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Nick de Cent is a journalist who lives and works on a small-holding near Colyton in
Check out @AFairCoop to follow Nick’s daily postings on Twitter.
This is an archive of Nick's articles. For his latest news, see his most recent article.
February 2010 - All the Colours of the Rainbow
January 2010 - Not So Cold Comfort Farm!
Late November 2009 - Wet, Wet, Wet
Mid-October 2009 - Turning Colder
October 2009 - Keeping Tradition Alive
September 2009 - Colder Nights, Misty Days
August 2009 - Welcome to Blackacre
February 2010
All the Colours of the Rainbow
This week we’re celebrating a real landmark here at Blackacre: we have just started collecting lovely new-laid eggs from one of the pullets we bred from the chickens bought last year as the nucleus of our breeding flock. Hatched at the beginning of July 2009, we reared our first chicks with the help of a very broody Silkie hen; she was an excellent surrogate mum! The latest eggs are a light brown colour and almost certainly from Cinnamon, the Cuckoo Marans x Splash Orpington cross we bred as an experiment to see what she would turn out like.
And this leads me onto the question of egg colour. Duck eggs are blue and hen’s eggs are brown or white – right? Well, not exactly! There are certain breeds of chicken that will lay blue or, even, green eggs. So what determines the colour of the eggshell, because they’re all pretty much the same inside (assuming they’re free-range and of comparable freshness)?
All eggs are initially white (the shell is about 95% calcium carbonate) and shell colour is the result of pigments called porphyrins being deposited while the eggs pass down the chicken’s oviduct. In the case of a breed like the Rhode Island Red, the pigment protoporphyrin, derived from haemoglobin in the blood, is what gives the shell its light brown colour.
The coloured pigment is laid down on the outside of the shell and you can actually rub it off if you collect eggs when they have only just been laid and are still wet; once the eggs have dried the colour remains fast, however. For this reason, some producers of brown speckled eggs prefer not to use wood shavings in their nest boxes because the bedding smears the shells before they’ve had a chance to set. You can prove for yourself that the brown pigment is only on the outside of the shell: crack open a dark brown egg and you’ll see that the inside of the shell is white.
Originally, chickens probably all laid brown eggs. Over time, people selectively bred hens with progressively lighter eggs, ultimately producing white ones, and these came to be the norm. At one time, white eggs were extremely fashionable though, now, people may pay a premium for the brown variety.
Though not an absolute rule, you can often predict the colour of the egg a hen will lay by the shade of her ear lobes! In many cases, a chicken with white ear lobes will produce white eggs, while chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs; egg colour has nothing to do with the colour of the bird’s feathers.
The ancient Araucana breed is unique in that it produces a pigment called oocyanin (a bi-product of bile formation) and lays blue or bluish-green eggs. Interestingly, this pigment is added at an earlier stage of the egg-formation process and goes right through the inside of the shell, so you can’t rub the colour off. This also makes the eggs difficult to candle during incubation.
Pure-breed Araucanas originally came from South America, kept by the Arauca Indians of Northern Chile. Blue and green eggs have been reported from South America from the mid-16th century onwards.
In the United States, Araucanas have been crossed with other breeds to produce the Americauna, sometimes called the ‘Easter egg chicken’ in a reference to the multi-coloured eggs this breed lays. Here in the UK, there are Araucana genetics in the Cream Legbar (a traditional autosexing breed developed in the 1930s), which also lays blue eggs. We breed Cream Legbars here at Blackacre.
You can have fun cross breeding hens to produce a variety of coloured eggs. Essentially, crossing a breed producing light brown eggs with a blue egg layer should result in offspring that will lay green eggs. If the cross involves a breed that lays dark brown eggs, you should end up with olive-green/brown eggs.
Mid-January 2010
Not so cold comfort farm!
Well, even if our own battle against nature has recently been put into perspective by events in Haiti, nobody can say it hasn’t been an interesting few weeks for the smallholder here in the UK!
In the relatively sheltered valleys of south-east Devon we haven’t had to contend with the avalanche of snow seen in other parts of the country, though my daughter still managed to go sledging a couple of times. However, we have had serious ice since 20 December right up until mid-January. This time a couple of years ago, primroses had been in flower over almost exactly the same period!
Harsh weather means we smallholders have to ensure that our livestock is well fed and watered and as warm as possible. Adequate shelter is a priority in the cold, particular when blustery conditions create a high wind-chill factor. And, where possible, the same goes for the wildlife in the surrounding fields.
For our chicken flocks, the cold has meant that we have been including a proportion of high-energy-yielding (but expensive) sunflower kernels in their normal feed mix of corn and layers pellets. Our thoroughly spoilt chooks have also enjoyed a range of green stuff plus currants, grapes, bread, porridge, pasta, rice and even baked beans – but I didn’t tell you that (in case the man from Defra is listening!). The starchy carbohydrate is gobbled up to provide essential energy while the fruit & veg supplies essential vitamins and minerals.
We soon learnt to bring the water drinkers in overnight during the very cold weather because, even if we emptied them, they froze when left outside, making them much more difficult to re-fill. Filling drinkers with tepid water also helped the chooks cope with the extreme cold; we found that, on the coldest days, we had to break the ice at least once a day and sometimes refill the containers. It was a blessing that we didn’t have automatic drinkers because they would have frozen solid – all our outside taps did!
