I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful and delicious Christmas! It was a very white Christmas here, and we just managed to get the family back home and the orders delivered! We could not have coped without 4 wheel drive vehicles and tractors as we had to deliver all the boxes to the main road at the bottom of the steep hillside.The snow has melted and life is getting back to normal now. It’s a great relief for Tim as the water has been frozen, so he’s had to let the cattle out in groups to get to the pond for drinking water. He decided this was easier, albeit the ice took a bit of breaking, than defrosting the pipes to all the different troughs every day. The sheep and cattle have had to be fed more silage and hay during the snowy weather so we are hoping there is going to be enough fodder to last us through the winter. We are quite short as it was a difficult summer and yields of grass were down. There is an old saying that if there is enough ice to hold a duck before Christmas, the rest of the winter will be wet and muck - so maybe not as picturesque but certainly a lot easier! Let’s hope they are right.

We are back to work in the butchery next week with delivery starting from Friday 7th January (and then the following week on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th January). If we receive your order by Monday midday, you can usually receive it the same week on a Thursday or Friday, whichever day suits you best. New Year is a good time to start on our loyalty scheme with details on our website blog as well as some wintery scenes of the farm. We want to thank you for your custom and support in 2010 and look forward to hearing from you soon and wish you all the best for a happy 2011.

Best wishes
Tim, Jo and all at Higher Hacknell Farm