Good afternoon,

We hope you're having a good start to the week and are up for a little farm news...

Before we dive into that, we have a couple more Steak Boxes and BBQ Boxes online for this Friday plus plenty of cider, mince and roasting joints to order.

We will do a full restock on Thursday morning at 9am

Unlike many areas where the damns nearly burst, we only received 3mm of rain last week so we are pleased to see the forecast is suggesting more. However, like typical famers, we hope the rain comes quickly but doesn't linger for long as it's good to make hay when the sun shines.

As soon as we can be confident (!) in a sunny spell, we will cut the grass and leave it on the ground for a few days so the sunshine can dry it out to less than 10% moisture content. We turn it several times to speed along the drying process and then row it up before baling. This is then stored in our barns until it's fed to the cows when they come in for winter.

For sustainability, our cattle are fed entirely from grass (fresh, hay and silage) and bi-products (no food that could be fed to humans). The herd are currently enjoying some of Wimbledon Brewery's finest short shelf-life beer, which they haven't been able to sell due to the pubs being closed. Brewer Mark drove this down himself last week and picked up a pallet of our cider whilst he was here so Silly Moo is now available from their Wimbledon shop.

Bovine Broadcasts

Prince, our young bull, has just started his first official work placement with a small group of Sussex heifers (females who haven't yet had a calf). We wish them all an enjoyable summer.

We have some sad news to share - one of our 3 month old calves was killed last week by night-time poachers. We believe he was hit by their car as they broke into our field after dark looking to poach deer. We have put up more padlocks, gates and fences and have reported it to the police but are very upset about the incident. If you ever have information about illegal night-time poachers, we urge you to report them.

We are also in the process of cleaning out our cattle barns so they are in good nick for the animals this winter. This is a messy and slow task but part of an important routine for healthy and happy cattle.

A small favour...

We love our online customers and intend to continue supplying you all with beef and cider for as long as you want to buy it.

We're also keen to get our cider back onto the shop and pub shelves in time for the summer. If you know any local and independent farm shops, bottle shops or pubs doing deliveries in Sussex, Surrey, London and Kent who you think could do with some fantastically fresh ferments, please let me know and I'll get in touch with them.

A couple of local garden businesses we'd like to moo about...

Heritage Products are delivering large and small bags of peat-free compost around Sussex, which is composted in Sussex and suitable for use on organic gardens. Peat makes up 3% of the world's land area but holds nearly 30% of all the carbon stored on land. The loss of only 5% of UK peatland carbon equals the UK's total annual greenhouse gas emission.... so for peat's sake be peat free!!

Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens have reopened and are looking glorious. They're only a 10 minute drive up the road from us so why not pop over to see them before collecting your Trenchmore produce from the farm?

South Down Heritage Centre, Rushfields and Notcutts Garden Pride are all now open (and have great taste in cider...!)