Freezing conditions also meant we had to keep an eye on some of our trees and plants. We smothered our lemon tree in fleece; it’s looking a bit sorry for itself but has probably survived. In the greenhouse, our coriander was decidedly limp after the coldest nights but seems to have recovered now. In any case, we will be investing in a greenhouse heater soon, so we can grow salad crops all year round.
Speaking of heat, we’ve been running down our log store at an amazing rate with lovely open fires every evening in a bid to conserve expensive oil. Luckily, we have a copse to provide plenty of sustainable wood and kindling, but next year we will definitely be investing in a log-burner (which operates much more efficiently) to heat our home office.
Surprisingly, although egg production from our sturdy Cuckoo Marans, Welsummers and Orpingtons died off completely, our plucky little Silkies laid a clutch of eggs or two and we were also treated to a blue egg every day or so from our Cream Legbars. The girls done good!
Wildlife on the small-holding has been much in evidence during the past few weeks. Animal tracks revealed the nightly perambulations of all sorts of species – not least the odd rat hoping to grab a free meal of spilled grain in the runs! We didn’t see any fox prints but there were plenty of pheasant tracks and our three dogs enjoyed listening for and pouncing on small rodents under the blanket of snow in the paddock.
Wild birds became surprisingly tame and made free with the contents of our chicken feeders. We also put out mixed fruit and grain on a patch of lawn and were treated to visits by redwings and fieldfares as well as the more usual (for us) nuthatches, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, marsh tits, dunnocks, robins, song thrushes and blackbirds. In the wider Axe Valley, all sorts of normally hard-to-see birds have been spotted, not least snipe, woodcock and bittern.
December 2009
Drying Out
It was a sight for sore eyes looking out across a frost-encrusted Coly Valley on 1 December, the dawn flushing the clouds a flamingo pink and orange across a cerulean sky. Out in the chicken runs it made a pleasant change to walk across the frozen ground rather than having to trudge through the mud. You could tell that the birds, too, were enjoying the novel sensation of having dry, if somewhat chillier, feet. Maybe winter was finally here?
But it wasn’t to last; the weather soon returned to its familiar pattern of grey skies and drizzle, interspersed with some vicious little squalls and extended periods of driving rain. Days – weeks – of this meant that autumn 2009 was officially the third-mildest since 1914, and November the wettest on record. Back at the Met Office those rain gauges must have been filling up quickly as they recorded getting on for double the average rainfall last month.
Not only dispiriting, this warm, wet weather can bring all sorts of practical problems for the small-holder. And, of course, we’ve recently seen the major devastation that can be caused by flooding in the country.
Thankfully, down here in the West Country we have not so far been on the receiving end of anything like the scale of the terrible floods seen in the Lake District but our area of East Devon has been on flood alert quite frequently of late. Luckily, Blackacre stands on the side of a hill so any flooding tends to happen in the river valley below; however, with a natural spring in the paddock behind the house, the ground does tend to get really soggy in this weather.
One’s natural inclination might be to drain the land – and we have partially done that – but wet grassland is a fast-disappearing habitat and one that is worth preserving. All of which means that conditions are not exactly ideal underfoot in the chicken runs or in the veg patch (we use raised beds to mitigate poor drainage).
Our top run was getting so muddy and, with no opportunity to mow the grass under the electric netting (which meant it was operating very inefficiently), that I decided to take the electric fence away altogether and let the chickens venture out into a wider area bounded by post-and-rail with mesh. At about four foot, this clearly isn’t going to keep out foxes and other hungry predators, so we’re now doubly assiduous about closing up the coops as soon as all the birds are inside at dusk.
But there’s one kind of danger that electric fences won’t deter, whatever the circumstances, and that’s rodents. The heavy rain tends to force rats out of their sodden burrows in the fields and they come in search of shelter around the outbuildings. So much the better if there is a ready supply of poultry feed in the runs and tasty left-overs in the compost heaps!
I’ve noticed an increasing rodent problem these last few weeks and have decided it’s time to declare war, because rats do carry a number of very nasty diseases which they spread indiscriminately as they move about. Just as bad, they are a danger to chicks and small fowl and not averse to snacking on the odd egg or two.
Some of the action you can take comes under the category of ‘defensive measures’. Make sure you keep all feed in secure metal, weather and rodent-proof bins; and take all feeders and drinkers in before dusk, when the little blighters feel safer to venture out. Removing the drinkers is good practice as it avoids the danger of water being contaminated through the rat’s habit of constantly urinating as it goes about its business.
Think about the birds’ housing, too. Here at Blackacre, we have a range of more traditional types of coop built on skids so they’re easier to shift about; but they sit close to the ground and provide the perfect dry spot for rats to tunnel underneath. So, now we’re looking at raising the houses up a couple of feet on blocks or wooden stilts – it’s certainly worked with the compost bin which, until recently, was constantly being raided.
