Farm Stories

Our traditional Christmas Day on the farm

Food is definitely centre stage at Christmas. Since we moved to Canada almost 20 years ago we haven’t had a large family gathering but we are connected to our family through our traditional Christmas.

This is a pic of our last Christmas at home

Mum always cooked a gammon before Christmas and we would have this with leftover turkey. She just boiled hers in water but I do mine in Cola… (get the recipe here - How to cook a Christmas Ham plus 2 of my favourite glazes)

On Christmas morning we try to call the relatives back home before they are too drunk then Carl feeds the animals, usually giving them extra feed.

I get started on dinner with my Christmas play list blaring some of my favourites are

  • Fairy tale of New York by the pogues - the best Christmas song ever IMO!

  • The lost Christmas Eve - the Trans Siberian Orchestra

  • It’s Christmas- Slade

  • Stay another day - East 17

Our oversized turkey goes in the oven before we open presents. I have to say there is no shame in having an 18lb turkey for 2 people, it’s the only day I cook one and I need leftovers. One year I bought a 7lb anorexic, free-range turkey that I think walked here from BC.

It was very disappointing because we didnt have enough leftovers for Boxing Day turkey curry!

We always do a toast before we eat with Asti Spumante and pull party crackers, read the silly joke and wear the silly hats.

When I took over cooking Christmas dinner I changed our starter from Prawn cocktail to celery and stilton soup, which was such a hit that every year someone would call me for the recipe.

Nowadays I don’t cook 27 (Ok slight exaggeration) different vegetables I stick with potatoes - boiled and roast, mashed carrot and Swede and of course the mandatory Brussels sprouts.

I used to have mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower cheese, roasted parsnips, roasted carrots and peas on top of that. Carl doesn’t do peas - he says they are too hard to load onto your fork and he has no time for that lol!

Our main meal is a lot smaller now and to make it easier I cook what I can the day before.

Along side the turkey we always have:

There is no room for dessert, we prefer cheese and crackers if we can force feed ourselves anything else! We also don’t do Christmas cake, even though I have a great recipe from my Aunty Pat - it’s just too much cake!

After all that overindulging we have no option other than to plonk down in front of TV with a glass of port and some of our favourite chocolates.

  • Terrys chocolate oranges

  • After eight mints - I am that person who takes the chocolates out and leaves the wrappers in the box lol, this really annoys Carl lol.

  • Quality street - (is it just me or are the tins really small now?)

    Then we binge watch some of our favourite Christmas TV

  • The Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials

  • Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials

  • Mrs Browns Boys - well I love it - Carl is not so keen!

That’s about the end of a traditional Christmas for us, Carl checks the animals again then we usually fall asleep on the couch!

Want to support our farm but can't buy our products? You can always buy me a coffee!

Want to support our farm but can’t buy our pork

A coffee would be greatly appreciated 😊!

This blog post was written in participation in a Blogging Bee-an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art. If you enjoyed this post about “Traditions,” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives.

Three Sweet Traditions to Simplify the Holidays by Jessica Haberman

Summer 2022

This is for our readers who don’t do Instagram (and my sister who is on Instagram but can’t work it)

Click the links on the pics to watch some of the videos I posted over the summer.

We got a puppy & Our nephew came to visit from the uk

 
 
 

It rained yay! - we had a mini flood, a double rainbow and ducklings 🙂

Our Free range Berkshire pigs

This blog post was written in participation of a Blogging Bee-an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art. If you enjoyed this post with the theme "Summer Scrapbook 2022,” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives.

What to Grow in a Mid-Michigan Garden: A 2022 Garden Recap by Carrie Roer

Summer Fun at Midwest Prime Farms by Heather Leak

Storyteller Farm's Summer Adventures by Jessica Haberman

My pioneering spirit comes from my mum, a first generation farmer of the 50’s

Deciding to Raise Free Range Rare Breed Berkshire pigs thousands of miles from the farm I grew up on back in the UK has to be one of the craziest ideas I had - even my mum who is a pioneer of her time thinks I am a bit nuts lol. I am sure people thought the same of her when she wanted to start her own farm in the 1950’s.

