OLD LECKIE FARM BLOG

Babies everywhere!

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:57:31 GMT

And just like that we are into April - how did that happen? As usual the end of March brought with it a headlong rush into the start of calving and lambing. Every day brings it's own bundles of joy - one day last week we had 4 calves born 8 hours - so it's been busy! I always say we lamb the first two weeks of April - there's always a few early arrivals but this year we seemed to start with a bang and we are already 25% through.

Last weekend was a tad stressful then finishing the shed prep and getting all the pregnant ewes back closer to the sheds. The bad weather last Sunday was pretty brutal but this week our systems are all up and running, the mercury rising ever so slightly and our extra lambing help arrived once the ferry from Mull started running again. We are now into the groove so can enjoy the next 75% of the madness!

Elsewhere on the farm we are busy with beef butchery (just in) and pork due in next week so plenty of meat available to order. Our current chooks are reaching the end of their stay with us. It's always a funny time in the laying cycle - the shells start to get quite thin as they get older so we get a lot more breakages as we collect and grade. It seems a far cry from the lovely thick rich shells of the same ladies when they first started laying a year ago. They have earned their retirement via the British Hen Welfare Trust who will come and collect them early May. We will then have our usual supply from Corrie Mains in Ayrshire for approx 8 weeks whilst we clean and disinfect sheds and get our new young birds in and settled before they start laying.

With the long Easter weekend about to arrive, and the school holidays don't forget to tell us if you're heading away and need to suspend any deliveries. Hope you guys have a great Easter - for this weekend only may all your eggs be chocolately !

Romancing the stone

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:09:23 GMT

I haven't needed my solar panel app to tell me there's not been much sunlight these last couple of weeks. The grey flat January days roll over, distinguished mostly by how much precipitation they bring - anything from a smirr, a smidge, rain but not wet rain, proper rain, fat drops, a torrent. And then sometimes, there's just a break, and there it is - the rays reaching us, reminding us of brighter days, of colour and depth. I soak these in like the warmth I know they will bring in a few short months from now and feel lifted by the promise of longer days to come.

It's heat may not be there yet, but when the sun does shine the Kippen sandstone of our buildings glows. It might not warm your hands but it definitely warms the heart. There's something really special about this soft red stone that features in much of the vernacular buildings around here. Old Leckie House is built from it - quarried we think from the nearby 'waterfall' area with its towering cliffs - but much is covered by our traditional lime render which offers protection from erosion by wind and rain. It's much easier to see in the old Steading - and I never tire of the play of light on the exposed surfaces.

Much like the land itself the buildings have their own tales to tell - the dated pencil etchings of the joiners who built trusses, the stone mason's marks carved into the stones themselves or the gouges scored out by years of sharpening knives on the stones framing the stable door. It's enough, even when the sun is low, to lighten your day.

Christmas deliveries and orders

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:04:44 GMT

It was so dark this morning at 8am I had to double check my dates - I can't quite believe we have another 9 days of the light getting less before we hit the winter solstice. I love Christmas but I think I may just love this advent of increasing light just a smidge more. Perhaps in cold, crisp winters it doesn't land so hard, but with the sogginess and gloom of this December I am especially grateful for the twinkle of the Christmas lights.

We're all set with our Christmas butchery to help add some tasty treats to the table - mouthwatering grass fed beef, and hams cured to perfection by butcher Graham. If anyone is still looking for something a wee bit special we have a small number of hams left, and a couple of choice beef roasts. Loads of chipolatas to add to the platter and some of our streaky bacon too - yum! If you'd like to order follow the links below, drop me an email or give me a call on 07825 241196.

With Christmas and New Year falling on a Thursday we're having to shuffle delivery dates forward - please see new dates above. Christmas meat orders will be delivered on the usual egg runs on these dates, or available for on farm collection at any time. With us super busy getting everything out the door please let us know as early as possible if any extra egg or meat orders.

We hope you all have a fabulous run into the festive - and we wish you all the best for a very Merry Christmas.

The Peewit's Wit

Sun, 11 May 2025 05:18:20 GMT

Like many we have been asking ourselves whether this is spring or summer. The clear blue skies, dusty farm track and short grass may be more typical of mid July but other seasonal indicators are telling a different story. The rhodendrons are just coming into magnificent flower, the last lamb was only born a week ago and the first of the cattle are not long turned back out into the fields. In some ways the dry weather is welcome - lambing is certainly a lot less stressful with no persistent rain, and we have managed to cultivate most of the fields that are scheduled for re-seeds this year.

We had to postpone the field work in a stubble field near the main road - just as we were about to work in the dung we realised we had 4 pairs of Peewits nesting there. Named for their calls these large winged birds with impressive crests are also known as Lapwings. An open empty field didn't make much sense to me for a nest but they lay 3 or 4 eggs in a ground scrape - and now the chicks have arrived I can see they are well camouflaged with their downy plummage. Now they are more adventurous we get some great displays as their parents wheel through the sky above us trying to draw our attention away from the wee mites as they totter about. As lovely as they are we are relieved that we should be able to get into the field in the next week to work it. We will need the grass seed in before the next rain comes - like many farmers we are already worried about the slow grass growth due to the dry weather and knock on impact for feedstocks.

Elsewhere on the farm it's a real joy to see the lambs gathering in their nurseries, running races up and down the fields and quite literally springing with joy. The cattle are pleased to be back out on grass and Fergus has his tatties in the ground. After a few challenging years with our Leckie Leaves and the dreaded flea beetle we are trying a different approach in the polytunnel this year to see if we can throw it off it's cycle so we may not have much on the salad front this summer. Our new Leckie layers have settled in really well - after a few weeks of donating our small pullet eggs to the local food bank the size is starting to increase. With this changeover now complete from this week we will be shifting back to a 100% supply of our own eggs - albeit large customers will find they may get medium eggs for a few weeks as they continue to size up.

We've got loads of pork and beef butchery coming back over the next few weeks so we can be well stocked for the summer BBQ season. Meat boxes now available to order for later this month - links below - and don't forget to look out for us at the Gargunnock Show on 7 June cooking up our fabulous burgers - come and say hello!.

Busy-ness

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 06:36:21 GMT

It's silly season again. No sooner have the clocks changed than worklife expands to fill daylight hours. Lambing is well underway. Calves are popping out left, right and centre. The scaffolding went up, shortly followed by the solar panels. 835 hedging plants arrived and are now in the ground for this year's hedgerow. Nights seem short, but the problem is so do the days. It always feels the same at this time of year - never quite enough hours to get everything done.

But we must be thankful. So far we aren't seeing too many lambs (or calves) with Schmallenberg problems. It has been such a relief after the worry of the last few months - we're only 6 days in and don't want to jinx ourselves but it feels like we can breathe a bit easier. The weather has been amazing - no rain at all and wall to wall sunshine. It's hard to explain how much of a difference it makes for both the new borns in the field, and for team spirits. The cold east wind has meant we still need to be vigilant - out super early to bring in anything chilled to the warmer. But this week despite our hourly checks of the fields the gateways are mud free, our wellies are mud free and the 'hospital' pens in the byre remain, for the moment, relatively under-utilised.

The school holidays have just started but weirdly the usual curse on the weather hasn't kicked in and the forecast for the next week looks much the same but warmer. As the lamb pens in the shed keep up a regular cycle of needing emptied, cleaned and re-stocked with fresh straw the extra pairs of hands from our home grown child labourers will be welcome. Fergus is reporting he's already lost a few pounds and as both sheep and lambs are caught in the fields my daily step count has jumped up whilst muscles I haven't used for a while remind me they are there. And most importantly there is a new arrival at the other end of the farm - the safe arrival of Archie, born to Struan and Martina. It really is the season of new beginnings.

Wallowing

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 09:27:07 GMT

There is a real knack to carrying hay bales through ankle deep mud. It's a pointed foot action - driving the toes down, keeping heels up and hoping to avoid the suction of a flatfoot and the loss of a boot. It's worse when carrying the extra weight and bulk of a hay bale. Our hay racks take two a piece - when new a small pin holds the roof on each rack to shield the hay from the weather. When the age of ours the pin has long gone, the seemingly easy replacement of which has for some reason never reached the top of the to-do list. Inevitably we just find a bit of bailer twine in our pockets and tie the lid down with that. It usually works fine with the one exception that it can rarely be undone with one hand, so for each rack filled there is an extra transit through the danger area to get the damn thing open. Only the foolhardy make the first approach with bale in hand (or on shoulder), always followed by the cursing of whoever it was that tied it up the last time. For some reason no one but yourself can ever tie a quick release knot.

At least there was sunshine on the mud yesterday. You can forgive most things when the temperature has lifted and the birds are chirping away. The hay run this morning will feel quite different with the return to heavy winds and rain. It's funny how the weather can make the most routine of tasks into a heroic battle though it makes for a more entertaining coffee break as we share stories of losing wellies, hats and tempers. With some of the young cattle off to market this week we were grateful for the weather window yesterday to get them weighed and clipped so they will look their best going through the ring.

It's not just the cattle coming and going. After being fab layers for 15 months our Leckie Layers are heading for retirement next weekend as part of our scheduled changeover. As ever we are working with the British Hen Welfare Trust to find homes for our ladies - just the small matter of catching up 1200 of them before 8am next Saturday. The usual deep clean of the houses will follow before welcoming our new chooks mid March. We're partnering again with Corrie Mains in Ayrshire to provide eggs for us during this 6-8 week period until our new hens come into lay.

Humans are on the move too - we've said cheerio to Silvia from Mallorca who's been a great help over the last few months and later today welcome Lale from Germany - an agriculture student who will be with us now until the end of April. Come March we have Matthew starting on a work placement for a couple of days a week, Struan will be off on paternity leave and Glenn the Kiwi will arrive via Mull to bolster the troops for lambing. Never a dull moment - do give them a wave if you're walking through the farm!

Something's in the air

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 20:34:23 GMT

We're only just into February and already this year is threatening to be a challenging one. As Storm Eowyn blew it's worst we hunkered down and were lucky to escape with just a few roof panels off and a lot of timber down. The seasonal spike of Avian Flu has arrived - the awful news in England (the cull of a million hens at one site) is a salient warning of the havoc it can wreak. Our biosecurity measures have been heightened to help try and keep our Leckie Layers safe. Whilst both worrying they are common enough occurrences now - and we are confident in our preparations and responses.

But spring of 2025 has also brought two new worries, and like with most things faced first time the newness of them brings its own added fear and stress. Our neighbouring farm has faced a number of abortions within their cattle due to exposure to the Neospora parasite. This wee nasty takes advantage of man's best friend, hosted in dogs and transmitted through their poo - most likely picked up from either direct grazing in fields where dogs have been, or the consumption of feed harvested from those fields. Whilst the Vets are cautioning that dogs should be kept to roads, paths and tracks and not walked in fields it does also make you think extra hard about the need for dog walkers to pick up and safely dispose of their dogs' poo - wherever they do it!

A lower than expected sheep scan last month raised some alarm bells for us at Old Leckie. For a number of months vets and animal health agencies have been monitoring the spread of the Schmallenberg virus through the UK. Yet another reason to detest the humble Scottish midge, this virus has been spreading through livestock thanks to these biting pests. Whilst it bears no risk to humans it can be transferred to sheep and other livestock and cause a fever and drop in fertility. When sheep are exposed to the virus at a certain point in their pregnancy it can cause abortion and malformations of the foetus.

Some farms that are lambing just now are reporting levels as high as 70% loss rate of lambs due to the infection so it's really serious stuff. Unfortunately our Vet testing has confirmed that pretty much our whole flock has been exposed to the virus. This likely will account for the low scan rate, and we will just have to wait and see what April lambing brings. We are hoping that their main exposure was before the critical stage of pregnancy - in which case we might still have predominately healthy lambs - but only time will tell.

I don't like writing such gloomy news so need to finish on a more positive note. Half term is nearly upon us (don't forget to cancel any orders if you're away), the dawn chorus was really noticeable this morning heralding that spring isn't too far away and we just a had a surprise wee highland calf that is super cute. And thanks to Eowyn we've got plenty firewood for the boiler - lets cling to those silver linings and keep our fingers crossed for April.

Storm Eowyn postpones deliveries 24 Jan

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 07:08:00 GMT

Its a Barndance Year!

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 08:37:41 GMT

What better way to get through the dark days of January than a summer diary date to look forward to! After a few fallow years we're super excited to announce that this is officially a Barndance Year! So, dust off the calendars and mark up the date - all welcome for the usual heady mix of great food, good fun, live ceilidh band and obligatory field campsite. To say I am super excited is a bit of an understatement - roll on August 30th and keep an eye out for more info nearer the time.

Whilst I say dark days I'm probably not the only one who has seen a hint of the returning light. We can meet slightly earlier for morning stock moves, and it's no longer totally black when trying to juggle the last carry of eggs trays at the end of the day. Always a very literal balancing act it's definitely not made easier with limited daylight - or ice for that matter! Despite the need for extra caution however I would take this cold, dry weather over persistent mud any day of the week. Out in the fields the sheep are also grateful for drier feet around the hay racks. At the moment they are hanging out at the fringes of the farm, ready to head nearer to home next week for their annual scan to see what lambing season will bring. And so the year begins again.

Beyond the barndance we've got an eye on some other key dates coming up which are keeping us busy:
- First beef boxes of the new year will be available w/c 27 January - order now if you want to reserve , or book a courier box
- Current Leckie Layers ladies are getting rehomed at the beginning of March with new chooks arriving mid March
- We're hoping to install solar panels on our shed roof this Spring - this has been on the wishlist for a while so keeping everything crossed for a good weather window!

To celebrate the New Year and wish you and your families a healthy and happy one we've got a heartwarming discount on our Meatballs - 15% off both our Classic and Sweet Chilli (G/F) beef meatballs until end of day Sunday 19th January. Use discount code ILOVEMEATBALLS at checkout

Where there's muck there's brass

Sun, 26 May 2024 20:42:40 GMT

Old Leckie is classified as a small mixed farm – “mixed” in that it grows both livestock and crops and also that it has a varied mix of enterprises. This mixed type of farming allows for a self-sufficient type of agriculture whereby most fertiliser is produced on the farm for the farm.

In recent weeks after a long 6 months of being “housed” the cows have returned to pasture much to their and our relief. They get to enjoy fresh grass again rather that dry hay or preserved silage, feel the sun (and rain) on their backs and have the freedom of their fields. For us it means the end to the 7 days/week routine of feeding and bedding (with straw) the cattle with only daily checks required and weekly shifts between fields.

When the ground has been firm enough to allow a tractor to travel over fields, we have been mucking out the sheds and carting the dung to the fields where the crop rotation demands it. Generally, half the dung will go to the “carse” (the flat clay/silt soil) ground and half to the “dry field” (more rolling mineral soil) ground.

The carse ground is where we grow our barley crops and hay and silage for the winter feed for the cattle and sheep. The typical rotation is 3-4 years in ryegrass and red clover (silage and clover is a legume so fixes nitrogen in the soil and builds fertility) 1-2 years in barley (grain and straw) and then back to timothy grass (hay) for 7 years. The dung is “middened” (put in a heap) in the field for 1 year to compost before being spread and cultivated into the soil for the hungry barley crop. The dung is composted to allow the straw and manure to break down so that it is more digestible for the worms and micro biological life in the soil.

On the dryfield land the predominant use is for grazing pasture, however after 10 years the grasses in these field tend to become dominated by lower yielding varieties and it is often necessary to reseed these fields with a new diverse sward of clovers and grasses. To go “grass to grass” is often difficult to establish the better grasses so it is often better to sow a “break crop”. At Old Leckie this tends to be a brassica fodder crop of kale a bit like 1-meter-high broccoli.

Similar to the carse ground we midden the dung in the field (or part of the field) a year ahead of sowing before applying in early summer as we sow the kale. The kale provides a really nutritious food for the pregnant ewes through the lean winter months fed in sections every two days alongside silage. The kale also provides a great habitat for over wintering birds. The grazing action of the sheep and their feet creates bare muddy ground which allows us to sow a new grass pasture the following summer with only the need for minimal cultivation.

These crop rotations, good soil health (lots of worms and organic matter) and crucially dung are key to sustaining a mixed farm and minimising the need for chemical fertilisers. Cleaning out the sheds and creating new middens each year is satisfying in a spring-cleaning sense, but also gives you a good feeling that you are keeping the soil on the farm in good “heart” for the future.

Our farming forefathers knew all about it, and there is some truth in the old saying, “where there’s muck there’s brass!”

Can you hear the grass growing?

Tue, 14 May 2024 16:18:35 GMT

What a treat the weather gods have thrown at us recently... sunshine, showers, spectacular northern lights and dramatic thunder and lightening storms. At last it feels warm outside and it's been great to finally get things going. Fergus swears you can hear the grass growing - he had us all on our knees listening to the faint ticking noises of the soil doing it's thing. I got back from my travels just in time for the dry spell which saw a hive of activity including:

- barley field drained, ploughed, harrowed and sown
- the field which wintered the highlanders was rolled and re sown
- tattie patch got ploughed, harrowed and planted
- cattle emerged from the sheds onto lush green grass
- lambing finally finished

We've had some lovely guests here both in the farmstay and out and about on farm tours. In May the bursts of green are everywhere and it's hard not to feel a swelling in the chest with the lambs frolicking and the final spring calves being born. The Leckie Layers are settling in well to their new laying patterns and all egg sizes are back in stock. Plus we've got some of our grass fed native beef coming back from the local butchers next week - please get any orders in by the end of the weekend. UK wide courier available.

Date for the diary - Gargunnock Show is on in the village on Saturday 1 June. A great day out for all the family with animals, kids running races, tug of war, vintage tractors and loads more. Look out for the Old Leckie team serving up some of our tasty burgers and sausages on the day to keep you well fuelled... come and say hello!

Lambing time!

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 07:00:31 GMT

The silly season is upon us. Last week saw the usual hive of activity to prepare the sheds for lambing - bales moved and re-stacked, pens built and straw rolled out. The most exciting 'new' installation was the replacement of two water troughs. Over the last few years they become notorious for jamming in the wee small hours, meaning that the early morning shift stumbled bleary eyed into flooded pens. Am pleased to report that so far the ground is dry.

So the triplet and single mums are in the shed, the twins out in the fields nearby and the regular cycle of checks, checks and checks again are underway. In the warmth of Easter Sunday I rode out round the fields on the quad bike, sun on my back, marking two day old lambs and all felt good with life. As I head off today then to New Zealand's warm autumn I will imagine that the team left behind are having an 'easy' lambing. Dry, warm and uplifting. I'm choosing to ignore the forecast of another prolonged wet spell and dip in temperatures. The extra efforts required to feel that you have tried your best. It's very surreal knowing I wont be here to share the burden.

In other news we have a new collie puppy, "Bird" . A granddaughter of our eldest dog Bee she now joins her, and her aunty Bug, to give us a trio of chaos. You forget quite how lovely a young pup is - she's got long hair and is quite a fluff ball. Hannah, who is here to help with lambing, arrived and loved her so much too she promptly bought her brother "Kiwi". So this morning as I type we now have 2 puppies careening round the kitchen trying to chew my toes. That 34 hour flight is suddenly looking more attractive... No newsletter for the next few weeks then - let's hope its warm and dry by the next one!

Egg Sizes! (and happy easter too...)

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 14:31:14 GMT

I'm not quite sure where March has gone, but with an early Easter here we are with only a few days left before the schools break off. With lambing about to start, and holidays imminent, this week will pass in a blur. With a quiet moment then I need to highlight a couple of things for our regular customers over next few weeks:

Holidays - please don't forget to let us know if you are away. I'm disappearing myself to collect Katie from her overseas study term so Hilary will be holding the fort with orders. She will be in every Tuesday dealing with paperwork so as much notice as possible would be very much appreciated for any amendments or additional meat orders

Sizing - Most of the time we are able to supply a good mix of sizes, but sometimes, like now when we have young hens just starting to lay we will have more medium available, and sometimes very few, and vice-versa with Larges and XL’s. This is part of the natural growth cycle of our Leckie Layers.

Leckie Layers start laying your award winning eggs at about 5 months old. To begin with these are very small “pullet” eggs, they might be little but taste amazing.
As they continue to grow their eggs become bigger and we get Medium eggs, then bigger still as they begin to lay Large ones. As they approach their 1 ^st birthday eggs start to get even bigger and we get quite a few XL eggs.

So, for the next few weeks if you are a regular Large or XL customer you may find you only get mediums delivered. This will just be a temporary change to your regular order and we will get you back to size as soon as we can. On the plus side our young hens lay the most amazing quality shells so they should perform well in any easter egg rolling activity!

Hope you all have a fabulous Easter and may your eggs be both Leckie Layer's and chocolate!

