Wet Wet Wet,

No, not the band… the weather!

Snow has gone and done what it does best, delivered a wonderful steady release of moisture into the land. Problem is that now we have to be very careful getting around without rutting. To make this more difficult it is now raining. Back in England growing up we always laughed at farmers because it was always too dry, or too wet. When it was dry and the rain came it was “the wrong sort of rain” These days I don’t laugh, I watch the overflow from the pond intently…

I feel my “hibernation” inching to an end. I am renewed and full of energy to get going with the year. Winter is an important time for us on the farm. We are exhausted physically, mentally, and somewhat emotionally come the start. We then use the forced time inside due to the low temperature and the long dark hours to unwind, relax, and go through the data that has been gathered. This is our time to plan and renew, I can’t help but think a sauna might help things along but we haven’t gotten around to that…yet.

The old way of looking at the end of the year and the beginning of the new one was that you should enter winter tired and rich and leave it energized and poor.

Oh hey! As I sit here thinking about winter my mind turned to the awesome food! I don’t know about you but the fall/winter food is so comforting and feels even more wholesome. Anyway, I’m going to share one of my favorite recipes with you. It’s made even better if you can make the sausage with your Berryton Grange Farm Pork to use in it or even the bacon too. If you’d like to do either of these just ask. I’m always delighted to help people make the most of our bounty. Here you are,

Sausage and Lentil Supper

Serves 4, Prep time is 20 minutes, Cook Time: 1 hour.

2 tablespoons of olive oil

8 good plump pork sausages

5 ounces of bacon

1 onion

1 Large carrot

1 Large stick of celery

10 1/2 ounces of dried green lentils

1 3/4 pints of chicken stock or bone broth (Ask Sally how she makes hers)

2 bay leaves

1 good handful of finely chopped parsley (don’t miss this as it really adds to the dish!)

Warm the oil in a deep, heavy casserole. Put the sausages in first to brown, then remove them to a plate. Next add the bacon and let it cook over a medium heat heat so that it colors lightly, please don’t let it crisp. Meanwhile, peel the onion and chop it finely and add it to the bacon. Peel and cut the carrot and celery into a rough dice and stir them into the onion letting them soften a little. Don’t let them color.

Tip in the lentils, pour over the stock or broth, then tuck in the bay leaves and the sausages, cut into short lengths if you prefer, and bring the casserole to the boil. Turn it down so that the liquid simmers gently, season, then leave it for 30 minutes stirring from time to time.

Check the seasoning - personally I like it on the peppery side which is how it was recommended to me years ago - stir in the parsley just before serving.

Great the same day but even better the next, gives it time to mature, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Enjoy!

A look at the year to come.

They say that farming is hard, and starting a farm from scratch is for lunatics…they aren’t wrong!

Like with everything else in life, there seems to be so little time and even less money. This means that planning out a year on a new farm that you only have time for in the evenings and weekends is troublesome. It’s filled with “after this, we can do that” or perhaps “I think we can sell enough (blank) and THAT let’s us afford (other blank)”

With these things in mind, this is what we have on the list for 2021.

Wholesale License

We started down the farming road because we were sick and tired (literally) of being poisoned by the food we were having to eat. We just couldn’t get any of the good stuff. It was the only way we could be assured that our food wasn’t being tampered with on any level, and that we weren’t being lied to about it’s provenance.

The plus side about being able to do this is that, now, three years later we can share our bounty with you guys. We also know that some of you either don’t have the space or can’t afford to buy a whole pig, so how do I share with you what we have?

A Wholesale license!!

With one of those puppies we can have our local butcher make all of the usual (and some not so usual) cuts of meat and we can legally sell them to you ourselves. Then we can share just a single, delicious, thick, full flavored pork chop with you. Our family to your family.

Silvopasture

Silvopasture (Latin, Silva forest) is the practice of integrating trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way. It utilizes the principles of managed grazing, and it is one of several distinct forms of agroforestry, so says Wikipedia.

What does that really mean though? Well, it means that our small patch of the planet has more scrubland than it does grazing and scrubland is wasteful and derelict of any real wildlife habitat. By cutting down the small and dead trees that we have, the better ones will grow to their full, habitat rich, potential and provide shade and a fall bounty. We have started with one of our woodland pig pens already. The outcome is shade from the hot summer sun but also enough daylight to reach the floor to grow a lovely thick carpet of lush vegetation.

Let’s face it, who can stand to be in the sun, in Kansas, ALL DAY LONG! Not I and not my pigs either. Did you know that just like us pigs get sunburnt too?