My gran used to send mum to local farms as a child or put her on the milk float to help with milk deliveries but that is as far as her farming experience went.

With no farming background but determined to farm, she went to Agricultural college then with the help of her sister and a college friend she started Farming In 1957 on a 300 acre farm in Gisburn, Lancashire.

Starting with a small sheep flock of 40 ewes (breeding female sheep) and 10 dairy cows which gradually increased to about 60.

In 1965 she married my dad - when I was born the hospital asked her what her occupation was - she said Farmer, Fathers occupation - she replied Farmers husband - lol!

Together they raised sheep, cows and pigs. Dad also raised ducks and pheasants and we had a few chickens when we were small - I always remember asking if we could have chicken for Sunday dinner and we were told to go and catch one - I’m not sure if we did they were bantams and likely wouldn’t have had much meat on them anyway.

A lot of farming is learn as you go and trial and error - they taught themselves how to shear sheep from a book - dad shearing and mum frantically turning the pages to tell him what his next move was lol - I can only imagine the profanities!! It took them 20 mins to shear their first sheep.

In the early 1970’s they took some Hampshire (breed of sheep) tups (male sheep) to the Great Yorkshire Show - which is one of the biggest events in the agricultural calander. If you have ever seen a sheep show you will know that the sheep are led into the show ring on halters. This takes some training, normal people would do this before getting to the showground! I guess they didn’t have time so they trained them on the day - mum said they followed every class down the alleyways to the show ring. By the time it was their class the tups were trained! The judge even commented on how well trained they were and they came away with 3rd prize.

When we fed the sheep in the field dad used to put us In what was called “the box” it was a metal rectangle that hitched on to the tractor and was used to take bags of feed up the field for the sheep.

Us kids would open the bags and spill the food off the back for the sheep to eat while dad drove the tractor. It was always so bitterly cold and after we emptied the feed bags we would get in them to keep warm, I never remember having gloves.

Mum said she didn’t remember us doing that but she did remember putting us in a dustbin (garbage can) !! I was a bit shocked because I can’t remember this. Then she explained that it was only while they were milking and it wasn’t every day - oh that makes it ok then lol - maybe this is why I choose to block it out 😂😂😂. The bins weren’t especially for us they were used for cattle feed - lol not sure how that makes it better - I imagine we used to eat a lot of the feed! We were lucky we actually had a bin each we didn’t have to share! I am sure I don’t have any long-lasting damaging effects from that experience lol.

When the dairy needed a lot of expensive upgrades and repairs they sold the dairy herd and bought a few pigs, which they sold in 1980’s. Mum started to build up a small pedigree Simmental (breed of cow) herd along with some cross-bred beef cows.

I always remember when we moved the cows from field to field there was one that was always last - every time it was at the back of the herd. This is my last memory of our beef herd.

In May 2001 our farm suffered the devastating loss of all the cows and sheep to Foot and Mouth. 200 cows and 500 sheep plus lambs - some were born on the morning of their slaughter - this took a terrible toll on my dad - carrying the newborns to the vets and slaughter guys.

Mum said on Sunday morning they called the vet to check a potential foot and mouth case and by 4 pm the next day everything had gone. All the animals had been put down and the remains incinerated and cleared away.

Even after that terrible tragedy they built the farm back up - starting with a small flock of sheep. Now they are back up to around 450 breeding ewes and 120 head of cattle for finishing (they buy young beef animals and take them up to butcher weight)

Nowadays she spends a lot of her time keeping on top of the paperwork that British farmers have to do while my brother does the labour side. She lets him run the beef herd but she still actively keeps an eye on her sheep flock. She is a numbers woman and keeps track of all her sheep and lambs. It’s easier now that she has an electronic ear tag reader - my brother said she is like Darth Vader with a light Sabre when she goes out to the sheep pens to read the ear tags. In the old days we were the light sabres reading ear tags and mum wrote it down with a pen and paper.

