and is ready to work. He's a Patrick out of a Star Antoinette sow.
We also have some old oak cider barrels for sale at £50 each.
1 August 2008
Marigold Calf made her entrance on the 30 July early in the morning, all wobbly legs and fluffy tail. Only one more cow to calve now and several litters of piglets due any day.
Just to prove that it is a small and circular world today we delivered ten Shetland ewes to their new home which is just down the road from where they were born on our old farm on Exmoor. So we know they will thrive there. They are forming a new Shetland flock and will help to renovate some fields that have been long neglected. Shetlands are great foragers and ideally suited to this delicious task. Two little wethers have also just gone to a new home as pet lawn mowers for a hilly paddock. Wethers can be exceptionally friendly and good company if you are looking for pet sheep and don't want to do any breeding. These little chaps were very pretty and their new owner fell in love with them when he came to help us move our hen house.

25 July 2008
We have been making hay this week while the sun shines! First it's cut which makes furrows, then turned several times over the next four days, and finally baled. Farmers are always anxiously watching the sky when harvesting or hay-making. Or in our case glued to the five day weather forecast and satellite pictures on the BBC website. Mind you we are keen weather watchers anyway. I have been keeping a weather diary for years noting not just the weather of the day but which birds are about, or which plants are flowering. We've just got our new second-hand tractor which is proving to be a much better beast for hay making than our old one.
9 July 2008
A little group of pedigree black and brown ewes have just left us to join their new flock in Somerset and one of our young rams, Lysander, will be going to join them at the end of this month. Their nice new owners say that they have settled into their orchard and are munching happily away.
I thought I'd mention some of the things we are doing on the farm to recycle, reduce and reuse because we put a lot of effort into it and it is worth while. We now get all our pig feed and bedding straw from a neighbouring farmer who grows it all on his farm. He delivers feed to us in bulk, using reusable one tonne bags, and this has dramatically reduced our plastic feed bag usage to nothing! It also means that our pig feed miles are zero too. We reuse all the livestock mineral lick buckets as water or carrying buckets. We are about to implement a big rain water collection project so that we can divert clean rain water away from the farm yard and muck heap and reuse it. This will also help prevent run-off into the roads and ditches and from there into the rivers which all helps the local wildlife. I have even found a wonderful woman who recycles old woollies into stylish new garments. So my old unworn grey crew neck has been turned into a fabulous silk trimmed cardi. Considering how much time I spend dressed in dirty old farmyard clothes you can understand the lure of a revamped cashmere cardi. Her website says: 'where the lost souls of old jumpers are saved to be reborn into stylish new clothing', a sentiment which I can only agree with. See www.magpieheaven.net
I even recycle our breakfast coffee grounds onto my roses!
3 July 2008
We have added two more breeding sows to our expanding herd. Elsie and Petronella were born here on the farm last September. We are able to keep a closed herd and not have to buy in any pigs because we have two unrelated boars. This allows us to have two pig family dynasties and maintain our biosecurity. The next litters will be born in August to Elsie and Persephone, both first time mothers-to-be. They are very different characters. Elsie is the noisiest pig we have ever had and Persephone insists on a pat every time we go past her paddock. I was much entertained last week when I gently blew on Ella Pig's nose from a distance and she blew back much harder! The pigs also have another nose joke involving the water troughs. When not slurping up a drink they like to stick their noses in as far as possible and blow bubbles.

23 June 2008
Busy busy here with shearing the sheep and vaccinating to prevent blue tongue. The sheep all look very elegant and small without their four inch thick fleeces. They are always a much darker colour underneath, so the gingery brown girls now look the colour of cocoa powder and the pale grey ones are now a dark dove grey. I will hand shear a small group in the next week, to keep in practice and because I really enjoy it. The flock is too large for me to do all of them that way. The rams rather enjoy being hand shorn too and Pepperpot, the senior ram, has been known to politely lift his leg when I get to the shoulder socket.
5 June 2008
The twelfth calf of the year was born yesterday afternoon. He's called Walnut and was on his feet and sucking lustily within an hour of his arrival. He's spent most of today dozing in the sunshine among the buttercups.
We've been fencing off some more pig paddocks to cater for the growing mob, I mean herd, and also for the fact that our two old ladies, Pris and Evadne, who should know better, decided to tunnel under a fence and eat a hole in the hedge next to the road. They now reside in a paddock where they can't repeat such mischief.
We are now producing smoked bacon, ham and gammon as well as the traditional dry-cured varieties. We have been getting a lot of compliments from customers about the fact that it doesn't shrink in the pan!

