Late November 2014
Let the dreams begin, the hard work start and the excitement of the future take hold, after 10 years of searching for a plot of earth to extend our small holding from our home garden, after we first watched River Cottage and were so inspired by Hugh F Whittingstall, we finally succeeded in purchasing our little plot of paradise, well a muddy terribly overgrown and dumped on by many builders plot of land, we are going call, after our son, Oscar's Acres just down the road from our home and in the middle of the country side where we grew up, perfick! Now there's a hint!
Let the dreams begin, the hard work start and the excitement of the future take hold, after 10 years of searching for a plot of earth to extend our small holding from our home garden, after we first watched River Cottage and were so inspired by Hugh F Whittingstall, we finally succeeded in purchasing our little plot of paradise, well a muddy terribly overgrown and dumped on by many builders plot of land, we are going call, after our son, Oscar's Acres just down the road from our home and in the middle of the country side where we grew up, perfick! Now there's a hint!
In true Riches family style we set out with the mindset not to rush into all the dreamed up fantasy plans we had on copious note books stacked in our book case, for when we finally found our plot, 10yrs worth of fantasy on paper !, we said the first year is for letting the land talk to us while we clear the rubble and make good and mend.!!!
Who We Kidding, this is us we are talking about!
We are just coming up to our first year anniversary, and we have eight Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, a small flock of Dorset Downs sheep and are now rare breed Old Spot sausage makers and suppliers, from our gate to your plate! Almost all rubble removed and new fencing for the whole small holding along with two new post and rail paddocks, extensive bramble clearance about an acres worth and a drive way put in!
Index... A long blog...
Start of rubble and wood removal
Profile the land back to a usable field
Putting in a drive way
Building the first temporay pig runs
First stage clearing the stream
Removing brambles 8yrs worth from field
First stage of clearing the stream
Post and rail fencing the sheep paddock
Arrival of Dorset Downs Flock
New pig field
Vegetable garden summer and winter growing
Preserved vegetables
Old Spot Sausages
The start to something special Day One.
Silly excited as a family overloaded with ideas, we all knew we had our work cut out for us, but this is a life long journey so no rush, just need to contain the excitement of our projected dreams. For the last six winter months we have been nothing but rubble and mud farmers, the first third of the land has been genuinally used as a builders and tree surgeons storage/dumping ground, with multi bonfire sites and general building waste we manually set to work removing bricks, concret, stone slabs and large logs, what we did not expect was to find two more foot of this rubble burried in the ground!
For six months solid our motto has been every one brick we pick is a brick gone. Come rain or sunshine everyday we have removed at least a bucket of bricks, it has helped with our old fashioned attitude that in years gone by before machines it truly was man or girl power, but we can honestly say thank goodness that job is over, I think we found it frustrating because it was stopping us from using the land for livestock.
Getting there, the most frustrating times have been when you think you are almost cleared, then you remove some brambles and find half as much rubble again, this has happend several times!
Final piles of wood and rubble, we hope, that we have piled up and as the wood is so wet and rotten from being in and on the ground we know we can not have a bonfire as first planned, so we are going to have to remove it, another job for another day, little by little!
Now on to leveling the top part of the field that has been used as a second driveway, with tons of building hardcore driven into the ground over and over again to make a road! After breaking three spades we conceed and are hiring a digger! Yay finally some machanical power and this in just a day will transform the terraced field to a level useable paddock, in time! Honeslty we did consider doing this manually just like all the rubble and wood clearing, but the need to see results side of us has decided to treat ourselves to some help.
The first spade in the ground from the digger, very cold this morning, but the ground is soft and wet, so this made it a eaiser job.
Before the levelling and after we had cleared all surface rubble.
This is the pile of mud scrapped off the terrace, it unfortunaly was un-expectedly, (whom I kidding!) full of more rubble and building debris and after spending a few moments of starting to remove the rubble from this pile of mud we have come to the conculsion we would be better off having this removed as it was very pongy stagnet clay mud and that made this desicion very easy.
After the mud was removed and the digger levelled the area it is starting to look more like a field. Now we're going to need a serious amount of field grass seed.
The driveway was something I was not keen on putting on the farm, I love grass and mud under my feet, but we needed a hard standing that was accessable for our family and livestocks needs and if I am honest I am not slipping over in the mud all the time walking to the barn and back, I think once we get the grass and spring flowers in next year along the driveway and the field slope back to a grass field it will soften the road.
The finished road, I could not wait to get this dirty and worn in so it would blend in a little better.
Glorious spring morning we are so grateful we have our plot of paradise, we are now ready to start raising our own Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs and the whole family are excited and full of anticipation with the arrival of the pink ladies imminent.
The arrival of the Gloucestershire Old Spots, aptly named the Pink Ladies.
Meet Splodge, Pinky, Delila and Squeeler, these are our pink ladies, they are 11 weeks old and gorgeous, from the trailer we had to carry them to thier pig ark, the reason for this is that they may not have realsied that the ark is there for them to keep warm and sleep in, but by placing them directly in to the ark that will elivate the concern of baby pigs sleeping outside for the first night, instead of being snuggly in a deep bed of straw.
This is how Squeeler got her name! The other three were no bother at all but Squeeler boy did she hollow all the way to the ark, but the great thing about pigs is that as soon as you put them down they stop and start to investigate their new surroundings.
Getting to know each other, I find it is very useful to have jobs to do in the pigs field, as they are really curious in nature, in doing so they will keep coming over to investigatge what you are up to and this helps with the bonding and relationship, within a few weeks they will be asking for belly rubs and jowl rubs.
Pinky, it was this moment on day one that I knew Pinky was not going to be a meat pig, but a breeding sow and family pet, and she has not disappointed, a loving nature and protectiveness of the newly introduced piglets, Pinky is a keeper.
