Farm Photos

We live on a smallholding in rural Ireland. We keep one jersey cow called 'amber'.
She is the heart of the operation as she rears a calf for us each year and it fills our freezer.
She helps feed our hens and pigs and of course ourselves. She fills the manure heap and we put that fertility out on the land and veg garden in autumn. We have milk allergies and found that we can drink raw cow milk without a reaction.
We raise a few pigs each year for the freezer and currently have our first breeding sow, Sally sow. She will be an experiment into the unknown. The quality of meat produced is fanastic and we have attempted to try our hand at salami, sausages and ham.

We keep a few hives of bees, the number of which keeps changing. We take honey from them in August. We started with national hives but we are now going to experiment with perone and topbar hives using more natural bee keeping methods where possible but always trying to learn more from these fascinating insects.
We have a veg garden and had a polytunnel till the storm took it and we have planted a young orchard.

I have an interested in horses, especially show jumping. I currently have two young horses, one of which I am breaking at the moment. The children have one pony, Max, that they are learning to ride on. This is a hobby that I share with my sister and hopefully in time with my children, if they hold the interest.

We brew our own beer and country wines, make our own cheese,butter, ice-cream and yogurt.
We chose this lifestyle to encourage a good family life for our children, to teach them life skills, make good memories and most importantly produce food that is healthful to our bodies.

This journey has been long and we have made many mistakes along the way but we have never regretted it!

I hope you enjoy our blog.