Hen Corner

Welcome back to Hen Corner!

As featured in Country Living Magazine

Our last post told you about the great time that we had on our Feather Down Farm Holiday, this week we are telling you more about Billingsmoor, the Farm in Devon where we stayed.

By subscribing (box right) you’ll never miss a thing!

Billingsmoor Farm

Just a few hours out of London, Billingmoor Farm in Mid Devon is on Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall Estate. Farmers Jayne and Robert were an inspiration and seeing the farm in action confirmed my convictions that organic farming is not just good for us and the environment, were you as pleased as us to hear about the recent ban on Neonicotinoid Pesticides?, but  is absolutely the best way to care for the animals that feed us. ‘They may not give us as much milk each day compared to intensive dairy farms,’ says Robert ‘but our cows live much longer and continue to give us top quality milk for years’. A highlight of our stay, and a priority for Jayne, is the Farm Tour. Each group of guests is invited to walk around the farm with Jayne and Robert; meeting the animals, both the new calves in the yard and the milking cows in the parlour, hearing their story and a chance to ask the questions that we were all thinking… How much milk from each cow every day? Why are there no boy cows? Where do they live in the winter? ‘The holidays do help the farm as it opens the eyes of our guests to the realities of farming.’ says Jayne, ‘Farmers are in the press if it’s bad news, like low harvests which increase prices or when we want something done to stop the badgers spreading TB to our cows, but it’s rare for farmers to be cheered on or told ‘Well done!”. As we stood together in the sunshine Robert went on to tell stories of farming in bad weather, ‘Even if it snows so bad that the milk truck can’t make it up the farm path to collect from us, we still need to milk the cows at 6am and 4pm, every day, even Christmas.’ What happened when the milk couldn’t be collected? It had to be thrown away; it’s heart breaking.
After the farm tour, we gathered with the other guests around the wood burning oven in the lower field and enjoyed hand-made pizzas together. Many of the campers were experienced Feather Downers and the others intend to return, for us it was a timely reminder as to why we haven’t moved out of London to farm ourselves and how much respect and admiration our British Farmers deserve providing food for us every day of the year, come rain, wind, snow or shine.

Thank you Feather Down Farm Days and Billingsmoor Farm, we had a great holiday and hope to see you again soon!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Other News:

• We had a lovely time celebrating Anne’s 60th Birthday with a bespoke course ‘Cheese & Biscuits – make your own’
• We have spilt the colony of bees and are now hoping that they rear a strong queen that mates well to lead the new colony
• We’ve bought a pig! Well, a half-share in an 8 week old Saddleback that will be reared for 6 months until…

Jobs for next week:

• Take some homemade bunting & produce down to Brentford Market
• Replace the rotting wood frames of our raised beds with recycled plastic lumber
• Run an Intro to Urban Smallholding Course for a family during Half Term

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

Welcome back to Hen Corner!

As featured in Country Living Magazine

We have discovered the perfect way to enjoy a bit of the countryside, and a well deserved treat, when you have a few days to escape from the city. We’ve just come back from a Feather Down Farm Holiday on Billingsmoor Farm in Devon and had the best time ever. Coming home, we found the apple trees in full blossom, another chicken has gone broody and the asparagus is growing thick and fast…

By subscribing (box right) you’ll never miss a thing!

Feather Down Farm Days

Regular readers may remember last year’s post about dairy farms, this month we’ve been able to stay on a farm as a family and see for ourselves the hard work and commitment of our British farmers. This was no ordinary farm holiday, staying in a converted barn or cottage, this time we were staying under canvas in a fantastic Feather Down Farm Tent. Based on an Old Dutch Farm House with wood burning stove at the heart, we were excited to explore every corner; Macy chose one of the bunk beds in the twin room, Andy and I enjoyed the romantic double room lined with cotton drapes and lit by candles in hanging lanterns, whilst James clambered into the cupboard bed that would traditionally benefit from the warmth of young animals sleeping in the cubby hole underneath. The tent was fully equipped with everything from vintage enamel ware and a wall mounted coffee grinder to reclaimed dining chairs and glowing oil lamps. If your experience of camping is lumpy ground-sheets and floppy air beds, you’ll be pleased to find that Feather Down tents have wooden floor boards and you sleep in real wooden framed beds complete with mattresses, duvets and pillows. Our tent that slept 6 shared a field with just one other, though there were 10 tents in total on the farm. Each tent had a personal chicken coop and the children, who are usually up first on a campsite, were delighted to join in the chase for next door’s hen who had escaped during the morning egg collection!

A Feather Down holiday will definitely help you switch off and relax, which is a good job as there is no Wi-Fi, no electricity (except for hair dryers in the shower block) and not even gas for your morning cuppa. Each day starts with the stove being lit and the large tin kettle being filled with spring water from the brass tap in the kitchen area. A slow breakfast is cooked with food gathered from the Farm Larder, an honesty shop stocking a range of local farm fresh foods and a few of the basics that make life easier. We took milk, bacon, bread and butter for breakfast, a salad bowl, steaks and burgers for a BBQ and just made a note of what we took ready to settle up on departure. Evenings were cosy, with cheese and wine, playing cards by candlelight and no midnight stalks across a wet field for a night-time ‘visit’ as each tent has its own flushing toilet!

Friends who had visited Feather Down Farms before assured us that each tent was exactly as promised in their brochure and website and as I stepped into our tent I felt like I’d been here before. This was so much more than a holiday, it was an experience for all the senses that you will only fully understand when you go yourself; with sites across the UK and into Europe you can choose your location, switch off and enjoy.

In our next post we’ll be telling you more about the farm that we stayed on and introducing you to Jayne and Robert Lammie from Billingsmoor Farm in Devon.

Thank you Feather Down Farm Days and Billingsmoor Farm, we had a great holiday and hope to see you again soon!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Other News:

• Our almonds did get pollinated in the cold months of February & March, we can see the new nuts forming
• We are harvesting a couple of bunches of asparagus a week and whisking up a regular hollandaise
• The first Bee Keeping course of the year was a great success, there are 4 more dates available…

Jobs for next week:

• Get the garden ready for a bespoke course to help celebrate a 60th birthday
• Try and split the bees to start a second colony
• Sow some salad crops under cover in the cold frame

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!