The winter could soon be over, we have lambs! The lambs from Spinney Farm, Great Oxendon, are being born as this article goes to print. I visited Fred Gowling on the farm early one
morning and he told me 100 of his fl ock of ewes had already given birth. We get all our lambs for the shop either from the Gowlings or our own small fl ock. This year, we have 60 ewes expected to lamb during April. We don’t have the barn space to house our ewes and lambs so we deliberately have the lambs born later enabling them to be born outside in the warmer weather.

At present, in the shop, we have wonderful hogget (lambs who are just reaching their fi rst birthday). Our favourite Sunday lunch at present is a slow cooked hogget shoulder which just falls off the bone when served – delicious! Please look at our website for some recipes on how to cook our hogget. Also in the shop is our gold star great taste award winning marinated hogget cannon (loin), a great last minute pan fried supper that the family or your guests will be raving about. Ask in the shop how to cook it.

Back on the farm our two new boars, Billy and Warren G, are providing us with some lovely new piglets. We had a spate of sows farrowing just after Christmas and their offspring are just being given some more freedom, having been moved from the farrowing area. We move the sows into their own hut that has wooden rails round the outside providing a space between the rail and the wall of the hut. These rails are placed about the height of the small piglets, so that the piglets can hide away from their large mothers as the mothers lie down. Due to the size of the sows piglets can easily get squashed as the mum lies down to let them feed. It is amazing how quickly these blind new born animals learn how to survive.

I mentioned Billy and Warren G; these boars were named by our teenage sons. We also name all the breeding sows, so we have a Josephine, a Mabel and a Billy Jean. We fi nd it really important to get to know our breeding stock so they are comfortable with us when they are farrowing; they then don’t mind us working round them if they or the piglets need help. Warren G and his best friend Ginger are the friendliest pigs we have. Unfortunately, Warren is so large his requests for cuddles and back scratching have to be weighed up against the fact that his tusks are growing and could tear your thigh if he got too excited and that he could toss you in the air with a playful nudge. We have four new sows just about big enough to go into the breeding programme, at present they haven’t been named. Their photographs are on the website or they can be seen on the farm.

Please can you help us name these girls! Come and tell us your ideas or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The photo shows one of the sows having just pushed the hen’s house over, we think she
was after the eggs! Since then we have moved them to a different area of the fi eld, the hens are very relieved!

 We have started moving some animals up to Dale Farm. The plan is to have the young gilts and boars up at the farm where they have more space to run around in the fi elds. At present, we have about 30 pigs up there and they are thriving well. Also up there are two nanny goats. These are boer goats which means they provide great meat rather than milk. These young ladies will start breeding this March. It has proved very diffi cult to fi nd good quality goats that we can assure our customers that they have been slowly reared in an environment allowing them to display their natur al behaviours. So, we are going to breed them ourselves. Watch this space for our own free range goat providing you with great tasting meat.

I would like to say goodbye to Michael Davenport, our butcher, who has been plagued with a bad back for a long time. He has made the decision to get this sorted and will be out of action for over three months. We thank him for his enthusiasm while he was with us and wish him a speedy recovery.

We would also like to welcome Jo Rayburn, who is working with us on the land looking after the animals. She has come through the winter and survived, well done! Thank you also goes to our small group of students who come for work experience and help both in the shop and outside on the farm. Your support is appreciated.

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