FLOWER POT KITCHEN: RAISING OUR GLORIOUS PIGS

3 Jan 2016

RAISING OUR GLORIOUS PIGS

NEW PASTURE FOR WINTER

As we are still finding our feet and way on the farm with our live stock, we are kinda making it up as we go, we do have a plan, quite a few, in fact hundreds of ideas, but our land, animals and the weather are teaching us what we can do and what won't work, fabulous learning curves that are helping us work out how to set up the paddocks for long term rotations. I believe you don't honestly make mistakes you just learn how not to do something, if however you have learn't how not to do something and then repeat that lesson technically unless you have a good reason for making that choice then it could be a mistake !!!

Earning a pigs trust is a big thing, rush them, or try to control them and they will never forget, so moving the ladies from their run of six months across the top field to their new pasture was going to be a great lesson, there was the two naughty adventuros teenager pigs that had escaped through the electric fencing a few weeks ago, and as expected they just saw the movement as excitable freedom, then there was Pinky our mature Gloucestershire Old Spot pig who looks after all the weaners and runts, she refused to move !!! If Pinky will not move so will not the three new large black weaners who rely on Pinky for mummy support! So learning from our ladies, we decided to wait until the next morning when they would all be excited about their breakfast, this should/would entice Pinky and the weaners...

And success thank goodness for breakfast and hungry pigs, Pinky was a hint dubious but following our calling and her own personal feed trough she was easy to walk to the new paddock, scary for me, as technical in my mind there is a LOOSE PIG being followed by THREE LOOSE WEANERS!!! I love the adrenilaine of being such a rookie! In time I know our pigs will teach me not us as my husband is so relaxed, that they can be loose and won't actually want to run away and leave !!!

Fabulous new rootle pasture with some woodland and lots and lots of great new fresh grassy space to investigate and keep these lovely pigs entertained, happy pigs equals happy farming!

Really pleased to see our girls in their new grassy paddock, won't last that long, but what they are after is all the fabulous hidden roots under the ground.

Our rare Large Black Weaners

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.