First meat boxes of 2024 - orders open now

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 10:27:09 GMT

As the end of January rapidly approaches I wonder how many new years' resolutions are still standing? If you started the year emboldened to shop more locally, perhaps eat less meat (but better quality) then you'll be delighted our first meat boxes of 2024 are here! Even better if you order by end of day Sunday 28th January you'll get a 10% discount.

Jam packed with fabulous quality meat, produced from our family farm we have both outdoor reared pork and grass finished native beef boxes scheduled:

Outdoor Pork: w/c 5 Feb February

Grass Fed Native Beef: w/c 26 February

With a mix of box sizes available our chilled meat is expertly butchered and packed all ready for your freezer. With UK courier options it's the best value way to buy meat from us, wherever you are! We're always happy to butcher to order and can usually accommodate requests for gluten free sausages and burgers too. If you have a special request just let us know. Discount will automatically be applied at check out.

Star light, star bright

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 10:27:50 GMT

As the first sliver of the new moon rose above the tree line last night I was thinking about what a wonder the night time sky has been this last week. Yes, the days with their beautiful blue skies and cold crisp temperatures have been lovely, but the nights? They have been something else. We are blessed here to have dark skies with little artificial light pollution, so on a clear night the trees provide their own silhouettes. Last night we had an unwelcome call out of deep slumber thanks to an escaped pig. As you might imagine there was much huffing and puffing as we got dressed to head out. It all felt worth it to realise Orion was right there, hanging low above the steading.

We've had plenty of dark o'clock activity this week as we get ready for the hen changeovers. The larger house was collected up in the early hours of yesterday morning. Our strategy of red head lamps and darkness worked a treat, letting us move quietly about the hens who were still sleepy and roosting . I wasn't sure how long it would take to get all 825 of them into cases to be re-homed. It's surprising what 4 people looking forward to breakfast can do in 2 hours!

The hens however aren't the only part of the team shipping out. Next weekend sees our eldest heading off to study in New Zealand for a term. An amazing opportunity to have an adventure of a lifetime, but as the departure day gets closer my motherly nerves feel a bit more frayed. It seems odd that she wont see the same night sky as us for a few months - but it won't stop me looking up.

Gone Fishing

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 07:43:22 GMT

The tree is down, the tinsel packed away and the school clothes washed and ready for a return to timetables tomorrow. The kids may be reluctant to say goodbye to the festive sparkle but there is, from my tired kitchen at least, a hint of relief that normal operations are soon to be restored. I am a Monday morning sort of person, excited about the opportunity the week will bring to crack on and get things done. A New Year is then a bit like a Monday and I'm keen to get going.

Top of the list is the retirement of our current Leckie Layers. Our chooks have been with us now since Autumn 2022 laying their fabulous eggs and keeping us all topped up with essential proteins. In full production mode our hens lay a large egg most days - at 70g this represents about 5% of their bodyweight. It's the equivalent of you or I growing an arm every 24 hours. So at this stage they are also feeling a bit like my post Xmas fatigue. They start to lay a bit less, and their shells become thinner and more brittle.

As in previous years we are really pleased to work with the British Hen Welfare Trust . These guys are great as they help us find new homes for our ladies, so for the next couple of weekends you can think of us out in the hen houses in the wee small hours, head torches set to red lamps, so that we may quietly (and without stress) catch them up to send them off to backyard runs and gardens. What follows is then a full on assault on the buildings themselves as they are stripped down, washed and disinfected ready for the arrival of the new flocks the next week. The 16 week old pullets will arrive and get settled in before they come into maturity and start laying their own eggs at about 21 weeks old.

And so where will our eggs come from whilst all this is going on? Corrie Mains Eggs are an award winning family egg producer, based in Ayrshire. They have a great set up and similar quality and, as in previous years, are able to provide an alternate supply over this changeover period. So from now until March and our new hens are laying it will be their eggs in our boxes. Without this partnership we would need to operate a third house and essentially over produce eggs all year round to deal with this short changeover period. So with our low waste policy it works great for us, and we thank you for your patience and support as we welcome our new hens.

And as for the rest of the year? We hope 2024 is both a kind and tasty one for everyone - we're certainly looking forward to continuing to supply the very best in local produce to you and your family.

All the trimmings...

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 15:49:25 GMT

For those of you who have got some speciality meat on order for Christmas - you are in for a real treat. Graham the Butcher is making his way through orders for rib roasts, rolled sirloins, smoked and cured gammons and boy do they look good! If you missed out this time, or if you're sticking with Turkey, then the good news is you can still add some Old Leckie tastiness to your festive feast. All the trimmings now available to order for delivery or pick up next week:

- Traditional Stuffing : Chestnut / Sage and Onion
- Pork Chipolatas
- Streaky Bacon - smoked or unsmoked

It's not too late either to order a delicious grass fed beef Topside or Silverside roasting joint, or a large outdoor reared pork shoulder to share with friends and family. If you're looking for some seasonal, locally grown veg to finish off your plate look no further than Upper Ballaird Farm. These guys are located just West of Buchlyvie and if you're interested in how to regularly source local vegetables and flowers read on at the end of the Nwwsletter for more info.

Christmas and New Year are kindly avoiding our main delivery days this year, so it's only our Blairdrummond / Sommers Lane Monday customers effected. We will get these out to you a few days early on Friday 22nd and 29th to make sure you are well stocked. If you're looking for extra eggs, or are heading away and need to cancel, just let us know.

Leckie Burn

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 07:40:21 GMT

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Christmas Order List now out..

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 12:32:38 GMT

Order your festive meat now - limited stocks to email to reserve: info@oldleckie.co.uk

Squiglets!

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 12:22:01 GMT

Here at the farm we do try to let our animals do their thing and not get involved unless we have to. New calves get a quick check and iodine on their tummy button to prevent infection - and the same with lambs. For both we spend time making sure they have suckled - but usually from a distance. Like a litter of puppies a mound of piglets is hard to walk past. Even harder to resist the temptation to pick one up and snuffle into its silky tummy. What's surprising when you do is just how much muscle and strength they have even when really little. They can be hard to hang onto, and when coupled with their high pitch alert squeal the reality is never quite as good as what you imagine. But it doesn't stop me from taking the chance in the futile hope one will one day just coorie in and snuggle up for a while.

It doesn't take long for them to grow, and before you know it you've got no chance. The tear-aways that are in front of my mother in laws house are now about 3 months old. Still hanging out with their own mum they don't miss an opportunity to break out onto her lawn and wreak havoc. Today's routines started off with a call to get them back into their pen, and whilst we tried to navigate them round gate and under fence their enthusiasm for breakfast was evident in their attempts to eat my wellies, waterproofs and have a good old nibble on my calf. Any thoughts of picking them up for a snuggle were long gone as I yelled for Fergus to get the feed bucket out asap to distract these teenage equivalents. As you might imagine he found the whole thing pretty hilarious and was in no rush. That's 25 years together for you.

Elsewhere it's been a busy old week on the farm - we welcomed a bunch of Swiss farmers for a farm visit, have spent a lot of time prepping wood stores for the next month and this weekend Fergus and the girls got all the Tups (male sheep) sorted and put out with all the ewes. The female sheep have a 17 day fertility cycle so they will stay out with the ladies for 34 days - giving everything 2 chances to get pregnant. With their gestation period at just under 5 months the hope is that they wont arrive much before the spring grass is starting to grow in early April. If you're walking through the farm then keep an eye out for them strutting around - they are usually easy to spot!

Pockets of Joy

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 12:29:32 GMT

Lots of joyful news from the farm this week with plenty of new arrivals. Our Tamworth sow is now the proud mum of 7 wee piglets, born steamy on a thick bed of straw during the wee small hours of Thursday night. In the cattle sheds the first two autumn calves appeared and out in the fields 2 of the highlanders have also had successful calvings. If you are walking along through the farm you'll find the field of highlanders to the western end of the track - well worth a look to spot these two cuties.

At this time of year the cow cam in the sheds becomes invaluable. We can access it via our phones from anywhere and it's a great way to keep an eye on the pregnant mums without disturbing them. Our only slight problem at the moment is the wool bags from our summer sheep shearing have still be collected by the wool depot. Stacked on a trailer in the middle of the feed ramp it was a case of sods law that both were born in a spot blocked from view by the towering stack. Chasing the depot has just been bumped up the to do list.

The house this morning has been a hive of seasonal activities. Whilst I write the kids have been carving pumpkins grown by Fergus down in our (wild) veggie patch. The Christmas cake is slowly baking in the oven - an annual tradition to get it made before the end of October so I can feed it masses of brandy before we ice and eat it. The smells of nutmeg and all spice have turned my attention to the festive season that will descend on us as soon as Halloween is over. For the first time this year we may be able to access butchery in the run up to Christmas and Graham the butcher has been whetting my appetite with tales of sweet cured ham joints and streaky bacon. Watch out for our Christmas order list - we will have a limited number of cured (uncooked) hams available to order, alongside some choice grass fed native beef specials. So if you're looking for a special something let me know as soon as you can.

Autumn arrives

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 12:00:51 GMT

The problem with missing a week or two of newsletters is that it can feel a bit overwhelming working out where to pick up. The last one was sent out as I sat at the airport about to fly to Tuscany for aa study trip to learn first hand about how the Italians do Agritourism (extremely well). Since then we've had floods (all animals accounted for), winds (patched the polytunnel just in time) and hosted various visits on the farm (Steading courtyard never looked cleaner).

The cattle have come into the sheds for winter (cue morning routines of feeding and bedding) and the sheep have been dosed and sorted (getting ready for tupping). The darker nights make it easier for getting the chooks shut in (they naturally gravitate to the lights of the henhouse as dusk falls) and the TV in the house has been dusted off for our annual viewing season (October - February).

I like autumn. I like the rusting leaves and the depth of colour they give to our beautiful trees. I like the low light that pierces through the woods highlighting features that you normally pay no attention to. I like the shortening daylight hours which welcome you with colourful sunrises and reward you with reflective sunsets. I love that I get to do a job that lets me feel the turn of the season and turn myself towards it too.

We've had lots of beef, pork and lamb back from the butcher so the freezers are full and stocks updated on the online shop. Our next beef boxes are due out next weekend / start of week after - have a couple still available so if you want one let us know asap.

In the yard

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 10:18:02 GMT

This week we've been mostly in the yards. This is the area where we bring the animals in when we need to do something with them - a system of gates and races to move and batch as we check, weigh or sort through them. With lambs and calves now weaned from their mothers we have batched the lambs into big and small. It helps on the early morning weekly 'draw' for market if we only need to bring in the heavier lambs. The calves are also grouped - here we are sorting through those that will stay with us as part of our breeding herd, those that we will rear and finish for our meat boxes, and those that will be sold on as 'forward stores' through the market.

With Struan away Fergus and I have been 'working together' a lot this week. It's worth saying that working with your partner / spouse in the yard holds it's own special place in farming circles. It creates a special energy all of of its own as you try to get animals to move in the right direction, at the right speed and in the right order to satisfy the needs of each other. Without a third party to bear witness the language can be interesting and coffee breaks silent. Added to that our race comes with a very low doorway and one must always, always, be ready to duck on your way through as you run up and down to meet the next demand. I think we are both looking forward to Struan's return this week.

Outwith the yards it's also been busy. We hosted a group of Finnish rural development folks for a tour, welcomed guests from both Austria and Colorado to the farmstay and took delivery of our latest pork butchery. With our lamb due back in at the end of next week it feels great to have the freezers full again with the full range of our thoughtfully produced meat. If you haven't ever had any of our meat now is a great time to check out the online shop to see what we have on offer.

Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 09:45:04 GMT

And just like that the 1st September was here and the summer ended. The weather gods seem to be working however to the astronomical calendar rather than meteorological one - cue sunshine and temperatures warm enough to jump into rivers again. With a wet and frustrating summer behind us all across the carse farmers are working to get any remaining crops harvested, late hay made and straw baled.

Despite the good weather autumn is definitely on it's way. Mornings are cooler and my fleecy trousers are back out the cupboard. Tup sales have started pre the winter breeding season for the sheep and fat lambs at market are now a regular part of the weekly to do list. Our latest beef butchery has just arrived with plenty of deliciously tasty steaks, dice, mince and roasts to keep us warm on the inside too.

Excitingly the wee hebrideans hogg lambs are finally ready to go - orders are now open for half boxes. Born over in coastal Argyll spring 2022 before being finished this year on our good grass these are slow to mature but have an amazing flavour. We only have a small number of these so don't leave it too late to get your order in.

Less exciting we have had to take the hard decision to put our prices up again. Your support in recycling boxes means we haven't had to order any since January 2022 but we can't put it off any longer and the price increase on packaging is too much for us to absorb it all. From 11 September our pricing will now be:

6 M £2.40
6 L £2.50
6 XL £2.60

Bicycles, bicycles...

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 10:14:48 GMT

Sometimes there is just something in the air and it seems contagious. Monday morning dawned with the discovery of a field of cows decamped onto the farm track. With a bit of help from Struan (who was supposed to be on a day off) they got shuffled back into their field without too much bother. The day finished with a worried call from a neighbour after an amorous young steer had jumped two fences to get in with his female cows.

We put the ranger in another field with our cows only to discover on Tuesday morning he was gone. After a search we found him 2 fields over, in with a different group. The young lad wasn't supposed to have any working equipment but the vet visit later that day confirmed the ringing job done when very young had only half worked.

The following day we went to move sheep only to discover the trouble maker had now led a mass breakout of that field into our woods. Cue some choice words and the next two days spent repairing and fortifying fences. As I write on Sunday am pleased to report everything is where it should be.

With the UCI World Cycling Championships almost upon we have significant road closures for 3 days from Wednesday 9th August - Friday 11th August. Our current plan is to adjust deliveries to the following:

Kippen customers: Tuesday 8th August
Anprior / Buchlyvie / Aberfoyle / Thornhill customers: Wednesday 9th August**
Gargunnock customers: Saturday 12th August

There will be no on farm pick ups during this period.

**at the moment we think we can get early access out but we may find different on the day. If we can't get out then likely will be Saturday or Sunday before we get to you.

We thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.

What's going on in there?

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 21:13:04 GMT

"Amusing", adj. causing laughter and providing entertainment. A suitable description for the Leckie Ladies on a warm summers' afternoon. It is ridiculous how much time can be wasted by taking a seat for a while in the hen run and just watching them really closely. They all have different personalities, bold, shy, curious, flighty, protective and and others just downright hilarious as they posture and preen in front of you. Lucy was my favourite today - comb akimbo, and mud lipstick perfectly applied. You have to wonder what is going on inside their heads at times.

Despite the warm sun on our backs the unpredictable downpours are kicking any silage or haymaking into the long grass. Tonight there are lots of farms along the carse cutting, the drone of tractors buzzing in the background. Many are hoping to make a dash between rain forecasts and get some more of their winter feed made. With a variable forecast right through to the end of July Fergus is also feeling twitchy. When he's like this he is best kept busy - luckily the first early potatoes are ready for harvest so he's been busy lifting both Charlottes and Red Duke of Yorks - both available to order online.

I've also been trying (unsuccessfully) to get inside the heads of our council roads planners to predict what road closures they can announce next. It seems that every week brings another diversion to confuddle our well oiled delivery routes. We will however appreciate the re-surfacing in due course so will grin and bear it - and ask for your patience if deliveries are on doorstops a bit earlier, or later, these next few weeks. Much of the work is being done in preparation for the Time Trials of the Cycling World Championships which are being held in Scotland next month. It will be exciting to have such a large event routing through our area though I'm nervous about what looks like 3 days of major road closures and how these will impact on our guests, tours and harvests. Here's hoping the event will amuse rather than bemuse.

Summer days and summer haze

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:01:55 GMT

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Salad season begins

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:32:59 GMT

And so the salad season begins...

It's not been the warmest of springs but a tasting through the tunnel yesterday reassured me that there are enough tasty leaves to start cutting. The mix varies a wee bit throughout the season - at the moment we don't have any of the edible petals, but plenty of lettuce, mustards, rockets and asian greens. What doesn't change is the fresh tastiness of succulent leaves, picked by hand, the morning of delivery.

- hand sown / transplanted / cut
- cut on day of delivery
- no sprays, no preservatives, no washing
- actually tastes of something
- keeps 7 days in the fridge

Available to order for weekly or fortnightly subscriptions, or on an ad hoc basis. Please note we cut early on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. One off orders must be placed no later than 6am for delivery that day.

The highs and lows...

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 20:47:16 GMT

Erratic timing of newsletters usually means a really busy period on the farm. If you'd asked me at the weekend how lambing was going I would have been tired, but happy. The week had seen dry days that were blissfully warm in the sunshine. Days were long but it was a pleasure to be out and about, checking and marking new borns, feeding those inside the shed and, of course, feeding the pet lambs. All the kids have been really hands on this year, and splitting shifts between them has given lots of rare one on one time which has been a real pleasure.

We'd had a long range eye on the forecast for last night. A drop in temperature, wind and persistent rain is a terrible combination for new born lambs. Yesterday was a flurry of pen building to hold as many undercover as we could, and as darkness fell Fergus and Struan trawled the fields to scoop up anything looking particularly vulnerable. It was a long, fitful night, aware of the first wind in ages rattling at the windows and always, always the sound of heavy rain driving against the pains. Everyone was scheduled for an early start.

As the first light dawned they headed out to the fields and we were right to have been concerned. The worst night of losses since we came back to the farm (even worse than the beast from the east). Lambs, new born and bigger, struggled to keep any body heat in the persistent deluge. The whole morning was spent recovering those that didn't make it and trying to locate mothers and newly 'single' lambs. Heart breaking. Tonight we are all tired, but in a different way. And hoping that from here on in the weather is kinder.

Lambing live and Egg Price Increases

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 07:32:15 GMT

Phew - the difference a week can make. After a full on day on Monday we had all the pregnant single and triplet mothers into the main shed - split between pens where we can keep a watchful eye on any giving birth. 6 o' clock starts and late night shed checks have become the new routine, as have the repeated checks round the nearby fields where we brought the expectant twin mums. Plenty of new borns on the ground, a few tricky births under our belt and, much to the kids delight, a pet lamb or two to bottle feed until we can find them a new mum.

The usual team has been augmented by Geordie who is giving us a hand with the cattle jobs in the morning and Addison a Vet student from Singapore. Kristen, our volunteer (above) is doing a great job keeping everything non-lambing in order whilst we've had the Watt's in sorting out various fences and gateways. With the holiday cottage full now for the forseeable and the kids off on school holidays the farm has become a busy place!

I'm afraid our need to raise egg prices isn't an April fool. I wish it was but as with every household and business we remain subjected to cost pressures across everything. To allow us to maintain our quality and home delivery service prices from 1st April 2023 will be:

6 M: £2.15
6L: £2.25
6 XL: £2.35

The new prices will be intimated to our regular subscription customers prior to their next charge being taken, with a link to amend your order if you need to.

Please don't forget to let us know if you're away on holiday over Easter and need to skip a delivery or two.

Into the lambing shed we go...

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 18:06:16 GMT

Anyone else feeling like today has just gone on forever? I've just come in from finishing the end of day rounds, sat down with a cuppa and noticed its almost 7pm. The last few weeks have seen us already adjusted onto British Summer Time - feeling super fit with early starts and early bedtimes. I didn't think today would feel as long as it has then. I blame the annual amnesia that dark nights bring - an evening wind down with the light that allows you to take the foot off the gas. With the light still 'up' there's always one more job that can be done and the workload seems to swell to fit.

No sooner was the Byre was cleaned to within an inch of its life than the lambing pens began to fill up with some of the first arrivals of the year. We had tups push into a field of ewes a couple of weeks before they were due to 'go out' . They were only there for an hour but had set straight to work so we were anticipating some unplanned early arrivals. Unfortunately the births coincided with the strong winds and heavy rains of the start of the week so quite a few had to be brought in for a bit of TLC. Things will start to pick up more this week so today has been spent shuffling things around in the big shed to build the main pens for the ewes having singles and triplets, and we will shortly move all the ewes expecting twins back to the fields closest to the farm.

I was laughing reading back last weeks newsletter. Despite thinking calving was also still a couple of weeks away this week has seen 10 more calves born - 3 in one day! Pleased to report that all are well and the wee mite from last weekend is now sucking independently and frolicking around with it's new playmates. Now that we're in the thick of it we're hoping it continues a pace - would be great to get the bulk of it out the way before we're in the full on lambing zone. Elsewhere on the farm there's more new life in the greenhouse. With the really cold weather (hopefully) behind us the first salad trays have germinated well - the final bed prep in the polytunnel another one to add to the to-do list. At least we've got all that extra light now to get it done!