All of this is good practice and helps keep the rodent situation under control but, because rats breed so rapidly when conditions are right, it’s often necessary to take the fight to them. I’m a reasonable shot with an air gun so, providing I’m patient and stand quietly for a while, I can pick off one or two before it gets too dark – or else I suddenly switch on the car headlights to illuminate an area. I recently bought a tin of 500 Napier ‘Power Hunter’ .22 pellets from Mole Valley Farmers and I can verify that they pack the required punch.
Then, of course, you can also trap or poison vermin. Traps tend to be either the traditional sprung impact type – watch your fingers! – or live cage traps. Some prefer the latter but then you have the problem of dispatching the trapped animal quickly and humanely when you return, which may not appeal to the more squeamish of us: it is not legal for you to release the animal somewhere else for another person to deal with.
If you’re going to put out poison – and this can be very effective – please ensure you follow best practice and don’t leave it anywhere where you livestock, pets or wild birds can ingest it!
Finally, get a terrier: we have a Jack Russell called The Stig, and he’s faster after a rat than his namesake around the ‘Top Gear’ test track!
Dear Santa
Well, now it’s mid-December and we’ve had several days of colder, drier weather. Everybody is happier: the dogs don’t tramp so much mud into the kitchen and the two Silkie hens have returned to their customary pristine white fluffiness. The chooks need plenty of food in the cold and I have added sunflower kernels and wild bird seed to their normal ration of layers pellets and mixed corn – more expensive, I realise, but we feel it’s important to help the birds through the worst of the winter as they work hard providing eggs through most of the year, and we feed our doves and the wild birds anyway.
With the frostier weather, thoughts are inevitably turning towards Christmas. Small-holders are resourceful people but every so often something can’t be mended or a newer and better product comes along, so it’s time to buy a replacement. And, of course, we like to extend the range of things we raise and grow, so here is my personal ‘wish list’ of items I’d like to see Santa bringing me this year....
1 Wheel barrow
Really, there’s nothing more useful around the small-holding. We’ve got a couple of trailers we can hitch to the mini-tractor for lugging larger loads, but there’s no replacement for a good wheelbarrow to help fetch the daily logs from store, move muck and earth around the veg patch and clear out the chicken coops. What’s more, with modern designs, you can take your pick of one and two-wheeled barrows, with pneumatic or solid tyres, in plastic or metal, with a super large load capacity and even some that tip.
2 Saw horse
I’ve promised myself that sometime soon we’ll switch from the fuel-guzzling combi boiler recommended by (guess who?) the oil company, to a more climate-friendly system incorporating solar panels and a wood-chip boiler. As a half-way house, we’ll probably get a good wood-burning stove, though our existing open fires are already more efficient than many. Of course, these options require feeding with a plentiful supply of logs, all of which we get from our own timber and coppicing or by recycling old fence posts and telegraph polls on the land. And, when you’re cutting up any quantity of wood, a good saw horse is essential, whether you’re using a chain saw or good old-fashioned muscle power.
3 Mulberry tree
I like to add fruit trees to our land on a regular basis, for a number of reasons. Obviously, the more types of fruit we can grow, the better in terms of providing a healthy diet and cutting costs. Many of the trees are also decorative – particularly when in blossom – and there is a need to replace the thousands of acres of orchards that have been grubbed up over the past few years. Naturally, our chickens (being descended from jungle fowl) prefer to be under light tree cover rather than totally exposed in the open.
One tree that used to be popular, and now seeing something of a revival, is the mulberry. They first became popular after King James I planted one at Charlton House in London. He was hoping to use the foliage to feed silk worms but, unfortunately, planted the black variety Morus nigra, which the caterpillars don’t eat – their chosen food is the white mulberry Morus alba.
Still, the dark-fruited mulberry provides the better-tasting fruit, which look a bit like raspberries but with a different flavour. (The white fruit is reputedly more insipid.) But don’t expect to see mulberries in the shops because the fruit falls as soon as it’s ripe – hence trees are usually grown in short grass – and doesn’t travel well. This is a strictly grow-your-own fruit.
Much used in folk medicine, this majestic tree also packs a unique defence against fungal diseases: mushrooms are said not to grow close to mature specimens and some people grow their grape vines around mulberries to avoid fungal disease, like botrytis. It’s also said that the raw fruit and green parts of the plant have a white sap that is intoxicating and mildly hallucinogenic.
4 Bread-maker
If like me you don’t like supermarket-bought bread which is often full of flour-enhancers and other chemicals, you may buy your loaves from one of the wonderful organic suppliers we have in the South-West, like Town Mill Bakery or Otterton Mill (to mention a couple that we use). Particularly when the range is on in the kitchen during the colder months we make our own bread from the organic flour ground at Otterton Mill, which also supplies fresh yeast.
But if you have a busy life, it’s sometimes difficult to fit in time to make fresh bread by hand, so this year I have persuaded my other half to buy me a top-of-the-range bread-maker for Christmas. The idea is that the machine mixes, kneads, proves and bakes the bread (and other items like croissants) for you, so you can set it going overnight and wake up to fresh-baked bread in the morning. I’ll let you know how we get on!
5 Torch
One thing that is absolutely essential on these dark winter evenings is a good powerful torch, and one of the best I’ve tried is from the electric fencing people Hotline. Their Explorer ‘Dual-lite Rechargeable Handlamp’ is exactly what it says on the box. Basically it’s two torches in one, with a halogen main beam that will last for 3.5 hours on full charge and a 12-LED ancillary ‘working beam’ that is good for a full 24 hours. You switch between main beam, LED mode and off by simply clicking the large button on the carry handle.
