Down on the Farm - February 2013 at Higher Hacknell

What an extraordinary month as the ‘horsegate’ scandal keeps getting bigger with further astonishing revelations unfolding in each day’s news. There couldn’t be more of a reason to buy direct from the farm rather than from the supermarket with its unfathomably complicated global supply chains!We are proud of the fact that we can trace every pack of mince beef and steakburger back to an individual bullock which has been born, raised and fed entirely on and from Higher Hacknell Farm. We transport our animals to the small, local abattoir in our own trailer to keep stress to a minimum and the carcasses then come back to our farm butchery for hanging and preparation. How different from the ‘burger’ which could contain meat from up to a thousand different animals - which we now know are not all cattle - produced in countries worldwide, then travelling through processing factories across Europe.

In a couple of weeks we have our annual Soil Association inspection, which is a rigorous, day long check of all our paperwork and systems for traceability and the organic integrity of what we produce and process here at Higher Hacknell. It starts by checking the records of each and every animal’s life cycle - how it was reared, what it has eaten, the fields it has grazed, right through to the abattoir (which must also be registered organic and inspected) and then how the meat products are processed, packaged and labelled. Each one of our recipes has to be approved by the Soil Association who check that the ingredients we use are from an authorised organic source. No system can be perfect, but the transparency and traceability of the organic certification gets pretty close.

I’m very pleased that you can relax knowing where your meat comes from, but I can’t say that we are feeling smug about it! The recession has taken it’s toll and organic farming has received a lot of knocks lately, even from the Food Standards Agency itself! The economic pressures of such a rigourous and strict farming system has meant that many farmers who converted to organic farming methods a few years ago have now changed back to farming conventionally. We very much believe, with over 25 years of being organic, that it is the best and most authentic way to farm and are not going to give up. However it has not been easy and last year I sadly stopped going to the weekly farmers’ market in Exeter. It was not a decision I wanted to make as the market was very much part of my life and I had come to see the customers as my friends. But as people have been forced to cut back on their spending and would come less regularly to shop, I had to realise that I was losing money and it couldn’t go on.

When we started farming in 1985, we held the belief, maybe naively, that ‘small is beautiful’ as Eric Shumacher said in his book. But I think we were right - when things get too big - whether they are supply chains or banks, they get beyond our control. Our farm is not huge, we don’t keep thousands of animals and by having the butchery here on the farm everything that is produced here is fully traceable. But this isn’t the way to produce cheap food, and when people are faced with two products, seemingly the same, it’s hard to choose the more expensive one. When I see the price of a supermarket ready made lasagne or burger, I know that it is below the cost of production in my book. Our ready made meals do cost a little more but they take time to make, using home made stocks, local organic vegetables and genuine meat! As someone said on the radio the other day - ‘the cost of cheap food is that we don’t know what we are eating.’ I just hope that will now change!Sorry for this long rant, but we feel passionately about this!! Please keep your orders coming in and remember we can deliver every Thursday or Friday if we receive your order by Sunday, either on the website www.higherhacknell.co.uk or on the phone 01769 560909. We are also taking orders now for Easter, only a few weeks away. If you have any questions or concerns please call me anytime, and there is further information on our blog ‘The Hacknell Chronicles‘.

We are hoping for drier weather so Tim can get on with farm work but hey, pigs might fly! I’ll keep off the horse jokes, I think we’ve had enough of those.

With best wishes
Jo, Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm

Online Retailer Gold Award - SW Flavour Awards

We have won a gold award for online retailer at the the SW Flavour Awards promoted by Taste of the West! 
The judges said -
"This is a nice looking site in terms of colours. It is a fairly basic OS Commerce site but they have done well with what they have used. The site looks inviting to the eye when you first hit the homepage. It's nice to see
that they have made the site interesting with stories, photos, recipes and a blog - it makes the site. The commentary about each product is great. They have taken the time to tell a bit of a story about each product which pads
out the site nicely."