First spring calf is born

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 11:17:40 GMT

With perfect timing the first of our spring calves was born - a lovely way to celebrate Mother's day. As any mum will tell you though the role is often a tightrope pulled taught by both instinct and fear. We weren't expecting calving to kick off for another couple of weeks so were surprised to find the wee thing cooried away in a soft pile of straw. The mother - her second calf - gently lowing as she licked her dry, nuzzling her tiny body. Calves can, and do, come in many sizes, but Fergus was immediately concerned that the wee heifer (female) calf was a little premature.

Luckily the lift in temperature meant she didn't have to work quite so hard to keep her body temperature up, but we intervened to provide her with some warm colostrum as she was too wobbly and weak to get up and suck. Her eyes watchful through it all, and her mum patient with our advances. This morning we opted to milk the mother by hand before transferring it to a tube feeder. It's hard not to get attached to the calves - especially the ones you need to mother yourself - but we talked about how tricky it would be if we couldn't get her strong enough to suckle independently. How surprised we were then that as we stepped back she wobbled her way over to her mum and started nosing around the udders to find a teat. With a bit of a guiding hand - success! A pretty good mothers day gift if ever there was one. And a reminder that mothering as an adjective can equally apply to anyone - even a hurly burly male farmer - just as much as it can to mum's themselves.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur on the farm - avian flu inspections (chooks all well so far thankfully), pig escapes, salad seeding, cattle sales and firewood chopping all adding to the usual routine. With lambing due to kick off at the end of the month there is the usual panic that sheds need cleared and cleaned, pens built and supplies ordered. Inevitably there are expectant mothers that need a bit of extra care at this stage so the morning stock checks are extra important and already we have had some ewes into the byre to keep an eye on. Between the cows and the sheep we will have almost 500 birthing mothers in the next 6-8 weeks - lets hope the tightrope holds up well.

(No) Access All Areas

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 19:19:42 GMT

It's been a bit of a concerning week on the farm since we got the news that avian flu had been confirmed in some dead hens not far from us. Our thoughts went out to their owners who must have been heartbroken to lose their much loved ladies. With the relevant government body confirming the presence of the H5N1 strain it has had the effect of placing everyone within a 10 km radius into a Surveillance Zone. For those of us with poultry this means a tightening of biosecurity and restriction and recording of access to, and movements around, the farm.

We've been reading through pages of legal guidance about the do's and dont's and liaising with the Animal and Plant Health Agency to try to ensure we can keep open access along the main farm track. We've been told to expect an inspection to ensure we are adhering to the legal restrictions. This week will see some signs going up around the track and farm asking folks passing to be extra vigilant and help us keep our chooks safe by:
- keeping away from farm buildings
- not to touch dead or unwell wild birds
- report any findings of dead wild birds to 03459 335577, or online via www.gov.uk/guidance/report-dead-wild-birds.

With the surveillance zone restrictions liable to be in place for at least a couple of months it's a worrying time - both for our birds and some of our other business activities, like our tours, that we have had to suspend. Our eldest Highlander and her calf, Hannah, clearly didn't get the memo to limit movements. This afternoon, when a gate pinged open into their field, they took the opportunity to go for a stroll and visit the pigs. A call from Fergus' mum went a bit like this,

"There's two black hairy things in my garden..."
"Ah - are the dogs down there?"
"No."
"Oh no - have the pigs escaped?"
"No, bigger."
"Is one bigger and one smaller?"
"That's the ones..."

Ah well, at least it made us laugh and forget the never-ending cycle of bootwashes for a while.

6000 pancakes

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 17:02:14 GMT

If you were to ask the family what their favourite tradition is I would bet all my money on the answer being Saturday pancakes. Not long after we moved to the farm I started making 'big' pancakes every Saturday morning for breakfast. In a nod to Radio 2's Inheritance Tracks I used a recipe from my mum's old Delia Smiths cook book and never looked back. 10 years and over 6000 pancakes later am weirdly super proud that we have never missed a weekend - which has at times called for friends and family patience, odd measures and the occasional curse at a holiday home's poor efforts at non stick frying pans.

Not one's to miss a trick the kids then ramped up the pressure. Surely if Saturday meant big pancakes, then they also needed a weekly serving of 'wee' pancakes. I'd spent a long time in my youth never quite getting these right; too thick / too thin / burnt. Luckily when living in a wee village in Kintyre my elderly neighbour May was kind enough to share her recipe which I hastily scribbled onto a scrap of cardboard. Some additional guidance on how to tell the right consistency from my good friend Robert (who cooked them aboard the Vic 32 steamer) finally got me sorted.

So, for anyone who doesn't yet have their own goto pancake recipes I'm happy to pass on the baton and recommend the two above with the following top tips:

Always add the liquid slowly to the flour and egg mix - mixing as you go to get a smooth batter
heat the pan hotter than you think
use Leckie Layers for the best results

Whatever your favourite topping get flipping!

Oink, oink

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 17:04:25 GMT

"Pooh!" squeaked the voice.

"It's Piglet!" cried Pooh eagerly. "Where are you?"

"Underneath," said Piglet in an underneath sort of way.

"Underneath what?"

"You," squeaked Piglet. "Get up!"

Of all the new borns on the farm a fresh litter of piglets are hard to beat. Their wee steaming bodies slip out from their mother and instinctively make a beeline for a teat to suckle on. They are generating so much heat they don't remain moist for long and before you know it they're piled up in a heap of loveliness beside a very contented mother.

I could watch new born piglets for hours, but one must be careful. If you disturb mum she's likely to shift her impressive mass, rolling to a different side, or getting up on her feet to investigate before circling and settling back down. When this happens it's hard to keep track of where all the piglets are - and you find yourself doing a panicked head count.

And there you could find me on Thursday. Too heavy in my footing, straining to find number 11 after she had settled back down. I heard a low, distant squeal - more muffled than the siblings who were by now back at the milk bar. From under her rear leg a wee tail appeared, then back legs. Unfortunately there was no further progress and it was no longer just the piglet that was starting to show signs of stress. Eventually there was nothing for it than to try to help. As I climbed into the farrowing pen I was keeping a wary eye on the sow in case protective mothering instinct was to translate into a sudden turn of speed. I grabbed the back legs and pulled pretty hard - mightily relieved to extract the piglet from under his mothers lumbering weight.

Sunrises and sheep

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 19:34:48 GMT

I really like having a routine - it gives a bit of structure to the day and, when needed, a kick up the proverbial to get out of bed and get going. The daily commute down the drive to drop kids off at the school bus stop could be tedious. But at 8am every day I'm in the same place at the same time and its fascinating to see the seasons roll over, the increments of daylight shifting as the sun waxes and wanes. Add some sheep or cattle into the scene and it evolves even further. A good opportunity to check stock and on frosty mornings a pastoral image of warm breaths rising in the cold air.

Did anyone else feel like getting out to the garden in Saturday's sunshine? I've completely ignored the polytunnel and greenhouse these last few months, but with the arrival of 2023 salad seeds in the post it was a good nudge to get out and about. So a satisfying afternoon was spent collecting up various items displaced by the winds of winter and tidying the greenhouse and getting seed trays sorted. Fingers crossed that the hard frosts have checked the flea beetle populations - if we get another season like last year we will need to rethink our Leckie Leaves.

Fergus was away to Portugal last week. He was trying to persuade us it was mostly dull, inside a conference hall, however he did return with a selection of delicacies and their origin stories so don't think it could have been all bad. Struan and I were grateful for Ambroise, our french volunteer. With a command of english better than our own and an ability to keep his sense of humour regardless of time, task or weather he's been a great help. We just need to figure out how to persuade him to stay a bit longer!

Colourful interludes

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 10:49:56 GMT

One of the hardest things about January - other than the short daylight hours that seem to fail to lengthen AT ALL - is the lack of colour. The red bursts of holly berries are long gone. The fields are dull brown. The sky 100 shades of grey. Hurrah for the blue skies of the last week then, hurrah for the deep oranges of the sunsets and pinks of the sunrises and hurrah for all our brightly coloured sheep who flocked through the yards for their pregnancy scans.

They were even more colourful by the end - orange dots on shoulders for those expecting a single lamb, a dot on the rump for triplet mothers. At first it's a slick operation - 493 sheep scanned in 2 1/2 hours. But then the longer job of running everything back through the yards again and splitting the expectant mothers into groups of singles, twins and triplets. From there they are put back out to fields where their diets and condition are carefully monitored upto our busy lambing period in April.

It might not be colourful but our new boiler flue is definitely shiny, Most importantly it seems to work so we only had a temporary heating loss. The painting in the farmstay rental looks great and we're looking forward to reopening next week with a busy season ahead. And whilst the blue skies seemed to have turned back to grey this weekend I can spot the tips of the first snowdrops about to give us the first flowers of spring. It feels like some colour is on its way.

Start as you mean to go on

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 07:12:51 GMT

Hope this finds you all well, suitably fattened by seasonal excesses and not washed away by recent deluges. Our (normally white) Texel sheep in the bottom fields are doing a good job of disguising themselves as brown hebrideans - impossible to keep clean when the persistent rain churns the fields into mud baths. This morning we will have all the sheep passing through the yards - the sheep scanner Stuart here to let us know how many lambs to expect this year. It's good timing - a chance to have a close look over everything and make sure the weather isn't getting the better of any of them.

Whilst daytime jobs need to be done rain or shine we are also making the most of the weather to head undercover and do various maintenance and repair jobs that have been mounting up. The farmstay holiday cottage is getting painted, the boiler chimney needing replaced and various leaks need patching. It would be great to feel we are on top of this seemingly never ending list. Unlikely, but if we can get the most pressing scored off that's a good start.

The trip to Canada at New Year was great, my Dad enjoyed his 80th Birthday party and am pleased to report my sister and I managed to maintain our head count of various children through 6 different airports and time zones. Not too much time to reflect on the passing of another year, but Fergus and I were really chuffed to get so many messages from folks about all the Leckie meat that was being tucked into and enjoyed through Christmas and New Year. We're so pleased it hit the mark and look forward to feeding you all through another year with great local food, thoughtfully produced here at Old Leckie. Happy New Year - may it be a healthy and happy one for you all.

My all your dreams come true (but be careful what you wish for)

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 12:27:52 GMT

No sooner than I'd exalted at winter being my favourite season did the harsh realities come home to roost. It may have been wonderfully dry and crunchy underfoot, with everything beautifully sparkly and clean, but the sub zero weather was working its own black magic - sending its tentacles deep into the ground and along pipes. Water trough by water trough the flow ran to a trickle, then stopped altogether. The hens with header tanks lasted a couple of days but by Tuesday had also dried up. The next to go was the automatic feed supply for the hens - seized with the cold it just gave up.

And so began a brutal week of hourly luggs of gallons and gallons of water, and bags and bags of feed. The irony of the new automatic feed system - just having got up and running - was not lost on me. 5 joyous days of not carrying 25kg bags of hen feed quickly forgotten about as repetitive trips became part of a punishing daily routine. The snow arrived on Friday and brought with it the promise of warmer weather. Craig and I worked together with the farm landrover to navigate the village roads and get the deliveries out, wading through inches of wet slush. Reaching our highest customer we were delighted to find a stash of warming miniatures left out with a kind note for delivery drivers to help themselves to a festive tipple. True Christmas spirit - thank you!

And then, seemingly just like that, Saturday morning came and the water and feed were running again. It was not just the gutters dripping wet tears of relief. All we need now is the sheet ice on the tracks and walkways round the farm to melt and we will be home (if not totally dry). I'm hoping that will be it for the worst of the weather this festive season and hope that the frozen weather didn't wreak too much havoc for you and any pre Christmas plans.

We're winding down now for Christmas and New Year. Excitingly the kids and I are off to Canada to help my wonderful Dad celebrate his 80th Birthday on New Years day so there wont be a newsletter for a few weeks. Fergus, Struan and Hilary will be holding the fort and deliveries should run as usual. We hope you all have a fabulous festive period, and send our massive thanks to all our staff team, customers and community who have supported us this year - we wouldn't be here without you - cheers!

In the thick of it

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 13:14:37 GMT

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Hide and seek with the sheep

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 11:35:01 GMT

Whilst some drier weather was on my wish list last week I'm not sure dank fog was up there as an alternative. The wide, flat Carse of Stirling provides a perfect bed for thick layers of mist and fog that follow the River Forth downstream. On market days for lambs we are out by 7am. At this time of year it's still dark, but by the time the yards have been set up and pigs fed it has normally lightened just enough to see what's what in the fields. Not this week. It was like playing hide and seek with a blindfold on, placing more trust than usual in the dogs to gather and move the lambs to the right place at the right time.

Elsewhere on the farm it feels like we're a bit seasonally maladjusted with notable spring cleaning like efforts underway. The farm 'office' has been gutted and cleaned out, breeding pigs moved around and machines cleaned and tucked away. For the last couple of weeks we've had a lovely volunteer from Brittany staying and helping - the extra pair of hands providing a welcome opportunity to get a bit further down the to do list than usual. Farming may provide lots of job satisfaction but, for me, the feeling that you're surrounded by a bit of order is not to be sniffed at.

Looking ahead to the end of the month our delivery dates will mostly be unchanged with the festivities. Wednesday and Friday runs will be business as usual with anyone on the Monday runs getting theirs a day later on Tuesday 27th and Tuesday 3rd January. If you're looking for a special joint then we still have a large 3kg sirloin roast and a large 2kg Topside available - email for info or to reserve. Plenty of chipolatas too - get your order in now to make sure you don't miss out. And don't forget our gift vouchers - a great present for food lovers, or folks looking for a relaxing break in our farmstay. These are available online and in hard copy as a gift to present on Christmas Day.

Turn off the tap!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 17:26:32 GMT

November has felt a bit like someone turned the tap on and forgot to turn it off. Soggy fields, blocked drains, mud everywhere. It makes everything harder. You can't drive into fields when they are that wet so sheep checks are done on foot and hay bales must be carried rather than delivered on the back of the quad bike.

Our guests in the farmstay look ruefully at the sky, dodging rain showers to try to see a bit of the landscape. Our store of wellies coming into it's own as they try to avoid traipsing mud into their hire car. In the field below the ponies have a shelter that they can tuck away into, but conditions underfoot are reaching bog like proportions. They have voted with their feet - twice this week managing to get past 3 gates, 2 electric fences and find higher - drier - ground. It's never a good start to the day when the girls coming running in shouting for help to locate them. The school bus waits for no child, or pony, so the pressure is on to find them as quickly as possible.

Thanks then to the early morning walkers who start pinging messages to me - diplomatically wondering whether the three ponies hanging out by the ruined mills are supposed to be there. They look suitably bashful when we approach with feed buckets and quiet encouragement. I'm sure we make a funny sight - a spectral merry dance of ponies, kids and adults trooping our way back to the farm as the daylight begins to cut through the early morning darkness. A secure, hard standing area within the field has suddenly been promoted up the never ending to do list.

The good news is that the forecast for the next couple of weeks looks dry. We will greet December this week with our fingers crossed that we can trade the warm and wet for dry and cold. And please, please, please just a little bit less mud....

What the Cluck?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:42:10 GMT

With reports of shortages, Italian eggs and rationing in UK supermarkets we've had a few concerned queries raised about whether our chooks, and egg supplies are ok. Very happy to say that ours are in fine fettle, laying well and, fingers crossed, we will have plenty to see to all our customers eggs needs over the coming year.

But the picture isn't the same for all producers. Beyond the media reports of shortages due to avian flu the real story is around the supply chains feeding into supermarkets and the value chain within that. When grain and energy prices hit the roof earlier in the year egg producers, like many, faced massively increased costs. It's never an easy decision to apply a price rise, but the impact was so significant that without an adjustment producers would be selling eggs for less than the cost of production. Most large supermarkets did not respond and so their suppliers simply stopped re-stocking hens, and here we find ourselves, with 33% of respondents from the British Free Range Egg Producers Association having reduced flock sizes, paused production or left the industry all together.

As a small family farm we are fortunate that all of our eggs are sold direct - either to households, or our local retail and hospitality customers. We are able to communicate as directly we can to explain changes and pressures. We know that times are difficult for every household and business just now and remain super grateful that so many of you are willing to pay a fair price for our produce. Thank you.

Elsewhere on the farm it's been a really busy week. Calves popping out at a rate of one per day - some needing top up feeding which adds a lot of extra time to the daily routines. So important that the new borns get the colostrum, or first milk - which is packed with antibodies. When they don't suckle in the first few hours we need to step in to help. Luckily the cow cam which has been out of order for a while has finally been fixed, so now we have our own live shed broadcast into the house. The kids who normally don't get to watch TV in the kitchen are delighted!

Hope you are all well and getting ready for the next big event. I have a small number of prime highland beef cuts for anyone looking for a super special Christmas meal - a hole barrell of fillet (perfect for a Beef Wellington), and a couple of large rolled sirloins that will be super juicy and tasty. If anyone wants more info, or to reserve them before listed online, let me know asap!

Little and (Extra) Large

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 21:53:30 GMT

With us away at a wedding over the weekend the newsletter will be kept short this week! Struan did an admirable job holding fort whilst we were away – especially as the pregnant cows were doing their usual trick of keeping their legs crossed until Fergus had left the premises.

The new hens have settled and are now coming well into lay – with good progression from small to medium to large eggs. Taking this period slowly for them is really important. Once they are in their established pattern of laying they are working really hard. If you think about it a 70g large egg is roughly 5% of their body weight. And they are laying this 9 days out of 10. That’s like you or I growing an arm every day.

We don’t then want them laying big ones too soon or they just don’t have the body weight and condition to maintain that. So … if you’re a regular XL egg customer you may find you get larges for the next few weeks. You should find a refund lodged to cover the price difference until we have them back in stock. And always remember – it’s the tortoise not the hare with laying hens!

The great pork giveaway

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 11:30:11 GMT

TI know it's not new year quite yet but in the freezers it's out with the old and in with the new. With our pre Xmas butchery due back this month I need to clear a bit of space for bags of tasty chipolatas and special occasion roasts like our mouth-watering rolled sirloins. For this week only then use code PORK50 to get a whopping 50% off the following from our outdoor reared pork stocks:
- Gigot Roasts - crackling as it should be
- Shoulder - ideal for pulled pork slow cooked perfection
- Belly - a real treat - roast / slow cook or crispy
- Mince - super tasty meat balls

Elsewhere on the farm it's been a fun week with some great off farm activities. First up was the Food and Farming eventing hosted at the local market by RHET (Royal Highland Educational Trust). Attended by hundreds of primary school kids over a full day I was talking about all things egg related. It was great seeing the enthusiasm of the kids and teachers and we talked about different ways that you can keep hens, why eggs are different sizes and had a bit of a messy giggle trying to find some double yokers.

Towards the end of the week Fergus and I attended a reception at Bute House in Edinburgh hosted by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP and The Federation of Small Businesses. There is no magic wand to quickly solve the current challenges facing families, businesses and food producers - however it was a welcome opportunity to flag and highlight some specific issues, and opportunities, for small farming businesses like ours and the communities we are based within. Anyways - back to the wellies this weekend and the job of checking our tups are 'working'. If you're walking through the farm look out for red bottoms on the ewes and see what you think!

When a (Christmas) Plan comes together

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 09:41:05 GMT

Don't you just love it when the day comes together before 9am? Morning rounds done, yorkshire pudding batter resting in the fridge and a topside of beef in the oven already for a slow cook into Sunday lunch. I'm ready for the call up to join the A Team today. Some of the credit needs to goto the clock change right enough but I've always been a morning person. I love the potential that every new day brings to get stuff done. And the delight of autumnal sunrises as a reward for simply getting out of bed.

I definitely don't deck the halls too early in the year but I do like to get my Christmas cake cooked by the end of October. Last week I figured out the cook time and temperature for a slow cooked pork shoulder matched perfectly to that required by the cake - et voila! The first weekly brandy top up will be made before the month is out. Don't forget to order extra eggs if you've got your own cake to make.

I'm not the only one thinking ahead to the festive season. Our butcher is asking us to finalise our final butchery dates before Xmas so they can plan around this busiest of seasons for them. We've got orders open now for the last of our Highland Beef, Outdoor Reared Pork and Lamb boxes before 2023. Our boxes are the best value way to get the freezer stocked to see you through the winter. Early orders for these would be much appreciated so we can get a plan pulled together. If you're looking for a special gift for someone who appreciates great food then why not think about our gift vouchers? They can be redeemed against any of our produce all through 2023 - either for our boxes (which can be posted UK wide) or in smaller volumes from the freezer.

All creatures great and small

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 07:19:33 GMT

There's been plenty of coming and going on the farm this week - of both animals and humans alike. Wintering sheep arrived from a pal in Mid Argyll, closely followed by some totty Shorthorn X calves from Mull who will also be hanging out here until the spring arrives. Meantime Nelleke finally found a ferret ally in her second cousin who was visiting from the further flung north west. Never tidy at the best of times the kitchen has now become completely unnavigable - home to some DIY ferret runs comprised of egg boxes and old bits of drainage pipe.