Guaranteed for a year, the Explorer is weather-proof with a shock-proof case and comes with a mains adaptor and in-car charger.
We were given an Explorer as an early Christmas present by the manufacturers and it has proved absolutely indispensible over the few weeks since we received it. I keep it plugged in and ready to go (it makes such a difference not having to replace batteries all the time) and use it when doing the rounds of the chicken runs after dark, fetching logs or taking the dogs out last thing at night.
My daughter also takes it when she’s cycling down the lane to and from visiting her pony after school. The only criticism we have of the Explorer is that she finds the torch a bit uncomfortable to hold when the clips for the carry strap are attached; but you can easily remove them.
Really you can’t go wrong with this product. And, at a price of £17.36 (including VAT) on special offer from Mole Valley Farmers, I expect the Explorer to find its way into many people’s Christmas stockings!
Late November 2009
Wet, Wet, Wet
It’s late November and the leaves have all but disappeared from the trees; the weather is unseasonably mild but squally and extremely wet. At Blackacre, our small pond is full to the brim and water is gushing in torrents off the hillside down to the River Coly below.
Here in the south-west, our winters tend to be damp and mild: it’s what keeps our grass growing almost 12 months a year to the benefit of grazing animals like sheep and cattle. But it can also be an uncomfortable time for livestock; chickens in particular – especially those breeds with feathered feet – are not ideally suited to wet conditions.
Chickens don’t really like getting wet and prefer to remain under cover during a downpour. So, first of all, do make sure your birds have a place to shelter from the rain. Ours tend to go back in their house during the worst of the weather, or else they take shelter underneath one of the arks. Trees provide some cover (and prevent the ground becoming so sodden), but if your run is out in the open, you could build a shelter out of corrugated iron or other suitable sheeting, with the benefit that it will double as a sun shade in the summer.
With a lot of rain, there are often small pools of water in the chicken run, unless it has very good drainage. Inevitably, the birds start to drink from the puddles and this can lead to problems, particularly with parasites: intestinal round worms are common in chickens drinking from standing water. Worm-infected chickens may generally appear healthy but can seem extra hungry, while still looking slightly scrawny. You may also observe worms in their droppings.
Both chemical and herbal poultry wormers are available Mole Valley Farmers or your vet and these will generally take care of the problem. (Do ask your vet or SQP if you need advice, however, and when using wormers, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s directions for safe use of these products.)
Remember too that you often need several treatments to kill off a parasitic infection. This is because, although the first dose may have done for the adult worms, there will still be eggs waiting to hatch. Life-cycles vary between different species of worm but you will usually need to repeat a treatment two to eight weeks later.
Flubenvet is a medicated feed supplement and currently the only licensed poultry wormer in the UK. The manufacturer says there is no adverse effect on egg laying and hatchability and, at lower dosages (up to 30 ppm in feed), it should not be necessary to stop consuming the eggs while the chickens are being treated if used at the recommended inclusion rate. You must leave at least a seven-day gap after treatment before slaughter.
Many smallholders like to minimise the amount of chemicals they expose their birds to and opt for herbal products: Verm-X is suitable for use in organic production and is available both as a pelleted feed supplement and as a liquid for adding to drinking water. However, if there is standing water in the run which could act as an alternative supply of drinking water, it would probably make sense to use the pellets to ensure the birds are actually receiving a dose.
Irrespective of any worming treatment you decide to use, much can be achieved by sound management of houses and runs. Keep litter in poultry houses fresh and ensure it is dry. At the same time, do not feed corn or scratch feeds in the litter if there are droppings in it.
And, just as you would rotate vegetable crops in your garden or larger livestock on your land, it makes sense to move your chickens around from time to time to prevent worm infestations building up. Bear in mind also that keeping the grass short allows sunlight to penetrate, which will naturally kill worm eggs.
Happy as a pig in...
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Over at Haye Farm near Musbury, it’s also very wet. Little egrets patrol the fields in which my friend Chris runs his Ruby Red traditional breed cattle.
Chris keeps his cattle out of the barn as long as possible – and the mild weather means there is still quite a lot of grass – so his small herd usually goes inside after the turkeys are finished at Christmas. One major factor is that, as with all deep-litter systems, the litter simply builds up too high if the Ruby Reds stay indoors for long.
Anastasia, the very friendly and inquisitive Oxford Sandy & Black sow, is as happy as the proverbial pig in sh*t! By now she has rooted up all the grass and the rain has turned her run into a quagmire but she doesn’t seem to mind – check out the photo. She is due to go on her holidays soon to visit the boar before having her next litter about 114 days later.
Meanwhile, this year’s offspring have been transferred to the barn where it is cleaner and their food rations can be closely monitored as they are fattened up before going for slaughter in a couple of weeks’ time. With traditional breeds, it’s important to control the weight gain so they don’t put on too much fat.
Why free-range is best
Finally a little bit about eggs because, after all, that’s the reason most people keep chickens. Free range is clearly best for all sorts of reasons, but principally taste, nutrition and the welfare of the hens.
