Our rams 'one bad day' (Part 2)

On recommendation from Mr.B (our sheep mentor) we took our 3, six month old ram lambs to his friend P-E for their 'one bad day'. It was P-E who made the whole experience very calming with his measured approach and the careful way in which he handled our beloved ram lambs. In the end, it happened so quickly, without any panic or distress that we returned home feeling a sense of pride that we had managed the whole process from birth to slaughter for the very first time.

Our 3 ram lambs including offal

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had began our journey to a more sustainable lifestyle knowing that we would have to one day slaughter our own animals to provide us with food. Firstly, we wanted to know that the food on our plate had had a good life and had been reared properly and secondly, it had been given a natural diet i.e grass-fed. Ultimately, we wanted to know everything about the meat we were eating. So for us this was a very important stage in realizing this dream.

The 'one bad day' started with us driving the ram lambs to P-E who owns a little farm not far from ours. P-E has a professional set-up in one of his barns. and with no one else around, in tranquil surroundings, we immediately felt at home. We brought out the first ram lamb and made sure the others could not see or fear anything (they were well-stocked with good grass to munch on). P-E slaughtered the first, removed the skin, bagged the intestines and removed the internal organs. The remainder of the body was weighed and then moved into a chilling room to hang at the correct temperature. It all happened so smoothly.

The skin being removed.

We wanted to make use of the entire animal, even down to the blood that was drained into a bowl for us. And we will use everything, if not to eat, then to use as compost, or for our other animals to eat.

The remaining two rams were slaughtered at the same time, with the third one brought out directly after the second, so it was not left on its own.

Offal cuts: lung, liver, heart and kidneys

Being our first time, we were incredible nervous and wanted to make sure that our ram lambs were well looked after and they were kept as calm as possible. In essence the ram lambs' best interests were a priority for us. We feel that we achieved this and are pleased with the outcome of our first lamb slaughter.

Our rams 'one bad day'.

Tomorrow is a big day for us. After being in Sweden for just under 2 years, we will be taking three of our own lambs, ie lambs that were born and raised on our farm, to slaughter.  One of our biggest goals when deciding to leave the big city and move to the country was to try and achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency, and have greater control of where our food comes from. This is a big step towards this.

Max, our first ram lamb just a few weeks old

I am not sure how I will react tomorrow, I know that I will be sad as all of our lambs have brought us and our guests so much enjoyment. But I also know that we have given them the best life possible and have looked after them, doted on them and made sure they have had everything they needed.  A recent blog post from Ridgedale Permaculture put it nicely when they said that one of their Linderöd pigs was going to have her ’one bad day’, it will be the same for our 3 Gutefår ram lambs.

Our Gutefår flock enjoying one of our fields

This process is vitally important to us, and we bred the sheep knowing that we would one day have to do this. The sheep will provide us with food for the winter months and enable us to truly begin our journey towards a sustainable way of life.

The ram lambs today.

So Many Firsts

Yesterday we finally separated the rams from the ewes. We've seen the ram lambs make their first advances towards the older ewes and as we've heard many a story about unwanted pregnancies by new rams, we decided it was time (on a side note, Deirdre does seem to be a bit fat around the middle, so we are wondering whether we were a bit late... time will tell).

As with all animal rearing, there seems to be as many ways of doing things as there are people owning animals. Mr B who has hundreds of sheep was adamant we transport the rams away by horse box, as there is now way of keeping them separate if they are within earshot of each other. Others - who own smaller flocks - claimed that as long as you have a good fence, you'll be just fine.

We decided to just try the second (and free!) option. While switching fields, we grabbed the young rams and led/ dragged them into another field. There was an awful lot of heart wrenching baa-baa-ing, but they didn't run through the fence. The ewes didn't seem to even notice that they were gone (until later, that is).

Then Cat and I had to drag the grown ram over to the smaller rams, which was a bit of a chore as he seems to have grown a lot over the summer. Good thing he's got massive horns so that we could gently force him to walk (at a snail's pace) back to the little rams. They will now form a men's only club until it is time to send the lambs to slaughter (gulp!) and reintroduce the ram to the older ewes again.  