Sheep have been in and out the yards, moving left, right and centre round the farm. As the rainy season kicks in and fields start to be churned up by heavy hooves cattle have started appearing in the sheds for their winter housing period. The implausibly large summer stocks of hay, straw and silage a welcome sight as we move to a different rhythm of feed rounds and mucking out.

The packing room has also been busy - Wednesday saw 3 pigs and 5 lambs worth of butchery back in and out for box orders. This week we've got a bumper delivery of all things sausage coming into the freezer to see us through the winter. Hopefully we will get all the new stock loaded up this week onto the online shop for ordering. I'll l also need to be plan our final butchery schedule for 2022. We're already taking orders for that special roasting joint for Christmas and New Year - so if you're looking for something in particular let me know as soon as you can so I can get it written up in my wee black book and can factor it in. Have a good week folks...

Fairy Eggs

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 10:41:35 GMT

Each season brings with it its own cycle of activity on the farm. Autumn means regular weekly trips to market with fat lambs, daily clearing of leaves from gutters and health checking all the ewes to make sure they are fit for 'tupping'. The empty cattle sheds that have been used all summer for equipment storage and convenient dumping grounds have to be cleared out and prepared for the cattle coming in for winter.

The new hens who arrived a month ago are just starting to lay. The teeny pullet eggs - or fairy eggs as we call them - magically start to appear on the egg collection belt. This may be our 6th year of having our Leckie Layers but that first glimpse of the first egg still excites me. Every day a few more appear, and then a mass of them suddenly weigh down the belt and the motor speed that moves the belt to the collection area has to be turned down to let us keep up. Over the next few weeks these will size up to mediums first, and then larges - with any extra larges almost certainly bringing the added joy of a double yoker.

This coming into lay cycle also means that the day has to accommodate frequent checks of the hens. I walk the floor inside the hen house to pick up any eggs which have been laid on the floor and encourage the young birds to lay instead in the nesting boxes. That's easier said than done mind you! This week we're looking forward to getting our lamb and outdoor reared pork butchery back on Thursday and will be busy getting boxes packed and out for those of you with orders in for these. Hope you've all had a lovely week, and for those of you away on holiday, that the sun shone and the feet went up. A least for a bit.

rebmiT

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 19:27:40 GMT

With a dwindling store of wood and the weather forecast against us Fergus was feeling the pressure of a couple of weeks laid low with Covid. By this time of year we normally have a huge pile of seasoned logs in the shed ready to feed the beast that is our 100 KW bio-mass boiler. With a short break in the rain, and a bit more energy in the tank Fergus set his sights on two mahoosive trees that had fallen a few years back over the upper reaches of Leckie Burn.

It's amazing what a bit of problem solving, a stiff strap and telehandler horsepower can do to restore Fergus' mojo. The woods have always been his happy place. As the trunks creaked, wheels spun and the 70ft trunk started it's ascent up out of the gorge it was a relief to see the smile back on his face.

This afternoon mind you was a bounce back to reality with a trip off with pigs and lambs ready for our next butchery - accompanied by howling winds and rain. At least we know we've got that wood store replenished to keep the heating going!

Human Ingenuity

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 19:25:09 GMT

When we came back to live and run the farm 10 years ago we were incredulous that Fergus' mum had managed for so many years squeezing her body into odd angles to navigate around old buildings. Back in the day she would get feed for sheep delivered up into a loft that was only accessed via a wobbly steep stair followed by a duck through a small opening in a wall that was only a meter tall. Having successfully arrived into the loft she then needed to manually fill bags before repeating in reverse, but this time with 20kg on her back. Having seen her struggle with back issues we were keen to make life easier for ourselves where we could.

4 years later as we converted part of the steading to take our first flock of Leckie Layers we gave a nod to lessons learned and invested in a feed tower. This let gravity help us fill feed bags at its base, but the irony was not lost on us that we still then had to sling said bag over our shoulder before taking access into the hen house through a small hatch, ducking as we went, before picking our way over perch and feed trough to reach the feed hopper. 3 times a day. The Archimedes screw may have been referenced way back in 1000BC but just a bit behind, and 164,000kg, 54,500 bags and 6 years later we've finally installed a feed augur to the system.

The builders of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon used such a device to move water efficiently. Effectively it's a screw inside a hollow tube - as you turn it from one end it can effectively pick up water (or hen feed) and transport it along the tube until it arrives where you need it. Genius. With covid having felled much of the farm workforce this past week it's a timely reminder that we should never take our health for granted - or the work that others do to keep this place running. It's been a busy week but already my back is feeling a little straighter.

Meet our new ladies

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 21:16:03 GMT

Writing this late on Sunday night last Monday feels a long time ago when after much anticipation we welcomed our latest flock of Leckie Layers onto the farm. They were born and reared up near Blairgowrie, making the short journey down to us at 16 weeks old. Ideally we don't want them to start laying for 4 or 5 more weeks - they still need to grow a bit and have enough body weight and condition to sustain their impressive laying rate. These ladies will be with us now for the next 16 months or so. For the next couple of months in particular I'll be spending a fair bit of time with them - making sure they are well settled in, used to people, laying in the right place and generally chatting away. Call me odd but they are actually pretty good company.

The week then became a head long rush into all sorts of field work - silage, disc-ing, spreading lime to balance the soil pH, preparation for winter barley sowing. Anton our current volunteer may have limited English (he's French) but he's taken to the tractor like a duck to water so has been a great help. Just aswell as between the hens, kids and meat boxes I've had limited time (and skills?) to help with the tractor work.

Today has been spent collecting our latest highland beef from the Butchers before prepping all the boxes for local delivery or postage. We will get the other items loaded up onto the online shop on Tuesday so if you're looking for something not in stock leave your email on the product page and it will notifiy you when loaded up. For those of you who love a slow cooked dish we've got plenty of feather blade, shin chunks and short rib to make your mouth water.

Sorrowful Skies

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 11 Sep 2022 17:10:19 GMT

This last week the cloud hung low over the Carse and lambs appeared in and out of ghostly mists. It's been a strange old time here at the farm. The sad passing of the Queen a surreal bookend to a week that has seen us mourning two good friends lost too soon. We are lucky to have the relative peace of the farm, the monotony of hen house deep cleaning and long walks to check stock. All offer time for quiet reflection and internal conversations about the meaning of it all and the reminder of how precious time is.

We had friends from Shetland staying, a stop off en route to University drop offs, and we were grateful for not only the distraction but the extra pairs of hands. The polytunnel has been stripped bare, removing opportunities for flea beetles to overwinter, and the hen house is ready for the next flock of Leckie Layers. We've got 900 arriving tomorrow to settle in before they start laying mid October.

Looking ahead to next week we've got highland beef coming back from the butchers at the end of the week - so last chance for beef box orders from this batch...

We will also be reminding ourselves that whilst clouds come and go the sky and sun are always there. It's just harder to see them sometimes.

The Hill edition

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 10:09:59 GMT

Unlike Harry Potter our hill pigs needed no map to marauder. Despite having the largest of pens - full of unbroken hill ground - they always enjoyed a romp around the wildness that sits above the tree line at the bottom of the Gargunnock Hills. The word Leckie itself is considered a derivation of the Gaelic "Leacann" - a descriptive word that translates as the 'ground at the bottom of the slope' - then the pigs themselves can probably claim the name too.

Luckily they have been some of the most biddable pigs we've reared on the farm. 100% driven by their appetites and the white bucket that delivers their daily feed of oats from the neighbouring Bield Farm mixed with whey. This milky liquid is delivered weekly by Drew and Pierre from Crieff based Strathearn Cheese Co . It may be a by-product to their artisan cheese making but our pigs love it. I think we're in for something a wee bit special from this batch - we're taking advance orders now for limited Hill Edition pork boxes.

Elsewhere on the farm we've got a busy week planned cleaning down and disinfecting our largest hen house ready for our new pullets to arrive next week. It's a long job so am getting the playlist finalised to keep us company. If the weather holds out today then I think the field of spring barley may get combined - it's always slightly incredible to watch a harvester at work so hope I can get away from the hen house for a sneaky peek...

Red Clover Rocket Fuel

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 11:13:58 GMT

Anyone else getting autumnal vibes? With the return of the grey days things definitely seem to be on the shift here at the farm. The end of August always see's us busy with a lot of sheep work. The 700 or so lambs that were born in April need to be 'spaned' from their mothers. Whilst it might sound harsh to split the family units the mothers are starting to look a bit fed up with the continued suckling of their lambs who, by now, are more than half their size. Splitting the young off lets the ewes rest and regain condition.

The lambs are weighed and sorted into batches - then moved out to graze on fields which themselves have been 'rested' over the summer to allow them to grow good forage. Fergus often opts to mix his grass seed with red clover - it provides a high protein crop which is great for fattening lambs. Coupled with it's nitrogen fixing properties that are important for soil health red clover is a good choice for our flat carse fields - albeit it seems to seed like crazy and pops up all over my vegetable garden.

We enjoyed an off farm trip on Saturday to see Skippinish in concert below Stirling Castle. Texas had played the night before at the same location and we're hopeful that it might be the start of a more regular cycle of events at the site - its a real treat to have live music so close. We were able to provide a camp for the night for some folks who were attending the gigs and had a fun weekend making new friends and feeding massive farmhouse recovery breakfasts round the table (hence the delay in this weeks newsletter!). Nothing better than Leckie sausages and poached eggs to recharge the batteries. To spread the love we've got a great 3 for the price of 2 offer on our sausage range this week

Summer visitors

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 05:36:16 GMT

As sure as night follows day there are a couple of rules about the school summer holidays here in Scotland. With 10 days to go until classes start again there is an autumnal feel to the mornings if you're out and about early doors. The other is that your calendar is suddenly rammed with trying to squeeze in visits with friends and family that you planned for summer but haven't quite managed to pull off yet.

In the last week it's been great to have friends from all over staying at the farm - 6 families and 13 kids at the last count. Whilst the exhausted dishwasher has this morning finally given me an error code, we've been making the most of the extra hands. Little people make great road blockers as we move animals hither and thither. And fabulous egg collectors. Fergus' has pretty much moved out the house to avoid the chatter and so the build of the massive haystack has been progressing nicely. When the average age profile drops the eldest child follows suit, also motivated by needing to make some money to pay for back-to-school preparations.

With most of our sheep and lambs moved out to the far away fields today is the turn of the cattle. With highlanders to move we will need some careful planning to avoid the Sunday walkers. I'm also today awaiting delivery of a new hen catching net. Our Leckie layers have become canny in how to fly out of their runs and there are chooks at every turn on the farm at the moment. With a changeover and rehoming scheduled for the end of the month I need a concerted effort to round them all up. A perfect activity for our younger visitors this week - wish us luck!

Salad and Egg news

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 05:33:31 GMT

Hope everyone has managed to find a shady spot to enjoy the sunshine from this last few weeks. We've been enjoying the latest dry spell and getting some additional silage cut for winter feed. With the drought conditions down south many farmers are having to feed their livestock from their winter stocks of hay and silage. It may then follow that prices for hay and silage could rise for those with good supplies. Most likely though balanced out by a drop in cattle prices (as no one has any feed for them). Its hard to predict - I stopped trying to forecast the vagaries of farm economics a long time ago.

Our salad unfortunately has no shade. The outside beds have bolted in the heat, the leaves wilting under the sun, and we haven't got near the tunnel with autumn seedlings due to stupidly high temperatures inside. Alas we are then going to draw a line under the salad for 2022. Always a sad day - but with the additional problems with an ever increasing flea beetle burden its been a hard year all round on the growing front. Hilary will get everyone's accounts adjusted this week and I'll get to work figuring out a way to run the hens into the tunnel as soon as weather allows to see if they can help us control the wee blighters.

On the hen front we have changeovers planned for both our hen houses in the coming 2 months. As we retire our current Leckie Layers and bring in new pullets we have to wait 8 weeks for each flock to start laying. This means we wont have enough of our eggs to meet our usual order numbers. As in previous years we will be partnering with award winning Corrie Mains Free Range Eggs from Ayrshire. This family run farm uses a very similar feed to us and maintains really high standards. The only alternative to this would be for us to have a 3rd hen house to tide us over these relatively short periods (that happen every 16 months or so) but this would also then mean we would massively overproduce for the other 14 months which seems like a very wasteful model. Any queries re this let me know. I'll update in due course to let you know when we are back onto 100% Leckie Layers.

New Egg Pricing

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 05:29:58 GMT

We are really sorry to advise that we are having to increase our egg prices. As with most businesses we are facing significant uplift on prices - but in particular the cost of wheat which has had a real impact on our hen feed prices.

Most egg producers had to put their prices up much earlier in the year - but we have been sheltered by our forward purchasing of feed at the start of the year and existing stocks of hens and packaging. Unfortunately we have now had to renegotiate our feed and with new birds due in in a few weeks costs are heading home to roost.

We have managed to tie into supply contracts until April 2023 to give us some certainty in our pricing - but unfortunately we do need to increase our prices to enable us to keep producing our Leckie Layers free range eggs.

New prices will come into effect from 1 August. Prices per half dozen will be:

Nelleke's Medium - £1.95
Ellen's Large - £2.05
Katie's XL - £2.15

The new pricing will be applied to your repeat order payments from the beginning of August. There's no need to do anything as this should be done automatically.

As ever we really appreciate your ongoing support and custom in these challenging times. If you have any questions or would prefer to amend your order please contact us at info@oldleckie.co.uk or give me a call 07825 241196.

.

From frustation to joy

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 06:38:17 GMT

It doesn't seem to matter how long a period of dry weather lasts. When rain is finally forecast there is never enough time to get all the jobs finished that need done before it arrives. This week that meant bringing in the hay at the same time as doing the field work (dung / harrowing / seeding) for the winter Kale.

It's only when Fergus is really desperate that he asks me for help with the hay carting. The round bales are relatively easy - moved to pairs before being spiked and lifted by huge frames mounted to the front and rear of the tractor. Alas it was not the round bales he put me onto. The towering stacks of wee square bales are another matter. Built in 5 layers of 10 each stack is carted in as 50 bales by some sort of torture device invented, I'm convinced, to drive me to tears of frustration.

Step 1 - reverse the trailer towards the stack. Step 2, tip the trailer down through 90 degrees before opening it's giant arms. Step 3, reverse onto the stack without knocking it, or its neighbour, down. Step 4, squeeze shut the gates to 'grab' the stack. Step 5, tip the trailer back up through 90 degrees to transport safely back to farm yard. Step 6, repeat Step 1 - 5 in reverse to deposit stack neatly in the shed.

If only. After 8 runs I'd managed to only drop 30 bales in the field, though a lot more in the sheds as the stacks crumpled on release in the shed. at least they were undercover though - and could be left until we come to build the main hay stack. I chanced a final run to get 2 stacks in before I lost all the light and promptly knocked down a stack in the field before the one I was carting fell out the bottom of the trailer in the yard. I reckoned at my age tears of frustration were beyond me but the thought of having to handball 100 hay bales into the shed manually was almost too much. I finally got finished at midnight. Arms a bit bigger, back a bit sorer but weirdly satisfied.

All aches quickly forgotten about the next day with the joy of 8 new piglets - 4 pink, 2 black, and 2 spotty. That's farming life for you.

Good Hay, Sweet Hay, Hath no fellow

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 09:42:40 GMT

The Carse of Stirling is famous for it's Timothy Hay. All the way back in 1720 farmer Timothy Hanson began to promote cultivation of this high fibre perennial grass. The dried hay not only feeds countless sheep, cattle and horses through winter but is also the staple diet for many domestic pets - if you have a rabbit or guinea pig then they too will be grateful for the last couple of weeks of perfect hay making weather.

You don't want to cut Timothy too early - but when the bloom of it's flowering seed head turns the fields a dusky purple the crop is ready. All that is then needed is good weather to cut, turn and dry the grass over 4 or so days before rowing up and baling. You only need to have driven along the A811 from Loch Lomond to Stirling this last week to see the fruits of farming labours - dwarfed by towering hay stacks and incredulous at the sheer number of round bales shorn from their fields.

It never ceases to amaze me that the Carse gives up this annual harvest given that it was once an un-navigable water ladden peat bog. Take a walk round nearby Flanders Moss National Nature Reserve nearby to better understand how this landscape used to look before the peat was hand cut and floated off down the River Forth to leave the claggy soils we now farm on the flatlands. An inconceivable feat of massive human endeavour. When holidays are curtailed - and long days turn into long nights as the repetitive haymaking churns on - it's good to remember that compared to those efforts, ours seem a little paltry.

Summer skies

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 08:54:11 GMT

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I Spy 50% off our outdoor pork

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:45:42 GMT

With the freezers getting filled for the busy summer season of BBQ's and holiday meals we're celebrating with a massive sale on some of our outdoor reared pork. For 1 week only follow head to the shop to get 50% off our pork ribs, shoulder, mince and chops. We had pulled pork for lunch today - its the most simple way to cook a pork shoulder so suits farm life well. In the oven before breakfast and you don't need to do anything else until it comes out. I rubbed a mix of paprika, cumin, brown sugar, salt and pepper onto the meat before adding some cider to my covered casserole pot - cooked at 130 C for 5 hours. Served in a bun with some red cabbage coleslaw and BBQ sauce - a total crowd pleaser!

The rainy day we are having today can only mean one thing - school holidays. With the junior team back on the farm we're hoping that many hands make light work! We spent some time this week preparing the outside beds for the salad - and there's lots of plugs to transplant. We have been struggling a bit with our Leaves this year - an ever increasing burden of Flea Beetle has resulted in a lot of crop damage inside the tunnel so were hoping the outside plants will yield better. At the end of the growing season we'll open up the hen run right down into the tunnel and see if the Leckie Layers can help clear them out.

Elsewhere on the farm Fergus is pleased to see the rain having re-seeded some fields last week. We need dry, still weather to seed, then a long day of rolling the field before a good dose of rain to get the grass crop established well. There was a 4.30am start to catch the still weather on Thursday but it was well worth it to get it all done before the dampness arrived. For those of you keen gardeners I'm sure the rain is also welcomed - though lets just hope it doesn't hang around too long!

Curl-ooh-who?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 05:04:02 GMT

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Rootin' Aboot

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 29 May 2022 13:55:12 GMT

How good is it to feel the warmth? After the last couple of showery weeks the sun feels great. With the agricultural shows kicking off after a break of 2 years and the jubilee celebrations underway it feels like there are a few fiestas afoot. Anyone local should head along on Saturday 4 June to the Gargunnock Show - a brilliant family day out with lots of animals, crafts and entertainment in the ring.

The pigs on the hill are having a party of their own. Once the battery begins to lose its charge the clever things have realised the electric fence is no match for a group charge. Despite the absolutely massive area they have, clearly the call of the hills in stronger. Luckily, like Fergus, they are 100% driven by food. As soon as we arrive in the landrover with the morning rations they ambush you - but are then happy to follow like the pied piper as you lead them back into their enclosure before switching the battery over.

As ever the days are busy. All our lambs are getting a mineral drench to ensure everything is in balance - the ache in my back and arms proof of how big some of them already are. We've been busy with tours - continually amazed by the increase in interest from groups wanting to come visit and learn about Scottish farming. And as I write the tractors are thundering up and down the hill outside taking the first of our winter silage bales upto the yard to be wrapped and stacked. It's great to have so many sausages in the freezer as there are many mouths to feed this tea time.

We got a restock of Highland beef on Friday, and with the pork of the week before the freezers are fit to bursting to keep you all well stocked with delicious meat, thoughtfully reared, straight from the farm. Our next beef boxes towards the end of June will be from a Limousin born and reared on the farm. I know some of you find the taste of the highlanders a bit strong - if that's you then a box from this round is the one for you.

Early summer

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 23 May 2022 09:02:55 GMT

Early summer has well and truly arrived at the farm - the blue bells over and the rhododendron's in full swing. Swallows and house martins flit past the farm buildings at every turn. The martins somewhat perilously cling to the high windows of the old house in their search for a suitable window nook to begin their painstaking efforts to build a nest from mud. The grass has had good growth with the alternate rain and sunshine that we had in May. The cattle are out of their winter housing and slowly munching their way round the fields.

In the carse fields the grass we grow for winter feed is suddenly long enough to turn our minds to weather forecasts and opportunities to harvest our first cut of silage. As the grass bends and waves with the wind we are continually looking over the fields to spot tell tale signs of deer activity – indicating perhaps a hidden young one deep in the grass. We are hopeful for success from a Curlew nest, a rarity these days, we will minimise risk to the nest by later cutting of this field and will try to get on top of the large number of predatory carrion crows.

