Kid Me Not Blog

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY.....

2011-09-28T10:19:00.002+01:00

Hi Everyone,

I know it has been a while since I blogged and I really am trying to get better at it but I have been quite busy since I lost my Jenny! I have turned the old staff room into my craft 'den'. Those of you who know me well will know that I have always been a bit of a dab hand at the sewing machine (I got hooked when I was about 7)and some of you may even have had gifts in the past that I have hand crafted (and one or two wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, curtains, you name it and I have probably done it (within reason)).

Well it can get a bit lonely here when Mike's away so I have been throwing myself into the crafts and, believe it or not, am starting to sell them through our web site and at markets etc. And what's more, I love it!

So now I get to cook and sew, a real home maker!!!!! Take a look at the 'Gracious Mountain Gifts' part of our web site to see some of my creations.

Loraine

My Beloved Jenny has passed away

2011-08-30T15:16:00.006+01:00

Last night I had to say goodbye to my beloved Collie, Jenny! Very sad, but unknown to us she had become diabetic. Sunday we started her with insulin but she wouldn't eat and although with the vets advice we tried her with glucose, by Monday evening, after her not moving all day, we had another blood test done and it appeared she had severe liver damage. So with many tears I said my goodbyes.

Jenny had been there with all the goat births - she thought every single kid was exclusively hers! Kidding just won't be the same without her and she will be sorely missed. Her other love was catching the bubbles from my bath water! I did shed a big tear in the bath last night when I had put a little too many bubbles in and there was no one to catch them! The bathroom seemed very empty.

In the picture here Jenny is in the foreground, then there is Jake, my mother's German Shepherd (who we also lost earlier in the year) along with Dolly. What a year it's been! I am sure that the two of them will be chasing goats together in the next life! Dolly is feeling a little lost but we still have Kiri's dog, Missy for company for her.

Loraine

Is it summer at last?

2011-05-10T13:43:00.002+01:00

Hi Everyone

Well haven't we been lucky in the past few weeks. Here in Wales the weather has been fantastic but I have to say I am pleased to see the little bit of rain that we have had in the last couple of days! The grass is finally beginning to grow and the goats are loving it!

This year's kids are having a great time playing in the shed and we have also found some fantastic new homes for some of them - obviously we can't keep all of them so if anyone is looking for goats do give me a call and I will hopefully be able to help you.

I am off to Ireland tomorrow to do a bit of networking for a couple of days which I am really looking forward to. Hope the wind dies down a bit though otherwise the crossing will be a little 'choppy' and then guess what, I am having a weekend off with Mike! Yes we have everything covered so that we can get away for some R&R and visit his family - whoopee!

Of course it has meant working doubly hard in the last couple of days to make cheese and fudge but its worth it.

Well I have some packing to do so I am going to sign off.

Keep smiling!

FFYNNON'S FOLLY

2011-03-15T13:38:00.005Z

Hi Everyone

Gosh I didn't realise it had been so long since I last came on the blog. Please accept my apologies!
Here at Kid Me Not we have some exciting news - a new cheese - but with a big difference. By popular demand we are launching our first cow's cheese. It is a mild and creamy farmhouse cheese. Delicious on its own on a cheese board, but just as good cooked or toasted. In fact I have just had a good wedge with my coffee for lunch - yum!!!

So you see I have been working hard even though we have had some exciting weather in December and then of course in January I managed to hurt my neck and spent a week sitting in a chair unable to go to bed - that was fun, especially as I am not the sort of person that can 'sit still' for any length of time without going out of my mind! My poor parents (Mike was in London) were extremely patient with me, until Mike took over at the weekend.

Anyway I am starting to ramble. Our new cheese is available on line or at our usual haunts around the country. If you can't find it shout and we will try and put it in a shop near you.

Take Care

Loraine

A SPECIAL INVITE!

2010-10-22T13:49:00.004+01:00

Well here we are again with Halloween banging on the door, it is time to start thinking about those Christmas orders. Kiri is beavering away making chocolate santas and snowmen for those special stocking fillers, and her new boxes of chocolates are to die for. You see we just have to try them before they can go for sale!!! Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

November is nearly here and I am starting to get quite nervous. You see I have received a very special invite. I have been invited to a reception this month at Windsor Castle to meet the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, along with other people who work within Rural Communities!

