November Newsletter
Christmas is coming in the Farm Shop, join us for one of our early Festive events, the rams have gone to the tupp and rosettes galore for our Farm School students!
Have you ordered your Christmas roast yet?
We have a roast to suit every table and budget, from home reared lamb, goat and pork, local free range turkey, chicken and capons not to forget our extensive range of wild local game. Don't forget our deer in duvet - venison chipolatas wrapped in bacon that make a delicious change to pigs in blankets!
Our Christmas order book is open and we are proud to offer a wide range of home made and locally sourced produce for a fabulous Festive feast!
Anthony Harris of Bridgers Farm, Hurstpierpoint has been rearing his award winning turkeys since 1985 and is the only accredited Free Range "Golden Turkey" producer in Sussex. The accreditation insists on free range, high welfare conditions for the turkeys, which are fed on a high quality diet and allowed to grow to full maturity, which is often twice the age of commercially reared birds. Anthony offers free range and barn reared whole birds, crowns and butterfly joints.
See our turkey pricelist here:
If you would like to place a Christmas order please compete an order form and drop it into the shop or send it to us via email.
Farm and livestock update
Chrissy has added more rare and heritage breeds to the flock this year and we now boast a small pedigree flock of each of the following breeds:
Badgerface
Greyfaced Dartmoor
Southdown
Ryeland
Kerry Hill
Hebridean
Herdwick
Swiss Valais
These run alongside our commercial flock of Mules, Blue Texel, Texel and Beltex.
Each breed has been selected for their particular attributes; the Beltex produce a brilliant meat lamb, the Mules are great mothers (but are also good at jumping out!) and cross well with other breeds. Ryelands are new to us and appear to be fairly lazy mothers at lambing, but their lambs are so gorgeous and docile for the Farm School students to handle we think it is worth it!
Different breeds are suited to different areas on the farm. The Hebridean and Herdwicks thrive on the relatively poor grass but dry conditions of our parklands, whereas the commercial breeds don't mind the lower, wetter grazing so long as the grass is good. Overall we are producing some fabulous lamb and offering our farm school students opportunity to work with a wide variety of sheep with quite different confirmation and temperament.
Our handsome rams - now out to the tupp with their ladies!
From top left: Caburn - Southdown, Baxter - Blue Texel, Brock - Badger Face
Harry - Herdwick, Harris - Hebridean, Rory - Beltex//Texel X.
Our goats are now safely tucked away in the barns at they don't tolerate the wet ground in winter. They look forward to helping recycle our Christmas trees in the new year!
Farm shop news
Why not call into taste our extended range of award winning British cheeses, displayed in our new cheese counter for your Christmas cheese board?
CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR OPENING HOURS
Sun 22nd 10 am - 2 pm | Mon 23rd 8 am - 5 pm | Christmas Eve 9 am - 12 |
Christmas Day CLOSED | Boxing Day CLOSED | Sat 28th 10 am - 4 pm |
Sun 29th - Tues 4th | CLOSED | Reopen Weds 8th Jan |
Winter Opening Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 9 am - 5 pm
Wreath Making Workshops & Christmas Arts & Crafts
Weds 27th November - Children's Christmas Arts & Crafts: 10.30 - 12 noon
A morning of Festive crafts and meet our friendly farm animals.
£15/child includes all materials and accompanying adult entry.
For tickets:
Weds 27th November - Children's Christmas Wreath Making Workshop 1 pm - 2.30 pm
Make a festive wreath with materials foraged on the farm and meet our friendly farm animals.
£20/child, includes all materials and accompanying adult entry.
For tickets:
Friday 29th November- Adult Christmas Wreath Workshop 10 am - 11.30 am
Make a festive wreath with materials foraged on the farm, enjoy a glass of mulled wine or mulled apple juice and a hand made mince pie.
£42/person, includes all materials and refreshments.
For tickets:
As we head into our busy Christmas period, the best way to contact us is via email, farmshop@southbrockwellsfarm.com as we are not always able to answer the telephone if we are serving customers. However, we have an answerphone so do leave us a message if email is not your thing!
Order your free range pork or slow grown lamb box!
We have bred more pigs this year. Our pigs enjoy a fabulous free range life wallowing in the large patch by our vegetable patch and in a large paddock next to the woods. We now create our own ration for them using locally grown barley and beans, left over vegetables and windfalls with a little milk protein. They are thriving on their new diet which no only is cheaper than buying in commercial feed, it gives us complete control on their diet and makes the best use of any vegetable or weed waste we have.
Our lambs spend the summer with their mothers grazing on our permanent pastures. We do not use cereals to fatten, but leave it to Mother Nature. This year has been particularly challenging with a cold spring, followed by long periods of wet weather. This has meant it has taken longer for the lambs to grow but they are enjoying the recent dry spell and looking fabulous!
We will have pork and lamb freezer boxes available from the 20th November. Buy your Christmas sausage meat and pigs in blankets ahead and pop them in the freezer. Or why not treat yourself to one of Sarah's hot sausage rolls next time to you visit the farm shop!
Farm School news - not all learning is done in the classroom!
What a great day!
Our Farm School students enjoyed a great day out at Hurstpierpoint Ploughing Match. Due to Bluetongue restrictions being imposed days before the event, the Sheep and Goat Show the students had been practicing for all term was cancelled at the last minute, so a Shetland Show was a arranged instead.
Taking the gorgeous Buddy and Caramel, we were lucky enough to also enjoy the use of a few honorary farm school Shetlands; Mouse, Lady, Gary and Roland and between them they strutted their stuff in the show ring to land our students with a plethora of rosettes.
This success was also replicated in the craft tent with places in the best feather creation and display of home grown produce!
Events like these, although a whirlwind of a day with a lot of paperwork, risk assessments and emails, are worth every second when our students get the opportunity to try something new, demonstrate their progress, show their recall of knowledge and refine their skills. Not only that but for a lot of them, it’s their first time at an agricultural event, they have stepped out of their comfort zone, met new people, overcome nerves and managed emotions throughout.
Enrichment opportunities like this are an integral and important part of what Farm School is. We hope we have broadened some horizons, created opportunity for success and educated some children and families on how farming impacts on each of our lives whilst enjoying a great day out in the countryside.
As always, not possible without the brilliant Farm School staff team, thank you! Â
We look forward to seeing you soon!
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