The yolks of eggs from genuinely free-ranging hens are often darker and tastier than the mass-produced equivalent thanks to plant pigments and invertebrates scavenged by the chickens as they scratch a living and hoover up the household scraps. It’s simply not the same if you feed your flock solely on proprietary layers pellets, good as these are at providing balanced nutrition.
But it’s not simply a matter of taste and appearance: recent tests carried out by one American magazine found that eggs from chickens which range freely on pasture provide clear nutritional benefits over eggs from chickens kept in sheds.
‘Mother Earth News’ collected samples from 14 pastured flocks and had them tested at an accredited laboratory. The results were compared with official US Department of Agriculture data for commercial eggs and showed the eggs from pastured hens contained:
- 1⁄3 less cholesterol;
- 1⁄4 less saturated fat;
- 2⁄3 more vitamin A;
- twice as much Omega-3 fatty acids;
- three times as much vitamin E; and
- 7 times more beta carotene.
The magazine also looked at vitamin D, because eggs are one of the few food sources of naturally occurring vitamin D, which is normally produced by the action of sunlight on our skin. Its most recent tests found that pastured hens lay eggs with 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D as typical supermarket eggs.
Mid October 2009
Turning Colder
Despite the recent trend for Indian Summers, the weather can turn unexpectedly cold – even here in the mild South-West – as autumn peters out into winter. Check out this picture of a snow-covered Blackacre in November from a few years ago.
As winter approaches, there are still plenty of jobs for the small-holder, inside as well as out, particularly if you keep some of the larger domestic animals like pigs, cattle or sheep. We don’t actually have any large livestock on the holding at the moment; all the Defra paperwork involved is a major issue and, besides, we have many friends locally who can provide first-rate high-welfare pork, beef, lamb and even turkey. So, we’re firstly going to take a stroll over to the other side of the Axe estuary and visit Haye Farm.
My friend Chris farms a few acres in Musbury (not far from River Cottage) and produces fantastic traditional breed pork, beef and lamb. Haye Farm has a small herd of 25 Ruby Red North Devon cattle, a breeding Oxford Sandy and Black sow (an excellent traditional breed) with piglets, and 80 breeding ewes with three rams; sometimes Chris also finishes turkeys for the Christmas market. (If you are interested in staying at Haye Farm check out www.hectorshousecottage.co.uk.)
As you can imagine, all of this keeps Chris pretty busy, particularly in the run-up to Christmas with the turkeys. Bought either as day-old chicks or at six weeks old at the end of August (more expensive but less hassle), the turkeys are fattened in the barn with constant access to good food and clean water. Turkeys are more difficult to free range than chickens because they don’t put themselves to bed at night when it’s time to roost and are at greater danger from predators. The only practical (but expensive) option for keeping them outside is to have high fox- and badger-proof fencing.
The flock is slaughtered on 15 December, plucked immediately and then the birds are hung for a week. They are then drawn and dressed – basically the guts are removed and the turkeys are prepared for the table – before being delivered to customers on 23-24 December. Of course, it’s a lot of work and doesn’t pay for itself if you take into account all the hours involved, but is worth it just for the superior flavour and the attention to the birds’ welfare.
Keeping a few turkeys in the run-up to Christmas is something every small-holder can do relatively easily if you have a spare outbuilding or suitable shed and run. The young birds and feed are widely available and the only real issue is ensuring the birds are killed humanely and then plucked, hung and prepared properly.
However, I have to admit that when I plucked turkeys by hand for a Christmas holiday job while at Exeter Uni, it was not really my idea of fun: the dead birds tended to poo on you while you were plucking them as their bowls relaxed – a just revenge I guess! The key to getting the job done quickly was to pluck them while they were still warm as the feathers came out far more easily.
Apples
However, if the thought of plucking turkeys is enough to drive you to drink, it’s lucky that there is usually a glut of apples at this time of year. Indeed, with the thousands of traditional varieties available in the UK, you’ll likely find an apple tree in fruit from late summer until the onset of winter.
Making your own cider is not a difficult endeavour, though sometimes it is better left to the experts, I feel. Our home-made cider is always bone dry – astringent even – so, lately, I’ve been casting around for other ways to make use of the bountiful supply of apples from our own orchard and those of our neighbours. One way is to forget the fermentation stage and press apple juice.
The raw juice from our cider apples (plus a range of eaters) is simply delicious. The steps are the same as in producing cider: you pick barrow-loads of apples, then chop them up and push them through an apple crusher (a bit like an old-fashioned mangle but with fearsome spikes on the rollers!).
Some juice will come out in the bucket (make sure it is scrupulously clean) at this stage. Next, pack the minced apples into a fruit press to create a so-called ‘cheese’, and squeeze – by slowly tightening the screw – until all the juice runs out into a plastic bucket (again, this must be well-scrubbed). Keep another container handy so you can swap over as one fills; that way you don’t lose any of the juice you’ve worked so hard to extract. (The spent crushed apples which you empty out of your press after each pressing can be fed to pigs or composted.)
Decant the juice into those dark brown bottles with sprung ceramic caps (designed for home-brew beer) and it will keep well in a cold fridge for a couple of weeks if the bottles are properly clean. To keep the juice longer, we bottle it and place it in our chest freezer, remembering not to fill the bottle right to the top so there’s room for expansion as the contents freeze.
Home-made apple juice is extremely refreshing and really quite delicious – so much better than the pasteurised supermarket equivalent – and I would wager that it’s also extremely good for you. Really, this is the true ‘amber nectar’.
Quick Fact
For those of you interested in the history and origin of our language, the Celtic word for apple, Abhall, persists in many place-names, while the sacred island mentioned in the tales of King Arthur – Avalon or Abalon – apparently translates as ‘apple orchard’.
October 2009
Keeping Tradition Alive
Welcome back to Blackacre, our small-holding in the Coly Valley, nestling in deepest south-east Devon, a couple of miles upstream of Colyton along the River Coly.
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Blackbury Camp |
Reputedly derived from the old English word ‘culli’ meaning narrow, the Coly has much to interest the countryman, with a summer run of sea trout and salmon plus resident brown trout. The river is home to abundant wildlife including little egrets (recent colonists), kingfishers and, hopefully soon, a returning water vole population.
Colyton itself is of early origin, being one of the first settlements established by the Saxons in Devon: the older parts of this pretty little market town have a circular street pattern typical of the Saxons. In 827 AD, the ‘ton-ship’ had a Saxon Parliament or Witenagamot and, sometime between 800 and 900 AD, the people erected a beautifully carved cross; today, the restored cross can be seen inside the parish church.
The place is also notable for being the birthplace of an early form of municipal government in England. Back in 1546, a group of local merchants persuaded Henry VIII to return lands confiscated from local grandee Henry Courtney (after his execution! ) in exchange for 1,000 marks and a promise that the income was to be spent on ‘good and commendable" uses for the community’.
Inaugurated in 1546, the so-called Feoffees still form the town council today and carry out the terms of the Deed of Enfeoffment for which they are the trustees. Indeed, when my daughter was at the local primary school only a very few years ago, the surnames of the original Feoffees were read out in assembly and pretty much all of them were carried by a 21st century descendant actually standing in the school hall almost 500 years later.
Colyton is also proud to style itself ‘the most rebellious town in Devon’, having supplied more men for the Duke of Monmouth’s ill-fated uprising of 1685 than any other town. The last rebellion on English soil, it ended in defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset. Over 100 Colyton men marched off to the revolt: 14 were hanged after Judge Jeffreys’ Bloody Assizes and a further 22 were transported to the West Indies.
What has this got to do with running a small-holding? Not a lot other than providing a sense of place and continuity and a deep-seated understanding that people have been living and working on the land, fishing and trading around here in much the same fashion for at least 2,500 years. The Romans settled a mile-and-a-half south of Colyton and the area was important strategically and commercially: the nearby Fosse Way stretched as far as Lincoln and marked the original western boundary of Roman lands in Britain, while further roads radiated from Colyton to Sidmouth, Lyme Regis and Exeter.
Roman ships would have been able to sail up the Axe estuary to within almost a mile of Colyton. The nearby port of Fleote (modern-day Seaton) is reputedly the site of an ancient Phoenician (a maritime empire centred on modern-day Lebanon) trading post, while Blackbury Camp, close to the village of Southleigh, is the site of a Bronze Age settlement from around 400-500 BC.
Around us, we still have field systems that date back at least a thousand years and, as commercial farming slowly succumbs to the pressures of the 21st century economy, one can predict that a fair proportion of the land may return to a different style of land management which our mediaeval ancestors might have understood. Certainly, the small-holders and ‘hobby farmers’ are moving in as the smaller commercial farms are selling up.
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Thatching demonstration at the Goose Fayre |
Some of these mediaeval traditions have been revived, not least the annual Goose Fayre at nearby Colyford. Held on the Saturday closest to Michaelmas, it was restarted in 1980; however, its lineage stretches way back to 1207 when Thomas Bassett, Lord of the Manor of Colyton at the time, obtained a grant from King John for a seven-day fair at Michaelmas.
This event is well worth attending for the budding or even more experienced small-holder: quite aside from the colourful mediaeval pageant and revelry, there are all kinds of games and a plethora of country skills – metalwork, bodging, thatching – crafts and traditional fare on display as well as produce for sale.
You can admire birds of prey or buy delicious local honey while brushing up your bee-keeping knowledge chatting to the local experts. There’s traditional cider-making – the press turned by a donkey or pony (our local scrumpy is called ‘Suicider’ because it is so strong) and, of course, real ale – the area is blessed with an abundance of excellent micro-breweries.
Let’s not forget where our food actually comes from either. At the fayre, there’s a small selection of livestock on show, and the day ends with the main event – the goose auction. This time of year is when geese are in their prime and roast goose was for centuries a traditional Michaelmas treat.
Originally, live birds would have been auctioned but lately this has become a mock auction: understandably, many people are not keen on obtaining a live goose, which obviously entails killing, plucking and drawing the bird before you can eat it. Is keeping geese something we’re planning to do here at Blackacre? Well, I’m not sure, even if they do make excellent ‘guard dogs’, but I’m definitely thinking about cooking a lovely roast goose to celebrate this autumn.
