November sale news

November 2020

Whether you are a regular customer or trying us out for the first time, we want to say a big thank you for purchasing some of our 100% pasture-fed, high welfare beef. You can rest assured that your purchase is helping to restore natural Cotswold grasslands at Sandy Hill farmland in Sherborne, where we are already seeing an increase in diversity of wildflowers and wildlife since we arrived just over 2 years ago.

Last month we gave one of our fields, ‘the Paddock’ a helping hand in rejuvenation when Matt helped to scatter seeds gathered by the Glorious Cotswolds Grassland project run by Cotswolds AONB. Most of the seed came from a wildflower meadow in the Slad valley, plus 2 special buckets from one Jeremy Clarkson who owns a farm nearby! Fingers crossed that we will be seeing more species coming up in this field next spring/summer and beyond, as up until now this is probably our least diverse field (but a beautiful one – an enclosed little valley surrounded by woodland with mini copses of hazel and hawthorn).

Today we had the first frost of the season and had to check water pipes were running for the mob’s trough – all melted soon enough, but it was a reminder of what the winter can bring and there’ll undoubtedly be more thawing of frozen water pipes in the coming months.

Enjoy your beef,

Laura and Matt Elliott

Sandy Hill Honey now available!

Earlier in the year we invited a local beekeeper from Aldsworth to keep a few hives at Sandy Hill. The hives have rapidly multiplied and the bees seem to be thriving!

The bees have been taking full advantage of all the wildflowers filling our pastures, the herbal leys and the flower filled margins are perfect for them to forage in - so many flowers for them to visit including knapweed, trefoils, chicory, clovers, sainfoin, bedstraws, self-heal and many more. They have been busy producing some beautiful floral honey!

We have our first jars available now. We are selling 1/2lb jars (225g) for £5.50 a jar and we will be happy to deliver them alongside our beef and pork boxes. (or let us know if you just want to pick up a jar from Sherborne). Remember to let us know you would like some honey when you order! 

orders@sandyhillmob.co.uk

Matt and Nigel checking on the bees!

Peacock butterflies in the making!

When shouldn’t you cut/top a large patch of stinging nettles that your cattle have wilfully ignored to eat or trample?

When you look a bit closer and find that there are hundreds of peacock butterfly caterpillars munching their way through the patch, that’s when!

We appear to have a full age range from recently hatched tiny caterpillars to 1-month old chunky ones. They will be getting ready to pupate and after 2 weeks we should be seeing a rise in the number of peacocks around…fingers crossed. It’s always humbling to be taught a lesson from nature and realise that she has the answers already in hand. Topping off the agenda!

Southern Marsh Orchid

We were very excited when our neighbour Roger pointed out an orchid in our parkland fields – the first time he can remember seeing orchids growing there – and today we spotted another one!

We took on the farm less than 2 years ago so it’s great to see our grazing approach reaping rewards already. We think it is a Southern Marsh orchid. As you can see, it’s not the grandest of specimens but its mere presence is the important bit. Orchid seeds are so small (like dust!) that they are unable to germinate by themselves, they do not contain enough energy to do so. Instead they are dependent on mycorrhizal fungi in the soil to provide the energy necessary to do so.

By ‘mob grazing’ our cattle – moving them regularly through our pastures – we are aiming to improve the diversity of life in our soils including increasing mycorrhizal fungi. Improved diversity below the ground should improve the diversity above ground – leading to a greater number of wild flowers, grasses and herbs in our pastures. And a more active soil is breaking down more organic matter, releasing more nutrients into the soil, ready to be taken up by the plants and then the grazing animals, which will ultimately end up in us when we eat our delicious, nutritious, pasture-fed beef!

The presence of our little orchid is a sign that we are on the right track, improving our soil and increasing diversity. Encouragingly, our aforementioned neighbour now has 5 species of orchid (80+ plants) growing in his garden where 8 years ago there were none. It’s something for us to aim for!

July 2020 Sale Poster

Pasture For Life certified, 100% grass fed beef and Organic pork now on sale - visit www.sandyhillmob.co.uk/boxes for details.

Organic pork from Eastleach Downs Farm

Sam and Helen Wade have been raising pigs on their award winning Soil Association certified Organic farm for almost 30 years – we really feel that the pork they produce is some of the most high-welfare, sustainably produced pork available. And it is absolutely delicious – we have been eating it for years!

As someone that is interested in buying our beef we feel sure that you are here not just because it is some of the tastiest beef around (that’s a bonus!) – but because you care about what you are eating, you want to support local businesses and also want to know how your food is produced and who is producing it.

We work with the welfare of our animals as our number one priority and the benefits they are bringing by utilizing their grazing to improve our natural environment as a close second. Sam and Helen are very much on the same wavelength which is why we are joining up to offer you the chance to buy their pork – please read on below to hear more about how they farm at Eastleach Downs and why – then send us an email orders@sandyhillmob.co.uk to order some beef and pork boxes!

Helen and Sam introduce Eastleach Downs Farm:

Here at Eastleach Downs we are an entirely organic farm and have been for almost 30 years.

We took over the tenancy of a partly organic farm in 1992 as first generation farmers, and converted the rest of the farm to organic status as soon as we could. We choose to be organic mainly because of animal welfare concerns, but have grown to realise the huge benefits to the environment of organically farmed land and we now have various pieces of land in Higher Level Organic Stewardship. We feel very lucky to be able to farm in an area of Special Scientific Interest and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Our pigs are outdoors all year round as we feel it’s vital they can express their natural rooting behaviour - that’s why their snouts are shaped the way they are!

We are currently converting our breeding stock to pedigree British Saddlebacks (a rare breed) and are privileged to have an extremely rare blood line here. We will cross these sows with a leaner boar to ensure just the right amount of fat in our delicious pork, while conserving a native breed hardy enough to cope with our winters and with enough colour and coat to cope with our seemingly ever hotter summers.

These animals will also be better able to cope with a forage-rich diet than a more modern pig, which will mean we can rely less on cereals and imported protein and use more of what we can grow on our own Cotswold soils.

All our produce is handmade in our on-farm butchery and is only ever from pigs born and reared here. Our bacon is cured by hand for 28 days before hand slicing and our sausages are made without preservatives.

We are very proud of our pork and we never tire of hearing our newer customers express surprise at the depth of flavour that Eastleach Downs Organic Pork has. Comments we hear most often include “I haven’t tasted pork like it in years!”, “Tastes like pork used to taste” and “The best pork we’ve ever tasted!”