Our April born lambs are growing well – often congregating in large groups to race up and down the fence lines. As we continue our daily stock checks the odd one or two come back to the farm for some extra care – their mothers unable to feed them sufficiently. We now have 8 pet lambs that the girls are looking after. Regular milk bottle feeds mean that they are always delighted to see people and they are the highlight of our schedule of school visits.

Salad Season

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 21:29:39 GMT

And so the 2022 Leckie Leaves season begins... Having seeded, watered, transplanted and fleeced I reckon we can start cutting a limited amount of our salad leaves this week. I had been thinking it was still a week or two away, but the April sunshine has worked its magic.

The rockets, mustards and tatsoi plants are particularly quick to grow - the milder range of lettuce leaves and some of our beautiful edible petals take a bit longer. Consequently the first few weeks of leaves are always a bit spicier than our high season blend. I feel obliged to subject the leaves to our own taste testing (as we do with all our produce). All I can say is its been great to have some decent green stuff back on the menu. The leaves have such a good flavour that the purists amongst you may enjoy them naked, though with a sweet tooth I rarely stray away from a touch of a balsamic dressing.

The leaves are deftly harvested with a sharp pair of scissors - always early in the morning on day of delivery to ensure they are succulent and fresh. We put absolutely nothing on the leaves as they grow and with no preserving gases they last really well in the fridge with little deterioration. You can add a bag or two on as a regular weekly order, or just as and when you want. We probably wont have bags out with our stockists for a wee while until we bulk up so buy direct through the online shop. Enjoy!

Easter delights...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 10:31:12 GMT

Happy Easter! As you know we have plenty of eggs on the farm, but the promise of chocolate ones has sent the younger two spiralling out of bed and running around the farm on an easter egg hunt. The clues for hiding places were written last night as I left the lambing shed. The frustrated face of the youngest one as she struggles to interpret my slightly off the wall thoughts tells me that I wasn’t thinking particularly straight at midnight.

This week has all been about delights. Clusters of lambs racing up and down the fields, Gean trees (Scottish Cherry) in full blossom and buds beginning to unfurl into soft lime coloured leaves. Our recent guests at the farmstay have all brought with them small toddlers and it’s been through their eyes that I have seen the real farm delights. Eyes widening upon discovering a pig round the corner, toothy smiles as eggs appear on the collecting belt, and the tractor factor which leaves small boys rooted to the spot and unable to move – though quivering slightly.

I hope you have some plans for spending Easter Sunday just as you want – with family, friends, a walk in the woods, or some quiet reflection whilst bird song abounds. And with chocolate. Definitely lots of chocolate.

Life is a balancing act

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 07:50:11 GMT

Following a patchy week weather wise the weekend has delivered sunshine, blue skies and a lift in the spirits. Outside in the fields the labouring ewes are pretty good at picking a choice spot to give birth. You can bet you'll find the new borns behind a dyke or a towering Lime tree - cooried in, sheltered from the cold west wind. The byre - used to house mothers and lambs from the outside fields who need some tlc - has become quiet in the drier weather. The main shed with singles and triplets has emptied/ restocked / emptied and now restocked for the last time - with a bumper day of births yesterday we are well past half way.

For the first time since we've been back at the farm lambing feels a bit more manageable this year. The extra help we've had has lightened the load - meaning if you're out on the early shift then you're off the late night checks and vice versa. The kids also are another year older and with the eldest focused on buying a new phone the ability to work hard and make money has dropped the proverbial penny. The extra pairs of hands, even if little, go a long way.

And so the last two days I've been holed up in the polytunnel doing the final bed preparation and the first of the salad transplanting. Bird song surrounds, the odd pheasant wandering in before stumbling back out upon seeing me, and layers of winter thermals stripped off as the temperatures soar with sun's arrival. There have been proper lunches on the table, accounts done and my brain doesn't feel like its separating. The 2 younger ones, having been camping out in the garden, appeared back to sleep inside last night for the first time in 3 weeks and I had time to read them a story. The better balance feels great.

Wake me up when its all over

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 07:35:42 GMT

It's been absolutely all things go at the farm this week. Lambs popping out in the field and the shed, plenty of triplets to be twinned onto more milky mothers and a farm record busting 6 calves born within a 48 hour period. Our small team numbers have been bolstered by Hannah, a lovely Welsh volunteer here for the month and our semi retired brother in law who could give us a week to shovel poo, clean pens, roll fields and generally remind himself why he'd spent a working lifetime in an office.

The day begins with shed checks by 6am - pairing up any new borns with their mothers and moving family groups to smaller pens, morning field rounds to bring in anything cold and pop it in the warmer box and the first of 4 daily bottle feeding rounds for any little ones needing a top up. Regular field and shed checks maintained through the day, snatches of free time spent spreading dung, chopping wood and eating where possible. Final checks after dinner at 10pm to deal with anything and quite possibly a witching hour visit to the cattle to ensure safe delivery of a new born calf. Thank goodness the kids are off school these next two weeks.

I got a day pass on Thursday to represent the farm at the Federation of Small Business Scotland awards in Edinburgh. Having been thrilled to be nominated by a customer for an award I was speechless (not common) to find Old Leckie the winner of the Business and Product Innovation Award. Was great to meet folks from all walks of Scotland's small business community and have all the hard work of Team Old Leckie and our fabulous customer support recognised - well done!

Talking of holidays please don't forget to let us know if you need to skip eggs - Hilary is in the office every Monday afternoon prepping delivery paperwork so early notice is much appreciated. Also happening this Monday is our annual Lambing Live tour of the farm - you can join us at 1pm via the Go Rural Scotland Facebook page for a 30 minute tour. There are farms all round Scotland taking part over the next 2 weeks so sit back and enjoy. Back to the rounds - will soon look like we're all sleep walking so wake me up when its all over!

When is a free range egg a Barn egg?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 08:37:02 GMT

As from 21 March, across the whole of the UK, all free range eggs are to be labelled as Barn Eggs. Due to the ongoing government housing order our ladies have to remain inside for a wee bit longer to keep them safe from Avian Flu. For the moment then you’ll see a wee stamp on our boxes noting that the eggs are produced by hens temporarily housed inside. They still have plenty of room to scratch, dust bath and roam, and the same great quality feed and attention.

Fingers crossed it’s just a few more weeks until they can be out with the sun on their backs.

Sunny Days

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 11:12:46 GMT

What a weekend. The sunshine and warmth helping to lift the spirits against the ongoing darkness elsewhere. It was jumper weather on the farm yesterday and the annual 'first lunch outside' was duly marked up on the calendar as the sunglasses got dusted off.

Struan has been off this last week on holiday. He normally works 3 or 4 days a week with us doing all manner of day to day jobs on the farm so when he's not here we really miss him. A holiday to Ireland on the ferry sounded just perfect until P+O decided to suspend sailings. His mum tells us that she thinks he was sailing with another carrier. We're hoping so - the dynamic of working with your spouse has its ups and downs - especially when days are long. Having a third party around definitely makes us behave better towards each other so fingers crossed he's back safe and sound tomorrow.

I was hoping to have good news about the hens housing restriction being lifted this week. They have now, by law, been held inside for 16 weeks due to the high prevalence of avian flu in the UK. Under the marketing rules there is an exception made in such circumstances that allows eggs still to be labelled as free range in such a period of enforced housing. After 16 weeks you legally have to call them Barn Eggs, even if the restrictions remain in place. In previous years they have always lifted the housing orders at 16 weeks, but with a number of Scottish cases confirmed this week they have extended it for another few weeks. So, from tomorrow all eggs laid need to be sold as Barn Eggs, so you'll see a wee stamp on the boxes saying this. Lets hope they will get out into the sunshine soon.

Burn baby Burn

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 10:47:23 GMT

Well, it's a different day today than last Sunday - soggy and overcast out and about though the forecast looks better for the week ahead - the end of the week promising some warm sunny days. The Transforming Timber guys are still on site, and worked around the rain this week to burn their second module. There are 3 in total, same dimensions but slightly different construction types to allow them to asses the impact of variations on fire performance. Fergus has totally regressed to his youth when as a young boy on the farm there was no opportunity un-missed to get a bonfire going.

In the cattle sheds the first calf of the spring calving season has arrived safely - Fergus has named it Pyro in homage to the burning team. We've had the sheep back in this week for a final check before we bring them closer to home for lambing. The fields around the main yards have been rested ready for feeding the soon to be mums - they too will welcome the lift in temperatures later in the week to get the new grass growing.

On the cards this week is an attempt to bring my unruly apple trees under some semblance of control. The amazing Green Routes - a Scottish charity, based in Gartmore, have recently taken on the Community Garden at Gargunnock House and yesterday ran a really useful workshop on pruning. I was reassured to hear that it is actually really difficult to kill a tree in the process so feel a bit more confident about giving it a go. Green Routes offer hands-on training in horticulture and an alternative to classroom-based education for young people with additional support needs and will be a really welcome addition to village activities.

We've got another couple of highlanders away hanging for butchery towards the end of the month. We wont get a chance for much butchery in April due to lambing so if you're keen to get a box in head online to get your order in for this batch. Plenty of highland beef and still some outdoor pork in stock and available for home delivery or pick up this week. Have a good one!

FSB Awards

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 11:59:15 GMT

What a glorious weather weekend we are having. The birds are in great fettle as the sunlight shafts through the trees turning the early morning frost into dew drops. I've got one eye on the lawnmower planning a first season cut if it dries up enough later and I'm feeling the pull of the greenhouse, compost and salad seeds. With the turn of the month it feels like Spring has arrived.

The farm has been a busy place with footfall this week - playing host to a team of fire experts undertaking some controlled burning experiments in one of our fields. Part of the Transforming Timber team these guys are part of this collaborative project which is trying to revolutionise the UK construction industry by using the renewable natural resources of our Scottish forests to create engineered products which can compete with concrete, masonry and steel. Its been fascinating to get an insight into the wonderful world of academic pyromania. You can find out more about the project here .

We were thrilled to discover one of our customers had nominated us for a Federation of Small Business Award, and even more excited to then find out we have been selected as a Scottish finalist in this prestigious event. The FSB awards celebrate the achievements and contributions of small businesses and the self employed across the UK. I'm excited to be representing our patch and local producers at the awards lunch at the end of the month - and for the excuse for a day trip to Edinburgh.

The freezers are restocked with delicious highland beef so mince and steaks are back on the menu! Will get the stock updated on the online shop on Monday so you can order intime for deliveries this week. Hope you can get out and about and enjoy the sunshine today - lets hope it lasts!

Near and Far

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 12:05:32 GMT

It’s been hard this week to not feel a heaviness settle over everything. As Covid finally arrived in the household we found ourselves subject to the disruption and juggling that isolation requires. We were grateful for the support of our team at the farm who pulled together to cover and our friends up at the Inn at Kippen and Arnprior Farm who were willing and able to provide back up plans and cover for our French Farmers’ visit.

Ultimately however mere inconveniences overshadowed by desperate world events in Ukraine. Historically known as the breadbasket Europe Ukraine boasts 25% of the most fertile soil on the planet (“Black soil”) and agriculture is its largest export market. Cultivating an area of ground larger than the size of Italy it is among the top three grain exporters and a world leader in areas such as soybeans and sunflower oil. It’s richness in natural and human capital no doubt adding to it’s vulnerability.

Closer to home we are hopeful that a bit more normality will return this week. We have highland beef coming back from the butcher at the end of the week - last chance for any box orders please. This animal was reared on the west coast machair of Ormsary overlooking the sound of Jura before finishing on the lush grass of Old Leckie. Slowly and naturally grown the flavour and tenderness of the beef is quite something. We are also really pleased to have Craig back on the Friday delivery run after being off since last year. Massive thanks to Brian (who will stay on the Wednesday route) for covering in his absence.

Let it snow

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 19:21:47 GMT

This week the snow finally fell in earnest. For us it was the perfect type - soft, fluffy, good for snowman building and sledging ... but 48 hours later and it's all gone. Although the fields are sodden, the burn teeteringly high with snow melt and a sharp bite to the wind, it is better than having to start carrying hay out the ewes in the field through the white stuff.

We got home from our short break just in time to catch the last of it, and were immensely thankful that the team back at the farm had kept all the balls juggling through a week of storms, staff absence and sheep break outs! After a quiet January the school holiday week has kicked off our farmstay bookings for the year - it's lovely to a lot of familiar faces returning to use us a holiday base, but great also to have quite a few international visitors booked in again.

We are getting ready this week to welcome 40 French farmers on a visit. They should have been here 2 years ago before Covid got in the way so it will feel like a real marker to have them finally here. Mind you over that period their original group size has grown some and teas and coffees have morphed into a 3 course lunch of Leckie produce so suspect this week will mostly be spent tidying up, cooking and keeping our fingers crossed that it dries up in time for our own entente cordiale before the six nations rugby game on Saturday.

In the freezer our highland beef stocks have shrunk to almost nothing (one or two wee treats lurking if you love a featherblade!). We have a beast currently 'hanging' due for butchery the first week in March so if you want to reserve a 10kg box please do via the online shop . Boxes are available to post UK wide.

She's Electric

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 20:35:36 GMT

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Wobbly loads and birdsong

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 11:52:30 GMT

It's a cold one on the hands this morning folks - I quickly regretted not taking the time to find my gloves as I headed out on the morning rounds. With snow on the Gargunnock Hills and the high winds and rain of yesterday I reflected on our luck earlier in the week to have taken delivery of some new egg boxes in a more settled spell.

We are such a small producer that even the minimum order lasts us well over a year. It arrives on a massive articulated lorry which can't access the farm so we have to offload at a neighbours and then shuttle the stacks back here. With prices for boxes now 24% higher than they were 2 years waste from rain damage doesn't bear thinking about...it also makes me very grateful to those of you who leave out clean boxes for re-use!

Elsewhere on the farm this week Fergus and Nelleke headed out at sunrise one morning to record all the birds they could hear and see for the Big Farmland Birdcount. With 10% of the farm being woodland, hedgerows along field boundaries and open water courses we can provide habitats for a great range of birds, animals and insects. I was still impressed though with the number of birds spotted / heard in just 30 minutes: Blackbird, Bluetit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal tit, Dunnoch, Great tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Housesparrow, Jackdaw, Mistlethrush, Pheasant, Robin, Rook, Song thrush, Starling, Wood pigeon, Wren and a Treecreeper. I'm often guilty of taking all the background birdsong for granted of a morning, so it was also a good reminder to slow down and pay more attention!

Our exciting news trailed last week is needing just a few more days to fall into place - lets hope I can post a shiny new picture next week and share all! Have a good week everyone - and don't forget to let us know of any changes to deliveries over the school half term break w/c 14 Feb

New beginnings...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 11:21:34 GMT

Do you ever get that feeling when you are really really excited about something but its not 100% confirmed and you don’t want to jinx it by telling people unit it’s actually ‘in the bag’? I’ve got a bit of that going on at the moment - bear with me until next week and hopefully will be able to tell you all some fab news!

Until then we still have some other new beginnings afoot on the farm... Up first the annual sheep scan which lets us get a better idea of how many singles, twins and triplets we're expecting come April... Stuart the scanner spent an early morning with us, and all our ladies, using an ultrasound to spot tiny embryos. That'll be our 9th scan since being back at the farm and I'm still none the wiser at how to interpret that moving black and white image - another farming superpower that continues to evade me. With 747 lambs due the first two weeks of April I better get back to some serious training.

A bit further west I was very sorry to hear that our Killearn stockist - the fabulous Hewitt and Aker deli - had shut its doors. Sirin and Paul were my very first retail customer 6 years ago - giving me some much needed confidence that our egg plans weren't nuts - I wish them both every luck in future ventures. We've had a number of queries from customers based in Balfron and Killearn to see if we would extend our home delivery service out to there and we are actively exploring this at the moment. If you know of anyone on the Balfron / Killearn / A81 loop that may be interested please do forward this on and ask them to drop me an email to info@oldleckie.co.uk ... it would be great if we can establish interest levels to see if we can make it work.

We've got a full freezer again - plenty of outdoor pork and highland beef available to order via the online shop here

The superpower of kale

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 11:51:53 GMT

Good morning all! After the disappointment of a cloudy dank day yesterday today is shaping up nicely to be dry and sunny. It’s been just a tad lighter on the early run for the school bus and those of you out and about may well have seen the first snowdrops – anyone else feel like a slumbering spring is beginning to stir?

As with many of you who make a positive choice to eat meat from grass fed animals we’re really passionate about this system – for many reasons – taste, welfare and the environment. With our location and climate we know we grow grass really well, and it allows us to rear and finish our animals with minimal inputs from elsewhere – letting them take their time to naturally mature.

Passion aside however you just can’t grow new grass in the winter so we need to find ways to store and feed the animals over winter, and we also need to find ways to maintain our grass pastures with young growth. Making and storing hay and silage through the summer months is a very traditional way of storing grass, but this last year or two we have also been experimenting with kale and silage as both a winter crop for our ewes who stay out all winter, and as part of a cyclical programme of grass re-seeds.

Kale brings a welcome fresh nutritious crop to the ewes through the winter. We plant a whole field with it at the end of summer, then place silage bales like soldiers at regular spacing up the side of the field. Electric fencing is then used to regulate the area available to the sheep to graze. They start at the bottom of the field, working their way up as the fencing is moved every 4 days. Kale has the added benefit of having long roots that help aerate the soil and break it up, so once the sheep have fed their way through the winter the field is nicely prepared for a new grass re-seed – meaning we can avoid having to plough the ground for planting – neatly avoiding unnecessary carbon release and soil degradation. With the exception of there being no way to walk through a field of Kale on a wet day without getting completely soaked from waist down it would appear to be a win win all round.

For order this week we have some tasty outdoor reared pork chops, pork and beef burgers, pork mince and a variety of roasting joints. Next weekend we’ve got meat due back from the butchers on Friday and Saturday – outdoor pork and highland beef boxes available to pre- order through the online shop. Just aswell as we are completely out of mince – for those of you expecting your repeat orders of mince this week I’ll be in touch with options. Back to normal then w/c 24 ^th Jan.

Variety - the spice of life

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 11:47:52 GMT

One of the great things about farming is the sheer diversity of jobs that any day can bring. With Fergus fully occupied with his day job this past week I was fully drafted in. Looking back through my camera roll and thinking about the newsletter today I was struck by the mix of the ‘extras’:

- Moving (and getting stuck in the woods with) pigs

- Visiting some other farms to look at their off grid bothies

- Stripping out sink unit from holiday cottage and trying to work out how to plumb the replacement

- Checking out the garlic which is now ‘up’

- A family outing to lift last years tatties for use as seed potatoes for this year

- Prepping a meal for 12 - Highland Short Rib - for a farm tasting visit (was delicious)

- Getting beef/ lamb / pork back from the butcher and boxes out

I think I most enjoyed the ‘Getting a shredded tyre off an old trailer’ moment. After a fair few hours of trying with little success we drafted in our neighbour with his flame thrower to try and heat the nuts to get them moving. I assumed the important job of chief fire officer with an extinguisher and bucket of water to hand but luckily was not needed to step up. Fergus was impressed that we had managed it, though I didn’t like to point out that it was much easier once we figured out the nuts went the ‘wrong way’.

No rest for us just yet either – with our sheep scan tomorrow its all hands on deck this afternoon and tomorrow to shuttle all our ewes around. This will tell us how many lambs we can expect later in the year – its hard not to feel a bit nervous.

The freezers are now fully replenished with all sorts of highland beef and outdoor pork – including a full range of sausages and gluten free option. Hilary will be in tomorrow and we will get all the stock loaded up so if you’re wanting a meat order this week it’s probably worth waiting until tomorrow afternoon – or leave your email on the online shop item and you’ll get a notification when stock levels are updated.

Blowing away the cobwebs

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 11:39:49 GMT

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr! Hope you all had a fab festive and that there were opportunities to meet with some friends and family over the holidays. We’ve had a really nice break from the usual routine and with the weather mostly wet and dank it was perfect for hibernating in front of the fire once the farm essentials were finished.

I love the start of a new year - its how I feel about Monday's - full of expectation and enthusiasm about what can be achieved over the coming days (usually before the reality of Friday sinks in when most of my to do list remains unchecked). The start of last week brought with it a couple of bright days and we headed up the hill for a chilly picnic in the last sliver of wintery sun. It always gives a great perspective of our wee patch, nestled low amongst the trees, set within the beautiful landscape of the Forth Valley and the views north and west into the Highlands.

The chilly wind did its job of blowing out the cobwebs and we've started the year with renewed energy to review and focus on our plans for the next few years. Our focus on high welfare, quality, provenance and sustainability will continue to underpin everything we do. We hope our customer service and set up continues to make buying direct an easy and fulfilling way for you to enjoy fabulously tasty food from the farm. And like any good New Year's resolution list there are a number of long time outstanding projects - like our wee off grid bothy - that we're hoping, finally, to get done this year. Ask me in December if we got there!