Well the first thing is what on earth am I going to wear? The invite says dress/lounge suit. I don't have to wear hat or gloves apparently - shame I have a great wooly hat that keeps me warm during kidding time, not the prettiest of things but very practical. And then I love my fingerless gloves for markets. And well, I rarely go anywhere without my wellies and it is for "work within rural communities" - what do you think?? Kiri reckons I need to get more 'into the groove' or modern, but I'm not sure. I looked in my wardrobe the other day and it seems I could probably offer most of it to the costume department for some 70/80's revival shows! I've always thought my clothes were classics but unfortunately they haven't kept up with my growing years - in more ways than one. Well when you can't get a dress up over the knees or passed the shoulders there is definately something amiss! This is where the chocolate tasting has really taken its toll and who else is qualified to check the fudge before we pack it!

So what do you reckon? Any suggestions as to what I should wear? Come on guys I really need some help here.

I await your thoughts and will let you know how I get on.

Loraine

Busy Busy Busy

2010-03-11T14:26:00.003Z

Its that time of year when down on the farm here in Talley we have to all wear many hats! With kiddings coming left, right and centre, produce to make, young stock going into parlour for first time and trade shows each week during March, there are not enough hours in the day. We also have March as our end of year, so in the office we have accounts to finalise and chasing to get everything sorted for the new tax year! Oh well no time to get bored then!

What a glorious day it is today though. Having stopped for five to have my late lunch - quick ham sandwich and cup of black coffee - I took a few seconds to glimpse out across the field where the boys (our male goats) are strolling around without a care in the world, the sun is just glistening on the hill tops, wonderful!

Down in the unit the girls are busily making our new soft cheese, absolutely delicious - even if I do say it myself - the Sundried Tomato and herb is particularly good. If you are around Roath or Mermaid Quay in Cardiff at the weekend or Kidwelly on Sunday then do come and try it, you'll know then that I do not exaggerate. I am hoping that next week we will have our new labels for them and then they will be able to go out to the deli's and farm shops.

Yesterday I escaped onto an e-commerce seminar - had a fantastic day and met some interesting people, especially a lady called Rhiain who I teamed up with for the day. Hi Rhiain if you are reading this, do keep in touch, you were great company yesterday. Of all the speakers we had there were three gentlemen who really were brilliant - Mark Shaw who talked on twitter, Mike Southon who spoke about entrepreneurs and Alan Stevens who had a wealth of knowledge on PR. All of you SME's out there like us do google them, well worthwhile!

Oh dear the clock is ticking, the baby alarm is screaming (or rather the goat inside the barn that's about to give birth) must dash. Speak soon.

HAPPY 2010 ALBEIT A WHITE ONE SO FAR!

2010-01-14T17:55:00.002Z

Well what a shock for the system! We have spent the last three weeks bucketing water from the house to the goat shed and stables. Along with many other farmers out there the past three weeks has been hard work and gutty!! Carrying many 20 litre buckets in a relay system with six of us across the yard, twice a day has been unbelievable but at least we have managed to keep our sense of humours and have a laugh. My mum has been baking non stop and I think we are all getting to the point of being "souped" and "caked" out - although there was a particular carrot cake recipe which was a particular favourite, it was gone before the end of the day! (Actually most of the cakes were gone before the end of the day if truth be known but I know I thought I'd sneak an extra bit of this particular cake only to find someone else must have got there first!!!).

Anyway the thaw seems to have started today so much so that I have found three burst pipes so far so we will have our friendly plumber visiting tomorrow no doubt. But at least there is water now in the barn with the goats.

We must not complain, what is a little bad weather when you see the tragedy that is Haiti today. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people there.

I will write again to let you know how we get on with our water situation.

WALES WOMAN FARMER OF THE YEAR

2009-12-02T15:49:00.003Z

Well who would have believed it!!!!! I have just been awarded the title of NFU Cymru/Nat West Wales Woman Farmer of the Year 2009/10 jointly with Daphne Tilley of Elwy Valley Welsh Lamb. It is the first time in the 13 years of the title that the award has gone to two of us!

I am absolutely thrilled to be given this title and am delighted to share the title with Daphne. As Daphne said to me on Monday at the award ceremony "Its the North and South of Wales joining together". It is also great for the goat industry to be taken as a serious contender alongside the cattle and sheep.

The award ceremony was held at the Winter Fair, Builth Wells, which was on Monday 30th November and Tuesday 1st December 2009, and what a busy fair we had. Our stand was as usual in the food hall and I have to thank my great friends Liz Thomas and Liz Hedges who very kindly stood in for Mike and I whilst we went to the award ceremony - Thank you ladies, much appreciated!

I would also like to thank my staff without whom this award would not be possible - I hope you all enjoy the champers!!!

Well Christmas is well underway here at the farm with chocolates and fudge flying out the door. The wholesale cheese orders are going out faster than we can make - the staff are going that extra mile, as always and we are all looking forward to Christmas day when we can recharge those batteries!

