News from the farm

We see our sheep every day and take out a bag of rolled barley to feed our ewes with lambs that were born in the last few weeks. It is important to keep the ewes well fed as this encourages the production of milk which is so vital for the survival of the young lambs. Whilst seeing our flocks it is surprising the number of different birds we see on the farm. I know that Cornwall is a great place to come on holiday even in the winter but most of these birds come for the relatively warmer weather and the availability of food on our fields. I regularly see over wintering skylarks, sparrows, and starlings. Last week I saw a small flock of lapwing. These birds are just so different; when they fly away the flock just seems to effortlessly rise vertically in the sky with the occasional flap of their wings. Quite different from most birds which take off and travel at speed to get the lift required, lapwing are so delicate in flight and a lovely spectacle to enjoy whilst doing my chores. 

As I walk across the meadows I often disturb snipe and woodcock which fly off at a tremendous pace and are out of sight in an instance. I imagine these birds are eating worms with their long beaks which are found in the soft damp soils.

The ewes with the autumn born lambs are now eating the crops of forage rape and stubble turnips. We give them a fresh area each week and also provide an area of grass for the animals to lie on if required. Every day I give these bigger lambs a bag of rolled barley in a “creep”. This is a small feeder which has a space to contain the barley with a row of slatted openings along the side; the width of these openings is adjustable and is arranged to be at a width that enables the lambs to feed but prevents the ewes with their wider heads from getting to the corn. In this manner we can supplement the lambs supporting their growth without allowing the adult ewes to get too fat. There are often spillages of grain from our feeders and troughs but none of this is wasted as there are all of the birds and a few mice ready to take advantage of any spilt feed. 

News from the Shop

I hope that you managed to get a Lobbs Farm Shop calendar over the Christmas period and have it hanging on your wall. There is a 10% discount voucher on the second page for use during the month of February; please do use these as we want to reward those people who support Lobbs Farm Shop during the winter months.

There has been a lot of news print about a shortage of vegetables; well here at Lobbs we can still source our own cauliflowers, cabbages, leeks and swedes, as well as celeriac and purple sprouting broccoli. These vegetables are in season now and are best enjoyed as fresh as possible. 

It is quite cold at the moment especially in our freezers at Lobbs Farm Shop. We have a lot of items which I enjoy. One of my favourites is of course our own Lobbs’ pasty. Pasties are available to buy frozen at £2.59 each. The beef within these pasties is our own Lobbs’ beef and they are made especially for Lobbs Farm Shop – delicious! There are also packs of 10 Lobbs’ cocktail pasties at £12.75 for 10 pasties. Next to these are our Lobbs’ Farmhouse Kitchen sausage rolls available at only £1.25 each.

Have you tried the creamy cheese potato gratins? They are great and only 69p each. Battered onion rings, hash browns and Yorkshire puddings are also to be found in our freezers. Two recent introductions are herby parmentier potatoes (only 24p for 100g) and peas, broad beans and asparagus slices in a mix for that different vegetable on the winter dinner plate.

Butchery

The butchers have their normal impressive display which includes the popular chicken cushions with orange. The chicken breast cushions are about £4 each whilst the leg cushions are only about £2 each. Personally I prefer the leg cushion which is very tasty and good value for an easy tea. Pop them into the oven for 45 mins at 180˚c, even I can do that!

Beef stir fry is a great warming dish and is also easy to cook as all the ingredients are in the mix: mangetout, peppers, baby sweetcorn, onion and water chestnuts with Lobbs’ sliced beef rump in a Chinese plum sauce. I asked Phil about this product and he said it’s “No waste and all taste”!

In the meat step deck there is a large selection of meat all pre-packed ready to pick up. At the moment there are packs of mutton such as a half mutton leg at £7.20 and mutton shoulder at about £4.50. These joints are very good value and have real flavour but please cook l o n g and s l o w.

The 5 x 1 lb packs of mince are still only £11.99 each and the chuck steak 5 x 1 lb packs are £14.19. Please do take advantage of the discount offer and fill your deep freeze; these packs of meat are so useful to have in stock.

Our butchers also make faggots and meatballs which are available in the step deck. I know not all of us would choose faggots but these are made here at Lobbs Farm Shop by our butchers and contain lungs, liver and lambs’ or pigs’ hearts combined with pork mince, dried onion and a spice mix. Lobbs’ own meatballs do not contain any offal but are a mix of pork and beef mince with a spicy tomato sauce and a liberal sprinkling of mixed herbs on top - great with pasta of your choice.