We've got Highland Beef Boxes and Outdoor Reared Pork boxes scheduled for around the 22-24th January - we're taking orders for these just now, and hopefully there will be some smaller items left over to replenish stocks in the freezer. We're low on some things but we've got plenty of roasting joints and pork chops in stock.

Festive Wishes...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 14:15:30 GMT

I do hope in this cold dank weather that you have some sparkly lights and tinsel up to brighten and lighten the mood. It's been cold on the hands out and about, thick morning fog making morning sheep rounds interesting. The tups have been collected in, their job done for another year, and ewes split between the pure and the cross breeds. In the sheds the calves keep coming, and excitingly the Belgian Blue / Fresian crosses have had some lovely female calves. We bought a small number of these cows from a local diary farm a few years back in the hope that the diary genetics would pass through to our breeding herd and improve the milk-iness of our mothers but so far most of the calves born from them have been males. This year then we are delighted to finally have a good batch of 'keepers'.

Looking forward to the next few weeks delivery days will stay the same as usual - don't forget to order any extra eggs either by email or the online shop, or let us know if you need to skip a week or two if you're heading off to family and friends. We'll be out and about round the farm as usual, drafting the kids into various jobs and keeping our Leckie Layers entertained in their own 'lockdown' which remains in place due to avian flu. Like everyone we're keeping our fingers crossed the new year doesn't bring our own equivalent. We're going to skip the next two weeks worth of newsletters over the festive holidays - but the online shop and on farm pick up remains open. I just realised that the stock levels hadn't been set for our delicious pork chops and some of our lamb - so if you're after any of this you should now be able to find the items!

We sign off this year then with a huge thank you for all of your ongoing support and custom through 2021. Its been a really incredible year for us with the Farmers Weekly Award and all of the best wishes we received from so many of you. We have a fabulous team of people at Old Leckie who all contribute massively to making the juggle and jigsaw puzzle of everything we do come together - a huge thanks to Team Old Leckie regulars: Struan S, Brian, Craig, Emma, Michelle, Matthew, Andrew, Struan M, Scott, Iain, Jessie, Hilary and Geordie. You all have much patience and ability to put up with Fergus' terrible jokes. Have a super fun festive and we hope 2022 is a great one for you and your families.

Talking bull...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 09:35:41 GMT

It’s going to be a lovely day weather wise today and we’re planning to make the most of it – tatties to be lifted and sheep to be dosed. Luckily we’ve got a friend of the girls staying so will have lots of pairs of hands to help. First up though is the bull pen – not for the fainthearted, and unfortunately probably not for the kids – that is if we want their good humour for the other jobs.

Cattle, like humans, are pregnant for 9 months. They have fertility cycles just like us too, meaning that they can get pregnant on a regular basis. We try to batch our calving into 2 periods each year – Spring and Autumn calvers. Like with the sheep and tups then we only have the bulls in with the cattle 9 – 10 months before we want to calve. To keep the calving periods manageable we need to move them out promptly to avoid a lengthy calving season.

The bull pen provides housing for our male team members as they rotate round the herd. Secure housing with inside and outside facilities, adjacent to the main animal yards, it’s a really useful space. It’s one downside is that we have nothing mechanical to aide in the cleaning of it. Normally a 3 hour job for 4 people to fork and shovel out compacted poo - with just Fergus and I you can do the maths. Luckily we got past half way yesterday so this morning are motivated to get it finished, cleaned and re-bedded for the new arrival whom we will move down at lunchtime. Anyone in need of some morning cardio please make your way along!

Hope you have a good week – don’t forget to let us know of any adjustments to egg orders, or get your meat orders in for delivery / pick up.

Storm Arwen and bird flu arrive

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:03:43 GMT

Hopefully by now everyone has had their electricity restored after Friday’s storm… Even without power cuts high winds always make us nervous at the farm. Open ended buildings, the polytunnel and our large trees all vulnerable to the excesses of a gallus breeze. We have come off pretty lightly on the farm - a lot of branches down and a bit of shed damage but compared to pictures from elsewhere nothing at all to complain about – do hope you all came out relatively unscathed too.

Which wasn’t to say it wasn’t still a busy day yesterday in the aftermath. For most of the farm jobs the lack of power doesn’t make itself felt too much, but in our hen house it definitely makes life easier. When everything is functioning well the feed belts run on timers, the food itself is delivered by an automated auger system and the nesting boxes close up late afternoon to stop the ladies from sleeping in them (and making them dirty) – reopening early morning to welcome the first shift of egg laying. Any power cut at all knocks off the timers. For the last two mornings then it’s been an early start to get out and manually open boxes before lugging in a couple of hundred kg’s of hen food to pour out along the feed troughs.

Having watched the incidence rate of avian flu cases south of the border continue to rise over the last few weeks I wasn’t surprised that there will be a UK wide housing restriction being applied to poultry. Regardless of size of flock, all poultry must be kept undercover from tomorrow. The extra time in the houses yesterday then was well spent checking everything is as well set up as it can be to amuse and safely accommodate the ladies over the next few weeks. As in other years when we’ve had lockdowns I’ll be speaking nicely to the shops we supply to get any waste greens from their vegetable displays to keep them topped up and may well have a busy night tonight trying to catch up our strays.

1/4 Sides Outdoor reared pork available

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 08:23:00 GMT

It’s a colder morning out there today, delivering as forecasted the start of a more settled weather spell for at least the next week. The blustery wind yesterday made short shrift of remaining leaves on the trees - their boughs are beginning to look pretty bare. If this week brings a hard frost to knock off the last we will find ourselves bang in the middle of winter.

Aswell that there is still plenty of running around to keep us warm. The male sheep, or tups, went out at the beginning of November and will stay in with the females for 34 days. The ewes fertility cycles every 17 days and is scented by the tups as a call to action – effectively meaning that each ewe has as two opportunities to become pregnant before the tups are removed for another year.

We ‘keel’ the tups midway through – placing sticky red wax on their chests to leave their calling card on the rear end of the ladies. It sounds quite straightforward but trying to catch the tups out in the field to apply the keel is an art in itself and requires some strong legs! In our busy April lambing period these marks help us identify those due to lamb in the early part and those who will be a bit later. Have a look if you’re walking through the farm to see if you can spot the tell tale marks.

Looking ahead to this week we’ve got pigs and lambs heading off to the abbatoir today for the last butchery of year. We still have a ¼ side available of the outdoor reared pork to book (delivery Monday 29 November) and are looking forward to having some lamb and pork back into the freezers for sale in smaller amounts. Hope you have a good week – don’t forget to advise of any changes to your usual delivery or place any meat orders through the online shop…

New friends

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 13:10:24 GMT

After the splitting blue skies of yesterday, today brought with it a very flat light – fittingly meeting our mood having had a late night last night watching the Stornaway based band Peat and Diesel in Edinburgh. The farm stops for no man, woman or fuzzy head though. Fergus has in fact decided that chasing tups around the field to re-keel them is a perfect antidote to the night before. I’m not convinced.

The night rounded off what has been a sociable week on the farm. We welcomed to our home this week a couple of folks linked to COP 26 – an very old friend from Seattle pitching his hemp jeans as an alternative to resource intensive denim, and Sawodogo - a civil servant from the Burkina Faso Foreign Affairs office who was supporting his country’s delegation to the event. It was fascinating to hear first-hand about the machinations of the summit and understand better the challenges for small developing countries to find an effective voice.

Sawadogo’s schedule had been pretty full on for the first 10 days of the event, but with an opportunity for a couple of days downtime he was keen to get some fresh air, his hands dirty and experience some practical Scottish farming. Fergus was more than happy to have an interested helper – most of your eggs and potatoes this week were probably packed by Sawadogo. It made us think about the lost opportunity of all those other diplomats ensconced in hotels across the central belt – such a wasted chance to have a rich cultural exchange and make new friends. With his departure at the end of the week coinciding with Gemma (our most recent volunteer/woofer) leaving, the house once again seems impossibly quiet. Hopefully we can now be back in the routine of having a bustling house again, similar to pre covid times.

The prettiest calf?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 07 Nov 2021 17:15:06 GMT

I must remember as winter progresses that there is nothing like a good moan about the rain to bring on a much needed dry spell. Somebody must have read my complaints about the rain last week and taken pity on us. This week has been exactly what the doctor ordered - cold and dry under foot. Lovely. Even the autumnal leaves look a shade happier in the sunshine.

It has been a week of new arrivals on the farm this week - more calves born in the shed and a new batch of wee hairy highlanders brought in from Ormsary estate in West Argyll to be reared on our good grass. Ormsary is a beautifully secluded patch of woods and moorland, with the most amazing seascapes looking down Loch Caolisport to the islands of Jura, Islay and Gigha. The estate is managed by a friend James - we've known him since he was just a wee fella, skirting the coat tails of his father who lived and worked nearby us when we used to live in Argyll.

When we left the west to move back to the farm I don't think I could have guessed at the ongoing connections we would still have to the place and its folks. I guess for all time there has been cattle moving between east and west - following old drove roads, the seasons and good grass. The rotation continues through our old friends and new customers from Argyll who buy meat and hay, and it's a privilege to work with some great farmers who we know and trust to source great stock from. This week James brought with him some cracking calves and a real beauty amongst them - an unusual brown wee girl who is one of the prettiest highlanders I've ever met....of the ruminent kind anyway!

Parliamentary privileges...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 31 Oct 2021 09:25:42 GMT

It is a horrible day out there today. The mild wet of earlier this week has been replaced by cold rain - stinging my hands as I headed out on the quad bike today. The change in clocks last night may have granted us a welcome extra hour in bed, and much needed daylight for early morning rounds, but other than that there is not much going for the day so far. With the accumulation of the recent rain fall the ground is sodden. As my boots squelched through puddles of not just rain but sticky mud and everything I touched left my hands covered in goop I reflected once more on the amazingly dry year we have had so far. It all balances out in the end they tell you, and today it feels like we're in for a soggy tail end.

It is not all doom and gloom though. Earlier in the week - ahead of the shift in weather - we had managed to bring the remaining cows back home to the sheds during a dry patch. This morning the steam was rising off their backs against the background sound of them feeding contentedly on our summer made silage. After breakfast they will retire back to their straw bed to settle back and watch the rain come down, and down. I think if they could speak they would pass on their thanks - instead we get a long gaze and a gentle nod of the head as we scratch it at the feed barrier - a quiet moment of re-connection as their winter housing brings them back into closer daily contact with us.

The week has also brought new healthy calves, a pre-record of a presentation that Visitscotland have asked me to do for a COP 26 session they are hosting on sustainable tourism and an overnight stay from a Quality Meat Scotland 'personality' to promote Love Lamb week... the smell of their lamb skewers on the BBQ in the steading sheds last night was amazing. Most excitingly we got note from Evelyn Tweed MSP's office sharing a Parliamentary motion that she has lodged congratulating us on our Farmers Weekly Award. Fergus would happily, laughingly, tell you about my alternate life as a democracy nerd so the fact that our wee patch is now part of the official record of the Scottish Parliament has tickled me pink.

I'm off to finish the cutting lists for our final pre xmas beef orders we're getting back next weekend - have one or two 10kg boxes still available if you've got room in the freezer for a ready supply through the winter,

As ever let me know any changes to egg orders and pop online to order any meat for delivery this week - plenty of pork roasts and sausages, plus full range of highland beef available to order: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

happy halloween everyone

The Big Dibber

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 16:10:24 GMT

When Halloween arrives next weekend and the vampires come out they will find Old Leckie safe within a garlic infused smoke screen. Fergus has been working his magic in the workshop and came up with a contraption herein to be known as the "big dibber", a 10 feet long baton with 20 wooden teeth embedded within in. Having roped in visiting friends this weekend they managed to plant over 40 kg of individual garlic cloves down in the walled garden. If anyone has any large scale planting projects planned and want to borrow it just let me know!

Following on from last weeks update I'm pleased and relieved to report that the cows with the Red Water seem to have stabilised. We now have 4 young calves bouncing around the shed and the mums to be are all looking a little happier so fingers crossed we are out of the woods here. Its been a busy week with the sheep moving through the yards for some dosing, lambs off to market and eggs flying off the shelves to keep the local shops well stocked through the busy school holiday week.

I managed to avoid most of the garlic planting thanks to a bumper delivery of highland beef back from the butchers. The weekend was spent preparing our popular 10kg boxes for delivery to further flung places and had a 24 hour round trip into mid Argyll to drop off a van full of meat to both old and new customers - for those of you receiving we hope you have a fabulous winter of freezer filled Leckie deliciousness!

We were sold out quickly of the 10kg boxes this time so have another 2 highlanders in the system for more boxes due in on 6 November. There are still a few of these available to reserve - either drop me a note or book through the online shop. We now have plenty of steaks (no fillet), mince, diced, and 4oz burgers back in stock. Silverside and topside back in too - this time the butcher has done a lot of smaller topsides under 1kg so well suited for smaller households. See what's in stock online: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef

We've got a few orders in for our outdoor reared pork boxes too - hoping to get some through at the end of November if we can get an abbatoir/ butchery slot. We wont have too much room left in the freezers here for the pork so will mostly be pre-selling these as 1/4 or 1/2 boxes. If you'd like to order a box from this batch have your orders placed by middle of November: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/meat-boxes

Garlic?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 08:59:59 GMT

As it seems in many walks of life a low always seems to follow a high, and so it was for us this week. Before we even got our winners logo from the awards in the inbox we realised we had a problem with our batch of Autumn calvers. This group of about 25 Limousin cows had been moved a few weeks ago upto the high fields we are leasing from the neighbouring farm. Having had a rotating mix of sheep and highlanders up there through the summer there was still plenty of grass for a turn for this group before they headed into the sheds to calve and for the winter.

We make daily stock checks of all our animals here at Old Leckie, and when calves are due these are done twice a day so we soon noticed when a few cows were listless and sunken eyed. We nervously moved them back down to the shed where we could get a closer look. Fergus' worst fears were confirmed with a vet visit - the cattle had fallen foul of Red Water (babesiosis) - a tick borne disease causing high fever and anaemia. Less of an issue if exposed to when young and immunity is built, this nasty bug can wreak its worst havoc with heavily pregnant cattle. Having heartachingly lost two of our older cows at the end of the week we are reminded of the powerlessness which we all feel when facing severe illness. Tonight though we are feeling the early tentative stages of hopefulness that the worst may be over - over the weekend 2 calves have been born and seem to be doing ok, and we haven't seen any worsening of the other mothers-to-be. It will be a nervy next few weeks as the cows slowly pull back from the hit they have taken.

To distract us from the worry last night Fergus enlisted the 2 younger kids to help with a mammoth session preparing some garlic for planting. Having eyed up the freshly broken soil around the harvested tatties he's decided to try a winter crop for the first time. In case you're interested I can confirm that it takes 4 people 2 hours to split 20kg of bulbs into cloves for planting. Lets hope there are some great garlic lovers amongst you...harvest should be june/july.

We've got some Leckie Lamb and Highland beef coming back from the butchers this week so to help clear some space in the freezers we are running a special 3FOR2 offer on some of our tasty link sausages:

Outdoor Reared Pork:

- Smoky BBQ

- Smoky Maple and Chilli

- Sundried Tomato and Basil

Highland Beef Link

Simply add 3 of your choosing to your online basket and enter 3FOR2 as the discount code - https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

UK Diversification Farmer(s) of the Year!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 05:49:42 GMT

It's taken a few days for the dust to settle after our trip to London at the end of last week which saw us fairly astonished to be awarded the trophy for the Farmers Weekly Diversification Farm of the Year. Alongside Struan and Emma from the farm team and about 1000 other people we were blown away by the scale of the glitzy black tie event at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, hosted by comedian Marcus Brigstock and broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky. The food was great, wine plentiful and the atmosphere buzzing - after the last couple of years it was very surreal.

As the dinner service finished large screens broadcast the video summaries of the finalists as the different awards categories were presented and it was fab to see winners from all corners of the UK representing the best in UK agriculture. We had arrived with very low expectations - delighted simply to have been in the final so were completely wrong footed when our names were called out as winner for our category. We had a long wobbly walk in high heels (me, not Fergus) from the back of the ballroom to the stage as the judges comments reflected on our enthusiasm, knowledge and innovative subscription model built around careful focus on our production and local customers. As the Farmers Weekly chief reporter clocked we looked incredibly happy and surprised to find ourselves up there! If you haven't seen the clip on our facebook page you can see it here: Awards Clip

Beyond the award itself we've been humbled with so many messages of support and congratulations through this whole process. Our whole hearted thanks for this and the ongoing role you play in supporting our wee family farm and our attempts to make buying direct an easy and rewarding process. To that end the award is very much a team effort with not only our staff here at the farm but our customer base to so well done to you too - with Jeremy Clarkson also an award winner on the night (for the amazing Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime) you are in good company!

In the ring...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 07:19:21 GMT

Do you remember that gut twisting feeling before you sat your driving test, or an important exam or job interview? That's exactly how I felt on Wednesday as a I sat in the bleachers of the auction market in Stirling waiting for our cattle to come into the ring to be sold - pulse racing, heat rising and feeling a little bit light headed. Every year we sell the majority of our 'forward stores' of our Limousin herd, these are the 18 month olds that are bought by farmers to the drier east (with ready access to barley) who will fatten and finish them. It represents the single biggest sale of the year for us so it makes you feel quite sick knowing that a poor sale can have a significant impact on your income for the year.

The market is set out with a centre ring at ground level, flanked to the rear by the auctioneers' raised platform and tiered seating around 270 degrees of it - filled with buyers and sellers - some bidding, others catching up with friends not seen for a while, all with a view on what makes a 'good even batch' and keeping a watchful eye as lots move through. Predominantly male, always noisy, the sounds of metal gates clanking open and shut and the acutioneers intelligible commentary broadcast out over the proceedings. Most sellers enter into the ring through a small side gate, standing alongside their stock to offer it up and will the buyers to pay a little more for the pride they show in their eyes and the quietness of their stock. That's usually Fergus' job, but last week he was too busy with his day job so I took to the floor. Every second of the 6 batches stretched out like a minute until I could bid my retreat, relieved that the stock looked great, trade was good and checked my pace just a little so it didn't look like I was sprinting to get out. Hopefully next year he will make it, but the sale went well so who knows...

The Inn at Kippen live cook school from the farm is on Monday October 11th at 6pm. Those wanting to join in with a cook and eat for the Forth Valley Food Festival need to book in the next few days here: foodbooking.com/api/fb/0_ejx4

Chef Paul Smith will be taking you through a 2 course menu for 2 starting with a baked souffle with Arran Cheddar, followed by a main of cured pork loin, accompanied with charlotte tatties, spinach and a dash of farm foraged wild garlic. All produce supplied by Old Leckie. Ingredients are delivered out by the Inn on Sunday 10th October and they go far and wide with regular participants from Edinburgh and Glasgow so do please share the event widely with any friends and family who you know might be keen - its a great way to have a virtual meet up with them!

Our presales for October Highland Beef Boxes have meant these are now fully reserved so we're hoping to sneak in another slot to get another beast away and have started a list for November boxes. Abbatoir slots are hard to come by at the moment due to various pressures, and with the usual butchery rush in December these November boxes will be our last before the new year. Let me know asap if you would like one or book online: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/meat-boxes/products/leckie-highland-beef-box

In the freezers for immediate delivery we have some new arrivals - pork chipolatas, pork mince, plus a good range of pork roasts, ribs, links, diced and chops. Beef is getting a little thin on the ground - but still got links, minute and sirloin steaks and a few packs of diced braising rump. https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

Would be great to get any meat orders in early this week as we're off to London on Thursday for the Farmers Weekly Awards. We still can't quite believe that we are in the final for UK Diversification Farmer of the year. We reckon we're very lucky to live in such an amazing community of folks who are genuinely interested in knowing where and how their food is produced and the strength and value in buying local - whatever the outcome we are very grateful to have your support.

Autumn Equinox

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 10:13:28 GMT

This week the autumn equinox has passed, Wednesday heralding the day when daylight hours equalled dark’ o clock and from here on in the days become shorter as Autumn begins in earnest. Wednesday for us also marked a small nod to the great harvest god in the sky as we brought in the last of the silage and, finally, the bales of straw from the carse. Autumn brings its own challenges (daily trips onto the cattle shed roof’s to sweep gutters of fallen leaves) but also pleasures (the hens make their own way in at night as daylight receeds making the shut in quick and easy).

With only a couple of weeks left of this school session please don’t forget to let us know if you are away on holiday and need to skip a delivery or two – or have some visitors and need a top up! After 2 years my dad is finally managing to travel from Canada to see us for the holidays. We’re all excited to see him after such a long time – he arrives just in the nick of time to look after the kids and the farm for our trip down to London for the Farmers Weekly Awards night. Here’s hoping his jet lag isn’t too bad...