Papa ram looking after the kids

The night proved to be a slightly less pleasant affair. The now lambless ewes (Deirdre, Elsa and Ingrid) could be found by the gate, calling out to their lambs throughout the night. You'd have to be made of stone not to be touched by the back and forth baa-baa-ing between the fields. After breakfast, we quickly gathered the troops and sent the ewes packing to Gårdshult, a few kilometers down the road. It took some cajoling to keep them all running in the same direction...

Calm and tired after keeping his owners awake 

Anyhow, both flocks are now very calm and we have hopefully avoided any inbreeding (please please please Deirdre, just be fat). And we have taken the first of steps towards "producing" our own meat, as unpleasant this process sometimes may be.

Scavenging, I mean foraging...

We've been a bit disappointed with our selfsufficiency progress so far. 

Slugs, extended dry weather and very energetic chicks have left some of our vegetable beds a bit beat up. And the grand plans of making sure the soil was covered at all times helped turn our vegetable patch into slug heaven. Farming is a work in progress for us, no doubt...

This week has got us in a pretty good mood though, despite it all. Apart from picking copious amounts of berries (blueberries, red/white/black currants, raspberries), we have found a fantastic source of winter food: celery. 

I know. Odd. 

It turns out that our favourite organic cabbage farmer Mr T has started growing celery. Stores only want the more solid lower part of the celery, the rest is thrown away. When mamma saw this, she immediately asked if we could collect it. Sure thing! So we brought some sacks and filled them with cut-offs of celery. (This made Mr T giggle...)

Now we've spent the last 6-7 hours or so cleaning and cutting up the stalks and drying the leaves for celery salt. I think we're all feeling pretty thrifty today. And will probably be dreaming of bloody mary's all night long. 

To freeze and ferment 

Cat doing her thing

This is A LOT of celery leaves

PaulssonPaleo is extending!

Building work has started on extending and refurbishing our garage building. This is a really exciting project for us as it will allow guests to come and stay in the comfort of their own private space, and is the beginning of our little retreat in the middle of the forest.

Reinforcing the 'farmyard' and maintaining a connection to nature

The decision to extend the garage was born from the idea of improving our entrance courtyard, or farmyard. The longer building will help provide more shelter and protection from the south-westerly winds and driving rain. It will reinforce the idea of the farmyard being the central hub of activity, when we have guests this is where we will meet, chat, have fika (coffee), work out, and eat. Its orientation lends itself well to being a meeting place, south facing with views out to the forest in almost every direction.

Construction due for completion in June 2016

The building will retain some garage space and storage for firewood. The extension, an extrusion of the existing form, will contain a self-contained flat at ground floor and a large flexible studio space within the roof space. This will have long views across the forest and allow us to entertain a variety of events. The existing garage roof space will contain three guest bedrooms, bathrooms and a small kitchen. All of the spaces will have a fantastic aspect and maintain a connection to nature.

We hope that people will come and stay with us and be part of our ever evolving journey. Watch this space for more updates on the build and when we officially open as a retreat. We hope to see you here very soon.

Experimenting and Planning for Spring

So... our second growing season is fast approaching and I am just as excited as last year about growing our own vegetables. There's no better feeling than getting dirt under your nails and watching things grow in your own garden. Having one year under our belts means that we have learned a little bit about our land and our growing conditions, so hopefully we will have a slightly bit better yield and will be able to be self-sufficient for a longer period of time.

Garlic, shallots and strawberries got their own beds this year

Instead of rushing into things, I decided to follow our good friend Tina's growing schedule (check out her farm and courses at Genevad Nygård). That means, the peppers and chillies were planted in January and the tomatoes have just been seeded and hopefully won't get so darn lanky this year!

Peppers and chillies taking over the office

I am also experimenting with a hot bed for growing vegetables. I have access to fresh manure from our sheep and chickens, so why not attempt this way of growing? Hmm. So far, it is not going amazingly well. The manure is supposed to heat up and allow me to grow things earlier in the season, but so far, I haven't seen much progress on the heating front... we shall see and I will continue experimenting.

Hot bed... not so hot.

More updates to follow soon!

A Year at Kannesten

I can't believe it has been a whole year since we moved to Kannesten, but at the same time working and living in London seems ridiculously distant. What an amazing year it has been! Here are some of my highlights.

