Good morning,

Hello, howdy and a happy new year, if we’re still allowed to wish it this late into January. It has been a short while since my last email and I hope everyone is keeping well. We’ve been quiet at Trenchmore this month and are looking forward to resuming full shop hours and yard events once it warms up a little - and January’s virtuous intentions start to lack their flavour.

In the meantime, we have been bedding & feeding the hens and herd every day, and getting ourselves in order for the spring. This has involved a fair amount of office work and yard sorting, with the added excitement of frozen, and sometimes bursting, water pipes.

The hens are happy and are laying well - in both egg quantity and egg size - seemingly unperturbed by the nippy weather. The cattle have struggled a little more with the cold & damp air, and we have had to treat a couple for pneumonia. Nev is keeping a close eye on everyone and we thankfully seem to be past the worst of it.

We have taken on some land near to the farm which needs a fair amount of TLC before we can put the cattle on it, or sow our wheat. We’re working on clearing the brambles and plan to make the hedgerows denser with some clever pruning and improve the soil with some clever farming.

We delivered our first 1.5 tonnes of Trenchmore DP (diverse population) wheat to E5 Bakehouse in London last week, and will be supplying them with plenty more over the next month. If you live near enough, their Hackney Wild loaf is up there on my list of favourite foods, rubbing shoulders with tiramisu and my mum’s lasagne. Even if you don’t live near enough, it’s probably worth the trip.

We’ve had our first calf of the season this week and are expecting lots more to come over the next month, so pay us a visit if you’d like to coo over something fluffy, wobbly and a little shy.

This chap is a Wagyu x Angus and is very very sweet.

For those who have pre-ordered, Rosie’s lamb boxes are ready to pick up tomorrow 11-12pm. She’s taking orders for more if you would like to have one in the coming weeks.

The Trenchmore Yard Shop is open every Saturday 11am-12pm, and has fresh & frozen beef available to take home. We will be back open 11am-4pm in March.

We look forward to seeing you in the yard soon.