It’s nearly Christmas down on the Farm - December 2012

Thank you for all your Christmas orders, which we are busy organising; counting up chickens, geese, turkeys and ribs of beef on an hourly basis as the days go by. If you’ve not put your order in yet, don’t worry, there are still a few days left to do it, but gammon joints and turkeys are nearly sold out, so please don’t leave it till the last minute. For our full range please go to our website or phone me on 01769 560909 if I can help with sizes or cooking suggestions.

Life on the farm is quieter at this time of year, and Tim and David are in winter routines of feeding the cattle and bedding them down with straw as they have come inside now. The rams have done their work for the year, with the ewes well marked with the ‘tell tail sign’ of raddle to show they have been served. There are very strict regulations now with all sheep having to be tagged with a long number and every movement recorded, so Tim is making sure everything is up to scratch in case the government inspector calls! We are probably going to get a hand held scanning machine to make the job easier, as reading the small numbers on each sheep’s ear-tag is pretty hard on the old eyes.

It’s certainly getting colder, there was a sprinkling of snow on Exmoor, which we can see from here, but I’m snug in the office thanks to our new wood fired boiler (Tim is having to spend quite a lot of time getting wood and feeding logs into it!)

I hope you are all beginning to feel festive this December. The last date for delivery of Christmas orders is Friday 21st December. As usual, let us know by phone on 01769 560909 if you have any concerns - I only hope there’s no snow on the way this year, or not until after Christmas. You can also collect from the farm on Friday 21st December or Monday 24th or from Crediton Farmers Market on Sunday 23rd. We will be closed until the New Year, delivering again on 4th January. Do get your orders to me in the next few days, there’s still time- just!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas,

With best wishes from

Tim and Jo and all at Higher Hacknell Farm

[email protected]
www.higherhacknell.co.uk
Phone 01769 560909

Down on the farm - October 2012

Rain, rain and yet more rain. What a year! We have never known anything quite like this. They say, ‘be it dry or be it wet, nature always pays its debt’ but this is the double dip recession of wet weather, the fields are sodden and the lanes round here have become rivers. The cows have come in early as it is just too wet in the fields now, so winter rations and straw bedding have already started. We just managed to harvest our barley and oats, but now it’s time to plant again, and it doesn’t look good. Tim had trouble buying new seed, due to the poor harvest everywhere, there is a shortage and very little has passed the quality tests. Now though, the seed has arrived and with this continual rain, the ground can’t be ploughed or sown, so we may not be able to get it in this season.

Nevertheless, it’s the start of another farming year, and even if we are finding it tough going, the rams have got a lot to look forward to as their moment of glory has almost arrived! In another week or two, as the days get shorter, the ewes will start their cycles and the rams will get to work! They are in fine fettle - especially since our newly qualified vet daughter, Rosy, came back home and said to Tim, ‘Dad, we’ve got to sort the studs from the duds’. They gave the rams a good check over and then went to a couple of specialist sales back in August to purchase 4 new studs to add to the bunch that passed their inspection!

In the butchery we are beginning preparations for Christmas. Its time to start curing the gammons and hams so they will reach perfection in time for the festivities and then dry curing the bacon soon after that. Our Christmas page is on the website at www.higherhacknell.co.uk, or do phone me to discuss what you’d like on 01769 560909. If you’re keen to get ahead, then do take advantage of our special offer on gammon joints for deliveries this month.

We also have a new feature on the website where you can recommend a friend and we’ll send you a ‘thank you’ gift with your next order when they make a purchase from our website. It’s always great to hear from you and now that Higher Hacknell Farm has a Facebook page, I hope we can chat, comment, and exchange recipes even more. I ‘ll be putting the recipes from our friends at River Cottage on it shortly.

It’s been exciting supplying all the meat for the new River Cottage TV series which goes out next week every night at 5 pm on Channel 4 if all goes to plan! Sam, the chef at Axminster said he made a dish of best end of (Higher Hacknell) lamb with almonds and squash and then our chuck steak with horseradish and roasted beetroot which both sound really delicious. I’m going to doing sausage tastings at the Plymouth River Cottage Canteen on Friday 2nd November as part of their ‘meet the producer’ day , so please drop in and say hello if you are around. We will also be showcasing our meat and cooking steakburgers at the Foodfest in Barnstaple Pannier Market on Sunday 21st October, which has become a great annual celebration of local produce, so its a busy month ahead!