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A selection of animals at Colyton Goose Fayre |
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September 2009
Colder Nights, Misty Days
Autumn is one of my favourite times here on the small-holding at Blackacre. A time of contrasts and transition, it is both the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ so vividly described by the romantic poet John Keats – full of nature’s bounty – yet also a sign that it’s time to prepare for the approaching winter.
Here in the Coly Valley, the mist hangs over the river every morning and, by night, the harvest moon is a massive orange disc. Harvest festivals – rituals that date back to pagan times – are traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the Harvest Moon: this is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (22/23 September); in two out of three years, it falls in September, but in some years as late as early October.
It’s a time for sparkling beads of dew on the silken spiders webs spun in the paddock and for the resident rooks to perform their spectacular rolling and tumbling display flights – we have a very noisy rookery in some of the big ash and oak trees on our land. Summer wildlife has now largely left for warmer climes, although here in Devon many more species linger longer thanks to our mild winters.
Autumn is also a time of plenty for our chickens. Two of our pens are on the lawn in the orchard and the flocks enjoy a real bonus with the windfalls and, later in the season, a chance to scratch amongst the drifting leaves for insects and other titbits.
Through late summer into early winter our birds have enjoyed all sorts of fresh treats: plums, strawberries, flaked apple, blueberries, chopped cabbage and beat tops are just a few of the supplements that add variety to their basic diet of layers pellets and mixed corn. Any time we wander near their run, the flock comes rushing over to the fence in the hope of a tasty snack – and so much the better if it’s comfort food like cooked rice, pasta or bread.
But winter isn’t far away and the autumn is a good time to ensure that your birds have secure draft-free housing to keep them safe and snug through the winter. Check that there is no loose or rotting timber that could allow hungry predators to gain access.
Here at Blackacre, jobs for the autumn include giving the hen houses and arks a thorough clean: I find a jet wash is easiest, provided you’re wearing overalls and old clothes. Chicken manure gets everywhere as it’s blasted off by the high-pressure water; it’s a messy job but someone’s got to do it! Then a good going over with an animal-friendly disinfectant is also a sensible precaution, and why not take the opportunity to add another coat of non-toxic paint or sealant to make sure the house stands up to the worst of the impending winter weather?
And remember, if you or any close neighbours like to celebrate Guy Fawkes night with loud fireworks, this can have just as much of an unsettling effect on your chickens and other livestock as it does on your pet dogs and cats. Keep them securely shut away in their house and any fireworks well away. Some people even go to the extent of taking their chooks into a barn or house, keeping them snug inside a straw-lined cardboard box or pet carrier.
Don’t forget also, that, if your birds are completely free-ranging when you let them out in the morning, they will unerringly head for that tempting pile of smouldering ashes thinking it’s a manure pile or compost heap... and then you’re likely to see an entirely new way of cooking roast chicken! So, just as you would check the bonfire for hibernating hedgehogs prior to lighting, so afterwards, it’s wise to ensure your flock can’t get anywhere near the remains of the bonfire until it has cooled right down.
As the days and nights turn chillier, the first frosts can mean frozen water drinkers and a not-quite-so-pleasurable routine, especially as egg production is also falling off so there’s no instant reward when you go to visit your hens. The best plan is to make life easy for yourself. Store feed and bedding as close to the hen house as possible (but secure from vermin – we use galvanised dustbins with a brick to weigh down the lid), and bring the drinker into a shed overnight so you don’t have to break the ice in the morning. If the weather is really cold during the day, it may be sensible to place the drinker inside the coop.
Keeping them Safe
One of the biggest potential problems for any small-holder is safeguarding your flock of chickens, duck and other small fowl from predators. There’s nothing more soul-destroying than seeing the aftermath of an attack on your flock: at the very least it will cost you money in terms of lost egg production and replacing fallen stock, but for most people, there’s a huge personal element as well.
We tend to think of the number one chicken killer as Mr Fox, but badger and mink can be equally dangerous in country areas. And then, of course, chicks can fall prey to smaller predators like the various members of the weasel family and opportunists like rats. Even worse, attacks can come from the air: earlier this year, a friend of mine lost all his growing chicks to a sparrowhawk with a hungry brood to feed!
Whatever your views on hunting as an effective way of controlling predators, the first line of defence has got to be the security of your chicken house and run. Buy the best quality house you can afford; do shop around as there is a multitude of coops on the market. Avoid anything that seems flimsy or damaged – foxes, rats and badgers are persistent beggars and can exploit any weakness in construction.
It seems obvious but don’t forget to shut your chickens away at night. Friends who have lost birds say it is almost invariably when they have not been back to shut them away on time.
We keep all our birds in large open runs surrounded by specially designed electric mesh netting. This has the advantage of keeping pet dogs away from the chickens and also acts as a significant extra deterrent to foxes and other predators. Our Springer Spaniels and Jack Russell have learnt to keep well clear after being zapped only a couple of times!
I have found the Hotline poultry starter kit particularly useful, as almost everything you need comes straight out of the box. (Mole Valley Farmers offers especially good value, selling the kit some £60 cheaper than some other suppliers in our area.) All you need to add is a suitable 12 volt battery if you can’t use the supplied mains adapter. And, if you want to extend the battery life between charges, consider adding a solar panel trickle charging kit. Remember that you need to push the earthing stake as deep into the ground as possible for maximum effectiveness and keep grass and vegetation from touching and shorting out the fence by mowing or strimming as often as necessary.