The Pink Ladies now 7 months old.
Pinky having fun sprinting around the run because she's all excited after having her favourtie shavings bath!
This deep hole that the ladies have dug has given us hours of amusement, they all take turns to look down the hole, fasanating.
Pinky always likes to come over and say thank you for thier afternoon treats.
New arrivals, these our son named Smokey and the Bandit because they have a old fashioned robbers mask around thier eyes, these beautiful piglets are Duroc X Gloucestershire Old Spots and are 15 weeks old and will plug the gap we created by keeping back two pigs as family members.
Now to introduce the newest members to the herd, these our son has named the avengers assemble and boy these 8 week old piglets have been a bundle of trouble, especially the runt of the litter who is a cutie pie and will be joining Pinky as a keeper. They have quickly learnt that if they roll thier rubber feed bucket down the field and nudge it up on the electric fencing then they can forage along the fence line, then under it and this afternoon they pushed themselves under the fence line and let themselves free on the the farm!
This is what the middle part of the field looked like at the start, we had no idea of how far back the brambles went on either side, turns out around 30 foot either side.
After a lot of hard work and bush cutting all the brambles are cleared and removed, wow we have gained so much more field. We can now walk the stream that runs down the whole left side of the field that one day will be restored to the beautiful stream it deserves to be.
This is how far back the brambles went.
Furthest point at the bottom of the field facing up to the middle of the field before bramble removal.
Again all brambles removed and more field reclaimed.
This is our romantic stream, it is a really lovely sound hearing the gently running of water ambling over and around rocks, the stream is in a poor state and needs to be dug out and restored at some point.
We just love the undulating path of the stream, such charachter.
Post and rail put in and we now have a sheep paddock, next to build a sheep field shelter and then off to pick up our flock of Dorset Downs.
Meet the ewes, Agnus, Maud, Daphine and Ethel.
Getting to know our sheep, we've spent lots of lovely afternoons having summer picnics in the sheep paddock and their curious nature has them wanting to investigate us, now they all demand a cuddle and scratch daily before I can get on taking care of them.
Meet Agnes, the boss, and a very noisy sheep!
I get to start my day in the most glorious way.
This week we have been putting in post and rail fencing and gates, to create a holding pen for livestock that are arriving or leaving and fencing a new pig run for the winter months, this is the before photo.
The new run and as we have two pigs leaving tomorrow morning the 20th Oct, this has worked brilliantly, the logistics of separating two pigs from a heard of six was a concern, so we opened up the departure lounge a few days ago and working on the balance of probabilities at some point there will be the two pigs leaving on their own in the lounge, along with placing the trailer in the lounge as their ark and feeding them in the trailer fingers crossed we are all set to go in the morning, this will remove any form of stress for our two pink ladies which is our highest priority, we don't want the ladies to know anything about it.
Welcome to our vegetable garden, I love my vegetable beds this is my down time just pottering around the beds that keep us in year round glorious sunshine food, we grow enough to feed ourselves and when we have a glut we will preserve some and give away to family and neighbours, and all the weeds and fodder supplements our diva chickens!
Summer Growing
We grow Kale, Chard's, Cabbages red and white, Celery, Salads, Squashes, Courgettes, Parsnips, Spring onions, Chillies, Herbs, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Peppers, Aubergines, Tomatillo, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Black currents, Goosegogs, Turnips, Swedes, Beetroot, Onions, Garlic, Cauliflower, Peas, Leeks, Squashes, Broccoli., Rhubarb, Apples, Plums, Pears and Cherries.
And not a green house in site, this is something I really do need, I have a 18ft poly tunnel down the side of the house where I grow my tomatoes, aubergines and chillies, but I do get a poor yield and next year I am going to address this.
Winter Growing
Kale, Chard's, Winter cabbage white, green, Salad, Nero chard, Celery, Winter spring onions, Red and white onions, Garlic, Cauliflower, Purple broccoli and Winter peas.
Foraged and Scrumped
Apples, Pears, Plums, Sloes, Hawthorn, Elderflower, Elderberries, blackberries, Quince, Mushrooms, Wild garlic, Cob nuts, Acorns for the pigs, Dock leaves for the pigs,
Stored In The Ground Over Winter
Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, Broccoli, Swedes, Brussels sprouts, Winter kale, Cabbage red and green, Spring onions, Herbs, Salad, and Leeks.
Preserved And Stored In The House
Sacks of potatoes, Stacks of squashes, Wrapped apples, Plaits of garlic and onions, Pickled beetroot, Sweet and sour pickled cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, Sweet green tomatoes, Sweet pickled turnips, Caramelised onion chutney, Garden vegetable chutney, Heirloom tomato sauce/chutney, Beetroot relish, Quince and apple sauce, Sweet chilli jelly various flavours, Rhubarb and ginger, Apples in syrup, Apples and black berries in syrup, Plums in syrup and in spiced brandy, Sloe gin and Hawthorn ketchup.
I love love love canning, there is a prepare in me somewhere, the self satisfaction of walking past our dresser filled with hundreds of jars of glorious food and chutneys just makes me feel good, knowing we are looking after our selves and do not need to run to the shops to feed our family, we just wonder down the garden and go to the larder.
I love our onions and garlic hanging in the kitchen ready to use, the Shelia Maid that they are hanging from has a real sentimental value and history, my boyfriend (now husband of 24 yrs) together we brought this original old beech wood when we were just 18 yrs of age for £18 and we never installed it, we have moved several times and still kept it and taken it with us, now 24 yrs later we are settled in our almost forever home and it has pride of place in the kitchen, every day I love looking it and using the produce that we have grown from it.
Coming Soon Old Spot Sausages !