19 May 2008
We have been weaning piglets and moving pig families into new paddocks. Always a job that requires a lot of planning as little piglets run in every possible direction except the one you want them to, given half a chance. Everything is so exciting to them that they want to experience it all at once. Pigs have no concept of patience and love novelty. George Pig is now in with Ella and Prudence and Pedro Pig has Esmerelda and Persephone for company so the next litters are due in August. Pris and Evadne are having a rest and Esther and Elvira are looking after their recent broods. Jim is growing vegetables in some of the old pig paddocks, nicely dug about by the pigs and then rotovated by Jim. If I could only get the pigs to dig in straight rows I'd make a fortune!
Busy doing soil nutrient planning at the moment - the science of making the grass grow as well as possible by using our naturally produced farmyard muck in the right amounts at the right time of year. I started by having a soil analysis done on each field. Then I input these results into formulas and tables to calculate what each field needs. Then I work out what nutrients are in the muck heap and thus I know how much to spread and where next spring. Nature is a wonderful thing. The cows provide the content of the muck heap from being over wintered in the barns. This rots down and gets spread on the fields which helps the grass grow to feed the cows all summer and for cutting hay for winter. Voila!

26 April 2008
Spring is here at last. The orchard is full of apple blossom, the first swallows arrived three days ago, the grass is finally growing and we have turned the cattle out and Elvira Pig had twelve incredibly spotty piglets this morning.
18 April 2008
We have just had our annual RSPCA Freedom Food inspection which we all passed, bipeds and quadrupeds, with flying colours. The inspector was particularly taken with how relaxed our animals are and praised their good condition.
Two more calves were born last weekend, Maple and Marmalade who is already licking my hand.
3 April 2008
A busy twelve hour period last night with the arrival of Esther Pig's nine piglets and Blossom Cow's bull calf Chestnut 2. He is the third calf of the year; only eleven more to go. Us midwives are very happy.

26 March 2008
Ginger the Calf was born early this morning; the second of this year's calves. This means that Pablo, the Singlet Piglet, is no longer the youngest animal on the farm, although he is still the smallest, at least for now. Ginger's mum Rowan is a very relaxed and experienced mother so he is getting an excellent start in life.
24 March 2008
We have just waved good-bye to a group of 25 of our Shetland breeding ewes who have gone to their new home in Dorset to form a new flock. We are always pleased that they go to a good home. Quite often the new owners keep in touch and let me know how the girls are doing which I always appreciate. Recent bulletins have been about how friendly the ewes become once they settle into their new farm, and how high one of them in particular can jump! Our neighbours have been telling us how entertained they are by a group of our sheep who have taken to bouncing about on an earth bank which can be seen from the road. Shetlands are just full of pizzazz and character.
15 March 2008
We are introducing a range of delicious ready-meals using our own beef, pork and lamb. These dishes are prepared by hand by us in small batches using the best ingredients to complement our meat. Our first batch of Steak & Ale Pies sold extremely well at this Saturday's market. We used an old recipe with Jim making the beef filling and me making the short crust pastry. Watch out for the forth-coming Beef Curry, Shepherd's Pie, Pork & Apple Casserole and many more.
The three week old piglets are growing very quickly and becoming quite cheeky. They get iron and minerals from digging in the soil but this litter has decided that it is more fun to chew the mud off my wellies and get their iron rations that way.
13 March 2008
I was just getting used to the pleasure of some frosty sunrises when the weather changed direction and the storms arrived. There hasn't been much damage to the orchard and those branches that fell off will become a good habitat for insects and fungi. We also leave some decaying wood on the live trees to try and encourage the Noble Chafer Beetle. This rare beetle is very much associated with traditional orchards like ours as they particularly like fruit trees aged between fifty and eighty. We manage the orchard in such a way that we keep the trees healthy while still leaving places for the wildlife. So that heap of rotting logs is meant to be there!

31 January 2008
The snowdrops and primroses are flowering. The local peregrine falcon has been perched on a tall tree in the orchard. The sunrises have been spectacular. And so has the rain! This has been a busy but quiet month, mostly spent taking hay and feed to the livestock, with lots of mucking out, and tidying and making plans for when the days are longer and drier.
19 January 2008
We now have a stall at Tedburn St Mary's produce market on the 3rd Saturday of every month. It's a bustling market with lots of different producers and you can get a breakfast buttie and tea, which is always very welcome.
The calves are now weaned. There was yelling for a day or two while they all got used to the idea and then they settled down again. We are due to start calving in a couple of weeks with Duchess Cow about to be the first mum of the year. She's a grand old lady of fourteen and she suits her name.