See you there and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes

Tim and Jo and all at Higher Hacknell Farm
[email protected]
www.higherhacknell.co.uk
phone 01769 560909

Down on the Farm - September 2012

We are celebrating another win at the Organic Food Awards-this year for our organic South Devon beef which is a great honour. We’ve been farming our pedigree South Devons here at Higher Hacknell since 1985 and do our very best from start to finish, rearing all the animals ourselves to the final preparation in our farm butchery, so it’s amazing to receive this recognition and reassuring that the trust you put in us by buying from Higher Hacknell is well deserved! We are really proud that our meat is winning these awards year on year, our lamb was overall winner in 2010 and the Cottage Pie winner of best Ready Prepared Meal in 2011.

We are also celebrating the arrival of the sun here in Devon after the wettest summer we have ever known. The cattle have been hoof deep in mud for weeks, poaching up the fields, but today their golden coats are gleaming. The spring born calves are really quite butch and chunky looking now, expert at feeding from their mothers to the extent that their whole heads get covered with milk! The new grass seeds which Tim planted a couple of weeks ago, are coming up well so will be established before the first frosts arrive. They say round here that you need to get the grass seed in by Barnstaple Fair which is on 19th September. September is a great month, getting back to routines again and hopefully having enough time to pick a few blackberries from the hedgerows for a nice crumble, a perfect pudding to follow the roast beef on a Sunday!

If you you’ve forgotten how good Higher Hacknell beef tastes, which was described by the judges as ‘Lovely, very good quality with an explosion of flavour’, then do remind yourself by making the most of our September offer of 10% off our sirloin steaks and joints. If the weather holds then we might be in for some late summer barbecuing. Hope you’re enjoying the sunshine too.

Best wishes

From Jo and Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm

Winners Again!

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Now in their 24th year, the Soil Association Organic Food Awards are the most prestigious and widely respected in the organic sector and we are delighted to have won the 2012 Beef Category with our Organic South Devon Beef. This beef was described by the judges as ‘Lovely, very good quality with an explosion of flavour’.

Down On The Farm - August 2012

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It’s a ‘proper job’ as they say round here; the hay and silage is made, the sheep are shorn, barley combined, straw is baled, lambs weaned and the rape and turnips sown for fodder next winter. There’s a lot to get done at this time of year, especially when the dry sunny weather we need is as rare as hen’s teeth! A month ago the fields were overgrown with grass waiting to be cut and too wet to drive a tractor on, so it’s a big relief and a welcome sight to see them cleared now.

But despite the weather, it’s been a great month, with team GB winning so many gold medals at the Olympics in London and at the sailing in Weymouth, not far from here. We’ve managed to win a couple of ‘Silvers’ too, at the Taste of the West Awards, as we blogged last week. With the bank holiday coming up next weekend our spicy merguez sausages are great on the barbecue or treat yourselves to a fabulous juicy steak. If you are out and about at the beach or walking in the countryside, our cooked sliced gammon ham and salt beef make great sandwiches, which are even better with some pickle! That reminds me that I’ve got a lot of cucumbers growing in the garden so need to get on and pickle some!
If you are looking for some inspiration about what to cook, why not try this recipe for our new season lamb from Joe, the head chef at the River Cottage Canteen in Plymouth, who says:

‘Higher Hacknell Farm produce excellent meat. Jo and Tim have created a wonderful environment for their livestock and the farm itself is the most organised, clean and tidy farm I have been to. Their new season lamb is wonderful and is on my menu here at River Cottage every week. I am proud to have them as a supplier.’

I hope you are having a good summer and that you enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend to come. If you’d like your order delivered before the holiday, please can we have it by this Sunday for delivery on either Thursday 23rd or Friday 24th.

Best wishes

From Jo and Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm

Taste of The West 2012 Silver Award

 

The prestigious Taste of the West Awards is one of the most highly respected in the food and drink industry, established nineteen years ago. The awards highlight successful and high quality businesses across food and drink production, hospitality and food retail.

