Please forgive our radio silence, but life down at the farm has been anything BUT quiet.

Blessed with glorious weather this summer, we took the opportunity to really get stuck in with preparing the land for winter.

To begin with, there were some essential repairs needed for the barn. In order for us to bring our ewes in for lambing, we decided that clearing and fixing the barn’s lean-to was our number one priority. We emptied what was originally being stored in the lean-to and installed a new sleeper wall. The restored building now offers a warm and sheltered space for the lambing season in late-winter/early spring.

Elsewhere, we built new boundary protection as our sheep were getting quite crafty at identifying weak points in the fencing! 

Thanks to the success of last year’s meat packs we were able to increase our flock with some Polled Dorset ewes. They have well and truly settled in and it was lovely to see them join the flock and run about the field in the summer sun.

More recently, these past few weeks we’ve had some lovely calves. It’s always reassuring to see that Archie is doing his job!

With temperatures beginning to plummet, we’ve now brought all the cows into the barn. The maintenance that we carried out in the summer will ensure that they’re warm and cosy throughout the winter months.

In other news, we had some great feedback from the quality of the lamb in our meat packs that we sold. The boxes are perfect for hearty stews, casseroles and shepherds pie. You can purchase a half lamb box for £65 or a whole lamb for £120. Please do get in touch if you’re interested in getting your hands on one of our next boxes – with limited availability, the boxes do get snapped up pretty quickly. We’re also working towards a fresh batch of beef boxes, which are by far our bestseller! 

Overall, it’s been a really productive summer and it’s been lovely to work on the farm together as a family of four. Amelia’s favourite part of the week is pulling on her wellies and helping her Dad with either the sheep or cows, and Charlotte has just been happy and content taking in what’s been going on around her!

And now it’s time to relax (yeah right!) in the lead up to Christmas and enjoy some family time.

Much love as always, 

David, Katie, Amelia and Charlotte x

After a hairy few days awaiting the results of our annual TB testing, we were relieved to find out our cattle had been given the all clear. Despite some initial delay and cattle crush, the cows worked well for us and we were keen to get them back to the comfort of the barn.

With warm sunshine on the forecast, we had a feeling it would soon be time to let the cows out in the field. Low and behold we had a scorcher of a weekend and a herd of very happy cows finally got a taste of fresh grass for the first time in six months. It was a joy to see them skipping out of the barn, especially our calves who had never set foot out of the barn before.

David did the rounds with a couple of mag buckets to prevent milk fever and a bale of hay to help settle them. He was also kept busy dividing the field in half – one side for the cows and the other to be used as a hay field. However, some very inquisitive cows taught us our initial fence wasn’t as robust as we first thought, and so merrily found a way through and helped themselves to some more sweet smelling grass!

Several of the cows were late in calf this year but we knew they were showing signs of calving. Last Sunday we received the call that one calf was on its way. As many of you farmers appreciate, calving isn’t always plain sailing, so armed with calving jack and hurdles, we made our way to the farm. Thankfully, it was a fairly straightforward job and we were graced with a stonking bull calf!

The warm weather also brought to life the pond, where we saw many fish coming to the surface. We captured some large koi carp eagerly awaiting to be someone’s catch and they weren’t kept waiting long. A few keen fisherman took advantage of the sunshine and popped in for a day’s fishing. Full details of our fishing prices can be found here.

Thanks for all your ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. We’re thrilled to have you following our journey as we transform Hillside Farm Sussex.

Until next time,

Katie, David, Amelia & Charlotte x

It’s been another few busy weeks for us here at Hillside Farm. As it’s got a little warmer, we’ve finally been able to make a start with hedge cutting and general tidying up.

We are pleased to say our last ewe had a single lamb, so we now have 8 lambs prancing around the field! Mothers are doing well and we’ve been checking on them regularly to see that all are doing fine. Amelia has been keen to get involved and has taken to feeding the flock with her dad. Quite the expert it appears…

Elsewhere, it’s coming up to our annual TB test so David has been busy setting up for that and clearing the yard in anticipation. Two days of nail biting stuff!

We look forward to bringing you more news soon..

Katie, David, Amelia & Charlotte x

 

 

It’s been an eventful week for us here at Hillside. Last weekend brought us another bitter beast from the east, so we were doing everything we could to make sure our ewes were warm, fed and watered.

We had another set of lambs on Saturday – that was the third set in a week, but sadly one didn’t make it through the night. With one more ewe left to lamb any day now, we’re keeping a close eye on the barn in anticipation for our new arrivals.

David also littered up the bullocks and did the rounds ensuring all water troughs were running freely – the pipes do have a tendency of freezing up in extremely cold conditions.

Elsewhere, we’ve been tinkering with our new website which is evolving day by day! We hope you like the changes and will pay it a visit every now and again to see what seasonal goodies we have available on our produce stall situated outside the farmhouse.

Until next time…

The Plumleys x