31 December 2007
We are doing practical outdoor jobs this week, like more concreting in the farmyard. I used to say that a Girl Can't Have Too Much Velvet (well, I still do), but now I say a Girl Can't Have Too Much Concrete. It just makes farmyard life so much easier. Happy New Year to one and all!
22 December 2007
The Christmas mail order meat boxes have all arrived safely at their various destinations and we finish the last local meat deliveries tomorrow. So all that remains is wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas from all bipeds and quadrupeds at North Down and maybe scoff a mince pie or two.
18 December 2007
Two of our ten week old Gloucester Old Spot gilts went to their new home in North Somerset this morning where they are going to be kept for breeding. Their pedigree names are Northdown Star Antoinette 26 and 27. In true pig fashion they undid the shoelaces of their new owner, Tracey, before we loaded them for their journey.
16 December 2007
At last I have found time to add the new Apple Juice page to the website. We have been beavering away pressing and bottling. People are being very complimentary about it and then ordering it by the case!
These short December days are always busy with outdoor jobs as we cram everything in before the daylight goes; including taking hay and clean bedding to the housed cattle, feeding the pigs and doing the daily rounds of checking on the sheep etc. Mucking out the cattle barn is completely different to putting new straw into the pig arks. We move the cows to one side of the barn and muck that out with the tractor and the cows all stand still and watch. Then we repeat on the other side. Taking clean straw to the pigs involves bribery because as soon as they see you going into one of their arks they want to come in with you and see what you are up to and maybe help out. Piglets help out by chewing my trousers. The big pigs help out by trying to spread straw for me before I've emptied it out of the carrying sack. This can be very entertaining but it gets a bit crowded with several bustling housekeeping pigs helping to make their duvets. I have found that the answer is to give them a swede each, or a handful of apples, to keep them occupied until I have finished. Then they can make as many changes to their domestic arrangements as they like without tripping me up or blocking the doorway.

27 November 2007
Christmas is coming and we've been doing some seasonal markets which are always good fun. We are making free local deliveries of meat on 22-23 December for orders taken before then. Why not try a Whole Ham or a roasted Gammon Joint glazed with honey and cloves as an alternative to turkey. And if you do want a traditional turkey then why not try wrapping our Christmas chipolatas in our dry-cured bacon as an accompaniment or make stuffing with our sausage meat.
I've updated all the meat price lists and added some new serving suggestions. I am often asked why I haven't any meat recipes on the website - lack of space really. But I will be happy to send you some if you email me.
The cows and calves are now housed in the barn for the winter. We did a big re-design of the hay racks which gives the cattle more space. I know I say this every year but working in the barn with the cattle is always a very enjoyable experience. The cows are very peaceful and the mixture of the smell of hay and cattle breath is wonderful.
14 November 2007
We sold six more Shetland breeding ewes today, all with very pretty markings and colours. They have gone to the same farm that recently bought one of our pedigree Shetland rams. Their new owner also has some Jacob ewes and was wondering if the lambs from a Shetland ram and a Jacob ewe would be Shacobs or Jetlands!
The apple juice sold very well at last week's market which was very good. We will be pressing for a batch of cider in the next few days.
And I have finally found the hole in our leaking pond. Typically, it was very near the bottom just to make doing the repair simple, haha. The fish have been temporarily housed in an unused long cattle trough, not near any cattle I hasten to add. Having said that, it is common for farmers to put goldfish into cattle drinking troughs to keep them clean. I have never tried this but apparently the cows don't eat them!
8 November 2007
Another little group of Shetland ewes has gone off to their new home today where they will join some goats and pigs on a North Somerset small holding and be very well looked after, from the sound of things.
Spent the afternoon designing labels for the apple juice bottles which is harder than you might think. Just when is a design finished, that's what I want to know.
6 November 2007
A busy week so far and it's only Tuesday. Jim has been on a sausage making course and we've done our first autumn pressing and bottling of apple juice for sale from the farm and at markets. There are several stages to this starting with gathering and washing the apples. Then we pulp them and press them and pour the resulting juice into large containers to settle. Next we tap the juice off into bottles which we then pasteurise with our whizzy new machine. Our old orchard is proving to be very productive this year. Its bumper crop is being shared by us and a flock of fieldfares who have arrived for the winter from Scandinavia. They are large, colourful birds, both noisy and gregarious, and great fun to watch in the apple trees. The orchard is also feeding some grey squirrels who have been bouncing across my lawn clutching whole apples to their chests.
The farm cat has just decided to insert her purry self between me and the keyboard so any speeling mistakes are hers.

