Smallholder blog, Smallholer editor has her say

Editor's blog

I’ve never been a lot of use at keeping a diary but I have decided to be fashionable and start a blog. Although I do mention my smallholding and my family (and other animals) in the magazine, I thought readers might like to reflect on my own experiences in the world of smallholding. These days, the magazine does keep me rather busy, so I no longer keep goats or sheep. I was a fairly inspired lamber with a regular 200% lambing thanks to Andrew Eales’ marvellous book on lambing. I went on a lambing course first which helped a lot as the real thing, your first ewe lambing, is a pretty frightening experience. In the time I kept sheep I learnt a lot. There are many pearls of wisdom I could offer but one thing that was so true was the words, ‘ if something is going wrong, be it a difficult lambing or a lamb that won’t suck, it will only get worse if you leave it.’ Consequently my first couple of years did bring their share of vets bills but I learnt from each one and towards the end of my sheep keeping I only called the vet in situations that were beyond my skill such as truly bad mal-presentations. I miss the sheep but as my smallholding is four acres and I used to move them round the area using electric fencing (they were a ‘flying flock’ in every sense of the words, especially when they escaped), I really don’t have the time now to do this. We are still fortunate that we do have a small local abattoir, not as local as the first one we used but still quite close and there is still a livestock vet within 30 miles. Now I buy meat from other smallholders – and last week Maureen James, who writes the ‘Countryfolk’ in Smallholder, rang me to say my half a Gloucester Old Spot was ready and should she and her partner bring it round? Frantic scrabbling in the freezer ensued to clear the space necessary for this generous pig. The chops have quite a layer of fat on them and when you cook them they are unlike anything I have ever tasted – absolutely delicious. I have to get out my ‘how to use all bits of a pig’ book as we get through the obvious cuts of meat but I do refuse the head – I know I should get on and make pig’s head brawn but memories of my mother doing this do not make me feel that I want to. It was when the teeth floated to the top…. Ugh it still makes me squirm even now. The trotters go to a friend of mine who finds them a delicacy. I also had Golden Guernsey goats for many years and I was extremely upset when Faith, the oldest, finally had to be put down. I rehomed them to a City Farm a few years ago basically due to lack of time as the time needed to put together the magazine increased but perhaps I should have read Felicity Stockwell’s sensible article in our May issue on how to fit in 9-5 and goats. My other problem was that try as I would I could not get my foster children to drink goat’s milk, nor any other member of my family and I didn’t have time to turn it into cheese. I do love goats though and as dairy animals, for their size, they are higher yielding than cows and I hugely respect them for this.