Escaping Pigs

Hello Everyone,

A huge thank you to the lovely customers who attended our first Open Day last Sunday.

We hope you left with happy thoughts and content in the knowledge that, although we do work hard, it is a pleasure to get up and start our day at The Lee. That Hexhamshire Organics does what it says on the tin…..we are in Hexhamshire and we are Organic.

Bob does enjoy showing people around our small haven….we will definitely open our doors to you all again next year. Fingers crossed you will see progress.

As many of you saw….our pigs and piglets are all coming along. The ten piglets are now naughty teenagers and constantly escape the pen. They can not escape the field (so we think!) so we are not worried that escaping piglets are a huge problem. Plus, it is always a fab feeling when, as we open the field gate, the escapees bound over to greet us with a “look I am out of the pen! I am soooo clever!” The smug look on the face of a teenage piglet is one which makes us smile, hence, they will never be reprimanded……bad parenting!

The grown up piglets are enjoying their time in the Orchard Field….they tend to get lots of the #nothinggoestowaste. The grass is now being cut in the field so they are also getting lots of our ‘homemade’ silage. Two more of these pigs will be going to market in the middle of September (ideally they could go now but our butcher is on his happy holidays). We are delighted with our pork and it would seem, so are our lovely customers. Thank you for the comments and we are happy you are enjoying the taste of our pork……and we now have gammon available (picture above) on the website!

Our polytunnels are fitted with sides which are able to be rolled up or down, depending on the temperature. The polytunnel sides have been brought down. Sign of the change in season. They could have been rolled right back up for our Open Day as it was recording a temperature of 23 outside. However, it would have been short lived as it is now in the early teens. The temperature will now be less stressful for our plants, hopefully enhancing the taste of our produce.

We have an assortment of beans growing at the moment, we are hoping that the reduced temperature produces some flowers rather than the leaves. It is the plant that just keeps on giving…….giving leaves!

On the other hand, our squash has an abundance of flowers and as a consequence, an abundance of green, yellow, orange and golden squash.

All have a great week.

Ann