Merry Christmas from all quadrupeds and bipeds at North Down Farm


Exploring their new home, two of our recently sold young breeding gilts now named Poppy and Saffron by their new owners


Happy to be in the barn

I'm very new

The farm cat has
a bit of a rest

100:1 ratio piglets!


The blackberrying piglets

Menace the Ramlamb
and friends


Our Scotch Eggs

The pros and cons
of thistles


The cobwebbed beauty of a fine Shetland fleece

Petra looking after
her very new calf


We're thrilled to bits
that our sausages
won a prize at the
Devon County Show


Our pigs just love
to wallow


Spring turn out


Salami made with
red wine, garlic, chilli
and pork from our
Gloucester Old Spot pigs


Asleep in a heap


A froth of cider apple blossom at North Down

Spring grass at
North Down


Esther Pig inspecting the workmanship of her
new house


Spring has sprung

Plum the Calf hiding behind the hay rack. He likes to sleep under it too

Petronella and determined piglet


For Sale -
Ashford spinning wheel

Sudden snow doesn't faze the farm rooks


An immovable ark


A very handsome chap

The fruits of my Seville Marmalade labours


The littlest pigs decide breakfast is better
than a lie-in


Not Bah Humbug, but
baa-aa Merry Christmas!


Who says my
Santa hat is naff?


I'm in for the winter


The Farm Cat inspects the piglets


Tractor for sale
Now sold!
 

Here we are selling our Gloucester Old Spot free range pedigree pork at Crediton Farmers Market


Benson Ram who is so mellow and relaxed that he will follow me around for a walk

A fat red autumn
sunset at the farm

Month old piglets say hello to Aunt Evadne in the neighbouring paddock

Patrick, our young pedigree boar, has now gone to father piglets at his new home


Elsie Pig's eight new daughters play under their heat lamp


Persephone Pig has just had her first litter


Flying Sparrowhawk courtesy of the RSPB website


Northdown Patrick 25
- who is for sale as a pedigree breeding boar

Furrows from the first
stage of hay making



Recycling wool in the most stylish way at Magpie Heaven

Before shearing


After shearing

Clover gives Walnut a quick bath


Walnut Calf at 14
hours of age

Prudence in her new paddock

Elvira's 12 piglets catching some rays

This was meant to be a photo of the two newest calves, Maple and Marmalade, but their mums had other ideas.


Jack the Hat, father of some the ewes who have just moved to Dorset

Kandinsky Sheep thinks the pigs' breakfast shouldn't just be for pigs

Early morning on the farm

Prudence Pig with her seven new piglets


Duchess and her
day old calf, Pickle

January primroses

Merry Christmas from us
 

First we help make
the bed.....

.....And then we lie in it

Breakfast in the barn

100% apple juice
from our orchard

A fieldfare 
- drawing courtesy of
the RSPB website

Bruno and Lysander.
Our two pedigree,
Moorit-coloured Shetland rams who are for sale as breeding rams

Eating out of your hand or possibly your hoof

We're looking forward to making some cider and apple juice

  One of the new farm signs

Four of the new piglets. The fifth one was chewing my foot at the time of the photo

I know China is down there somewhere

Our handsome grey Katmoget-patterned ram, who has won approved status from the Shetland Sheep Society

Sensimilia Sheep looking pretty under a hedge among the cow parsley

One of our Welsummer hens calculates her
flight path

The shearing pen

Brimstone Calf

The Easter Monday piglets

Miss-Moss tries to eat the camera

A mild winter sunrise at the farm

January 2007
We had a peaceful Christmas at North Down if you don't count 15 ewes escaping through a hedge on Boxing Day and legging it down the road as far as the village pub, no doubt in search of some festive eggnog. The ringleader was Cumin, who is one of the 'usual suspects' when it comes to pushing the boundaries........Fortunately, we have very nice neighbours who not only told us where they had seen our sheepy revellers but helped us herd them safely back home.

The usual suspects misbehaving

North Down Farm wildlife
- only joking!

Just as well you don't have to move us across the road

We're settling in