Avian Flu All poultry in the UK are currently having to be kept inside (DEFRA housing order) to protect them against Avian Flu this winter. Sadly this is becoming an annual event, however this winter has been particularly bad with a lot more outbreaks and cases carrying on into the spring. Could this be due to the ridiculously mild [...]
A Perfect Storm (s) 10-2-12,9,0 First along came storm Eunice, the Metoffice forecast doom, and as a poultry farmer with twelve mobile hen houses, the alarm bells sounded big time. We battened down the hatches, the storm pushed through pretty quickly and ripped the roofs off two of our sheds depositing it across the farm. Whilst this [...]
Trees, Trees and Trees – Three Way Winners At Orchard Organic Farm we love trees! And we have planted loads over the years. We have over 1000 apple trees plus field trees and masses of hedging trees. We have been busy this week making the best of the amazing weather and planting trees again We have planted another 100 [...]
Our little 'Farm Gate' shop has organically grown somewhat over the last few months. We have sold our lovely organic eggs direct and fresh from the hens to friends and neighbours for many years, and the word has gradually spread and now we are lucky enough to a wide range of lovely loyal group of customers. Hopefully they are [...]
'Genetic Modification' understandably conjures up all sorts of scary thoughts, four legged chickens, huge mono-culture insect free fields of cereals etc.. However the reality is that GM as a farming technique used for centuries and we are doing dabbling with it this week! When we first planted apple trees we choose 12 varieties that looked suitable. Over Some of those [...]
Autumn can be a wonderful time of year to escape and unwind when the pace has eased a little, the beaches, pubs and cafes are a bit quieter and the countryside looks beautiful. We think The Hen’s Dens at Orchard Organic Farm are a great place to enjoy a relaxing, peaceful autumn break, with apples on the trees, blackberries [...]
New Brand, New Website, New Ventures ……. New Challenges! New Brand – instigated by new ventures, designed by a friend and very clever graphic designer, we hope you agree how good it is! New Website – again instigated by new ventures our website has been totally remade and again we hope you agree how good it has turned out! [...]
So the accountant prepared a lovely set of accounts that showed us a healthy gross profit this year ad congratulated us on a good year. I went home all pleased and upbeat and showed Emma (my wife) the headline gross profit figure to which she said, "so where is it?" to which I replied "I've reinvested it dear" to [...]
One of our customers said to me yesterday that he feels that providing a home for his family and good food to eat are his two priorities and that everything after that i.e. flash cars, big holidays, smart gadgets etc., are purely a bonus! I happen to think he is quite possibly right and that we have become far to complacent about a [...]
I regularly find myself saying 'Every day is a school day!' Education seems to be a common theme to us at present, (especially being married to a busy teacher, and with elections loaming etc.) with farm walks, Open Farm Sunday etc., coming up. Next couple of weeks we are hosting a group of Agricultural Degree students from South Devon College [...]