Till then I had better sign off otherwise I will be accused of slacking by those nearest and dearest! Thanks again to everyone and hopefully will blog again soon.

Loraine

Batterning Down the Hatches!

2009-10-27T12:48:00.003Z

Well here we are again at that time of year where the leaves are starting to fall off the trees and the goats are going into kid if not already in! The noise from the shed is wonderful with the calling to the boys! And we are hard at work in the unit preparing for the Christmas rush!

We are also preparing to re-open one of our holiday cottages - a beautiful one bedroom cottage set here on the farm in the Cothi Valley an easy distant from Llandeilo, Llandovery and Lampeter. Why not come and visit us!

In the new year we will be offering a wide range of courses here on the farm from goat husbandry to basketry to fine art drawing so keep an eye on our web site for more news! Well I'd better getting cracking I have some hoofs to trim and a cottage to paint!

2009-07-06T19:28:00.000+01:00

HECTIC DAYS AHEAD

2009-07-06T18:36:00.005+01:00

Hi Everyone, well what a few busy weeks we have had! In the last few days as you can see from the pictures here we

rescued a little family of hedgehogs which,
unfortunately were abandoned in our stable yard. We originally found five but two were very poorly and sadly we lost them. Today I took the three remaining ones to a local lady who dedicates her time between her wonderfully talented obedience dogs and rescuing hedgehogs! She is going to let me know how they get on and hopefully they will be released back to the wild in about six weeks - I will keep you informed! Aren't they adorable! But they are much better off with Dyls as she can spend time nuturing them on and she has the experience and facilities for such a task. Good Luck Dyls!

Over the past few weeks we have seen a lot of comings and goings - we have had another two student vets from Nottingham Vet School - that will have made seven this academic year! All girls I hasten to add - Sophie, Fran, Jo, Jesse, Kitty, Vanessa and Moira. I am hoping that we will be able to post a photo one of these days, if not on the blog, then in the newsletter! They have all been very helpful and hardworking, so thank you girls, much appreciated!

We have also had some work experience with Flo from Buckinghamshire and then we have for one day a week for 18 weeks two students from a special needs college here in Llangadog, Sarah and Matthew. We had great fun with Sarah last week and we are looking forward to seeing both her and Matthew tomorrow. They are working hard strawing, haying, cleaning pens and playing with the kids. Well done!!!

We are about to launch another new product at the Royal Welsh Show at the end of the month so keep watching this space for updates! If you are a chef or do lots of outside catering then watch this space coz its just for you!!

Well anyway I had better crack on. Lots to do, lots to make. Please do keep the comments coming in I do like to know that there is someone out there.

Loraine

ALL CHANGE FOR SUMMER

2009-05-13T16:11:00.011+01:00

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well and starting to enjoy the sunshine - although I must say today seems a little grey here in Wales but I can't complain because we have had quite a few days of glorious sunshine although a little on the windy side.

Well we have been busy here as usual. What with the kiddings continuing to go well - loads of boys this year but I am sure the girls will catch up soon, they normally do end up being just about equal.

The guys on the farm are really busy at the moment preparing extra field shelters ready for all the new youngsters to go outside during the summer. All our goats here like to be out as much as possible in the summer although they hate rain so we need to make sure there is adequate shelter for them.

On the food side I have been busy re-vamping some of our packaging. We now have new brown bags for our fudge (As above) with some fantastic bright coloured labels with the help of Chris our designer. We are really pleased and so far the comments from you, the customer, are great - keep the comments coming we love to know what you think! Also our chocolate is taking a little face lift but this is ongoing as we are frantically designing our chocolates with some really wonderful, non nut, centres. Hopefully some of them will be really eyebrow raising creations - watch this space!

We will also shortly be sending out our monthly newsletter so if you haven't done so already, sign up to subscribe - there could be some great offers coming up in the next few months!!

Anyway enough from me now. Lets hope the sunshine keeps coming!

Loraine

Happy Easter

2009-04-10T09:19:00.003+01:00

Hi there, it is finally Good Friday and once again we are out at shows. As usual you will find us in the Bay at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff for the whole weekend and today in Carmarthen. Sunday we are going to visit Bluestone Holiday Park near Haverfordwest.

Our children are rather excited. We have a new edition here in the house. Dolly the puppy!! She is a Dalmation Collie Cross and she is very special as she is deaf. Not that that stops her from being into everything and doing all the normal puppy things. Our other dogs find it a little confusing when they growl to tell her off and she seems to think it is just a game!! Here she is in the picture looking so innocent!

