2021 Annual Advent Countdown
Welcome to my annual advent countdown! In 2020 I did a countdown just about the animals here at Brimwood Farm but this year I thought it would be fun to add a produce category too!
So every day on the countdown to Christmas, I’ll be uploading a picture for our ADVENT ANIMAL COUNTDOWN - AND - our ADVENT PRODUCE COUNTDOWN. So keep checking back to see the latest updates. I’ll also be uploaded the same to Instagram; both on my farm channel and my produce channel, so check them out.
DECEMBER 1ST
JJ
My first billy goat arrived in March of this year; a beautiful pedigree Anglo Nubian named Jones Junior, or, JJ. A proven billy, he took no time at all in getting to know the girls and as you’ll see from later in the countdown, already has offspring here!
Super friendly, very smelly in the autumn season, and a calm, quiet boy, JJ simply follows the rest of the herd around as they graze as he likes to take his time to sniff out the best hedgerow forage. He’s a delightful beast and never given me any trouble at all. He’s on his ‘under 30s’ holiday soon to a friends so there will be more little JJ’s in 2022!
Lettuce
I know - lettuce is fairly bland BUT I have loved how it’s grown on our site this year. I’ve stuck to keeping it simple and growing a mixed salad bowl variety that either produce green or red plants. They’ve dealt with the drought well, and took absolutely ages to bolt which meant I had more time to get good harvests from them. They’ve sold great as head lettuces both on the farmgate stand and at the farmers markets.
The last market we did was in November so the plants really hadn’t grown much. However, I sold them as ‘baby lettuces’ and marked down the price and they flew off the shelves! Something I’ll definitely be growing thousands of next year; yummy, salad bowl head lettuces.
DECEMBER 2ND
OBERON
I never set out to keep Jacobs but a good friend was downsizing and I thought it would be nice if I could take on some of her sheep. But what was I going to do with four ewes? Get a ram, of course. Albert joined the farm earlier this year but to keep within my Shakespearean theme, I renamed him Oberon. Though he’s pedigree he’s not registered which isn’t an issue as my girls aren’t either.
Oberon became top ram pretty instantly and after a few head butts, my other rams knew exactly where they stood in the order; below him. He’s fantastic with people and follows the bucket like a champ. He’s also one for the ladies and it has to be said, this tupping season he’s been a pain in the A; breaking out of pens, beating up the other rams and trying to get with every ewe I have! Still, he’s mighty fine and there should be a lot of jacob lambs come March!
GLADIOLI
I’ve never grown glads before. In fact, I think I was rather prejudice against them, believing they were rather outdated. However, with my foray into the cut flower business I decided that gladioli would be something to bet on. I didn’t want to spend a lot so bought a mixed bag of 60 corms, threw them in and sat back.
Well. I LOVE Glads! Honestly, these flowers are just so gorgeous. I had a vast array of colours and I really cannot choose which is my favourite, though the lime green and the raspberry tipped white have to be close. I made a mistake in planting them all at the same time but a pesky bird came along over several weeks and kept pulling them out. Seems that was a bonus because that little critter essentially successionally planted them for me as every time it pulled one out, I had to replant it. Because of that I had blooms into October.
One thing was that the gladioli really didn’t sell. I tried adding them to bouquets as the central stems and I tried selling them individually and no one was interested. I didn’t have any to take to market, however, so I think once I start doing bouquet bars and more farmers markets they will sell. I’m definitely doing these again because they are stunning flowers with a great vase life.
DECEMBER 3RD
HYACINTH
I have pigs! I’m slightly surprised at that given I was historically scared of them. When I began my job as a livestock manager the first thing I forced myself to do was to get in and clean the pig pen; to challenge my fear. And as with many things, the fear was unjustified as I love them now.
Hyacinth came to Brimwood earlier this year as a tiny eight week old piglet. She’s a large black and will live up to her breed name; becoming huge over time. She’s the larger of the two gilts (young female pigs) though is the more submissive of the pair. Her favourite thing to currently do is pick up her juicy apples, run into her pig ark and munch it before going in search of her sister’s treat.
Hyacinth is going to be one of my OG’s. My forever animals. The ones who get to live and retire on the farm and will never go to market. I’m really excited to be doing my bit for the large black; a breed that is on the RBST list as it’s in danger of disappearing. Hopefully with Hyacinth’s line, I can strengthen the breed. And have wonderful piglets in 2022.