We’re getting through our last highland beef delivery – though still plenty of delicious Sirloin and Minute steaks available, plus a good range of our outdoor reared pork – either email or place your order online: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

We’re scheduling some highland boxes for delivery mid October – if you’re looking for a box to see you through to the new year this is a good time to order.

Hosting RHET

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 10:09:33 GMT

The weekly update has taken me a bit longer to sit down to do today... the 6 months worth of paper filing dumped in piles on the floor of the office finally standing in may way of access to the desk. In my defence lambing always arrives too early to undertake a spring clean, so an autumn tidy up it needs to be.

Having had to juggle things around last week due to the abbatoir closure we have the first batch of hebrideans heading off tonight, due back Wednesday for delivery / pick up. We have one half box still available from this batch is anyone is keen to try it. Its amazing how much their wool has grown since they were sheared back in July. The Hebrideans have such thick, deep fleeces compared to our white Texel/Llyens. These fleeces are still bagged on the farm - awaiting a trip back up to Morayshire by a self catering guest later in the year to be donated to a social enterprise she is linked to that works with its members to turn fleeces into yarn and ultimately products. I cant wait to see what they can make with them.

Fergus has been chasing the weather again - last week and next getting final cuts of silage made and baled in the short weather windows. He's prioritised this winter feed over the bedding - we still haven't managed to get the straw in yet. Lets hope the week after next is kind to us! We had a super visit on Wednesday by the CEO, Chair and coordinators of the Royal Highland Education Trust. This brilliant charity supports all the farm visits by schools across the country and much much more - organising in school talks, careers visits and are now moving rapidly into working out how digital connections can reach even more young people in a meaningful way. They are supported by a great many volunteers like us across the country and it was really interesting to be part of their team away day and join in the discussions over a tasty Old Leckie BBQ.

This week sees the final regular Wednesday delivery by Emma. Having been working with us for a few years now on the route she is heading onto an open university course and wont be able to do the weekly run as she prioritises time for this. We wish her well in her studies, and feel happy knowing we will still see her around locally (she lives on the farm!) and hope we can persuade her to pick up the odd holiday cover in the future. Look out for Brian who is getting shown the ropes and looks forward to meeting you (or your doorsteps) over the coming weeks - please say hello if you see him!

Movable floor versus spades...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 08:58:37 GMT

After the beautiful end to the day yesterday this morning finds high clouds in the sky but the forecast for today and tomorrow is to remain dry. Fergus is a bit jumpy. The field of spring barley was sown later than we would have liked, and has been taking its time to be harvest ready. The barley gives us not only some extra feed for our younger 'store' cattle that we sell through the market but importantly gives us straw for the bedding of the cattle through their winter housing. We could have combined the barley last week on that really hot sunny day, but the rain which followed meant the straw would have lain unbaled in the field, much harder to dry flat. He hoped that it was a good call - and fingers crossed we can get the combining done today, straw baled tomorrow and then the heavens can do what they want.

In true A-Team style - I love it when a plan comes together... following on from last week's update am pleased to report back that Fergus' movable floor for the immovable 'movable' hen house worked a treat - if you want to see it in action check out this wee vid: https://www.facebook.com/oldleckiefarm/videos/389330699257821 - its worth a watch! Another plan that's coming together is a planned live Inn at Kippen Cookschool live from the farm on Monday 11th October. Part of the Forth Valley Food and Drink Festival Paul the chef @ the Inn will be cooking live from the farm that evening - am excited to be working with these guys to plan a fabulous 2 course menu around our produce... If you haven't seen their cookschool its great - they provide all the ingredients, you connect online live (or catch up later) and cook along with Paul to learn some great tips and try your hand at some new recipes. Ill post the link for booking once the menu is finalised.

We've had a bit of a spanner in the works with a call from the abbatoir we use to advise they have had to close due to a confirmed covid case. This means the hebridean lamb boxes due back on Wednesday will be delayed. I'm relieved that we got the news before we had dropped off the lambs - looking forward though the ongoing disruption across the processing sector makes me feel a bit nervous for our planned butchery through the winter. Fingers crossed the knock on is not too bad - if you've ordered a box ill be in touch.

Luckily we still have plenty of beef and pork in the freezers at the moment, and Leckie Charlotte potato bags available also:

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/pork

Steaks and mince back in stock

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 06:39:05 GMT

its been a bit of a grey end to the week, the flat light grudgingly allowing just a glance at the blue skies we have all become accustomed to. Rain is due this evening and the long range forecast looks more unsettled. The autumn equinox may still be a couple of weeks away (22 Sept) but the early morning air feels cool, there is a dampness to it, caught floating in the long view.

In the farming calendar autumn means final checks on the spring planted barley, keeping fingers crossed it ripens whilst still dry enough to harvest. It means trips to view tups (male sheep) to purchase a few more for the coming breeding season. Today it means testing our new system for cleaning out the hen poo beneath the (immovable) movable hen house before it gets too wet to get onto the site with tractors.

With Fergus and Struan back to work this week after their jaunts, and Annie the volunteer keen and enthusiastic I'm hoping that this week will give me some much needed time in the office. As much as I ignore the mounting pile of paperwork it definitely is not going away, but its hard to flick the switch to focus on the detail and sit and be still. I thought I'd make a start yesterday but a door not shut properly and gates left open meant a few hundred hens exploring the wider farm environs. Secretly I was delighted at what turned out to be quite a humourous hen hunt rather than accounts.

Most excitingly at the end of the week we got a highland beef delivery back from the butcher - mince is finally back in stock, as are some cracking looking steaks and finally some bumper 6oz beef burgers for those of you who just need a bigger bite. If you like a thick fillet steak this is the delivery to order from.

Plenty of pork available also: chops / ribs/ belly / links / roasts / diced / burgers:

Leaving the leaves for another year...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 10:37:22 GMT

Its been a noisy one this morning - we have had some calves and cows in the shed overnight and they have been mo-oing at each other across the feed ramp. Its always a bit unsettling trying to sleep with noisy animal chat in the background. I suspect the girls sleeping out in the tent last night had it worst, at least we could shut our bedroom window. Everyone was still where they were supposed to be this morning though and they seem unconcerned about the bleating lambs adding to the cacophony as we brought them in this morning from our far away fields to move nearer to home.

Important news on 2 fronts today:

1) Salad - sadly the end of the 2021 season is here. We hope you have enjoyed the leaves this year, its always such a joy to have the first of the spring greens, though by end of August the early morning harvests definitely start to catch up with me! The heat has been challenging at times and hasn't helped us extend enough volume to see us into September so think we are better tucking away the scissors until 2022 now. Over the next couple of days ill be adjusting everyone's subscriptions before de-listing the item - will issue refunds against pre payment cycles as needed. Thanks for all your lettuce love this year!

2) Egg pricing and sizing: we're continuing to adjust as the 2 new flocks come into full lay but aren't yet laying normal range of sizes. To make deliveries and billing easier whilst we may not always have enough larges I've adjusted the price of larges down to the same price of mediums for the next 4 week cycle. Even if you have just paid a cycle it will get picked up next time so everyone who is normally a large customer will get a block of medium pricing. Hope that makes sense...

This week is shaping up to be busier than normal. Struan who normally works part time with us has been on a massive hill walk across Scotland and Fergus is away for a few days mid week. Excitingly however we do have our first overseas volunteer for a year arriving on Wednesday. Annie is from Oregon in NW America and will be with us for 3 weeks. Pre covid we almost always hosted volunteers through the Wwoofing scheme so have been missing having the extra help and company due to travel restrictions. As you might imagine there is a long list of jobs to work through so lets hope she is hardy!

Hebrideans and Gluten Free

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 09:34:11 GMT

it was an early start this morning for Fergus who left around 4.30 on a border raid to Darlington to collect a massive steel beam. We're hoping that this will be the last piece in the puzzle of how to clean out the underneath of the (im)movable hen house. All things being well it will attach along the front of the removable floor we've already laid under and allow us to pull it in and out for easy hen poo scooping. The youngest child was game enough to go with him so suspect ill have a tired 9 year old later on!

The mix of rain and sun seems to have granted the Kale a welcome reprieve. Our seed merchant has been out regularly over the last few weeks and the prognosis looks a lot better than it did a fortnight ago, with the remaining bare patches having now been over seeded by hand with some stubble turnips to fill in to give the wintering sheep an extra chomp. To the west of the farm Fergus' wildflower meadow is coming into its own with the late flowering cornflower adding a lovely blue hue to the hillside. Weekly 'draws' of lambs to market are now part of our regular weekly cycle. Anyone heading into Stirling on Tuesday or Thursday mornings will no doubt have noticed the increase in farmers with livestock trailers loaded for the markets - hopefully not slowing up your journey too much!

Our (very) slow growing Hebridean sheep are finally getting fat enough to think about finishing. We have 10 of these crackers which were born and reared off the salty marshes of the MacCormaig Isles in Argyll by our friend Sandy Campbell before fattening here at Old Leckie. Small, but super tasty we're looking forward to trying these and will be selling them as 1/2 lamb boxes. I already have a note of folks who expressed an interest before but do drop me a note if you want to get more info as we plan butchery for the first 5 over the next week or so.

Elsewhere on the meat front we finally have managed to get some Gluten Free Links made from our own outdoor reared pork to add to a few new flavours our butcher has recommended: Smoky BBQ (kids favourite), Spiced Mango, Coconut and Lime (I wasn't convinced but they are actually REALLY good) - we also have Smoky Maple back in...

In the freezer we have:

LECKIE OUTDOOR REARED PORK :

Chops

Links

Gigot Roasts

Shoulder Roasts

Ribs

Diced / Mince

Tenderloin

LECKIE HIGHLAND BEEF:

Diced / Braising / Shin

Topside Roasts

Brisket

Minute Steaks

Short Rib

Links and Lorne

Burgers

10% off chops

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 05:15:31 GMT

Its been a while since there's been so many movements on the farm as this past week. After 5 months of doing an amazing job with their lambs its time to give our mums a rest. It always tugs a little at the heart strings when we spean (seperate) the lambs, but if you've been through the farm recently and seen the size of them still competing to suckle from their mothers you would also understand why it is that the ewes stop bleating for their young pretty quickly. All the different groups have then been brought in through the yards, with the ewes disbursed to one end of the farm, and the lambs to the other.

A stand out character from this years batch of lambs is HopAlong#2. Some of you may remember HopAlong#1 - a pregnant ewe who had a leg amputated and went on to rear 5 healthy lambs over many years. #2 is a wee lamb born this year who managed to get herself hung up on a fence through the night, by the time we spotted her on the morning round she had done some pretty bad damage to the top of her leg which unfortunately led to the loss of it. She was so full of spirit though am pleased to report she has made a great recovery and seems quite able to keep up on the other 3. For the long runs when being moved between fields she seems quite happy though to take a lift on the quad bike - do give her a wave if you see us passing!

Elsewhere we've had the highlanders back down from the hill, pigs getting shuffled around and friends and family coming and going through the week making the most of the last week before the schools are back and the Farmers Weekly photographer on site trying to find ways of making a delivery of eggs look exciting. We've got pigs coming into the butcher this week so have ordered more Smoky Maple and Chilli links for those of you who have discovered a new favourite flavour. We're going to try some new flavours too this time so cant wait to get these back at the end of the week.

In the freezer we've still got pork / sundried tomato and basil and some really tasty red onion and sage links available to order. Plenty of beef roasting joins, minute steaks and this week we're doing a 10% off special offer on our packs of pork chops and our pork roasting joints ... it's set up as an automatic discount applied at checkout so no code needed. Enjoy!

The trouble with Kevin...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 07:55:21 GMT

I'm typing this early on Sunday - with dampness still on the the grass from the last two days of wetter weather. Self catering laundry hangs sodden on the outside washing line - my optimistic efforts to cheat the showers and grab it in a dry spell badly misplaced. Fergus however is happy. The rain has meant his focus could turn to the inside work, painstakingly stacking all the small bales of hay which we made last month into a towering structure in the main shed. Dusty but satisfying work it immediately makes the sheds look more organised, and frees up space again for the kids to get their netball hoop out. Its the last chance saloon for the kale which was seeded a couple of weeks ago. We have a specialist coming on Tuesday to walk the fields to make a call if the rain has been too little too late, or if we still think we can avoid a failed crop. Fingers crossed.

With the new school term just over the horizon, and Katie heading into high school it has been timely to share some old school Harry Enfield "Kevin" video clips with the children. The recalcitrant teenager, unwilling (or unable) to bend to direction, task or communication has reminded us how similar teenagers are to break out animals. Any animal which finds itself away from the pack, wandering lonely in a field sets itself (and us) up for a protracted period of coaxing, cajoling and frustrations to get it back to where it should be. And so it is that 3 days after getting away from its pals "Kevin" the Tamworth pig remains in the Dairy Park field at the back of the cow sheds tearing up the permanent pasture and refusing to retrace his steps. Considerably stronger than a chicken the fencing around the hen run was no match for him either, his break out compounded by the 100 or so hens that decided to follow. Wish us luck for todays efforts.

Last week the Farmers Weekly judging took place on a gloriously sunny day, though having then seen pictures of them at the competition getting an arial tour by plane we are not holding out much hope for overall success! The hens are slowly starting to lay more eggs, and bigger ones too. We would have expected to be getting very few smaller eggs now and a good number of larges, but with the heat arriving just as they were coming into lay everything has been held back. As we try our best to juggle sizing and orders we ask for your patience if you find for a week or two mediums on the doorstep rather than larges. The newest hens which just arrived a couple of weeks ago have laid the very first of their tiny eggs - I'm looking forward to being back to normal soon.

Thanks for all the great feedback on our new sausage flavours - if you get a moment do leave a review on the product pages of the online shop - its really helpful for others when deciding what to order. We've got more pigs and a highlander heading off this week to resupply later in the month. Plenty of pork and highland beef still in stock though along with the leaves and tatties. Order by the night before for delivery along with your eggs: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/all

Feeling the heat

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:02:01 GMT

It seems odd to be in the school holidays yet ruefully wishing for some rain. The heavy rain forecast for last week saw us rushing around carting hay from the fields into the shed, making a second cut of silage in one of our Carse fields and seeding grass and Kale to benefit from the anticipated precipitation. The thunder rolled and the lightening spiked however the heavy rain mostly missed us. Fergus is now walking the re-seeds worrying that we got just enough to germinate, but not enough to get well established. Germination aside the dry weather makes most things easier on the farm - picking tatties in dusty soil, dry potholes to fill with hardcore, and firm ground to head out to the fields with the tractor and 'topper' to cut the tops off the longer grass and flowering thistles to ensure the fields are still in good grazing order.

Conscious that I'm at risk of sounding like a complete bah humbug its also a bit of a relief that the searing heat of the last few weeks has backed off a bit. Struan has been on much needed holidays himself this week so the extra work has been easier for not being done in glaring sunshine. The hens also don't really like hot weather - the new house we put up last year is insulated so it helps protect the ladies from the extremes but with the exceptional warmth they have headed outside to feel what breeze they can on theirs backs, and like us, they eat smaller amounts when very hot, all of which combine to lower the egg count. The pigs need constant water delivered down to them so that they can mud bath and get their own version of sun tan lotion on, the piglets sleep spaced out to keep as cool as they can and the salad has really struggled with the heat with some of the last planting 'bolting' and pushing their flower heads high bringing their own growth to and end.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for help and feedback last week - we were grateful to get such a good response and thoughtful comments - you can see the results here: https://oldleckie.co.uk/why-our-customers-value-old-leckie . With the Farmers Weekly judging tomorrow, and our bi-annual hygiene inspection later in the week it will be another busy one - but at least Struan will be back! Don't forget to let me know if you're heading away yourselves and need your order adjusted.

Loads of super tasty meat in the freezer still available to order online: steaks, sausages, burgers, beef short ribs, pork ribs, pork belly, and plenty of roasting joints for family weekend get togethers. Shop now at : https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

Why Old Leckie?

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:58:53 GMT

Last week we asked our customers to give us some feedback about what they value about Old Leckie. A huge thanks to more than 40 of you who logged on to help us understand how you see us, and what you love about what we do... Local, Quality, Delicious, Sustainable, Fresh, High Welfare stood out as popular feedback - you can see the full range of answers above.

As a small family farm we're proud to care sustainably for our animals and our environment so that we can grow the very best in fresh, local produce. It's been great to see that our values translate into our produce and customer service - and that we have found such a great local customer base who care about where their food comes from and how it is produced - a perfect match! Thank you for your ongoing support and custom, we look forward to many more years produce great quality food for you and your family.

Beef on the bone!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 05:31:31 GMT

There are so many contenders for inclusion into this weeks farm update I am going to need to be disciplined if I want to get out before coffee time to do the morning rounds! Between the end of hay making, new hen arrivals and my latest tractor misadventures (bale spikes and wheelies on steep hills - lets say no more but I still have all my limbs and the tractors still drive) there has been plenty to reflect on...

First up however - we need your help! Following our shortlist as UK Diversification Farmer of the Year we have the 4 judges from the UK Farmers Weekly Awards visiting on 2 August to hear more about us, visit the farm, and see what our farm diversification is all about. We would love to be able to include some customer feedback into our presentation - we would like to ask you, "What 3 words best sum up why you like what we do?"... for example, you might really value us because we are "Local," "grass fed" or great "Quality", or perhaps its because we do the "Home-delivery"... whatever your thoughts we would love to hear them. It's super quick to record your thoughts - click on this link - no sign up required...

https://www.menti.com/sisnv7gdz3.

We've also been really busy on the butchery front with full freezers of our delicious outdoor reared pork and highland beef. We have new pork sausage flavours to try (Smokey Maple and Chilli / Sundried Tomato and Basil / Cumberland Hogs) and lots of pork fillet, chops and roasts: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/pork

Really excitingly on the beef front our latest highlander was under 30 months old which means we can get some on the bone cuts (regulations for over 30mths means everything has to be boned) so for a real treat we have a small selection of Rib Roasts and T Bone steaks to choose from alongside our usual range of steaks, burgers, Brisket, topside roasts etc https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef

And at last, our first crop of Charlotte tatties are out of the ground - 1kg bags available to order also https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/tatties/products/leckie-tatties-charlottes-1kg

Phew! That's probably enough for the day - I'm off to check the chooks, collect some eggs and, if Fergus is really desperate, cart some more hay bales.

Best Laid Plans

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 08:00:18 GMT

What a scorcher this week has been. Do hope you have been able to find some cool water to dip your toes into, or a grassy spot dappled in shade to catch a few quiet moments out of the sun. We’re running some great 3 for 2 specials this week – if you can’t be bothered reading the update skip to the end for checkout code…

This week was always going to be a busy one – catching up after our week away, doing a changeover clean in the second of the 2 hen houses, and with the dry weather looking settled - a second round of hay making. What I hadn’t anticipated was various spanners in the works with logistics, farm help self isolating, refrigerated transport and a nasty wasp sting to my wrist which left my whole arm badly swollen for 48 hours (note to self- if I’m ever unlucky enough to be stung around the throat ‘proceed directly to A + E, do not stop at Go’).

I did finally manage to get pigs delivered into John Cullens butchery in Bridge of Allan, hopefully followed by the highlander this week (we’re completely sold out of mince and steaks at the moment). I had a really positive meeting with butcher Jim about our butchery needs, and could feel my tummy rumbling as he took me on a tour round his sausage counter with all the different options we could choose from – watch this space for some new flavours to try and also the ‘Hog’ a massive sausage worthy of a main meal plate up, or cooked and cooled before slicing thinly as a nibble.

As with anything in life consistency can be hard to achieve, and butchery is no different. Change is good, but can also be a bit daunting. Fingers crossed Jim lives upto his reputation and we can continue to showcase our meat to its best potential. We’ve had feedback from a couple of our customers that our last batch of Skinners Pear and Black Pudding sausages were much more peppery than usual and we agree! Their usual sweetness is definitely overpowered a little so apologies to those of you who have been disappointed by this current batch. On the flip side if you like a sausage that packs a bit of a punch then these are for you! We always appreciate feedback – especially where you feel something has not met expectations – we hope it doesn’t happen, but would rather know if it does so we can review and adjust as needed.

In the freezers we’ve got a great choice of out outoor reared pork – chops, belly, ribs, diced and mince plus our range of sausages. To mark the summer sizzle we’ve got a great 3 for 2 deal on for the next week or so on the following when you buy 3 of any individual item below – just type in 3FOR2 at checkout, or follow this link to place your order and the discount will apply automatically https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/discount/3FOR2 :

Beef links

Beef Lorne

Beef Diced

Beef Rump Steak

Black Pudding and Pear Sausages

Sunny holidays...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 13:27:24 GMT

We all know that the Scottish weather has its own sense of humour, and so it was that no sooner than the schools finished for the long summer break than the clouds gathered, the wind blew a bit cooler and rain was threatening. It had to be really, if only that we can now sit back and look at the next week's forecast with unadulterated glee as the forecast predicts a week of warm sunny weather with a gentle breeze.

