Grow you good things. A snap this morning of the first planting of white garlic. Only in a week and they are already peaking their little buds out of the dirt.
Garlic: grow you good things.
More pictures and details to come in this post. We have experimented with a few things over the last week of planting out 40 kg of garlic. We are ever so fortunate to have a multi-talented farm hand name Fauteux (aka Vortex) in the house.
Cromwell Farms is proud to officially announce we are in the honey business! Thanks to Alison’s Dad, John, we are stocked up and stoked to have 1 kg Glass jars of Honey for Sale.
Now for the hard part. How do we label Dad’s Golden Bee Goodness? We know that people who buy our pigs, chooks, and cows are attracted to the way we raise and feed our livestock. And, of course, the fact that we have heritage breeds, which are slower to grow but have so much more to offer then breeds suited for intensive farming. Here is what we have come up with in the last couple of days over a number of chats with Beekeeper John Davis:
Honey’s honey? Right? Wrong! The flavour and nature of honey is controlled by a number of factors: the type of bees, hives, location of hives, and, of course, how it’s processed. Or more accurately, how it’s not processed. Another thing not to be forgotten are the beekeepers and how they treat and work with their hives. Being relatively new to the bee scene, I must admit to being a bit overwhelmed by what goes into the creation of the honey, not to mention being perplexed with how to make money making honey.
Here is a snippet of what our Gardener and Girl Friday, Rasa, has written for Cromwell Farms honey for her roadside stall:
Rasa is Ready to take your money for honey.
Alison, Aubrey, Morley, and Bella womening the cattle yards.
We finally got to give our borrowed cattle yards a whirl yesterday. They had been half set up in our L paddock since last year. Half setup does not lend itself to good stockmanship or stockwomanship. More on that subject later.
A big thanks to Peter McDonald for laying out the yards to make them functional. Alison and I managed to do some quick modifications that allowed us to put the herd through for the first time. We sprayed them all for Buffalo fly, applied pour-on to a few, and tagged (NILS and Cromwell Farms) a few more. Details to follow once Aubrey gets back from netball at Yamba.
We were wondering if our first girl was ever going to have this calf. Like babies, the calf comes when the calf is ready, and what a beauty she is. Aubrey will no doubt have a name for her soon.
Another Calf for Condamine
Rolly Dexter Bull Calf
Rosie’s first calf. Aubrey named this little Bull Rolly. A great choice, too, as the name honours Rolly Harris, who lived on this farm for 20 years with his sister Mary and brother Seth.
An exciting morning on the Cromwell Farm today. We were greeted by 12 lovely little Large Black x Berkshire/Hampshire piglets from our Gilt Diesel. And what little black beauties they are – Diesel, girl, you are a star! It must be true that heritage breeds happiness. So happy. A special thanks to mid-wife Linda for the preparation of her hay hotel and for great room service after the delivery.
Lucky first time Dozen for Diesel
This picture, taken last night, is pretty cute. I am pretty sure Diesel was looking at these chicken nest boxes we put in and asking herself, “What are these crazy farmers thinking?”
How am I supposed to fit in here?
This Saturday, 23rd February, Cromwell Farms will be attending the Small Animal Market at Eden Country Store in Bangalow. The action starts at 8 am and will wrap up around Noon.
We will update this page with pictures, information, and prices on the small animals we will be taking from our heritage breeds. At this point, we are looking at bringing:
Dexter Cattle – not sure if our little Bull is the go or a cow calf pair?
Large Black/Berkshire Piglets – $150
Working Dogs: Kelpie Crosses – available in 2014. Pre-order
Sheep: Dorper Lamb – Pebbles (not for sale)
Chickens: Plymouth Rocks, White Sussex, Bantam Leghorn, Cross Pullets – from $20
When you buy 1 of our heritage hens or roosters, you will get a complementary container of Cromwell Farms Cock Stock.
Cock a Doodle Do, I come with Stock too.
I hope this does not get me in trouble with our designer Rachael — oh, you know I love a bit of trouble. Here is a new look we are working on for the farm on Sheaffes Rd.
Work in Progress
What do you do with 1000′s of mangos?
Not something a Canadian would have to ask himself usually. Letting them rot in our yard and paddocks did not seem like the best answer; although it would be the easiest.
Seems our livestock have started to help; however, it could be a bit too good to be true after reading up on the subject.
http://www.feedipedia.org/node/516
We are doing our best to sort the best fruit and have sliced up and frozen about 20 kg or more today. Mango frappes anyone?
Here are some pictures of our family mango farming in progress.
Has anyone every noticed that old Farm Houses seem to be a bit back to front?
The front of the house looks out onto a road. The back of the house, which generally has no windows, looks out onto your farm and all its beauty.
We noticed. And after three years we are getting around to sorting it out. Here are a few shots of the work in progress. It’s not pretty at the moment: but sometimes you have to accept a bit of mess and stress to see the rainbows.
