X

Author: Leila Simon

Open post

Long rise rye bread

The distinctive rich flavour of this bread is similar to the traditional sour-dough common in Germany. It requires a little more time than wheat bread but the result is worth it. The caraway is optional, but when I dared suggest this in conversation with an elderly man whose father’s rye bread had been his staple food as a child growing up in Czechoslovakia he put up his hands in horror as if I had blasphemed and cried “But you must use caraway: you can’t make rye bread without caraway!”.

Ingredients

  • 500g wholemeal Rye flour
  • 3 tsp dried yeast
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp caraway seeds
  • 350 ml warm water (about 45°C)

Continue reading “Long rise rye bread”

Open post

The Hungry Gap (Bridport Times, May 2018)

We write monthly for the magazine Bridport Times. To see this article as originally published, view the pages on Issue.

It’s May; in recent years the weather has been practically summer, and could be the best sun we get until September, but in terms of growing food, we are still in the notorious “hungry gap”. And if we were careless or unlucky we’d be at the end of our stores as well.

So what is the hungry gap, and is it still relevant to us today? It is the gap in crops between winter and summer. The time when Continue reading “The Hungry Gap (Bridport Times, May 2018)”

Open post

Simple soda bread

Soda bread is a traditional Irish wheat loaf, but we like to use rye or barley for ours. These flours don’t rise easily with yeast as wheat does but using a soda bread recipe works well to make a firm and tasty loaf. Soda bread is very quick to make and needs to be eaten fresh.

Ingredients

  • 500g wholemeal Rye flour (or Barley flour for a variation)
  • 1/2 tsp salt (adjust to your preference)
  • 1/2 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
  • 1 level tsp baking powder
  • 300 ml warm water or milk or old yoghurt (about 40°C )

Continue reading “Simple soda bread”

Open post

Spring Tide Festival – 19th and 20th May

The National Trust’s annual show case of local produce, makers and artisans, at Hive Beach in Burton Bradstock. We are happy to be invited back and will have a selection of our produce on display and for sale, as well as tasters of our bread and – first time ever  – some cake for you to try, all made with our own flour.

Sunday 20th and Monday 21st May from 10am-4pm. Free parking for National Trust members at Hive Beach. £2 entry per person including National Trust members, under 12s are free (all money raised is spent on conservation work at local National Trust sites.) Dogs allowed on the lead. See the National Trust website here for more information.

Open post

April on the farm (Bridport Times, April 2018)

We write monthly for the magazine Bridport Times. To see this article as originally published, view the pages on Issue.

 

For us April is all about lambing, about new lives blinking at the world for the first time, learning to stand and to skip and taking joy in exploring it all.

We lamb in Spring to coincide with when the grass is rich and growing most strongly. Many farmers organise the date of their lambing for the winter and have the ewes indoors when they lamb. This is because there is a price premium for lamb ready for the Easter market, and also because being indoors makes it easier to keep an eye on any ewes that might need help. Indeed, we used to do this ourselves, starting lambing in January, taking shifts in the lambing barn to ensure that help was on hand if it was needed 24/7. But years ago we decided to change to April, using the warmer weather, the spring grass and longer days to lamb out of doors as deer and many other animals naturally do – and we’ve never looked back.

We like it because Continue reading “April on the farm (Bridport Times, April 2018)”

Open post

Soils and Spring (Bridport Times, March 2018)

We write monthly for the magazine Bridport Times. To see this article as originally published, view the pages on Issue.

Taking on a National Trust tenancy of 200 acres immediately adjacent to our farm 20 years ago was a chance for us to expand our arable production. Perhaps we should have been warned by the name of the farm, Labour in Vain, and better remembered the history of it: more than 30 years of continuous intensive grain production had eroded the top-soil and lost organic matter so that over most of the area the soil had become a glue-like clay.

We knew it would be difficult to improve, but taking on this land meant we could increase the arable rotation from the 20 acres we had on the home farm so we were keen to try. It has worked for us in many ways Continue reading “Soils and Spring (Bridport Times, March 2018)”

Open post

February on the farm (Bridport Times, Feb 2018)

We write monthly for the magazine Bridport Times. To see this article as originally published, view the pages on Issue.

Winter is the quiet time for a mixed farm. Next years crops are either safely in the ground, or, like our spring barley, waiting until spring to be sown,? and the ewes and cows are still pregnant for another month or two. It’s the lull before the storm: of late nights, early mornings and constant supervision of calving and lambing.

So winter is a time to catch up on other jobs that have slipped by throughout the rest of the year: clearing gateways and footpaths, tidying the tools and workshops, repairing fences and stiles, cutting back hedges. Perhaps most excitingly, it’s the season to plant trees. This may seem confusing – why plant during the cold season? Surely it wants to be sunny and warm to help them grow? Trees go dormant during Continue reading “February on the farm (Bridport Times, Feb 2018)”

Open post

January on the farm (Bridport Times, Jan 2018)

We write monthly for the magazine Bridport Times. To see this article as originally published, view the pages on Issue.

 

The start of the year is also the end of the year. Our animals are still outside enjoying the last of the grass. 2017 was very good for grass on Tamarisk Farm and we like the stock to stay outside with all the choice of where to go and what to eat. Most of our stock are tough native breeds and as long as they’ve enough to eat and a bit of shelter they are happy outside whatever the weather throws at them. You often see this as selling points for Devon Bulls, advertised proudly as “… overwinters at 1000ft on Exmoor”. All our sheep are breeds originating on islands or high ground. Our part of the Dorset coast has a lot in common with the islands off Scotland; it is rarely cold but often wet and windswept.

Continue reading “January on the farm (Bridport Times, Jan 2018)”

Posts navigation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Scroll to top