We started our journey towards self-sufficiency in early spring and for a long time it didn't look like we were getting anywhere. Spring was really cold and things just weren't growing too fast.

Cabbage, tomatoes and strawberries in our veg patch.

Eventually, and much later than we expected, we were able to enjoy some homegrown vegetables. They weren't always the prettiest looking, but we soon got over that, as they were amazingly tasty. We ate the last of our root vegetables in January and we are now planning for the 2016 harvest - fingers crossed, it will be bigger and better. We also spent a fair share of the summer/autumn foraging for blueberries, lingonberries and mushrooms, filling freezers and jam jars for use in the winter. The berries will last us until the next berry season - pure luxury.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

Vegetable patch in all its glory.

The chickens were the first animals on the farm, soon followed by ducks, sheep and cats. Vera had some fluffy chicks in May, then Stina and Sara… and then Vera again. She was a busy girl. We didn't get many eggs though. Turns out that we need a few more hens to sustain our egg-eating habits.

First fuzzy chicks in May.

Our sheep have been an amazing addition to the farm, they are so friendly now. They love a good cuddle and keep us both busy and entertained.

Animal love.

We kicked off our course activities with a few sauerkraut courses and an offal course. It's so inspiring and fun to share our passion for nutritious food with like-minded people.

Everyone getting stuck in at our very first fermentation course.

The year involved some incredibly hard work, but also opportunities for play. And best of all loads of fresh air.

Hard work.

Play.

In such a short time, we have been fortunate to get to know many of our lovely neighbours. They are friendly, hospitable and generous with sharing knowledge and even surplus from their harvests. Loving our village!

Us at the Autumn Market in Simlångsdalen and our contribution to the annual October Fest.

Yoga teacher training kept me busy during the latter part of the year. I certainly improved my physical yoga, but the training also opened my eyes to the philosophical side of yoga. I am encompassing both in my yoga classes in Simlångsdalen and Halmstad.

Us yogis spend a bit of time upside down.

I am grateful for everything I have experienced this year and I bet 2016 has some pretty amazing stuff in store for us all.

Filling a chest freezer or two

We finally decided to get another chest freezer. That makes two chest freezers, two normal freezers and two fridges. That sounds like a lot of capacity, but I am sure it will feel too small in a year’s time. 

Delivery man trying to calm his nerves after braving our road...

Most of the space is taken up by our bulk purchases of organic/ grass-fed meat. However, in a year’s time, we will need some of that space for our own meat! Although our rare breed lambs won’t be that big, an estimated 14 x 15-20 kg of lamb meat will probably fill up our freezers pretty quickly. 

These ladies will hopefully put a lot of food on our table (however macabre that may sound). 

In addition, we are currently topping up our freezers with all the berries that we can find. We’re preserving as well, but since we don’t use much sugar in our household, we would rather not try our luck by making preserve with ALL our berries, lest it should fail (low sugar/ honey content = more likely to spoil). We’re currently at 120 litres and counting, blueberries and lingonberries…

They're alright to pick, but cleaning is another thing...

Now we just need to find some space for the all the mushrooms we’re planning to pick!

Porcini deluxe. 

The Mills Visit

Off foraging…yay! (image: N.D.Mills)

We had Family Mills pay us a visit in the middle of their Swedish Summer Road Trip from Gothenburg to Mora. It was great to see them all again, especially as Tora had a couple of friends, Freya and Hugo, to mess around with for a couple of days.

Grilling meat.

The weather was fantastic and we were outside everyday, walking, foraging, swimming, and BBQ'ing - all in all a great couple of days. Whilst we grilled meat on the fire pit, we finally made good use of the rustic log table we made with Liz and Laurence (guests in June!). It was great and blends in perfectly with the natural surroundings.

The Table.

Self-Sufficiency Update

So, I thought I'd give an update on the self-sufficiency project we have going on... I don't know about the rest of Europe, but we probably experienced the coldest and windiest spring in living memory in Sweden. We had to keep reminding ourselves of this, so that we didn't get discouraged by the slow progress in the vegetable patch. It is only when our fellow vegetable growers complained about losing two thirds of their squash plants in the cold that I could relax and think "it is not just me or the land that can't grow vegetables!"

