People often ask me if the life of a farmer is very hard, imagining the early start to the day and back breaking toil, but it’s a lot easier than being a model, as I recently found out. I took part in a photo shoot to promote the Exeter Food and Drink Festival which takes place at the end of April and wanted to take something impressive. I reckoned a 4 bone rib of beef would look pretty good, but had second thoughts after arriving at Michael Caines’ restaurant having struggled with it under my arm from a carpark the other side of Exeter and then had to hold it aloft for the group photo. It was not just a matter of a quick click of the camera, we had to wait for everyone to line up , Michael Caines had to change his jacket and people went backwards and forwards rearranging various props and tablecloths, while my arms felt like dropping off. I thought that would be it, but then the photographer mentioned doing some ‘intimate meat pictures’! Being cautious, I let the ice cream producers go before me (they were facing melt down)!

As well as photographing meat, and you may have noticed we’ve added lots of pictures to the website lately, we’ve been busy supplying our friends at River Cottage with our delicious lamb burgers, which are now in the Bristol Canteen, as well as Axminster and Plymouth. Sam, the ex chef at Axminster, is starting up his own restaurant at the Blagdon Inn in Somerset and from next week we will be supplying them too. Nearer to home, The New Inn at Roborough has put our very tasty herby pork sausages on their menu, so it’s great to know that you can go out to eat and get local and fully traceable meat. So many restaurants say they buy locally or ethically but I sometimes wonder how committed they really are, so it’s reassuring when they go directly to a farm such as ours to buy ingredients.

Back on the farm, Tim is waiting for a sight of the first swallows to arrive, but so far it’s just our children returning home from overseas. Our son Jim came back from Mexico and is going to be our lambing assistant this year, and Rosy who has been working as a vet for an animal charity in India, arrives next week and will hopefully lend a hand too. I saw a couple of Canada geese fly over the house this morning and they usually come about this time of year to nest on our ponds (if my spaniel Buddy leaves them alone).

Last year’s lambs, or hoggetts as they are called, are grazing the rape and turnips Tim planted last autumn, and love to have something fresh and green to tuck into at this time of year when there isn’t much grazing available. We are getting very short of fodder for the cattle and the ewes, who are housed ready for lambing. Last year’s dry summer and late spring meant that our yields of hay and silage were down, so we’re anxious that stocks will last as we like the animals to have all home grown feed and don’t want to be forced to buy in feed for them.

It’s beginning to look like there’s better and drier weather on the way and we are so ready for it! Tim has bought a new dung spreader (not something I get very excited about!) but he’s very pleased with it as it has very good tyres which make it possible to go on the land when it’s still a bit wet and not make a mess or cause damage to the soil structure. Getting the manure on the fields is all important to us organic farmers and it’s perfect recyling, using waste product to fertilise this seasons crops. He’s now worried that if we don’t get any rain the dung won’t wash in. Have you ever met a happy farmer?

It’s Mother’s Day at the end of the month, so remember to order a lovely joint of meat now, so you or your family are ready to cook a perfect roast dinner to celebrate together. Please order by Sunday for delivery on the following Thursday or Friday at www.higherhacknell.co.uk. Look out for our special offers-this week - there’s 10% off lamb shoulder.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes

Tim, Jo and the Team at Higher Hacknell Farm

We all need something to look forward to at this not very exciting time of year, so at Higher Hacknell we are going to celebrate Valentines Day with a special offer on our deliciously tender rump steak!.It’s down in price by over £5 per kilo. Do take a look at our website which now has lots of new pictures of the range of meat cuts we offer. Our steaks have earned us numerous Taste of the West and Organic Food Awards over the years. Everyone has their favourite, whether it’s the meltingly tender fillet steak or rib eye and rump which have more flavour, so take your pick.

I don’t think we need records to know that it was the wettest January ever, but at least we are not suffering as badly as our Somerset neighbours. However the fields are very soggy, but as our land is steep, much of the water drains down off it, and is helped by the ditches running alongside. Tim spends a lot of time looking after the ditches and drains throughout the year, keeping them clear and digging them out which all costs time and money, but at times like this you know it’s really important. The land gets sour when it is constantly waterlogged and takes a long time to recover. We also try to use as much natural water as possible for the stock by capturing rainwater in troughs and making efficient use of our resources. It seems crazy in this country when we have so much rain and then a few months later, the reservoirs are dry and people can’t water their gardens!

The ewes are housed in the barn now so they can keep dry and take it easy before they lamb in March! They were scanned last week to see how many lambs they are carrying and the results are very good, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong between now and then. If we know whether they are carrying singles, twins or even triplets, it helps us to feed them exactly what they need in terms of home grown hay, silage and oats. If they have 1 lamb we don’t want them getting too big and fat which causes lambing difficulties but if they have 3 or more lambs they need top quality nutrition.

We’re looking forward to Spring now and the days are getting a little longer. I just hope it stops raining too! The snowdrops are out and the daffodils in bud, so it’s on its way. We look forward to hearing from you soon, if you place your orders on-line by Sunday, delivery is the following week on a Thursday or Friday. Please phone me on 01769 560909 if you need any advice about what to choose or if you need to know anything about our produce.

I hope you are well and not too wet!

With best wishes

Jo, Tim and the Higher Hacknell Farm team

The news is full or what we should or shouldn’t eat at the moment, and now it’s a year since it was revealed that horsemeat was in so many supermarket burgers and ready meals. It exposed the extent of a food chain which was pretty much untraceable and global. Most of us were shocked as to how this could have been going on, adding to the realization that we couldn’t trust what was on the label or know what we were eating.

It was a reminder to us of why we are doing what we do here at Higher Hacknell Farm and maybe we are right in our belief that ‘small is beautiful'; when things get too big-whether they are supply chains or supermarkets, they get beyond our control. If you’d like to know more about our complete organic integrity and how the supply chain at Higher Hacknell starts at one side of our farm yard and ends at the other, please read our blog

Voting for the BBC Food and Farming Awards is now open. It would be great if you’d like to nominate us for the’ best Food Producer’ or ‘farmer’ by clicking here.

Our special offer this week is 10% off our beef lasagne, which scooped a gold Taste of the West Award and won the title ‘best ready meal’ . Also until the end of January, beef stewing steak is only £10.50 per kilo from the usual price of £11.95. For a delivery next week on either Thursday 23rd or Friday 24th, please order by this Sunday 19th.
Many thanks and best wishes

Jo and Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm