Tamworth Update

Hello everyone, 

Hope you are all good. Bob and I are recovering nicely after another huge week of harvesting and delivering to you, our lovely customers. We are more or less at capacity when it comes to our delivery numbers. This resulted in long days of delivering, so, we apologise for any lateness when receiving your organic goodies (but we hope it was worth the wait).

It would be great if all orders for the week are sent to us by midnight Monday which will allow more time for collating, harvesting, packing and delivering. Any orders sent after this time will now, for sure, be delivered the following week. I know, I am turning bossy! Sorry. 

As many of you know, we usually have organic pork for sale on the website. The last four pigs we sent to market were snapped up! Gone in no time! The wait for more pork is nearly over. This weekend we will measure the next pigs due for market to assess the readiness of them. We are hoping they are nearly ready for market and the sausages and belly pork (clear winners!) will be back on the website.

The pigs we have are Organic Pedigree Tamworth Pigs. It is a very hardy animal and is very well suited to roaming outdoors, particularly good as we are in a cold winter climate. As you can see from the picture above, they are ginger. This ginger coat protects them from any strong sun (we wish). They are quite docile but also quite affectionate, especially when they see a blue bucket full of food. They look alert, again, especially when they see the blue bucket! They have long snouts with quite long legs for a pig and can carry around 260-320kg in weight for a fully grown sow or boar. Not good when they stand on your feet! The Tamworth is regarded as the oldest pure breed of pig in Britain. The sow is always a very good mother, the picture is of Kate (our sow) with three young piglets. This said they are not a very popular breed. This maybe somehow due to the fact that they grow slowly, maturing when at least 10 months old, sometimes older. Hence, commercial pig farms go for other breeds and cross breeds who mature much quicker. Having taken some time to grow the Tamworth provides a very tasty pork, the bacon being very tasty indeed. Sunday bacon butties will be back on the menu soon. 

The crops seem to be doubling in size daily. We are also quickly turning tunnels containing one particular crop, shallots for instance, into tunnels filled with cavolonero. We are now definitely into the summer season of crops with cucumbers, peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, chillies, french beans and summer brassicas all being attended to….watering, feeding, nipping out and being saved from pigeons! Our chard, kale, celery, broad beans, leaves, onions and brassicas all are being enjoyed. The herbs are looking and smelling divine. No doubt enhancing your delicious dishes. 

As much as I would love blue skies and sun, the weather is perfect for us in the tunnels today. So going to get back to them. 

Thank you for your continued support.

Please stay safe and take care,

 Ann👩‍🌾