We have a had a very busy time recently having had a fantastic feature in Country Living magazine in the April edition - just right for Easter. I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who emailed and wrote in with comments. Thank you. It makes all our hard work worthwhile!

We are still kidding here on the farm, another 6 arrived this morning which means the milk is flowing nicely from the parlour. All our new farm workers are settling in well and we have recently had some vet students coming to learn about goats. So we have had a lot of fun and laughter here - just what the doctor ordered to come out of the winter and into the spring.

Hope you are all keeping cheery out there. Will try and blog again soon.

Loraine

WELCOME 2009

2009-02-05T10:32:00.002Z

Many apologies for the delay in writing. We had a busy time towards the end of the year with many shows and lots of making!!!

Well here we are in 2009. Kidding has started and already we have many kids running around. We have started with mostly first kidders and last year's dry stock. So far majority of the first kidders have had singles whilst the older stock have come in with twins. We will be kidding through to July time with majority of the herd kidding around March/April.

We have just started back at markets so please have a look at our calendar to see where we are going to be and when.

We will have two new products to launch this year so keep looking to see what is new!

Signing off for now.

Loraine

BEST NEW CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-29T17:40:00.002+01:00

What a weekend!!!! We have just come home from the British Cheese Awards set in beautiful Cardiff Castle and would you believe we have won the Best New Cheese for our Talley Mountain Goats Cheese! Wow!!! Mike and I were absolutely stunned when our name was announced.

We must thank Carmarthenshire Cheese Company who contract make our cheese. Fittingly they won the Best Welsh Cheese with their own Pont Gar Garlic and Herb, soft white cheese. So a brilliant weekend all round.

I have been out and shown the goats their trophy and I have to say they were more interested in the stand (which is made out of wood of course) rather than the cheese iron that sits in the top. Monty felt that this was a little hard for his pallet! So the girls are all having a rich tea biscuit after their tea during evening milking, and the boys are having their usual treats of dried pasta - only one piece of penne each of course! Well, it is a treat! I will post a picture of our wonderful award as soon as I have a copy to hand.

AWARDS and NEW CHEESES GALORE!!!

2008-08-05T10:59:00.007+01:00

Hi everyone

We have great news - We won first and second prize in the Goat Cheese class at the Royal Welsh Show for our Talley Mountain Goats cheese and Kid Me Not mild goats cheese respectively. We then came second and third in the new cheese section at the Royal Welsh, in the same order - we are absolutely thrilled and thank our cheesemakers at Carmarthenshire Cheese for a wonderful job! We also had a fifth place at the Great Yorkshire Show in the Celebrity Special class which was judged by no other than "Paddy" from Emerdale - who liked our Talley Mountain goats cheese - thanks paddy!

We have also launched three new cheeses to tantalise the taste buds over the summer. Great for picnics and barbecues to impress friends and relations with a new cheeseboard!!!

Firstly we have our Blue Talley Mountain - a blue version of our award winning Talley Mountain Goats Cheese. Mild with a delicate blue taste, simply delicious.

Secondly, Smoked Talley Mountain - yes, for those cowboys out there who love that natural smokey taste. Not over the top but a real Ye Ha moment!!!!

Thirdly, Smoked Mild - we have taken our Mild Goats cheese and again naturally smoked with a mix of oak and beech chippings for a light barbecue taste, a mouth watering morcel.

So you see we have been a little busy here in the hills and mountains of Wales. We are also out and about every weekend so do check our calendar and see if we are going to be near you over the next few weeks. If so, come and try all our cheeses, and not forgetting our fudge and chocolates!

Happy Bloggings. Loraine

New for the web site!

2008-07-09T17:36:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone, well we have had a busy time here. You may have noticed changes to our web site - the kids page should be going live soon, we are having a little game put on for our young members!

By popular demand we have also been busy putting our bags of fudge onto the web site. Yes, that's right, especially for all those of you who want to buy our fudge without the gift packaging, this is now available! Do have a look for all your favourites!

Well, as I am writing this I am looking out of the window at our wonderful summer - yet again the rain is pouring, I have visions of another muddy Royal Welsh Show! Last weekend I was in Yorkshire and we had a fantastic welcome and wonderful weather on Friday but then Saturday and Sunday were wet, in fact our stand was a little like the singing in the rain set - We were standing on a sheet of corragated iron, kindly loaned by Newby Hall, (thanks guys) which eventually had a large puddle on top. So Mike and I slushed our way from one end of the table to the other singing and splashing mud everywhere - great fun!