An inspiration to us all mum has been farming for over 65 years and is the driving force behind her farm - and we all know who the boss is lol!

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Getting ready for another winter storm and Carl finds a new place to hide!

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Of course, we are having second winter in Saskatchewan, or is it first winter and we had a false spring last week? Maybe it’s fall - I saw geese flying south!. Who knows where we are at - at least it’s not minus 50!

We have many shelters and buildings for the pigs to go in to get out of the snow. Last year we added an extra coral and even if it’s snowing they seem to love it there. We have been putting lots of straw on the south side and they just bury themselves in it.


With a lot of snow being forecast Carl went to check on the straw pile. I think he would have happily stayed there. He said it was lovely and warm!

Guess where his new napping/hiding place is!

How much food waste is there in Canada every year?

Did you know that it was World food Day on October 16th? I didn’t until it was posted on Facebook.

  • Canada alone wastes over $30 billion of food every year?! I don’t even know what to say to that! It didn’t hit home until I broke it down.

  • Its about $82 million daily!!!

  • In 2016 the population of Canada was just over 36 million people.

  • That means every day over 2 million dollars worth of food is wasted for every person!


We are in a program called  Loop, Rescue Food - Rescue the Planet. When food has reached its best before date the big grocery stores send it to the landfill. Yes I said “best before”  not “eat before” ! In Saskatchewan Save on Foods is the only grocery store that participates, with locations in Yorkton, Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.


Every store has a different farmer pick up on a different day and we usually get a half ton truck load every time.

  • The total diverted this year so far by the loop organization is over 1,000 tons.


The pigs and chickens share the bread, veg and dairy- lots of which is organic!!! The dogs get the meat, you would not believe the amount of meat is thrown out every day!  


While we are really grateful for the opportunity to be part of the program I am appalled at the huge amount of food that gets tossed. I will never understand why a bag of pre-packaged apples has to be thrown because one has a bruise. Why cant someone open the bag and discard the bad apple and sell the others loose?


France has a law against supermarkets throwing away edible food. This would be a great example to follow. Would it not be better to get this food re-directed into

  • The homeless shelters

  • Food banks

  • Schools

Our schools are full of underfed kids who would learn a lot better when fed properly, for some of them school may be the only opportunity to eat a nutritious meal.


Another issue I have with the waste is that as a livestock farmer, I really struggle with the amount of meat that is thrown out. There has to be something wrong when you feed the dog a AAA prime rib steak that was destined for the landfill. An animal died to be thrown in the landfill. If we are taking an animals life then we better be sure to eat it in my opinion! It was most likely raised in a C.A.F.O (Concentrated Animal Feed Organizations). No running around on pasture for most of those animals. Pigs usually being raised in massive pig barns and cattle in feedlots. Raised to be thrown away! What is wrong with the world?


When you buy pork directly from your farmer you are helping reduce food waste because you aren’t going to put any of that valuable pork in the landfill. After a recent conversation with a valued customer I have been prompted to do a small guide - An introduction to buying pork in bulk. Buying in bulk can seem intimidating at first but its really the same as shopping in the store - but without the waste!!! Most pork lovers are already eating a whole side of pork, they just don’t realize it because it sounds like so much meat.

If you are eating sausage, bacon, ham and chops you are already nose to tail eating and didn’t know it!! If you are a leftover lover you are already reducing food waste in your own home. How else can we reduce waste at home?

  • Meal planning and shopping lists are also a great way to reduce waste.

  • Making soups and stocks with left over veg.

  • Preserving or freezing before food gets too old.

  • Do some batch cooking

I am sure there are a ton of other great ideas. I would love to hear them. Let me know in the comments below!


Sign up below to get your free introduction to buying pork in bulk!

Life after Jack - losing a member of the farm family.

When we first came to Saskatchewan we got about 100 chickens - these were to be our layers and some for the freezer.  One night a fox got in the hen house and killed about 80. The morning after we found dead chickens all across the field to the fox den. This was our 2nd loss to predators - we had already lost 2 guinea fowl and their babies to coyotes.

