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Thursday
Roger checks stock. Bread for farm shop as usual. Collect duck eggs: the girls are doing
well. I love to watch them spuddling about up the field and coming down the slope,
their fronts all muddy, to wash in the stream. It’s my day manning the
Alcombe shop: stock up, sort out, ham goes well. Phone Mark, a plumber friend, who
comes to Hindon – and finally finds the problem, a leak up the farmyard. HERO!
Feed the hordes, animal and human. Air and sort No.3, do flowers and fresh bread.
Guests arrive with one hour to spare. Whew! They love the cottage,
and the peacocks visiting their garden.
Friday
No farmers’ market this Friday but Roger has to fit in other deliveries with farm jobs.
All this ‘diversifying’ stretches us to the limit.
Up at the lambing shed by 7am. The lambs are arriving, and Roger is busy delivering,
nannying, doctoring and stopping the ewes from pinching each other’s lambs.
Office work, brochures sent, enquiries
and orders. Lunch for the boys; how nice to have running water again – how much we
take for granted! Fix lights, chop logs for fire. Water and bed up sows with
DK, check on horses. The cattle have broken out of the
field and got into next door – never a dull moment! Roger and I go and round them
up – thank goodness for the quad bike.
Finally, sit down and have a cup of tea in the garden surrounded by our Labs, old terrier
and cats. We watch our new lambs bounce about in the field – blessed are
moments like this. Feeling shattered, but it is satisfying for us, providing our organic produce
direct. We’re sure both animals and customers benefit – and hopefully us too!
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Hindon Farm’s slogan is ‘From the Moor to your
Door’, and the produce includes meaty home-made sausages and virtually any cut of lean organic
pork, lamb or beef. For enquiries about the farm, mail order organic meat or self-catering cottages,
ring 01643 705244. E-mail: info@hindonfarm.
co.uk Website: www.hindonfarm.co.uk |
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Further information
Hindon Farm is part of the Holnicote estate, home to 16 National Trust farms on
Exmoor, which is a National Park. It’s a marvellous area for wildlife, and the area has
more than 100 miles of footpaths and bridleways from which to enjoy it.
‘This whole place has huge charm,’ says property manager Richard Morris. ‘It’s the
sheer variety – the sea, and the high sweep of heather moorland, to the incredibly fertile
green vale.’ Red deer are frequently seen on the moorland, as well as the famous Exmoor
ponies. If you are lucky you could see a Dartford Warbler, but unless you’ve got
good night vision, you’re unlikely to see too much of one of the area’s
major wildlife assets, the bat. Horner Wood’s clean air and
water supports 14 species, including the very rare Barbastelle and
Bechstein’s. The Trust owns over 700 farms, many of which sell their produce or services direct to
consumers. Those on the Holnicote estate have all diversified into ventures such as
pony trekking. If you are visiting the country this year, keep our free leaflets (below) to
hand for interesting places to see and great products to buy, cutting out the middleman.
A huge number of Trust-owned farms are also in the Bed & Breakfast business – as the
Prince of Wales found out earlier this year when he had the best breakfast of his life in
the Lake District. If you’d like a relaxing break in areas that are being saved for their
beauty, plan ahead!.
These free leaflets are available from our
membership department on 0870 458 4000. |
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