Having said that we did take our three new cheeses with us for their first outing and I have to say that we are extremely pleased with the reaction so far. This weekend I can be found at the Woodcote Steam Rally, Nr Reading, so please do come and say hello. Mike and my eldest daughter Kiri will be at Cardiff International Festival so pop along and say hello to them.

Our three new cheeses are two smoked and a blue - keep looking at the web site, they should be there towards the end of the month.

Festivals Galore

2008-06-26T14:20:00.004+01:00

Hello Bloggers

Well so much has happened since my last blog. Unfortunatley I have lost my polish couple who help me on the farm, Wiktor and Aneta. They have had to go back to Poland because of family commitments so we wish them well. In their place I have two new Polish men, Marek and Jozef who are extremely helpful but speaking very little English at the moment so hopefully with my several Polish dictionaries and a awful lot of laughter etc we will get there in the end!!!

We are now in full swing with the craft and food festivals all over the UK and are enjoying meeting everyone. I am doing my usual snail impression (travelling slowly with my home on my back) that's right driving with the caravan. Apologies now to anyone who gets stuck behind me, I do try to pull over to let you pass whenever possible! This weekend we are off to sunny Staffordshire to visit Shugborough which I have to say is very beautiful, although hopefully it will be sunny as it is not so much fun when it is raining.

I look forward to meeting more of you over the summer months, do come and try our wonderful products.

Well that said I am going back to my polish dictionary to see if I can find the nearest word to fudge.

HOORAY HOORAY

2008-05-27T17:57:00.004+01:00

Our new food processing unit is finally completed - hooray! At last after many months of planning and building we are in our new food unit. Everyone is pleased as we have more room to move and already have started to develop even more fantastic flavours for fudge and chocolates - yummy!!!!

The goats seem happier now that the weather has improved (although the last couple of days haven't been fantastic!).

You may have noticed that our web site is also having a new look! It is on-going so please do keep popping in to see and any comments greatfully received! The children's spot should be there soon!

KIDDINGS CONTINUE

2008-03-07T19:03:00.002Z

Well Folks the kiddings are continuing thick and fast we must have a good 200 kids here at the moment and have a fair few goats in the parlour now.

We have had a busy few weeks with new accommodation for the kids and a new food processing unit underway with hopefully a finish just before Easter, hence I have not blogged for a while - many apologies. The mud has been over my wellies with lorries and tractors galore charging around. I can't wait for that moment that we move into the new unit and I can try and get on with my real job - I'm still trying to define exactly what that is but at least I can take project management for the build off the list!!!

I will endeavour to take a few pictures of this years kids in the next couple of weeks and place them on the site - we have a multitude of colours and have some really naughtly girls with playful characters, can't wait to get them into the parlour in 18 months time! I will also take some pickies of the new unit so that you can see how all our hard work is coming together.

Research is also continuing on our new produce for this year with a hopeful launch date in July - do keep looking on the site for news of this.

Well I am going to keep this short today as I need to go back and check the shed. Don't forget to comment so I know you are out there.

Happy Kiddings for 2008

2008-01-17T17:20:00.000Z

Well all you goat lovers Happy New Year, lets hope we have a better farming year in 2008, what with Foot and Mouth and Blue Tongue 2007 was not good news for anyone. More cheerfully We had a lovely Annual Dinner with Surrey Goat Club last Saturday and it was great to catch up with everyone.

With all that said, what a fantastic evening I had last night with a room full of business women at Pembrey. We were all there to meet The Pod Cast Sisters - Yes that's right, Heather Gorringe from Wiggly Wigglers and Anna Farmery from The Engaging Brand - and what a fun evening was had by all of us and what an eye opener. Here's me just about getting my head around the blogging when there's a whole new world out there with pod casts and social networking - well let's just wait and see! I do have to admit that I'm one of these people that sees the notices in shops saying ipod and I quickly put my head down and hurry past but I guess one of these days I'm going to have to sit my four year old down and ask him what it is all about!!! Well aren't they born with the "Knowledge" these days!?! Or maybe I should try the 21 year old - what do you think?

Anyway if this blog works properly at this point I can say "HI" to Heather and Anna because they will know that I have mentioned them tonight. But hey guys can you let me know coz so far no-one has commented on the blog so I don't yet know whether I am just talking to myself (and my IT guy cos' he told me today he had, oh and Sally-Anne from Yokshire cos' she phoned and told me!!!). If there is anyone else out there do let me know!!

