Happy New Year from all at Waterloo Cottage Farm. The last edition was all about Christmas and celebration food now, into January, we turn our thoughts to lovely crisp cold walks and winter warming food to heat ourselves up afterwards. For us on the farm the crisp cold walks are long spells outside in the cold feeding, watering and replenishing bedding. The pigs are an absolute  delight when you give them a new bale of straw and they spend the rest of the day making new beds for themselves. The younger gilts and boars managing to hide completely under the straw, they regularly choose to sleep outside rather than in the huts that we give them.

We have increased the land we rent, putting 65 acres as grass, using a wide range of grasses and herbs to give the sheep and cattle a variety of good things to eat. The piglets stay with their mothers for about three months and now they are taken up to the new land into much larger fi elds allowing them more space to roam. Last year we learnt big lessons in the type of food we were feeding the pigs. Having fed them only on local barley for ten months the live birth rate dropped dramatically and the muscle defi nition of the fi nished pigs decreased. Having taken lots of advice Angus has altered the pigs feeding regime and the birth rate has risen again. The younger pigs coming through are back to the chunky  little porkers we were used to.

Our fl ock of Berrichon de Cher sheep have increased by over 50 ewes who are preparing to lamb in late February, early March. The challenges Angus faces are too much food for the ewes and we will have problems lambing, not enough food and they will produce fewer lambs. It is diffi cult to gauge and the results do not show until the lambs are actually born. We are still very new in this business, experienced farmers will probably do this instinctively and laugh at these comments.

The local gamekeepers are keeping us well supplied with venison, pheasants, partridge and rabbits. We had forgotten how much our customers enjoy these meats; the low cholesterol is a real pull for many people today. I now normally write out a recipe or two for you. This
edition, I would ask you to try something different and experiment with different fl avours and sauces.

I came upon a great easy way to cook these wild meats by accident and now struggle to follow a recipe. Take almost any cut of venison or game, place in a suitable roasting dish, pour over a jar of plum or damson jam and place in the oven. The juices of the meat will mix with the jam and create lovely fl avours. Whilst the meat is resting add a glug of red wine and reduce the juices down. Serve the meat with the jus and you have a simple tasty meal for any time of the week. Dress it up with dauphinoise potatoes at the weekend or with rice or mashed potatoes for a midweek meal. Please experiment and tell us of any successful new recipes, our customers are keen to hear new ideas and we will post them on our website.

January is the month to research our pies. We make what we think is a fabulous steak and ale pie, light puff pastry top and bottom with melt in the mouth beef and gravy. We are getting advice from a top chef as to how we can make this even better. Also, we are learning how to make proper beef, lamb and chicken stock and gravies to sell in the shop. We are planning to use kiln jars to sell these products and hope to set up a recycling system for these to reduce the use of packaging. Keep a look out for this during the fi rst two months of the year. Having tried many new ideas over the fi rst year, our new year’s resolution is to go slowly and get one thing perfect at a time!

At the end of November Tom, our then apprentice butcher, got married to his long-term
girlfriend Megan. We wish them well in their life together. Tom has also just fi nished his level 2 NVQ training in a very short period of time and he starts the level 3 NVQ Management stage in April. He is becoming a real asset to the team. To this end, we are looking for our next apprentice in the shop and on the land. If anyone is interested in butchery or livestock management as a career, please do not hesitate to come and chat to us.

We are now open:
Weekdays 8am-6pm
Saturday 8am-4pm • Sunday 10am-1pm
Waterloo Cottage Farm
34, Harborough Road,
Great Oxendon, LE16 8NA
Tel: 01858 467158
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Waterloo Cottage Foods

Waterloo Cottage Foods

Waterloo Cottage Foods

Waterloo Cottage Foods

Waterloo Cottage Foods