This year in the The Food and Drink Product Awards we gained silver for our Organic South Devon Rib Eye Beef and our new Organic Merguez Sausages.

Down On The Farm - July 2012

Bringing the sheep down the wet and muddy lane this drizzly morning is a significant event for the first ‘draw’ of lambs this year. It also made me remember that it was when they were being born, back in March and April, that we last saw any sunshine! We are pretty down about this terrible summer weather which has made it impossible to make any silage and hay. The grass is just too wet to cut and the fields would become a mess if we drove machinery across them, so we are waiting and hoping…!! Still, at least our new South Devon bull is managing to get on with his work. He went in with the cows on midsummers day and has plenty to keep him busy as he has over 40 cows to serve in the next few weeks, come rain or shine.

As ever we are working hard in the butchery, busy supplying you with our quality organic meat and devising new tastes for you to try. This July we are launching a Merguez sausage, based on a popular recipe we make for the River Cottage Canteens. It is packed with loads of spicy flavours and has a hot ‘bite’ to it! We’ve also improved our £100 Family Mixed Box by adding a seasonal selection so you can try something different now and then, as well as all your favourite meals. But best of all has to be the first new season lamb, succulently tender, pale pink in colour, with subtle flavour. Lamb is great at this time of year, ideal to marinade leg steaks or kebabs for the barbecue or have friends and family for a roast lunch (and forget about the weather!). Whether you order on line or phone me to discuss what you’d like, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes

From Jo and Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm

March News 2012

An Easter Egg Hunt on the farm

Today (20th March) is the Vernal Equinox marking the first official day of Spring. March, half in winter still but with glimpses of warmer days to come, feels like the gateway to Spring. The daffodils and primroses bring bursts of colour to the fields and hedges, though it will be a few more weeks until the trees grow their leaves back again. Midway through our lambing time and we are always a bit weary from round the clock checks in the lambing shed but seem to be surviving O.K! When I looked in on Tim just now as he was busy numbering lambs to match up with their mothers before they go out to the fields, I asked for his ‘soundbite’ for the newsletter, and he was surprisingly upbeat considering how long he’d been up for! He commented how this is the third year running that we’ve had pretty good weather for lambing after about 20 years when we’d get 3 weeks of rain, wind, hail storms and gales! So climate change, if that’s what it is, has done us a favour for now. We’ve also got a fair bit of grass for the ewes to turn out on. There’s nothing they like better than fresh spring grass and of course they then milk well, which make the lambs grow almost before your eyes!

Grass is the key to our organic farming system. In Spring and Summer for grazing and as silage and hay for winter feeding. It is why our grass fed beef contains up to 11 times more omega -3 fatty acids (the good one!)as well as higher levels of cancer-fighting conjugated linoleic acid and lower total fat. It is also completely different from the way in which so much US beef is raised in feedlots on a diet of mostly grain. This is why we have to question the relevance of the widely reported recent study by the Harvard School of Medicine which claims consumption of red meat is linked with early deaths and also be aware that beef in the US is allowed hormone growth promoters which are banned by in the UK.

A more positive report was the one conducted by the Countryfile BBC programme broadcast a few Sundays ago about the animal welfare claims on different food labels, comparing Soil Association organic with others such as the Red Tractor and Freedom Foods. In all the examples they gave-such as minimum space for poultry and maximum transportation times for livestock, the organic scored highly whilst others often only met minimum EU standards. I think people sometimes don’t realise quite how much the organic label means; it covers pretty much everything we as farmers do in terms of managing the land and wildlife, the livestock and then right through to the abattoir and in the butchery. Every ingredient and recipe has to be licensed by the Soil Association and inspected, so the integrity of organic produce is genuinely traceable from field to fork! My next job today is getting the new merguez and Hugh’s herby pork sausages which we are making for the River Cottage Canteens in Axminster and Plymouth registered with the Soil Association Certification and trying to get my head round the operations of the weigh scale machine to make it print the ingredients correctly. It’s easier making the sausages than working out the labelling!!

Easter is not far away-apparently it always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. Good luck working that one out!!!

I hope you have a Happy Easter.

Best wishes from

Jo, Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm