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Location: Blogs On the farm at Howbarrow
Posted by: Paul Hughes	8/29/2007
On the Farm - Finally, we have a commitment from a sheep shearer to shear our sheep next week, always a challenge having such a small flock. Everybody is behind in shearing, so, as we are normally at the bottom of the pecking order, I feared we would never get them done this year. Now we just need a good dry day! We don’t sell our fleeces, instead we use them as a mulch around our fruit bushes. They suppress weeds, retain moisture and release nitrogen into the soil as they rot down. The turkeys are now flying (let’s hope they don’t get too good at it - I have memories of a few years ago where we had to try and get them down off the farm house roof at dusk!) We have a Solar Panel being installed this week, so our staff loo and shower will have sun heated hot water, it is also connected to the farmhouse and will compliment our wood fired range supplying us with hot water and any spare capacity flowing into our radiators. Thought for the day - "In our rush for cut-price diets we have created a wipe-down agricultural landscape empty of hedges and trees, where, for convenience, land is too often ploughed in the direction of the slope rather than across it. Instead of retaining water, every furrow becomes a channel that sluices it downhill." Richard Girling, journalist and author of Sea Change, commenting on the recent floods in The Sunday Times, 29 July 2007 Box Contents – The work we have done in promoting more local production is now reaping harvest with a good range of produce being grown locally for us. Some lovely courgettes from John and Stan Atkinson, super bunched carrots and Primo Cabbage from Duncan Gielty, and lettuce and turnips from Growing Well. Lowther Chickens – You may have seen a Panorama programme recently which questioned the integrity of organic poultry production. The chickens we sell (and eggs in a few weeks) are all produced locally by Lowther estates near Penrith. All the birds are raised from their own breeding flock, they have 19 mobile arks, each containing a maximum of 650 birds, they have full access to range freely and are at least 80 days old at slaughter. The birds are raised to Soil Association standard UK5. And just so you can make a comparison - NON organic birds are raised 50,000 to a house, never go outside and are only 37 days old at slaughter!! - Lowther are very happy for any of our customers to visit the farm, Mondays are good days, it’s hatching day. Call Lowther on 01931-712407 for more info. Spotlight on - Courgettes (or Zucchini) -can be prepared using a variety of cooking techniques, including steamed, boiled, grilled, stuffed and baked, barbecued, fried, or incorporated in other recipes such as souffles. It also can be baked into a bread. Its flower can be eaten stuffed and is a delicacy when deep fried as tempura. Many people find courgette is best when quickly cooked so it still retains its firmness and flavor, and 2 to 4 minutes is all it takes to cook a zucchini to perfection. Culinarily, courgette is treated as a vegetable which means it is usually cooked and presented as a savory dish or accompaniment. However, biologically, the courgette is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower. The courgette has a delicate flavor and can be appreciated with little more than quick cooking with butter or olive oil, with or without fresh herbs. There is no need to peel. Courgettes can also be eaten raw, in a cold salad, as well as hot and barely cooked in hot salads, as in Thai or Vietnamese recipes. Facts courtesy of www.wikipedia.org – the online encyclopedia. Ok, enough and now for the joke! Why are bananas never lonely? ‘Cos they hang around in bunches Paul

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