Especially for Anna and all those busy mums and goat cheese lovers out there I have a fantastic goats cheese recipe for you to try, I haven't put exact measures as I tend to play in the kitchen and it depends how many people you want to serve. We had this after new year when I found the packet of smoked salmon - oooppps! And it didn't take very long to cook- Here goes :- Sautee some chopped onions and a finely chopped clove of garlic in a little oil, preferably rapeseed as it is much better for you (high in Omega 3), but if not a good olive oil will have to suffice, Add a stick of celery and mushrooms, both thinly sliced and continue to cook, sprinkle in some mixed herbs and then add a drop of brandy (or white wine) just a splash and then add a good helping of cream - I tend to use double but I guess you could get away with single. slice some smoked salmon and goats cheese - I use our Talley Mountain which is a brie style with the rind taken off. Stir till mixed in - take off the heat. Cook some tagliatelle. When cooked pop the mix back on the heat and add the tagliatelle. Toss these together and serve. You will notice that the cheese completely melts into the mix and gives a wonderful flavour, delicious and quick. Even my father who hates pasta loved this dish.

Well I had better go and find those wellies and raincoat and go out in this howling gale and check the goats, this is Slightly early tonight as I just might see what all this twittering is about with social networks!!

By for now

CHRISTMAS CHEER

2007-12-17T10:11:00.000Z

Seasons greetings to all you bloggers!!! Apologies yet again that I have not blogged for so long but we have just finished our last show for 2007 and I can now breathe and get down to farming again.

This is a wintery scene from 2006 but you can see that we do get a little snow here in South Wales. In fact the thick frost outside certainly is doing a good imitation this cold December morning.

Having been away for most of the last two months selling at various shows i.e. BBC Good Food Show, Royal Welsh Winter Fair, Shubgborough etc we have had little time to do any normal things, so yesterday was a quick dash to the shops for nearly all our christmas shopping. I have never really been a shopping sort of gal, my concentration level for toys and clothes is not the best and even mucking the stables out comes an extremely close second! But Mike and I managed to pull it off, just! It is so difficult having not watched telly much whilst away and the children's Santa letters being very generalistic - I mean what is a red thing that goes on land and sea? Four year olds aren't the best at explaining clearly so Santa settled for the more traditional Thomasy approach! Well Sodor had a harbour and trains and some of those are red!

The eight year old was even harder. Amy has stopped playing with toys as such (except for her brothers of course) and is thinking about being more of a young lady. Santa was not keen on the mobile phone mind - being quite old fashioned we believe we should wait quite a bit longer! The laptop again we decided to go for a more junior model and build up to the full monty at a later date (preferably a couple of years).

Don't you have difficulty explaining to a four year old that they can't have the same things as their eight year old sister? We are still battling with the TV in the bedroom and the digital camera from Amy's last birthday, Josh just won't understand that he has to wait until he is a little bit bigger - although I have to admit he's right he is more technically minded and can work the DVD player better than her. Whoever made up this "reason with the children", what happened to the simple "No you can't" that my parents used to say. The trouble is when the children'ts arguements are actually quite good but you still know that they are children all the same and do we really want them growing up too fast? I know I don't!

Anyway I'd better go and get yesterdays spoils out of the car and into the warmth of the house whilst the children are still at school and hide them away so Santa & Santa's helper can wrap them up one evening over a glass (or three) of mulled wine. (You didn't think I was going to wrap them on my own did you!

Back to milking for the next three weeks from tomorrow so I will let you know how I get on and how rusty I have become!

Seasons greettings to all

Food Festival Season

2007-10-22T17:24:00.000+01:00

A day in the office after a weekend at Llangollen Food Festival. A good show was held by all and an appearance by the "Hairy Bikers" what a laugh those two guys are! I shall be watching their TV show in future and of course reading their books - they were signing their new book on India, Morroco and Belgium which looked mouth-wateringly appealing, I must say.

Today I have been trying to catch up with paperwork and telephone calls. With the chocolate launch getting nearer things are busy tieing up loose ends so to speak. Of course originally this should have been in the summer but with the breakdown of new equipment time has gone on and with Christmas looming we will now have to launch with a slightly smaller range than had been envisaged. Still we had tasters out at Llangollen and we had a big thumbs up on our clown lollipops.

I must say a big Hello to Sally-anne who is working hard at Wharfe Valley Farms in Collingham near Wetherby. They make the most delightful cold pressed rapeseed oil that I am totally hooked on. It is so good for you as it is high in Omega 3 and is absolutely delicious especially with those yorkshire puds and roasts! I can't wait to visit again soon - I managed two visits in August/September and hopefully will be going again in November!

We have two big festivals coming up this weekend, Cowbridge and Conwy so my husband and I will be at opposite ends of Wales yet again. I am going to Conwy which I love with its fantastic Castle on the coast and great company as my friend Alison (who is a brilliant chocolatier) lives in the town. Both Festivals are full of amazing artisan foods so do try and join us. We are busy making fudge as we nearly sold out this weekend and in the background are steadily making the chocolate. Will blog again soon.

