Happy summer everyone!

We hope you've all been enjoying the sunshine as much as we have here at JGHQ! The animals have loved the sun and fresh grass that has been rocketing during the past few weeks - June, you've won us over so far!

The sheep have been sheared ready for more balmy days out in the fields;

And we've taken the first cut of silage to see us through the winter:

Not that we want to think about winter too much right now!

The grass is cut and gathered before it dries (unlike hay) and stored under plastic sheeting to stop it from drying out and to allow it to ferment. After fermentation, the silage has a sweet taste and smell, which the cows love!

We're also about to put the piglets and their mummy out into the paddock so watch out for that update....!

Calf Chaos!

Hello everyone and happy Spring!

So during the recent weeks we've been busy doing reasonably dull things...like building sheds and painting parlours but finally we have something photogenic and fun to write about.....our new calves!

We've acquired five new little calves - just a few months old - to join our happy menagerie! This is Flora;

The calves are very sweet but are shy still - that'll soon change though! They are Simmental cross Friesian calves from our local dairy farmer and so will grow nice and big (hopefully). They're still drinking milk which we make them morning and night but soon they'll be weaned onto homegrown barley and silage. When they're big enough we'll put them out into the paddocks, which is exactly what we did this weekend with our bigger calves. This is them this morning, enjoying the sunshine!




To get them to the paddock we walked them on halters....much easier said than done. It turned into a bit of a rodeo! Who knew they had it in them! Anyway, after a lot of running, jumping and slamming on the brakes, we managed to get them into the paddock where they lept around and tasted grass for the very first time! They're five very happy calves!

Squidglets!

Horay! This morning our wonderful sow Vinnie (I know, we had a little gender identification error when she was very young...!) gave birth to a lovely litter of squidgy little piglets - what a brilliant sight to wake up to! So far they have all had a good drink of precious milk and are already adventuring around their pen ... though not straying too far from their mummy. When Vinny is about to let down her milk she grumbles at them and they all quickly scrabble back to her!

This is Vinnie's second litter - about 18 months ago she had a small litter of 6 which have grown up to be beautiful, if not a little pesky, pigs. This litter is much bigger, as usual with a subsequent litter, with 14 piglets. That's more than doubled our pig numbers in one swoop!

Vinny and the babies will stay indoors until the piglets are big and strong and the weather is warm and then we will unleash them into the fields, where I'm sure they'll have no end of fun!

We'll keep you updated as these little lovelies grow!

JGHQ x

email - jollygoose@live.com

twitter - @TheJollyGooseCo

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Happy Ewe Year!

Hello and happy new year everyone!
We hope you all had a wonderful festive season!

Well we have been busy - after the mad dash of Christmas, it was straight in to our lambing season... no rest for the wicked!

Despite the cold and the wet, we've had some lovely lambs born so far and we're nearing the half way mark for ewes due. Phew! Our Suffolk lambs are black and fluffy with huge ears which is oddly adorable! We keep them warm under heat lamps and on days like today, they love a good sunbath in the sheds when the sun makes a rare appearance.

We will now be lambing until April so I'm sure there will be a few  pictures to follow. We also have some more little ones arriving soon - our calves are due soon and at the end of February we are expecting some lovely little piglets. What an exciting start to the new year!

There are only 19 days, 15 hours, 2 minutes and 26 seconds until Christmas....

.....PANIC!

However, Christmas did make a little, early appearance at JGHQ a few days ago with us indulging in a, if I do say so myself, scrummy roasted goose....

Although admittedly not our biggest specimen, the goose was juicy, tasty with a crispy skin, and very easy to cook - and if I say that, it means ANYBODY can cook a goose! The roasties cooked in the goose fat were pretty spectacular too!

It definitely got us in the festive spirit – a day later we caved in and bought out tree!

So, if you are after a lovely jolly goose this year, let us know soon – we only have a few left!

Call 07890 688 948 or email jollygoose@live.com

.....tree pictures to follow!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Nice Weather for Ducks

Hello!

I know, we've been naughty and neglected the blog for an absolute age, but we have been up to all sorts...

Firstly, we casually went to America....! We had a fantastic trip round California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada - it definitely made us want to start up a San Francisco office for The Jolly Goose Co! The weather was beautiful, the people were delightful (though some were a bit nutty) and the sights were unbelievable!

We arrived back home and suddenly it was Autumn... what a shocker! So we set about pulling ourselves out of our post-hols blues by digging out our knitwear and getting excited for Christmas!

Job #1 - Blackberrying

What better way to warm our cockles than with a little home made blackberry gin....? We picked quite a bounty and ginned it up ready for Christmas and New Year. It smells so delicious, I can't wait! Just fresh blackberries, sugar and gin. Perfection.

Job #2 - Pumpkin Soup



Hallowe'en means one thing at JGHQ - Pumpkins!

Pumpkin + onions + apple + ginger + chicken stock + cinnamon + nutmeg + cloves = yummy winter warming soup.

Job #3 - Ducky Dealings

Finally, we acquired ourselves some ducks. Our beautiful Aylesburys are so much fun to watch and listen to and we had a pair of Muscovys and Cayugas thrown in for good measure too. They're enjoying this weather....though they may be the only ones!

So now the countdown to Christmas has begun - only 52 days to go! The orders for geese are coming in thick and fast so if you fancy a goose or a pork, lamb or beef joint for the big day, get in touch now;                                       jollygoose@live.com                     07890 688 948



The Golden Oldie!

Like most farmers this year, we've been struggling with our harvest - rain + rain + rain + more rain = very frustrated farmers! So, when we finally caught the first bit of sustained sunshine last week, we were all go....until the combine sunk. Twice.
That's right 18 tons of combine harvester stuck in the middle of the field. Twice.
All the rain we had over the summer had left our fields too soft and squidgy to hold the beast of a machine up, despite the crops drying out to the right moisture percentage. We were in a bit of a pickle.

So just when we're about to give up on Harvest 2012 the Gods handed us a olive branch in the form of a 1967 New Holland Clayson beauty!

Weighing in at a svelte 6 tons, painted a glorious yellow and well oiled, this sixties sweetheart was just the gal for the job! So coaxing her out of retirement, we set her to work on the wheat.





With a dinky 10 foot header and no cab it was long and dusty work but she battled on!

Two days in and she's still going strong .... let's just keep everything crossed that the sun continues to shine and this Golden Oldie can bring home the harvest!