Crooked End Farm Organic Blog

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What a week it’s been…. The residents of Ruardean have continued to be very patient with us as we move ahead in the shop / café building. On Tuesday the power which switched off to a portion of the village so that three phase
power could be installed into the farm. There was much use of calculators in the shop when serving customers and amusingly there seemed to be an electrician up every available telegraph pole in sight. The job was done
and we are very pleased with the results and send out our sincerest thanks to the lovely residents of Ruardean!

Remember Mabel our pregnant sow? She did us proud by having a litter of 15 piglets in total, we’ve lost 3 which is sad, but sometimes that’s just what happens especially with very large litters and the rest seem to be thriving. I have attached a photo of Laura, our shop manager, giving a piglet a cuddle. Not sure who squealed more … Laura in delight at holding a piglet or the piglet trying to get back to Mum!

Finally, there have been some changes in the way some of our wholesalers are
selling their items. This means that some produce is now sold per item
instead of by kilo. An example of this being avocado which was previously
sold at £6.00 kg but will now be sold at £1.13 each. Please don’t hesitate
to contact me if you would like clarification of any issues regarding
ordering.

Crooked_End_Product_List_26-9-111.pdf

Crooked_End_Product_List_26-9-111.doc

There are more people to welcome here at Crooked End, the German Wwoofing contingency has arrived in the form of Jonas, David. They are proving to be a great help around the farm and I’m sure Manu is enjoying having extra pairs of hands to help with the vegetables, animals and general maintenance.

We are also eagerly anticipating the arrival of Mabel’s piglets. She is due on the 20th September and has been moved to the maternity wing of the farm (i.e. the barn). She seems to be doing OK and is enjoying lazing around on her bed of straw and generally being fussed and fed by any passing human.

The shop construction is…… ongoing. Over the past week we have seen the easy clean, durable floor be installed along with the outside of the shop being clad in wood. It’s really starting to look appealing now the concrete blocks are being covered up. Not long now till the shop opening, we are all biting our nails (just slightly) thinking of all the things that need to be done. But they will be done!!

In the meantime, attached is our product list of scrummy, lovely things for the coming week.

Best Wishes

Annette and all at Crooked End

A little late this week – sorry, we have had to contend with power outages
and a v e r y slow broadband this week. The joys of living in a rural
area!

Crooked End is spreading it’s wings, we are now supplying Earthbound
Organics shop in Cotham, Bristol with our veg, and the response from them
has been wonderfully positive. Our courgettes are the best they’ve ever had
so they tell us. It’s an exciting time for us at the farm to see our
produce, pies and meat being enjoyed in new areas.

In other news, the floor is being laid in the new shop, we can all really
see how it will look when finished. The contractors are using a special
polymer to seal the floor which means that we can’t go in there for a week
which is frustrating to our newest member Laura as she is in charge of
acquiring furniture etc for the shop and she is unable to get in there with
her ideas and purchases!

Shirkara introduced me to those pesky pigs today who were living up to form
with the male pigs escaping from their pen and having a nibble of my boots.
I have attached a photo of Shirkara giving Mabel, one of the mother pigs, a
good scratch behind the ears. We have also introduced a batch of young birds
to our poultry flock, they are not yet point of lay and look slightly
bewildered and small compared to the existing birds.

Attached is our product list of marvellously tasty stuff for the coming
week.

Best Wishes

Annette, Brenda, Matias, Manu, Laura, Shirkara, Ben, Maggie and Jess – The
in-situ Crooked Enders

PS don’t forget Usk Show and Skenfrith market this weekend!