Busy Times Ahead!!!

2007-10-17T17:42:00.000+01:00

I must start by apologising for not blogging for so long! We have been at shows non stop since I last wrote. I think I was a bit too motivated and was booking every spare moment!!!

Well here we are on a warm autumn evening, the sun is going down and still shining. The forecast is for a good few days which is great as we will be taking the caravan on the road once again this time up to north Wales to Llangollen food festival. The food circuit is busying itself with preparations now underway for Christmas.

We have been very busy since my last blogging with our new goats milk chocolate about to launch, the girls are beavering away practicing their new skills. It is always exciting with the build up to a launch and also the test weeks before when we take the products out to shows for public opinions. So far the opinions have exceeded our expectations and we also have pre-orders from a lot of our deli's!

We also have been at trade shows with the Speciality Fine Food Show in September and the Restaurant Show just last week. Both have brought us new business so watch the stockist page in the next few days as it is being up dated.

We have a busy schedule between now and christmas with shows like BBC Good Food Show at Birmingham and London to name but a few - do have a look on our calendar for more info.

Keep in touch and let me know your thoughts.

Loraine

SUMMERS HERE AGAIN!!!!!!

2007-08-14T18:29:00.000+01:00

Well I can't believe the weather this evening, with a good gale blustering outside and heavy rain I feel for all my friends on the food circuit who have braved the Pembrokeshire Show, the forecast is no better for tomorrow I'm afraid guys.

Early start today with a milk delivery for our cheese but it wasn't too bad with two of us emptying the tank and then re-loading the tank the other end - unfortunately our trailer tank with pump isn't ready yet so it has to be done by hand in 10litre buckets!

We had a lovely WIRE lunch meeting today at the Black Ox at Abergwili. so nice to catch up and find out what everyone has been up to and new members too! WIRE is Women in Rural Enterprise for all those who have never heard of us before. It is a UK wide group of like minded women from all sorts of different businesses - that's what makes it so interesting and with networking we can either utilise each other for business purposes or use each other as sound boards for ideas, problems and the like. We meet once a month and I find it so useful especially when you work from home sometimes you need to stimulate yourself and networking certainly helps me. If you're interested in finding out more about your local networking groups then have a look at http://www.wireuk.org/ even if you have only an idea and haven't started your business yet then WIRE can help! Each month our group organises different talks etc on topics that we as a group have requested.

Well I have come back from the meeting and felt really motivated and so booked more shows to do between now and Christmas and I have a list of people to contact tomorrow for different things. Whats a bit of rain!

NEW BRITISH GOAT SOCIETY MEMBER

2007-08-13T14:25:00.001+01:00

The 'can't beat them then join them' photos of one of our cats, Megan has found a new sleep place. I thought it was a one off but she has been out and come straight back in to her new bed! I will write to the British Goat Society and put her forward for membership! I wonder whether they have had a cat member before?

Friday didn't end so well with Quo, one of our goats, getting colic/bloat. This is a very painful condition and can be fatal if not treated quickly. It means that she had eaten either too much of something in the field or something that didn't agree with her. Her stomach had swollen dramatically and she was in a lot of pain. The vet was called and we treated her with an anti-inflammatory injection and waited rather than piecing the gut which we might have had to do later if she got worse. The only problem with the latter course of action is that it can cause peritonitus which can also prove fatal. We were lucky, we had caught it early enough and slowly over the next 36 hours, and with a further injection, her very swollen stomach started to go down.

Well the weekend continued to be busy with Wiktor taking a well earned rest, Mike and I milked the goats in the morning and then went on to a Riverside Festival in Carmarthen Town which was being held on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately Saturday was very quiet, I left Mike at 3.00 pm and wondered back to milk the goats (we are milking 166 at the moment so it takes a while) and check Quo. Mike was thoroughly bored in the afternoon and was chatting to our friends Brian and Marylou from Cowpots Icecream - this is ice cream to die for, all made from Jersey cows milk and cream and beautiful flavours, my favourite is blueberry and white chocolate - yummy yummy. When we arrived to set up Brian offered me a coca cola float. Wow I haven't had one of the those since my childhood and boy was it good. It was just as well I was milking otherwise they would have sold out to me and Mike would have had to get a truck to take me home!!! Sunday was a repeat of Saturday (including the coca cola float!) except Mike did the afternoon milking and I carried on at the festival but during the raft race in the afternoon it started to get a little busier - you win some you loose some - but heh I also had my blueberry and white chocolate ice cream about 6.00 pm so that was even better!!!