Someone told us we should call Crop Insurance because there was a program in Saskatchewan where you got paid for livestock lost to predators. They came out, checked around and advised us to get a livestock guardian dog (LGD).

We hated those foxes for killing our chickens but killing them wouldn’t solve our problem. Another fox family would just move in and take over the territory. Keeping free range chickens would be impossible if we didn’t have something to chase off the predators.

The first one we got, a pyrenees, we named Dummy. This is because at first she killed chickens, her job was to protect them not kill them. Luckily she quickly grew out of this phase.

Dummy turned into a great dog, not roaming too far, barking and chasing any predator she sees. Then we got some sheep. They came with their own guardian - a llama. Carl was not impressed with that thing - neither was Dummy and she chased it out of the yard - it ran south and was found 14 miles away. A guardian that runs away from our dog wouldn’t work for us so our search for a 2nd dog began.

I travelled an 8 hour round trip to pick up a 7 month old Sarplaninac - another breed of LGD. What a beautiful dog - we called him Jack. We got him home and one of our geese chased him, he ran a mile down the road. This dog had been born and raised with sheep with minimum human contact, how on earth were we going to get him back.

We left a trail of food on the road back to our farm and put the sheep in the field as close to the road as we could, hoping to give him something familiar in his strange surroundings. Luckily in the morning he was sat on the outside of the fence watching the sheep. He managed to get into the field with the flock and he stayed with them all the time. Then when we sold the sheep he moved into the yard and corals where in winter he would sleep with the pigs. He was never a fan of strangers and would always disappear if anyone came to the farm but would keep a watchful eye on what was happening.

Recently Jack got injured and unfortunately died due to his injuries. Losing a dog is a very sad and painful part of life. They are family and there is no replacement for them. That said we had to start the search for another LGD to help Dummy. She needs backup to do her job. The coyotes have been coming a lot closer to the farm than normal and it will only be a matter of time before we start having losses. We have ducks, chickens calves and piglets that all need protecting, that's a lot of work for Dummy by herself.

Luckily Teresa, the lady who bred Jack had a litter of pups born on April 1st . They were Sarplaninac x kangal/pyrenees. I picked up Buddy (his name may change) on Friday afternoon - he has the biggest feet I have ever seen on a pup, he is going to be a big dog.

Friday night we had a storm and I was worried that it would scare him - we already have a dog that tries to get in your skin when the thunder starts. I snuck out to check him throughout the night and he was quite content asleep by the fence.

He got in with the ducks on Saturday morning and thought chasing them from one end of their pen to the other was great fun! (He reminded me of my friend Christie who runs out into fields of geese to make them fly) I hope he isn’t going to be another Dummy - I am referring to the pyrenees not Christie lol.

He seems to like being with the piglets and doesn’t seen afraid of too much - apart from the electric fence. I hope he will be a good protector for us and our animals.

With that I want to say bon voyage to Jack - a wonderful dog and protector.  He will always have a very special place our hearts and is very sadly missed.

 

Do you have a pet that is missed? Share your story in the comments.

 

 

Jack you will always have a very special place in our hearts. I always thought I had a ton of pics of the illusive Jack but this is the only one I can find. It is one of him when we first got him.

Jack you will always have a very special place in our hearts. I always thought I had a ton of pics of the illusive Jack but this is the only one I can find. It is one of him when we first got him.

Buddy - Dummys new side kick

Buddy - Dummys new side kick

Dummy on patrol.

Dummy on patrol.

Buddy has taken residence under the deck - Jacks favourite place.

Buddy has taken residence under the deck - Jacks favourite place.

Jack out with the pigs but keeping a watchful eye on the yard

Jack out with the pigs but keeping a watchful eye on the yard

A rare pic from earlier this year. Almost touching a human!

A rare pic from earlier this year. Almost touching a human!

Dummy is definantely not scared of humans

Dummy is definantely not scared of humans