Autumn/winter 2023 at Rails Farm
And again three months passed by and no new blog from us. However, always looking on the bright side of life, lots of things happened since then. Not to mention the highest carbon dioxide emissions worldwide since 2015. The hosts of Cop28 are actually there to sell their oil, because they are building the most monstrous new cities in the desert and need the money to pay for it. And of course the most depressing event is the war in Gaza where human life is measured in two completely different categories, one for Palestinians and one for Israelis. Let’s hope that the remaining hostages will be released as soon as possible and peace will resume.
Successful Sales
That’s enough of world politics which we as little people can do nothing about, thus let’s focus on our Smallholding and all the things we have done trying to make the world a better place. First of all the weekly country market in Sturminster Newton is a great success and a lot of fun. We have sold almost all our apple juice and honey and lots of very healthy fresh veggies that customers really appreciated. being there every week since August has generated regular customers as well as passing trade.
Sheep Friendly Sheepskins
We are of course not complacent and work constantly on new products. Gaby has recently started to produce the most wonderful felted sheep skins. Each individual fleece is the coat of our sheep from last summer. Whilst our fluffy sheepies are still happily grazing on the field customers can enjoy their beautifully felted coats. Those wonderfully designed natural insulators have thousands of air pockets to store the warmth we transfer into it- Physics at its best.
There are already three happy customers and plenty more fleeces are in the making. The process requires actually a lot of elbow grease. First of all Gaby needs to prepare lots of carded wool sheets using a drum carder. Then those need to be wet felted onto the back of the fleece with lots of hot water and washing up liquid. After this step the whole very heavy fleece will be wrapped around a broom stick and rolled forwards and backwards many times to achieve a mechanical bonding between the two layers of sheep fleece and felted carded wool.
The final phase is to wash the felted fleece several times in a big bucket using rain water. When wet the felted fleeces are almost too heavy to lift, and are therefore left to drip dry on a rack for a little while before they can be spun in a washing machine and then dried on a rack.
Knitting Kits
Another new product is a knitting kit, which includes instructions, information about our livestock and dyed wool matching the wishes of our customers. One kit is for knitting beginners and the product is a beautiful seafoam pattern scarf. For the more advanced knitters a sock knitting kit is also available. You might have realised that we try to expand our wool and fleece related business.
We believe that our wool is pretty sustainable because our sheep are grazing only with almost no supplement concentrates. They capture some of the carbon dioxide in their fluffy coat, which when used for a product that is in long term use effectively takes some carbon dioxide out of the system for that time.
As we have stopped breeding, no more sheep are slaughtered and their animal welfare is of the highest standard. If you look at our produce page you can actually see the whole range of wool from our own sheep and alpaca in various dyed versions and natural colours.
Still Enjoying The Summer Harvest
Our veggies are currently reduced to a bare minimum of a bit of swiss chard, spinach, parsley and Jerusalem artichokes. The latter also have a funny nickname pointing to the increased gas production of our digestive system. However, we have realised that they are absolutely delicious and that our guts are getting used to it. One tip: don’t eat it more than two days in a row.
Fortunately, our chest freezers are full of goodies, like tomatoes, grilled courgettes, fried pumpkins, ingredients for pesto, frozen pears and apples and plenty of soft fruit. It is possible to enjoy the hard work of the summer harvest for most of the winter.
Lively Language Learning
Finally really good news about my teaching in various subjects; I have never been so busy and we have again a lively advanced German learning group where every member enjoys the regular sessions. There might be a new starter group from January 2024 as well. I have never enjoyed teaching as much as I do currently. It is so rewarding to see young and mature students thrive and lose their angst or hesitation to use their knowledge. It just proves the point that without making mistakes we are not going to learn and to develop.
Don’t forget our well established monthly Saturday’s ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ German breakfast. Details are on the German Tutoring page.
Gaby & Christoph