Beautiful rainbow chard

Up until the middle of July, we had some lettuce, onion tops, chives and radishes from the vegetable patch. Nothing else was done yet, regardless of how many times a day I inspected progress.

Parsnips for a fermentation experiment

Everything has started ripening now and August seems to be our month! Carrots, parsnips, courgettes, potatoes, cabbages are all doing great and we are finally able to be self-sufficient for our vegetable needs. Hooray! We'll see how long we can go on.
Our hens have finally started laying eggs again after aaages. Two were looking after chicks and one was just broody. We are far from self-sufficient on eggs, but with with the addition of two hen-chicks hatched this year, we will be a little bit closer next year. For now, we will just enjoy their quirky company and thank them for the great fertiliser.

Finally! Keep the eggs coming!

Foraging has been really successful with blueberries coming out of our ears and Mamma Paulsson finding mushrooms in the woods. The lingonberry season is just starting and there are more mushrooms on their way. Exciting times ahead.

This was just the start of the blueberry frenzy

This is what I wrote in April: Self-Sufficiency in Kannesten.

Sheep Crush

The sheep have now been with us for a little more than two weeks and our love for them just keeps growing (mine anyway!!). 

They have finally lost some of their fear of their new hosts and now come a-bleating when we come into the field. Ok, I admit, we had to bribe them. As per instructions from our very own sheep expert Mr B, this is an important part of getting to know your new fourlegged friends. 

We tried grains, but as they are obviously completely paleo, they just ran away. 

We tried carrots, but they were still not interested, and probably a bit insulted.  

And then we tried leaves... Bingo!

Lilac is such a treat

Fermentation Experimentation Mode

I love growing stuff. 

Actually, let me rephrase that: I love it when Cat and mamma grow stuff. I just do not have the patience.

However, I do enjoy taking care of the stuff that comes out of our vegetable patch. Right now, our cabbages are growing like weed, which means that there are plenty of greens to take care of. You see, before you get those perfect little heads of cabbage, the plant consists of a helluva lot of green leaves.  Leaves that would usually go to waste in the "commercial" vegetable patch. 

Fading out the background does not help - it still looks messy

As we're making a bit of a sport of using EVERYTHING that we can, we are contantly on the lookout for new ways of using all parts of our produce. The cabbage leaves have so far ended up in our stir-fries (yum), our soups (yum), as a salad (not so yum, tasted too much of tree...), chicken feed (they were not too impressed), duck feed (they will eat pretty much anything), compost and cover material for the vegetable beds.

The latest experiment is sauerkraut. I am slightly hesitent about it, as the leaves behave so differently from a mature cabbage. They are much drier and more fibrous, so I have to add a lot of water after packing it with salt. To get the fermentation process started faster, I added some rejuvelac to it. Apparently, that did the trick, because less than 12 hours later, some of the jars have already started bubbling. 

Interesting! If it tastes like crap in a week's time, I will just feed it to the running ducks, our little quacking garbage bins. Might have to portion it out carefully, or it might backfire. Would not want them to have the runs. Funny. 

Green bubbles in a jar

Self-Sufficiency in Kannesten

Little T helping me sow a flower meadow to keep the bees happy

I quite often get the question about what I do now that we have moved to Kannesten. I gave up my accountancy job in London and now I am seemingly doing nothing. I am certainly not taking a long vacation; we are laying the groundwork for our self-sufficiency.

This is a long-term project, as we won't be self-sufficient for a long time to come. However, I do hope that we can become self-sufficient with some of our vegetables this year. We already support some of our egg consumption through our own hens and we have collected a shedload of wood, which at least will support our kitchen stove through next winter. Yesterday, we set up our first water butt and we are collecting chicken poop, so we are self-sufficient on water and feed for our vegetables. More food and energy supply will come over the next few years.

Cabbage growing in the stables

The list of vegetables that we are growing this year is long and we are using this growing season to figure out what works in our soil and weather. Beetroot, all kinds of cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, pumpkin, tomato, pepper and onion to name but a few. Needless to say, we have seedlings pretty much everywhere - we have even set up a room in the stables with lights to create the perfect growing conditions for the little ones.

Jerusalem artichokes will provide a hedge on the south border of our vegetable patch

Watch this space for updates on our self-sufficiency!