Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Mrs Brown (our 'brown' Badger Face ewe) is looking a little glum in this picture as today we separated her and Mrs White (guess her colour) from their lambs (known as weaning). We need the ewes to now dry off (stop producing milk from their udders) and keep in good condition to meet the ram (for mating) at the end of this month. As for the lambs, they have not cried as much as we thought they might, although tomorrow might be a different story! When you wean like this the idea is to have the lambs and the ewes as far away as possible so they can no longer see or hear each other. On our small acre the 'not-hearing' bit is hard but the 'not-seeing' bit is okay. It is also recommended that you leave the lambs where they are and take the sheep away, not the other way round. That way the lambs are being left somewhere familiar and so hopefully won't get too stressed. It is also a good idea not to put the sheep on really good quality grass when you move them as you want their udders to stop producing milk and the poor grass will help with that.
And so to the polytunnel where food is a-plenty... We are very much into the 'harvest' period although as much as possible we keep all our veg growing so when we pick it, it really is as fresh as it can be! Here we have coriander, carrots, courgettes, potatoes and greens, plus some fabulous looking blackberries picked by a friend just down from our house!! Blackberry and apple crumble is definitely on the menu for the weekend. And finally yet another interesting shaped potato (see 15th August for an explanation as to why potatoes can grow like this).