SUNFLOWERS
It has to be said my attempt at sunflowers in 2021 was pretty poor. By the time I got the seedlings into the ground the farm was under drought conditions. With a lack of water my tall sunny beauties ended up quite stumpy!
I grew three varieties - two pollen free types in lemon and plum - and a multiple branching Little Dorritt. Overall, I’d say they were of average success. I didn’t manage to sell any bunches on the farm gate stand, though at the market when I used sunflowers as the centre piece of bouquets, they did quite well. Again, I’m only building my brand this year so as there’s more demand, I think they’ll do well. Hence why I’ve bought more for 2022.
I found the shorter Little Dorritt worked extremely well for small sunflower posies. The main stem flower I used for bouquets, and then the side shoots, when bundled together in five or six, worked great.
DECEMBER 4TH
OS
Technically Os, along with all the other birds of prey, aren’t mine but how can I not include them in the advent animal countdown!? Os is a stunning female snowy owl that Saad bought earlier this year from a breeder that wanted to spend more time on his other birds. She’s five years old and has begun to exhibit breeding behaviour, so we’re hoping to find her a mate in coming years.
Whilst I might not be enjoying the December weather, Os is! In fact, she really doesn’t like the summer at all and far prefers these cooler temperatures; being a lot more alert and active. In the summer she needs lots of baths and on especially hot days, cold packs putting in her aviary which she can sit near and cool off.
She’s a cracking bird and flies to the glove, though she’s yet to be free flown on the farm. Saad’s working on it and I’m hoping she’s good enough to go out this winter - imagine that incredible sight of her flying across snowy meadows! She eats between 7 and 9 day old chicks a day to maintain her weight - this will be a little less when she’s dropped in weight for flying. Before her aviary was completed, she spent the first 6 weeks on a perch in our kitchen. It was quite a sight opening the front door to come face to face with a huge, white snowy owl!
CHARD
I bloody love chard. If you fail at growing everything else. stick some chard in and it will grow. Through wind, sleet, rain and drought, chard will grow. It’s fantastic stuff. It’s also really nutritious and quite delicious if it’s cooked correctly. And here lies the issue - lots of people don’t know how to cook it and so it’s often overlooked for other leafy greens like kale and lettuce.
Still, I’ve had success with it at markets. More so than I initially thought I might have, having sold not a single bunch from the farm gate. I can’t understand why because I think it’s quite a beautiful plant, especially when bunched with multiple different coloured varieties.
This year I grew Vulcan and a white variety (I can’t remember the name) and they worked well together. However, I want something even more zingy, so in 2022 I’ve ordered a huge bag of rainbow chard seeds which I think will draw in even more customers and be great in the CSA boxes.
DECEMBER 5TH
TRACY
Tracy is one of two rescue sheep. I worked with her during my time as a livestock manager on an open farm and when they made the move towards a rare breed site, I asked if I could buy Tracy.
She’s a lovely sheep with a deep voice and particularly friendly when pregnant. In fact, when she’s heavily pregnant she looks to humans for help; particularly head massages across her lovely blue velvety brow. She’s also yet to have a natural birth. She tends to have large lambs and on all three occasions has come across and just screamed in my face when she’s going into labour. It’s earned the additional names of ‘The Cloud’ and ‘The Mother of Giants’.
I wasn’t actually going to tup her this year but it seemed she had other ideas. However, I’m hoping that now she’s pasture grazed and away from an open farm with limitless food from gleeful children, I can limit her unborn lambs’ growth and perhaps, just this once, she can do it herself! We’ll find out next March.
SPINACH
I’ve found spinach to be a really great crop, both to grow for yourself and on the farm. Unlike chard, people know what it is and how to cook it so it’s pretty popular. The only downside is that here, in the temperate UK, it doesn’t do well with our warm summers and goes to seed very quickly.
That said, it’s quick growth means you can get a good spring crop and then, if you sow in August, you can not only get a later autumn harvest but those plants can be left overwinter for an early spring crop ahead of the new spring sowings.
I like to use as little plastic as possible on the farm and so when it comes to selling, I didn’t want to use plastic bags. Instead I utilise compostable bags, but unfortunately these are opaque which makes selling it a little harder. So far, as I have with my kale, I manually weigh and bag it up from polystyrene boxes in front of the customers.
DECEMBER 6TH
EVE
The first thing to say about Eve is that she. is. a. drama. queen. There are times when animals are allowed to bring the drama; legs stuck in fencing, horrible weather, being in labour. However, it has to be said that Eve is the loudest screamer I have ever heard and that’s without even a reason!
Eve is the older of the three Anglo Nubian nannies I bought earlier this year from a friend. She was born 2019 and arrived with two-thirds of a triplet set that were born the following year in 2020. She’s a pedigree AN and registered as so and I’m currently having a ‘is she? Is she not?’ game over her pregnancy.
Earlier in the year, Eve bagged up but only one side. I caught her and she was producing milk so I believed kids were on the way. NOT. Nothing appeared and over time, the bag slowly dried up again. Now we’re into November, she’s bagging up again though, so I’m expecting kids … at some point. Honestly, I’ve given up guestimating now because the last time I believed she was imminent was almost six weeks ago now!
BEETS
I really love beets as a root veg for the market garden. It is super simple to grow, especially if you’re using the Charles Dowding method of not pricking out seedlings. Instead you plant them as a group of plantlets, and harvest just by twisting off the larger beets. This then frees up space for the smaller ones to develop, giving you a successional crop from a single sowing.
Personally I think beets are also a very attractive crop that bring colour and delight to any farm stand of market stall. With a wide range of colours, from the deep red to bright yellow, there’s some beautiful diversity too and I’ve found that the yellow beets are always the first ones to fly off the shelves.
DECEMBER 7TH
MAJNOON
Quite honestly, I think Majnoon has to be the most beautiful animal on the farm. He’s a golden pheasant, and he arrived as a juvenile. Without his mature feathers he looked very plain; very like a female pheasant but with a golden tinge. And then, as he began to moult, it was incredible. In the space of 10 days he exploded into vibrant colour much like a phoenix from a fire.
Sadly, I made an error and his mate, Laila, escaped never to be seen again! Never fear; we bought another hen and hope to have some little Majnoon’s pattering around next year.
Majnoon is super tame and will happily eat from your hand. Unlike some other pheasants, such as our reeves, he’s not flighty or territorial, and loves to be hand-fed fruits such as grapes and melon.
STRAWFLOWERS
As I progress through our advent countdown, every time I get to some new produce I think ‘THIS is my favourite’. And here we are; straw flowers.
These are fantastic flowers, not only due to their beauty but because of their use. As annuals, they grow very quickly and having bought a mixed packet (I don’t know if you can buy specific colours) I got a stunning variety of hues. They are extremely prolific in flowers too and there were buds from May through to early December.
In terms of their use, it’s endless. I’ve used them in bouquets and straight bunches. Both of these customers loved. I’ve also been drying them to use in dried flower arrangements and to pop inside baubles. I’ve talked about these in my latest diary post. Grow these! They’re wonderful!
DECEMBER 8TH
GERTIE
Gertie is one of four Jacob sheep that came to live here earlier this year. My nan loved Jacobs and though my granddad mostly kept Suffolks, he had a small flock of jacobs for my grandma. When my friend down the road announced her plans to become a crazy goat lady and downsize her sheep, I said I’d take four of the ewes so they didn’t have to go to the abattoir. And thus my jacob group began.
None are pedigree, but largely I’m using Gertie and the others for conservation grazing, their potential wool products and for meat boxes from lambs. Gertie is super good when it comes to electric fencing - in fact they all are - and unlike the Norfolks tend to remain within the boundaries I set up for them.
All four of the girls - Gertie, Curtains, River and Fraggle - were suggested by children on my friends’ campsite, hence the rather off-the-wall names! I’m really loving having jacobs though, and having had them scanned the other day, looking forward to the patter of lambie feet next March.
SWEET PEPPERS
I’m still rather astonished that we can grow peppers in the UK. They seem such a tropical and exotic vegetable to me that growing them here, in our windy, wet, temperate conditions, seems rather wild. They do need a bit of extra help, of course. Generally I germinate them on heat and grow the seedlings on in a warm propagator. On the farm I intend to grow them in the polytunnel where they should do well. However, I have grown them outside in smaller quantities. In that scenario, they were grown in pots that were located in a sunny spot and given a seaweed drench every 10 days or so.
I’m yet to actually sell sweet peppers on the farmgate stall or at the market so it remains to be seen how receptive to British, locally grown sweet peppers customers are. But I can’t them not selling. I mean, a nice punnet of bright, glossy peppers would be a lure for me. And they taste delicious. Roll on springtime in the polytunnel!
DECEMBER 9TH
STUMPY
This is Stumpy! The story of our ferrets is funny - we never set out to get them! Our first boy, Duke, was found in the street. I got back into my car and looked in the wing mirror before pulling out only to see a ferret under the parked car behind me. I jumped out and he trotted over, so I bundled him up, took him home for food and water and went onto FB to see if anyone lost him. Well - nada. So we ended up keeping him. Then, earlier this year we went to a party with some friends and guess what we came back with? Stumpy!