Today I have been organising the builders who are about to finish the side panels on the goat building and then hopefully doors and internal fixings. We are also re-vamping our brochure so I have been speaking to Chris who is our designer and am really pleased with the progress. I have also quite a few loose ends I am trying to tie up in the office (which looks like a bombs hit it) and I will have to do some filing Yucckkk! Oh and by the way WE BALED ON SATURDAY!!!!!! Hip Hip Hooray! Just the one field, now we pray for good weather so we can drop and work the other three fields - not tomorrow it is going to rain, its also Mikes birthday, Happy Birthday Mike! I won't mention how old he is but he's caught up with me again! bye for now...

Hay Hoe To The Sunshine

2007-08-09T15:52:00.000+01:00

I have just come back from viewing our fields with Colin Jones our forage contractor, we call him Colin the Tractor as we also have a Colin Jones who is our hay merchant we call him Colin the Straw and then we also have another Colin (not Jones) who is one of our builders, yes, you've got it, Colin the Builder, well it makes life easier round here. Colin the Tractor also mends tractors and agricultural machinery in his spare time so I am sure he will be a frequent visitor to our blog!

We think we may be able to save our hay to make a rough hay as it has been a scorcher today but just as I write this there is a big black rain cloud hovering over the field (I would rather see Winnie the Pooh hanging on to his balloon). I am going to have to phone in to BBC Radio Wales and have a moan at Derek the Weatherman - it isn't meant to rain until Saturday!!!

If we have some more good weather next week Colin the Tractor reckons we may drop our three remaining fields and 'go for it' so to speak. It has been a real worry this year for all us farmers. We were hoping to have had three cuts during this summer and we are struggling to have one, only two fields will have been cut twice. What with that and the price going up for all our concentrates for the goats this is going to be a tough old year. Great, selling shows down and feed prices up and all because of the weather. But I musn't complain at least we haven't been flooded.

We made fudge today. Micheala came in and beavered away to make Plain, Chocolate, Chocolate Mint and Rum and Raisin, yum yum!! Well I have to try each batch to check that the graining is correct - quality control - if it isn't we have to start again.

Oh! I must tell you a funny thing that happened yesterday. Aneta took the quad bike to round up some of the milking goats for Wiktor (pronounced Victor) for afternoon milking. To save her time later she then decided to leave the quad bike in the field whilst she got on feeding milk to some of our baby kids. Well, the rest of the milking goats had a whale of a time as you can imagine. What was this object left in the field? Can we all have a go? Hey, is it good to eat? And yes, when Aneta came back she couldn't start the quad bike because they had chewed all the wires! The Quad Bike has today been collected by the garage so as to be re-wired!!!! Poor Aneta was mortified but I don't think she'll do that again, well I hope not!

I put a picture of Monty up today as I mentioned him in my last pennings. Isn't he beautiful? Well I think so. He has been eating stinging nettles all day with his friend Merlin and when I saw the pair of them just now their bottom lips were all floppy from the stings (that always happens) but they'll be fine in the morning - until they do it again.

Well I am off to check the forecast again. I was hopeing that we may be able to leave the hay for one more day before bailing but I will have to see. Keep smiling...

Loraine

2007-08-07T17:01:00.000+01:00

FOOT AND MOUTH

2007-08-07T15:57:00.000+01:00

I start my blog at such a sad time. Having moved from Surrey 5 years ago and having been saved from Foot and Mouth there in 2001, I can't believe that I leave my friends there to face such an awful time. Our hearts go out to all those who are sufferring and waiting in Surrey and we, along with all the farming community, are hoping that this goes as quickly as it came. What a summer! First the floods and then this...

We have had a bad week all in all. We cut hay last week and then just as we were about to finish rowing up (putting the hay into lines ready to bale - for those non farming friends) on Friday, the heavens opened and it has rained on and off every day since. This afternoon the rain has just stopped and I am writing this in the conservatory with the sun hitting my back, a sauna springs to mind!

The goats are out sunning themselves in the fields even my Monty (I wrote a children's story about Monty). Monty is the castrated male that the children talked me into keeping and the one that is always getting himself into trouble, bless him! He knows his name and he loves a cuddle and before I am asked, no, he doesn't smell!!!! It is only the entire males that smell and then only about now when they spray themselves to attract the females. So it is us women who love our men with a nice fragance that cause the problem! By March the smell will subside and we are back to normal for a few months.

We have many different characters amongst the goats and I will try and introduce you to them during my blogs. But for now I sign off to meet our architect to view our Food Processing Site that we are building here on the farm.