New Lambs (but not from our sheep)

It seems a long time since I last updated the blog and certainly a lot has happened since then. Most exciting is the arrival of Mary the lamb. Mary is not from our sheep. Her mother had triplets and was not going to manage to look after them all, so we ended up with her. 

We got her at a week old on Saturday morning. Since then we have been bottle feeding her every two hours or so during the day. That feeds her up enough so that she lasts through the night. She stays in the house, and at night Ted (the chocolate lab) and her have their beds next to each other in the utility room. Lambs it seems are almost impossible to toilet train so we do seem to need to mop up the kitchen floor almost constantly. She is very entertaining and affectionate, trying to follow us around where ever we go. She has now started running around and jumping when she gets excited. Ted likes this and tries to play with her. We try to get her out as much as possible and she was happily exploring the garden this afternoon being followed by the dog, who being a dog wanted to keep sniffing her bum. It seems now we have the offer of a second lamb so maybe she is going to get some sheepy company.

The weekend before last we had our first go at selling at a farmers market and had a stall at the one in South Cave. We sold some of the marmalade, pickles and lemon curd I've been making as well as criossants, pain au chocolat and pain au raisin. It was a pretty slow market and I think considering the number of people who actually visited the market we did pretty well, but the place was hardly heaving. It also meant me being up at 5am getting criossants to rise and stuff like that. I have a plan for the next market so I don't have to get out of bed so early!

Last weekend we had a working weekend. It was quite a quiet one, but we were here and my parents came too. We managed to get quite a lot done and enjoyed some fantastic pork and Elderberry wine at the end of the day. It will be nice soon when it will be our own veg too; the polytunnel is doing pretty well though and we have a steady supply of salad leaves and some Swedes ready. I'll also have Corriander, carrots and beetroot ready soon, months before anything planted this year will be coming up. We got loads of planting done at the working weekend and so the polytunnel has loads of seed trays in and some of the beds outside have things coming up too. The growing side of the smallholding is starting to take shape, although the more exotic things I was hoping to grow in the greenhouse like peppers and melons seem to be struggling to germinate. Zoe worked on a sheep shelter and now the sheep have an area under cover in the field where they can go to lamb when they are ready. I think it will be about a month or so when our lambs arrive, although predicting exactly is a pretty imprecise art. Dad worked hard stripping a door in the house which I think will be great as a rustic sort of door.

I went over to Flamborough with Dad while he was over. We had a great time seeing loads of the nesting birds. But most interestingly I found a few plants ready to forage. I managed to collect a load of Gorse flowers that should make some excellent squash or sorbet. It tastes great but there is quite a technique to not being constantly stabbed while picking which I am not sure Dad managed to pick up. I also found some Alexanders which I haven't found before, but we tried some that night and it tastes brilliant. Always good when it's just growing at the side of the path.

This is Alexanders once prepared. It tastes great steamed and served with butter. This isn't my picture

I've been trying to keep up with the garden which always seems to get a raw deal and end up on the bottom of the priority list. As Michael has worked hard getting rid of loads of weeds I am trying my best not to let them grow back and take over the whole garden again. In between garden and smallholding I am also squeezing in a bit of decorating. I am supposed to be painted all day tomorrow, but as I have to take Mary into school (isn't that what happens in the nursery rhyme?) and possibly pick up another lamb I am not sure how much I will actually manage to get done.

I've been organising a bit of supply work for after Easter so I am not going to have quite so much time in the smallholding. Ideal at a time when the new lambs should be arriving but there we go. We are going to try a few different markets over the next few weeks and months and see how that goes. Hopefully we'll find a few markets that are a bit busier.