I had been considering getting another ferret for a while as a companion for Duke. They really do like company, especially when they’re not a house pet. Stumpy is named so due to his little short tail; a birth defect rather than an injury.
The ferrets are wonderful on the farm and are some natural dustbins! In general they’re fed cat food but they’ll also dispose of everything else. Find some hen eggs I’m not sure when they were laid? The ferrets. Day old chicks left over by the birds of prey? Ferrets. Offal from butchering chickens and ducks? Ferrets. They’re brilliant! Stumpy has been a welcome addition.
KALE
Kale - the wonder veg.
I really love kale, not only for it’s taste but also it’s health benefits and the ease to which it grows through the colder months of the year. During the summer, unless you’ve got insect protection, kale can be hit pretty hard. Butterfly larvae - especially cabbage whites - lay their eggs all over brassicas. Even if you’re checking every day, you’re unlikely to find them all or squish all the eggs. But come autumn when it’s too cold for the caterpillars to survive, kale comes into its’ own.
At farmers markets, I sell both bunches of large kale leaves and also baby kale. Due to the opaque compostable bags I use, I sell kale by the weight and dole it out of the polystyrene box in front of the customer. I actually really like this method rather than having everything bagged up and ready because both myself and the customer can see the freshness.
Kale has been great this year, and I’m excited to grow some different varieties in 2022.
DECEMBER 10TH
THE SILVER SURFER
This is Silver Surfer, one of the latest additions to our pheasantry. Our silver pheasant male currently lives with a pair of juvenile lady amhurst pheasants, all of which we bought from the Melton Mowbray rare breeds sale. In fact, we also bought another silver pheasant pair but, having paid already, when we went to collect them they’d been stolen (we got our money back)!
I’m excited to have silver pheasants on the farm. I used to look after one in my old job and I think they’re beautiful birds. They are also relatively friendly, and half the time they’ll happily display at you as you walk by the aviary. I love how the red wattles and headpiece stand out so magnificently against the silvery foliage. So pretty!
I’m really looking forward to lots of chicks in 2022. Once I get a hen, not only from the silvers, but from the goldens, reeves, grey peacock pheasants and more.
DAHLIAS
If you’ve watched any of my YouTube videos you’ll know how amazed I’ve been by the dahlias this year. Historically I’ve always grown these beautiful flowers from tubers I’ve bought at garden nurseries or online. This year however, I’ve discovering you could buy dahlia seeds, I had a good at germinating and propagating my own. I am stunned how well they did!
These tiny little seedlings developed into some hefty plants by the end of the season and due to the mild autumn, I had flowers until mid-November which was pretty amazing. I’ve dug all the tubers up and am going to overwinter them, but I whole-heartedly recommend trying to grow some of these from seeds. The customers love them, I love them and my garden is going to love them as I’m growing a lot more next year.
DECEMBER 11TH
HORATIO
Horatio. the Great Horned owl, was a rather last minute addition to the farm. Originally part of a pair, he had been kept at a large cat sanctuary after he was rescued. However, with space running out, the female dying, and the sanctuary needing his aviary to house more rescued large cats, he came to Saad to look after.
Having been a rescue and part of a pair, Horatio is understandably rather wild. Though his history isn’t known, it’s fairly unlikely he’s ever been raised to fly to the glove, or perhaps even held. He’s pretty feisty and will puff up and hiss at the dogs when he sees them, but over the last few months he’s definitely become calmer with both myself and Saad, even flying down for food with Saad in his aviary the other day. He will probably never come to the glove, but just gaining his trust to eat whilst someone is in his aviary is a step in the right direction.
He was the largest aviary of all our owls as whilst Os, the snowy, is a similar size, she spends a lot of time on the floor. Horatio, however, likes to sit up in his box and look down upon his minions (us) with his every grumpy frown.
DUCK EGGS
A popular farm product this year has been duck eggs. I keep three varieties of ducks; muscovies, khaki campbells and rare breed Silver Appleyard. By far, the khaki’s are the egg layers, though the Silver Appleyard’s are not too bad during the spring and early summer season. Muscovies are kept largely for meat as they tend to lay one clutch, incubate and then be done.
I have to say, when it comes to eggs, I’m not a huge fan of duck eggs solely for cooking straight. And by that I mean, poached, fried, scrambled etc. However, they are marvellous for baking due to their higher fat content. When I have eggs on the farm gate stand they fly off the shelves. I’m yet to take any to market but I expect they’ll be popular here too because the variety of folks shopping here are often those who cook and bake for themselves.
DECEMEBER 12TH
PYE AND GASPODE
I’m utterly thrilled and lucky this year to not only get my first pedigree Anglo Nubian nannies, but also to have my first kid born too. Pye, her sister Pixie and her half sister Eve all came to me in spring this year from a friend. I’ve been eyeing up her goats for a while and as soon as she began to have kids in 2020, I put out my claim. They are beautiful jet black nannies, super friendly and generally, quite well behaved. The only downside - they are SO loud! My wethers really are quiet but these girls like to SCREAM even when nothing is wrong. Still, that’s goats.
At the beginning of August, I returned to the caravan to put the goats away for the evening and Pye simply would not come across to me. Finally I managed to rouse her with some food and that’s when I heard it - the unmistakable little bleat of a baby goat. I found her billy kid hiding in some nettles, licked clean but obviously only a few hours old at most.
I named him Gaspode after a friend’s dog who had only recently died and also kept him entire as his colours are lovely. I’m hoping I’ll be able to use him as a hire in the future, and also tup him with Peaches who is unrelated.
SNAPDRAGONS
I’ve never grown snapdragons before but have enjoyed seeing huge bunches of these beautiful flowers on people’s social media. It has to be said, with the absolutely miniscule seeds and resulting seedlings, it’s rather terrifying pricking them out. But it’s definitely worthwhile because though they may start off small, they grow into fantastic bushy plants with extremely long flowering periods. In fact, it’s December 12th and I still have flowers now despite the plants being heavily frosted several times.
The snapdragons have been a wonderful flower in a variety of bouquets, and I’ve not only sold them as straight posies with a couple of sweet peas for scent, but included them in larger bunches and wrapped bouquets too. They’re always popular and very distinctive to anyone who loves gardening or is a frequent flower buyer.
DECEMBER 13TH
ZARA AND ZAHAK
New to the pheasantry this year are our pair of grey peacock pheasants - Zara and Zahak. They had a rough start. Though they’re in a contained aviary, I was shutting them into a box at night as they were fairly flighty. Unfortunately, the young male Zahak, ended up beating Zara up and scalped her so badly that he took the skin right down to her skull. She was in extremely bad shape and spent five months in a hospital cage at home. After drying the wound out with iodine, keeping it clean and allowing her to rest in a darkened room, she made a full recovery. We think it’s due to the pheasants young age as the couple are now back together and they have been completely fine.
Zahak has now moulted out into his adult plumage and developed some quite wonderful eye spots. They’re named after peacocks as the male fans his tail out in the same way; I can’t wait to get footage of courtship display behaviour next year. And, hopefully, some lovely little chicks too!
WALLFLOWER
Though I didn’t have any wallflowers for sale this year, I’ve got about 150 small seedlings in the ground now. They’re a wonderfully hardy crop and will happily sit outside through the winter. At the first signs of warmth, they’ll have a sudden growth spurt and I’m expecting three rows of beautiful, colour blooms around next Easter time. These should pair beautifully in spring bouquets, particularly with branches such as forsythia and flowering current, along with daffodil and tulip blooms.
DECEMBER 14TH
OPHELIA SHARON
I was so lucky this year to have a set of rare breed Norfolk Horn twins born. Very sadly, Malachi, the ram lamb and second boy, died in the summer but his sister Ophelia Sharon has thrived. She was the first to be born and always bigger, and has continued to thrive.
She’s named to fit my Shakesperian theme, with her middle name in memory of a loved lost one. It’s also super exciting as she is the first lamb to be born here that will now have the prefix, so she’s Brimwood Opehlia Sharon and this will go on her pedigree certificate.
I don’t breed ewe lambs until they’re 18 months old so she gets to continue enjoying fresh pasture all of next year until she’s tupped next autumn. She can relax with my other new ewe lambs (to come later in this advent countdown). She’s still pretty skittish but I hope as she matures, she’ll become as friendly as the others.
LUFFA
I’m yet to grow luffa but I’m very excited about the possibilities of growing this incredible plant next year. It’s one thing to grow food and flowers but quite another to grow sponges! Well, luffa’s. But, yeah, sponges!
I honestly do not know how this will go but I have a packet of seeds that I’m going to germinate and plant up in the polytunnel so we’ll see what occurs and IF I can grow any bathroom products - a new one for me!
DECEMBER 15TH
BARNACLE GEESE
I’ve always fancied keeping a few ornamental waterfowl. They don’t have much of a farm use other than selling to other fancyers but the ornamental pheasants make a good return on their hatching eggs, so waterfowl could do to. Until now I haven’t had space to keep fancy ducks or geese. They’re messy, and to reduce that amount of mess, you need space.
When Saad and I went to Melton Mowbray rare breeds, we didn’t really have a wishlist. We just wanted to see what was there. But upon laying our eyes on the pair of barnacle geese, we had to have them.
They are beautiful birds and we are yet to name them. They are a true pair, and whenever one is out of sight, they begin to calling to each other; though the leader is the hen, rather than the gander. I really hope that we can get them into a pasture tractor next year and hopefully they’ll breed and we will have very cute little goslings!
SWEET PEAS
I love sweet peas, and they’re a firm farm favourite because they are so easy to sell. People are extremely willing to part with money for a bunch of sweet peas. They’re famed for their scent. They’re easy to grow if you’re not aiming for a show standard. And people know what they are; that’s important when drawing people in.
This year I only had enough to include them in my cornflower and snapdragon posies, but in 2022 I’m intending on growing a lot more. Even with 20 or so flowers, there was a good waft of perfume as I walked by, so can you imagine 100s? I can’t wait!
DECEMBER 16TH
TINA
Tina is the result of a series of unfortunate events. Though from Tina’s perspective perhaps more fortunate than not. When I first took over in my old job as livestock manager, I was preparing to send all the lambs off to market. A few days before Tina got horrendous fly strike, and though it was cleared up and treated, there was no way I was sending a lamb in that condition to market. She then became part of the flock and lambed a couple of times, before the park began the process of moving to a rare breeds farm. That meant out with the crosses and in with the pedigree. Sadly Sharon (another blue de maine I was going to take) died before lambing but this unfortunate event saved Tina as I couldn’t take one sheep (Tracy), so Tina came along for the ride.
So Tina has definitely have some lucky escapes despite going through the ringer. Actually, she’s a lovely sheep - tame, friendly and follows the flock which makes for an easy individual. She’s also become a great mum. She was scanned last week and is in lamb so we’ll follow Tina’s journey in March.
QUAIL EGGS
I adore keeping quail, largely because of the delicious eggs they lay. Unlike other poultry, they really are seasonal layers and it’s the hours of daylight that affect the number of eggs they produce. You can use artificial light to lengthen the days, but I prefer to leave nature take it’s course and just know I’ll have a lack of eggs between October and March. One way to combat this a little is to hatch some chicks out in September; I find the resulting hens from this begin to lay in mid-October and will often keep doing so up until Christmas.
Quail eggs may be tiny, but they are sweet and delicious. I love adding them to salads or simply boiling them for a couple of minutes and having them as a protein-rich snack.
DECEMBER 17TH
RAJA
Raja was Saad’s first harris hawk. Our friends’ run a bird of prey centre and they are often given birds to rescue. Raja was one of these, and knowing Saad wanted a hawk, gave him some additional training and then passed him on.
Unlike the other birds of prey, Raja cannot live in the aviaries. He’s not quite as hardy as the owls, and with harris hawks especially, you have to be cautious with them getting frostbite on their wings. As a result, he lives in a muse at night and then goes out onto a tether and bow perch during the day. And when we’re spending time at the farm all day, he comes along too. Harris hawks are often used for hunting, and Saad flies him along the hedgerows on the farm - not to hunt, but for exercise. A beautiful bird to keep!
RANUNCULUS
If you want some beautiful early spring flowers for cutting, ranunculus are a good bet. They come as little dried up corms that are soaked in water for 24 hours and then planted. Popping them into soil during the autumn allows their roots to get established so they’re ready to flower in spring.
Ranunculus are cold-loving plants and do excellently in early spring when the summer heat hasn’t arrived. I sell them in straight bunches or include them in bouquets. They are also fantastic as dried flowers, and keep their colour well for many months.
DECEMBER 18TH
MARGARET
It’s time for our second piggy! I so adore these pigs, but perhaps not the mud … I’d forgotten how much pigs + pasture + winter = swamp. But they’re doing a great job of rotating up the soil ready for the pumpkins next year.
Margaret is the second of my pedigree large black gilts. She’s the smaller of the two and Hyacinth has always been a lot friendlier. Though I’ve noticed over the past few weeks that Margaret has been mounting Hyacinth a little from the side; I’m wondering whether this is a dominance behaviour as seen with other animals. I also got Margaret to do the first belly flop the other day by tickling her underside; I’m surprised it was her to fall under my siren stroking ways over Hyacinth.
As with her sister, I can’t wait to see Margaret grow. On a day to day basis I really don’t notice it, but friends who visit always say they’ve grown. Next year they should be monsters! And mommy monsters make … piglets. Can’t wait!
CORNFLOWERS
One of the most productive flowers of this year has to be the cornflower. I’ll admit, I have never had success with cornflowers. They always flopped. They got leggy. I never got those beautiful clumps of flowers on long stalks rising towards the blue. Until this year!
I was so impressed with them. The first flowers began appearing during May and I only pulled the plants out at the end of November. That’s six months of useable flowers … and they were fabulous. I put cornflower posies on the stand which sold really well. And also used cornflowers in the multiple bouquets I produced. Seriously, I was impressed so next year I will be growing them all over again. And, if I’m lucky like this year, I’ll get a few rogue colour hybrids amongst the Pink Boy, Black Ball and Blue Boy varieties that I bought.
DECEMBER 19TH
TAALEA
Taalea is a Malaysian brown wood owl and is quickly becoming everyone’s favourite bird of prey. She came to use earlier this summer after her previous owners were downsizing. Unlike Horatio and Os, Taalea has been trained on the glove and is extremely tame, happily sitting on her perch or a glove and being hand fed chicks.
Personally I think she looks exactly like a furby. Those huge, open and occasionally blinking eyes. The little centred beak. The way she sits on a perch. A real life furby!
She hoots as soon as she hears the car arriving in the evening, knowing that dinner is on the way. She really is the best and if you do experience days with us in the future, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her too.
TOMATOES
Though I didn’t have much luck with my tomato plants this year, the fruits I did get were amazing! To be fair, the tomatoes only failed through my neglect rather than anything else; I simply didn’t get them into the ground fast enough. I had a wonderful small yellow tom - sungold - along with a popular beefsteak type and a small cherry tomato.
There is nothing quite like eating fresh tomatoes straight off the vine. They were super popular at markets and on the garden stand; if they made it that far. Both Saad and I would frequently eat as we picked. So juicy!
DECEMBER 20TH
PEACHES
Oh, the bestest goat I ever have loved.
Though Peaches moved to the farm late this summer, she’s been in my heart for many years as I used to care for her at my old workplace. She really is a delightful goat who loves a head scratch and seeks out human attention. When she first moved here, she didn’t cope well with being free range - she hadn’t become part of the herd and tended to wander around after me. I hadn’t realised she wasn’t eating either, and so she was really quite poorly. Having nursed her back to health, she’s now living in the barn alongside some of my other does until spring.
She is a huge producer of milk and though she’s had many kids before, they’ve never been pedigree AN’s. I’m REALLY looking forward to producing some AN kids off her in the future. But for now, I’m happy with cuddles and goat nibbles. I loves her so much I made her a T-shirt!
A staple here at Brimwood are the chicken eggs. All our hen and bantams are raised on grass year round, which means their eggs are super tasty with bright yellow yolks. I haven’t bought eggs in years so I often forget just how delicious mine are in comparison to commercial ‘free range’ options.
At this time of the year the majority of the ladies are having some well deserved rest after many months of laying and then going through a moult. Luckily, with the shortest daylight hours of the year occuring tomorrow, I’m hoping they kick back into gear come January as I haven’t had a home-laid egg in weeks!
DECEMBER 21st
JOCK
So we had a slight accident this year and ended up with a border collie. A mental border collie.
Both Saad and I had been considering getting another dog for a while but I wanted a silly small dog. We have Beetle and Bo, and I’ve always fancied a Chihuahua cross of some kind so we had begun to look around. However, at the end of Feb, Bo had a major accident which paralysed her and as we went through her recovery, we decided a new dog was not what we needed. Fate, it seemed, had other ideas.
About a fortnight later a friend of ours go in touch to say she needed to rehome her border collie pup as he was a bit of a git and too demanding. I’m a farmer with sheep; I couldn’t really look a gift horse in the mouth. And so Jock joined the household.
I won’t lie - having a blue merle Border Collie has been a huge learning curve. It changed the entire dynamic of the household. He’s got some issues. He’s a wily little thing. But he’s also super intelligent, pretty obedient with me and given time and age, I think he’ll become a fantastic dog. I’m glad he’s with us!