Finally, take time to visit your birds and keep an eye on them whenever you can. You’ll know they’re safe and they will repay the compliment with many fascinating hours of amusement if you take time to watch them go about their daily business.
August 2009
Welcome to Blackacre
Here at Blackacre, we’re lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the South-West, if not the whole of England. It’s perfect country for small-holders; so much so that the smart modern house across the valley is reputedly the new home of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall... although I’ve yet to meet our illustrious neighbour.
Part of the Colyton Conservation area and plumb in the middle of the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural beauty, our three acres nestle on a hillside overlooking the River Coly (derived from ‘Culli’ an old English word meaning narrow) amid trees and pasture. The scene is not so different from when the parish tithe maps (www.eastdevonaonb.org.uk/dro/index.html) were compiled in 1840.
Our holding is much smaller than the original farm and the outlook is slightly different: the chicken farm opposite has long since switched production, and the abundance of wild daffodils in the hedge banks and riverside glades during late March is all that remains of a once-thriving cut-flower industry. The dairy herds are disappearing too at an alarming rate, but there are still sheep – one enterprising farmer milks them for the yoghurt market – horses, and the occasional alpaca... and, of course, hundreds of pheasants!
We’ve been growing our own veg for several years now. You name it, we grow it – from artichokes, beans and chillis to zucchini (or courgettes as we usually call them). We cultivate fruit in the greenhouse and in a frame and are also lucky enough to have an orchard – apples, pears, cherries, plums, quince and walnut – as well as a small copse that supplies logs, stakes and, sometimes, hazel nuts and sweet chestnuts.
Why do we grow so much? Well partly for the fun of it, but mainly because the produce tastes so much better freshly harvested and we know that what we pick is chemical-free. We can also raise a much wider range of varieties from seed than you would ever find on the supermarket shelves.
Like all small-holders, we’ve had our ups and downs. We don’t use chemical fertilisers or pesticides, so there was an occasion when a crop of Chinese greens was totally devoured by the local cabbage white population instead of finding its way into our wok for a stir-fry. Aphids can cause devastation if you don’t catch their presence early; badgers have run amok though our sweet corn and the squirrels and birds make free with the plums, cherries and walnuts if they’re allowed.
But by and large, we are supportive of the local animal population: wildlife was one of the reasons we moved here. And it wasn’t long before our thoughts turned to raising some livestock of our own. But where to start?
Chickens seemed the obvious answer. Poultry-keeping is reputedly the fastest-growing hobby in Britain and a small flock of hens laying a daily supply of fresh, free-range eggs was tempting. Besides, friends were raising sheep and rare-breed pigs and cattle, so there was always plenty of good-quality locally sourced meat available, and the paperwork and bureaucracy involved in raising the larger farm animals seemed a step too far for the time-being.
As complete novices at poultry-keeping we asked around amongst friends, read books and the small-holding magazines. A hen house duly arrived (all the way from Scotland, I have to admit – though we’re now getting a local friend to build us some more),while the local agricultural supply merchants were extremely helpful when it came to recommending feeds, electric netting and other vital equipment.
A neighbour kindly incubated some of her Welsummer eggs for us and, after three weeks, several of them duly hatched into the most delightful little chicks. However, we had also set our hearts on some Marans (for their shiny dark brown eggs) and we were looking for hens that would start laying immediately.
So, a 6am start saw the family blearily heading for Salisbury Livestock Market and the monthly rare-breed poultry sale. We had been recommended to attend this auction as the prices are often keener than going to a specialist dealer, and there’s a huge variety. What’s more, being a Defra-licensed sale, the market is a relatively gentle introduction for novices to the art of buying poultry at auction.
What a sight! Hundreds of cages full of every breed of chicken imaginable – fluffy Orpingtons, exotic-looking Silkies and majestic Brahmas – not to mention the ducks, doves, pheasants, geese and turkeys all adding to the cacophony inside the shed.
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At Sailsbury Auction |
Gandalph at the auction |
Gandalph at home with the hens |
Initially, it seemed quite a daunting process but we soon got the hang of it by watching the first few bids and chatting to other buyers. Eventually, the auctioneer came along the row to the quartet – three hens and a cock- that we wanted to buy. The bidding was fierce, but we were determined, and eventually the hammer came down at a price not so far above what they were really worth!
Being novices, I’m ashamed to say that we had to ask one of the stewards to help us get the birds into our carriers, and then we took our chickens proudly home. Checking that all was OK, we released the birds into their new house, but kept them shut in for a short while to acclimatise.
It turns out that Cuckoo Marans were a good choice – they’re robust, self-reliant and friendly – so we have had few problems. The hens duly layed some eggs on their first day with us and Gandalph, Bella, Rosalie and Alice have settled in nicely. Our only complaint has been the 4.15am wake-up call from Gandalph, but it’s a small price to pay in exchange for fresh eggs everyday and the fun of keeping these friendly birds. And now we’ve bought some ear-plugs!
Words and photographs by Nick de Cent.
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