Saturday 8 June 2013

Open day - dates for your diary

Hello everyone- a couple of dates for your diary Sunday July 28th and Monday 29th, -10am -2pm both days. I am having an "Open Day" at Trenow Cove Dairy so that all of you who have been so interested in following "Karen's Farm" can come and have a look around the micro dairy. This is probably still the smallest commercial dairy in the UK. You can spend as long or as little time as you like here to suit yourselves - there is no "start " time. I am sharing this occassion with Gerald and Anne Babcock who will be using the day to officially launch their website. As many of you know I work in conjunction with the Babcocks who own the Pendeen herd of Whitebred Shorthorns

The cows that are currently residing here will be in the lower of the fields, so you can wander up and have a look at them. Those of you who like walking might want to see them by walking along Churchway footpath and loop back to Trenow and the bridleway. In the barn will be some photos of the view from the top field and some shots of the fields of how they were before and since.  You will be able to wander through the barn and have a look at the tank room, milking parlour and the pasteurising room.

The Babcocks look after my cows when they are not milking- because they are too young or early pregnancy or "dry " cows who have finished milking for a time. When the cows are away from me they spend their time up on the Penwith Moors where they are conservation grazing. If you want to know more about conservation grazing come along and talk to Gerald.

Now for practical issues-  parking is limited in the little area at the bottom of the bridleway so if at all possible, can you walk to the dairy. If I can secure additional parking I will let you all know. For those not familar with the area there will be sign posts directing you. Respectfully no dogs, on this occasion. I am not anti dog but two of the cows who were involved with the terrible dog attack last year will be here and now they are not struck on them!

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Saturday 11 May 2013

What is happening in 2013

Well it is a few months since I was last in touch with you all and there has been plenty of things happening. But first can I just show you a picture I took when it snowed, It was certainly a wet cold winter and spring. Thank goodness the warmer weather is here but I supose it is all very relative.This picture was taken in the collection yard with the cows tucking into some tasty wholecrop


Did I tell you that the fields that I work are now mine? That all went through last October. They used to belong to Jim Bettens who has recently passed away at the grand age of 89yrs. I used to tell him from time to time what was happening with the fields and the cows. Talking of which I have now acquired a few more cows to add to my little herd. You may recall I started off with Buttercup and Daisy and then the following year I added Primrose. In the autumn I bought 5 more cows. Snowflake ( Snowflake is a flower incidently)and her calf Clover;- Snowflakes grand daughter Lilly, Bluebell and Rosie. Rosie is not going to be mine for much longer as I am going to swap her for my first calf produced by Daisy, that I called Snowdrop. Snowdrop was hand reared over at Pendeen with another little calf called Widget who is a Jersey cross
 
Here they are frollicking inthe meadow of buttercups
 
The other bit of news is that in November I got my "kite " mark as a food producer from Cornwall Council. Thats the little oval mark you find on all your yoghurt pots for example It means I can sell my dairy produce anywhere and makes it tracable. So my milk and butter has this mark on the labels and is being sold locally.
 
 
Snowflake had a calf on 2nd May so I called her May ( when I was young we used to call Hawthorn blossom May). May is now in Pendeen being bottle reared.
 
May will come back to th erd when she is older.
Her mother Snowflake is milking like a dream- a little hesitant to come into the milking parlour but it is all strange to her. today she produced 13 litres of milk. Thats almost 3 gallons in old money.It produced 1.5lbs of butter too. So if you want unhomogenised milk;-skim, semi skim or full fat milk or butter just give  me a phone 07980 313739 and you can buy some. Or go to any of the local outlets notably Village Crafts in Perranuthnoe or The Deli in Marazion
 
Daisy is due on 20th May and Guinivere any day now. Guinivere isnt mine but she is the cow that came off worst in the dog attack last year. If she sees a dog ( even minding its own business) she wants to attack it so she cant graze the Penwith moors any more. So the plan is that she will return to Trenow and be a milking cow and be away from dogs.
 
The little meadows in Boat Cove Lane have been rotavated with a view to ploughing and reseeding in grass The meadow where I first had chickens has been revamped and should be fox proof unlike their last field that had too much cover to make it safe. The chickens are point of lay so these are not producing great numbers of eggs yet but will do before too long. The cockerel to keep the girls company is called Oliver ( Cromwell) according to his previous owner who had one male too many,
 

 In the garden I have 12 goslings They were hatched on 16th April and are destined to be Christmas dinners. They look so cute at the moment so the secret is dont give them names and be content with the fact that they will have lead a happy life.They will go in the field next to the house when they are fully feathered.