ZINNIA
Another first for me were zinnia’s. I’ve grown a few odd zinnias here and there as bedding plants but never on a larger scale with the desire to use them as cut flowers.
They got off to a rough start, with a dry spring and then an invasion of slugs diminishing my hundred or so seedlings to just a few. I persevered, however, and sowed more and eventually I got a nice little bed of them.
I love how long they last in a vase - well looked after, they’ll last 10 days or more before the edges of the petals start to turn. I love the vibrant colours, and the selection of sizes. I used small blooms in posies, and larger ones in bouquets. Overall, a fantastic cut flower I will definitely be using in 2022.
DECEMBER 22ND
BEATRICE / JUNO / PORTIA
Earlier in the year, and egged on by a friend, I bought three new Norfolk Horn ewe lambs to build my flock. I asked my Patrons to think of names within our Shakespeare theme, and we now have Beatrice, Juno and Portia to add to the flock.
These lovely girls were born earlier this year and are not currently grazing with my pregnant ewes and Montague. In a couple of months I’ll bring the girls into the barn, move Monty back with the two other rams and at that time I’ll move Beatrice, Juno and Portia to my current grazing along with Ophelia (she’s currently off site at a friend’s farm).
With the addition of these girls, it’ll mean that my breeding NH flock next autumn should be seven … though you know me, I might collect some more along the way.
DAFFODILS
Many of your know I’m not a huge fan of daffodils, certainly not the yellow ones. My opinion has softened over the past few years, however, and I’m not adverse to a few bright patches of sunshine here and there.
The majority of the daffs planted around the farm are white but I’ve bought in hundreds of bulbs for the spring cutting season. These are a variety of beautiful white pheasant eye types, some super cute little yellow bells and some larger, standard daffs to really embody that feeling of spring and Easter time.
DECEMBER 23RD
PIXIE
Pixie is the last of my new goats this year. As many of you know, she’s currently recovering after - very sadly - she gave birth to a stillborn kid late last week.
She’s a full sister of Pye and half sister of Eve, and they really have a true family bond. When out free ranging, they tend to stick together, though Pye often gets distracted with Gaspode. They also like to snuggle up as a trio at night which I think is super cute.
After giving Pixie a couple months rest, I’m going to introduce her to JJ again and see if, in 2022, we can have some babies.
BANTAM EGGS
I sell a varied number of eggs at the farm, including duck, egg, quail and soon geese eggs. But I also keep a lot of bantams and their eggs are really delicious! They’re too small to sell in boxes of six as I do with the larger chicken eggs. And they’re not as much a luxury as duck or quail eggs. So rather than waste them (I eat them, of course) I sell them on the farm gate stand for 10p each as pick your own. They’ve proven very popular and I actually like them more than the larger eggs; they’re perfect for snacks, small breakfasts and when you’re using recipes that don’t call for as many eggs.
DECEMBER 24TH
KUBO
Our last bird of prey addition in 2021 was Kubo, the sweetest, tiniest burrowing owl. Originating from North America, Kubo looks very much like the British little owl but is very different in behaviour. These birds actively burrow, and will make use of pre-existing rodent and mammal burrows to nest and raise their family. Though they eat small mammals and birds, they’re also insectivorous, so Kubo gets a mix of chicks and critter snacks like grubs and crickets.
Kubo was parent reared meaning he hasn’t imprinted on humans and isn’t too friendly. However, Saad’s been working hard with him to build a bond, and now Kubo will happily jump onto the glove and eat a few snacks here and there. Hopefully that means one day we’ll be able to bring him out of his aviary and fly him around. But for now, his little stumps and network of burrows will have to do.
DECEMBER 25TH - CHRISTMAS DAY
HENRY
There was no other option for my Advent Animal Countdown than Henry on Christmas Day. Though, luckily for Henry, he’s not on the table but still in the coop with his two ladies!
I have been looking to add Norfolk Black turkeys to Brimwood Farm for a while but was having a hard time sourcing either eggs or poults. Then a trio came up; Henry (a stag, or tom) and two hens, so I snapped up the trio. With avian flu lockdown, they’re currently confined in the barn, but that gives me a good opportunity to quarantine them and also tame them up a bit. Then, next year, they’ll be moving to the nut orchard where I’ll graze them in the day and then pop them into a turkey tractor at night.
With all his ruffles, it seemed right to name him after a Tudor. So Henry it is, with his wives being Anne and Catherine…. so far no one has lost their head.
Happy Christmas!