At this time of year this type of forecast can only mean one thing - hay time. This weekend we have cut the 'rigs' - the outer edges of the hayfields. These always get cut and baled first, allowing the tractors cutting the main harvest afterwards to turn repeatedly over the edges of the field without destroying the crop. We now need a good 4 or 5 sunny days to make good hay - it follows the same process as the silage but needs many more turns to try and eek out as much moisture as possible. Once baled - either into round bales, or smaller square bales - it is however not wrapped. Often it is stacked and left to sit out in the field to dry further in the wind, ensuring no overheating nor fire hazard before ultimately being brought in and stacked in the sheds for winter feed.

This will only be the second time in 8 years that we have ever started to make hay before the end of June. Often we are scrapping around changeable forecasts well into August / Sept so if it works for us this week we will be really pleased as its always a relief once done. The only downside is this week also conflicts with our annual sheep shear which is due to take place tomorrow - another full on day of gathering, moving, shedding, shearing and getting really mucky. With a highlander also to bring in from the outer fields to head off to the abbatoir this evening we are running a little thin on the ground and I suspect we will be much in need of our holiday next week.

Talking of holidays please don't forget to drop me a note with cancelled weeks and ill get these marked up and refunded as necessary this week. Next week we hoping to be away from 3 - 10 July but deliveries will be out as normal, and you can still order any extras as usual through the online shop. As we're away there will be no farm update next Sunday, and whilst ill keep an eye on the emails any adjustments for refunds / orders etc will be done the following week (w/c 12 July) once we're back.

Happy holidays everyone - keep your fingers crossed for the hay this week!

Farmers Weekly Awards

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 13:59:03 GMT

its been anything but a peaceful weekend at the farm with plenty of tractor action...

First up are the re-seeds - fields are ‘disc’d’, harrowed, seeded and then rolled. Fields must be dry, with no wind at seeding, followed by enough rain to both germinate and get established... Second up is the ongoing silage (winter feed) making - long grass is cut, dried, turned, rowed, baled, wrapped and stacked. Ideally 3 days dry sunny weather, ideally with a bit of wind. Even if you don’t know much about farming the logical brains amongst you won’t be slow to spot something inherently incompatible about trying to do both things at once. And so it was that Fergus headed out the door at 9.30pm on Friday night and 5 am Saturday morning to get the grass seed in and rolled before the rain hit his cut silage. He only got half way before he had to stop. Having got to bed at 1am I confess I did raise an eyebrow when he commented that he should have 'kept going through the night to get it done'. We wonder why farmers get a bad rep for always complaining about the weather - especially when sometimes we've only got ourselves to blame! As I write this today however the silage did successfully get made last night and the tractors continue to rumble past, shuttling the winters dung from the cattle sheds down onto our carse fields for fertiliser.

We had exciting news this week that we have been selected as one of three finalists in the UK wide Farmers Weekly Awards for Diversification Farmer of the Year. We are definitely not the biggest or most diverse farm out there but apparently the judges have really liked our model of supplying our farm produce direct to our local communities though our home delivery service and the way that we try to support those of you interested in not only great quality but in valuing the link between customer and producer. Its been an incredible journey over the last 5 years and its great to see that other folks think our customers and staff team are just awesome as we do. The judges will be on farm in August to meet us and see us in person. In a normal year there would then be a glitzy award dinner in London in October - though I'm not holding out much hope for that this year!

Thanks to everyone who has dropped me a note with their holiday details over the summer. I'll get through these in the next few days and make adjustments to payments etc as needed. We're hoping to get a family break from 3- 11 July ourselves so it would be great if you can let me know as soon as possible if there are adjustments to your summer deliveries.

In the freezer we've finally got restocked with our outdoor reared pork - black pudding and pear / pork / tomato and leek / hot dog links all available along with our best selling chops , pork belly and a range of other tasty cuts.... shop now for delivery this week: https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/pork

Even mighty giants start small...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 19:50:48 GMT

What a weekend of summery weather - today felt really hot at times - do hope you had some cool water somewhere to dip your feet into. Swifts and housemartins are scudding around, deer are tempted out - hidden more easily by the long grass in the silage fields and the dawn chorus has provided a spirit lifting soundtrack to early morning rounds. We've been busy over the weekend making our first cut of silage which we use as winter feed for the cattle. The irony was not lost on me as I sat visibly sweating in the tractor towing the baler that on today of all days my mind had jumped ahead to cooler times already. Whilst the grass in our 'Near and Far Carse' field was long, the yield of big round bales was less than usual - attributed to the cold wet May we had and the slow start to decent grass growth. Anyhow - as you pass through the farmyard the familiar black wrapped bale stack has begun to reform and over the next month or two will become full (hopefully) of bales which then ferment down for a palatable meal for the cows.

On the animal front our last heifer finally calved - a lovely wee Angus X calf that can be spied in the corner paddock. Eion, our old style small Angus bull has done a good job over these first time mums, though I'm in trouble for calling his sire "handbag calves" due to their compact nature. We also had a surprise arrival of 2 new born lambs to a ewe we had not planned on breeding with. Luckily the mums awkward leg has not effected her milk and they are delighting the ponies in a nearby field as they play hide and seek in the long grass and are growing well. The two pet lambs, Dot and Rainbow are now fully weaned onto hard feed and grass so the lamb milk bottles can be put away for another year. No tears in my eyes there after their busy use this lambing period.

Folks walking through the farm may have clocked some wooden structures appearing – we’ve been selecting the best of the self-seeded oak tree seedlings which we want to protect from livestock grazing to grow into mature park trees. We are grateful to those who previously managed the land and planted the huge Oaks, Sycamores and Limes that we enjoy as parkland trees today and are conscious that we must continuously add more trees as the mature ones reach the end of their natural lives. Luckily 2020 was a “mast year” for acorns and consequently there is a carpet of seedlings to choose from. Usually we make tree guards out of posts and netting, but to save time have been trialling using some recycled garden fences to protect the tiny seedlings – the jury is out! - they look a bit out of place, but need to withstand an 700kg cow rubbing against it to have any chance of surviving. It takes 20 + years for parkland trees to get established, and for a long time they can look quite scrawny, before surprising you one day as they develop a large canopy and fill out.

The pork should be back this week and ill list it on the online shop as soon as its in... plenty of highland beef still in, and salad available for one off or repeat orders, https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk.

Falling in love again

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 10:11:36 GMT

For those of you growing your own vegetables I'm guessing a bit like me you're checking the forecasts now, nostalgic for a bit of rain and moisture to keep things growing. Wednesday is forecast to bring a bit of drizzle but with the long range forecast suggesting another week or 2 of settled weather I suspect the watering cans will be getting dusted off, if not out and about already.

Last week brought some excitement at our small pet lamb Dot finally starting to eat some lamb pellets which means I can begin to finally wean her off milk bottles, and in the new hen house the first tiny pullet eggs appeared on the egg belt. Our last pregnant cow is still hanging on in there and all the sheep and cattle are enjoying their rotations onto lush plentiful grass.

Its been a bit of adjustment to having folks back on the farm again - but in a good way. Last week we had a family group visiting from Liverpool - one of the ladies, a paramedic of 20 years, was on her first holiday since early 2020. The pace of farm life seemed to work a treat - assisted by some delicious dinners at the Gargunnock Inn, nights in the field round the firepit and lots of sunshine. We know how lucky we are to live and work where we do, but having others around makes you stop and see it as if new again, through their eyes and we fall in love with it all over again. Tomorrow Visitscotland have asked to come and do some filming around the farm for some of their summer promotional campaigns - its brilliant to see agritourism getting profiled by our national marketing body, though suspect most of the rest of today will be spent doing a quick tidy round and getting the grass cut!

We've finally managed to get some of our outdoor reared pigs away today so we should have plenty of pork in next week - if you're keen to be quick off the mark you can visit the individual product pages on the online shop and leave your email address to get notified when the new stock is loaded up... https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/pork

Surfs up

Mon, 31 May 2021 10:06:04 GMT

What a scorcher its been these last few days. With the first gap in farm activities for a number of months I took the chance to take the kids over to a friends farm on the west coast of Kintyre for a couple of nights. After 2 days of more sun, sea and sand than you can throw at a donkey we got home late last night with bags of wet clothes, wetsuits and salty hair. Our middle daughter Ellen (10yrs) spent most of winter lockdown vicariously living on Bondi Beach, addicted to Bondi Rescue. On her first trip to the beach since then the surfboard was out. Watching her effortlessly gliding along small but perfectly formed waves I realised that there is actually nothing that you can't learn from You Tube.

It's done the trick though - it felt like a proper wee holiday - so much so that I actually can't remember what happened on the farm last week. It was sunny. Got warm. The grass grew. It was sunny. The last of the cows with young calves went out to grass. It was sunny. It got hot.

Hope you've all taken the chance to sit and chill for a bit too!

As ever drop me an email if you're away also having a break anywhere, need to skip a delivery or get any BBQ orders in for burgers, salad and sausages online at https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

Have a lovely sunny week, long may it last!

Growing season

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 23 May 2021 15:38:55 GMT

Everything has definitely heated up this last week - the grass finally seems to have begun to grow with some vigour. Having been a bit worried about forward stocks of salad in the polytunnel its now transformed into beds bursting with lettuce, mizuna, tatsoi, rockets and mustards. On Wednesday I was virtually joined by a P3/4 class from Kippen for a Royal Highland Educational Trust farm visit. Having talked about soils and looked at different seeds I walked up through the tunnel to look at how we grow our leaves, challenging the kids to try the hot and spicy ones in the bags supplied to them in their classroom. The mustard leaves weren't the only hot things in the tunnel that day - I reckon it was about 30 degrees inside and with too many layers on it didn't take long to feel like I was melting! It was the first school visit we've done for ages though and it was so good to get all the great questions from the kids - even if they couldn't be here in person.

The new Leckie Layers were delivered safely on Monday and are now tucked away in their house settling into their new surroundings. They are 4 months old and noticeably smaller than a mature hen at this stage, their combs tiny and pale pink in colour. Over the next 4 weeks we will slowly increase their daytime light in the house until they come into lay at about 5 months old, by then their combs fleshier and deep red. I walk around them every couple of hours to chat to them and get them used to me - when they hear me outside they go very quiet, I knock at the door, loudly say hello and then enter to a sudden chitter chatter. It makes me smile each time.

This weekend has mostly been spent moving stock around to different fields onto new grass, and trying to find a lost water pipe. Our "Big Field" at the west end of the farm is subdivided into 9 x 1 acre plots which we rotate the young cattle stock around every few days to ensure they always have tasty, young grass in front of them. Having spent a lot of time getting this set up a couple of years ago with water troughs and electric fencing it was then with some horror that we realised a few days after the cattle were turned out that the water troughs were full of rainwater from the sky, not water from the pipe system. Cleaning out the ditch over winter Fergus knew he had broken the pipe, but in reattaching had managed to find an old end of a random pipe to link it to - rather than the right one. A shame it took 2 days of hunting to figure that one out but at least it was, ultimately, an easy fix.

We were hoping to get some pigs away for butchery this week but Skinners are busy, and with a bank holiday weekend at the abbatoir next weekend it will be another couple of weeks until we can get them away - but not long now - we definitely need a restock of all things pork. Plenty of highland beef in though - browse through the full selection online at https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef, or email me if you're not yet confident with the system

Dancing cattle

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 16 May 2021 18:38:48 GMT

What a beautiful evening to end of a warm and dry weekend. The swallows are here; dipping and diving in and out of open barns and barrelling through the steading archway, the last lamb was delivered on Wednesday bringing a welcome end to our busiest spring and the tatties are finally in the ground.

This week has also seen more of the cattle turned out - always a welcome sight as they dance their way onto new season grass. Young calves born in the shed, sense the excitement of the others and join the thunderous racing around the field as legs are well stretched and hooves find firm pasture. This past week we've been focusing on getting the hen house cleaned and disinfected. The retiring hens left last week and on cue the electrics in the house short circuited. With 900 arriving at 4pm tomorrow our helpful sparky, who so far as not resolved the issue, will be on site early to get the lights back up and running. The lighting patterns for the young birds are really key to getting them settled so at this stage i'm focusing on the mantra of 'it'll be alright on the night'. Lets hope he can work some magic.

I feel like we're behind a little on our usual cycle of salad seeding and planting...we are really missing having our overseas volunteers who normally live with us and help on the farm in return for bed and board. With our first vaccinations in the arm today we're hopeful that we can begin to host again later in the year. Aside from the welcome farm help its always great to pick up some new recipes and card games from the travellers, plus its great for the kids (and us!) to get that exposure to different cultures. Hopefully once the start of this week has past (new hens/ hen inspection /virtual farm classroom talk with Kippen primary/ paint self catering after 2 new windows fitted) ill get into the tunnel and gardens - I think by then ill need the quiet respite of mindful activity!

A Hunt Through the Woods

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 09 May 2021 17:05:04 GMT

How does the saying go - when you cant see the wood for the trees?

Its felt like that a bit this week as with lambing nearly finished (7 to go) my focus turned to all the paperwork and deadlines that had been shelved over the previous 6 weeks. This includes the monthly billing for those of you not yet signed up to the new system - apologies these are still not out - will try and get the paperwork to Libby who does our invoicing by the end of the week.

The hebridean lambs didn't get the message though that time was still short, or maybe they just decided after a more sedentary week that I need to get out and about. Cue an email Friday night by a local to advise that a group of black lambs were having a fine old time ranging around the reservoir on the hill above the farm. Most definitely not in the field where they should be. On Saturday morning by the time we had fed everything in the lambing shed and collected up 700 hens (heading off for retirement) the nice weather of the morning had turned into grey rain and a stirring breeze - perfect weather for a hunt through the woods to find the missing sheep.

The kids were cold and wet by the time we pulled up with the quad bike and trailer to the field where the escapees had come from. The adults we had roped in looked happier - a random adventure on a miserable day a welcome break from the covid norm. We fanned out through dense rhododendron and trees before sweeping back down. It was a bit like that kids story about going on a bear hunt - can't go over it, can't go under it - just have to go through it! A significant sprackle later we had 4 of them cornered and ushered back into the field, and a similar effort in another woodland section found a fifth. Fergus found a 6th later in the afternoon and the final one turned up this morning and was slotted back in with its friends. It was a relief to know they were all back where they should be none the worse for their adventure - though I cant say the same for my hair, or the children's sense of humour.

All change!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 02 May 2021 08:51:57 GMT

Happy May weekend everyone, it's been a lovely one on the farm with close family whom we haven't seen for a long time staying at the self catering. Between rain showers we've enjoyed catching up and its been great to get some extra help in the lambing shed (as I write only 21 to go!), the kid's cousins love collecting eggs and its just been good for the soul to see the rabble of kids bolting around the woods playing hide and seek.

This week coming we have to say thank you and farewell to our oldest hens in the 'new' house. Given their own winter lockdown and the delay in getting replacement birds they have done us proud. We are really grateful for the partnership we have with the British Hen Welfare Trust, whose volunteers will arrive next weekend to collect all the ladies up and distribute them across their networks of folks looking for backyard hens. Hopefully they will get to live out a happy, long retirement.

As a small producer there are some challenges around this stage of flock replacements. The birds leave, we then have a week to clean and disinfect the house before the new hens arrive. They are 15 weeks old when they arrive here, and our attention in the first few weeks is focused on getting them well settled in and familiar with us and their new home. They will begin to lay eggs from about 21 weeks onwards, first laying small pullet eggs, then laying medium sized eggs before moving onto laying large eggs. The knock on of this is that we have no eggs at all from this house for 7 weeks, and then for a few weeks primarily medium eggs.

We still have the smaller house stocked and laying, and will prioritise these eggs for our direct deliveries. With our regular order volumes from shops and caterers on top though it does mean that we will need to source eggs from elsewhere over this period to ensure we have enough to go round. Corrie Mains are a family farm in Ayrshire who use the same quality feed as us, and also have won at the Scottish Quality Egg Awards, in addition last year they won The Farmers Weekly free range producer of the year award. We have a good relationship with them and are delighted that they have enough capacity to top us up as required over the May/ June period. Once our new hens are laying we will wind down their supply.

On the shop side we are now fully stocked with Highland Beef and have beef boxes heading out this week. You can view the full selection of steaks, mince, diced and roasts at https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef

If you haven't had a chance to set up your repeat order yet for eggs ill be in touch over the next few weeks to help get this completed. Have a great May day holiday tomorrow

cheers

Alison

Sheep misadventures

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 13:12:13 GMT

What another lovely day it is. The cherry blossom is out, blue bells flowering and swallows have been spotted up at Knock O Ronald.

With only 60 sheep left to lamb this last week has seen Fergus back to the office job, me trying to catch up with some paperwork and Struan was pleased for his first day off in a month. The children were (not so) secretly delighted to leave the lambing shed and get back to their friends at school, though this weekend have been drafted back in as we move sheep and lambs at foot to different fields. Its a bit like herding cats but we got everything where it needed to go!

Perhaps sensing that our focus has slightly shifted the sheep have been having some of their own adventures. One of our tups decided to do a bit of pot holing and got itself wedged in a field cundy (drain) - worryingly completely hidden from view. Luckily for us Gargunnock based Bruno (the dog) has a good scent and whilst on a walk up past the field found him. Thanks to the Crawford's for helping us to locate him and bring him home safely. Chris the agri-engineer from the village also proved his farmer skills, skillfully shepherding ewes and lambs back to the Watson House field when the gate had been left open and they were taking themselves off for a walk to the village. At this rate I'm thinking with such a fabulous local community we can easily get away on holiday and everything will be in good hands.

Looking ahead the self catering re opens this coming week and is busy with lots of bookings, we have farm tours scheduled again and this week am attending the visit-scotland virtual 'expo' to meet with various tour operators planning ahead for future years who are looking for a farm tasting experience. After the last year it feels a bit surreal but with a fair wind hopefully things will become more settled again. As hospitality re-opens we wish all our retail and catering customers a great start back.

Meat wise Im expecting some beef back to the freezers later this week, and beef boxes back in about 2 weeks time. NExt batch of pork should be in about 4 weeks. There are still some meat boxes available to pre-order through the online shop if you're keen for a box, or if like me youre desperate for the mince to be back why not use the Back In Stock function on the shop - this allows you leave your email against the item out of stock and will automatically generate an email notifying you once its back in - very handy - https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/beef/products/highland-beef-mince-500g

A pockle of drizzle

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 10:16:32 GMT

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Half way!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 08:49:46 GMT

My dry cracked hands are a sure sign that we must be about half way through our 2021 lambing. Repeated exposure to cold wind/wet lambs/iodine/warm, sticky milk and washing has left them so starved of moisture that my fingerprint no longer works to unlock my mobile. It has been a full on couple of weeks! With not so many older, more experienced mothers left to lamb our focus begins to shift to the first time mums, many of whom we have now brought into the shed to keep a close eye on.

Our trips out to the fields become less about spotting labouring mothers, and more about catching up lambs who are a few days old and marking them up. Single lambs get a painted dot on their bottoms, and twins get a matching number on the left side so that we can easily check that everything is still properly paired up. Lambs in the field looking hungry may indicate the mothers have little milk, or milk on only 'one side', or perhaps the lamb has been abandoned by a mother more focused on keeping on moving to new grass. In both cases the lamb will be brought in and bottle fed in the hope that we can adopt it onto another mother with more milk. As I write this morning I have 5 of these 'pet' lambs in a pen together, and am feeding another 6 in pens with their mothers but who are needing a top up. 4 rounds of feeding a day (6am/12pm/5pm/10pm) takes a while, but the kids are delighted to have the nursery up and running and already have names well established for the little mites.

Whilst the mostly dry weather has been kind to us the low temperatures have checked any early grass growth. Nearby fields are looking pretty bare and we look forward to the rising temperatures predicted later this week. We've been able to rent some grazing on neighbouring fields that, having had no stock wintering on them, are much greener with a decent sward (grass cover). If you're walking west from Gargunnock you can see some of our mothers and lambs in the field in front of Watson House. The lambs can do a pretty decent effort at pretending to be lying dead, but 99% of the time they are just sleeping soundly, soaking up what warmth they can from the sun. Regular checks through the day let us double check!

Whilst the days are long there is much to enjoy... the salad in the tunnel is promising an early first harvest, the dawn chorus provides a beautiful welcome to each new early morning start and Orion's belt continues to hang low and bright in the sky above the steading roofline as I head out for the last feed of the day.

Amongst all the lambing we've finally got our next 2 highlanders away for butchery, picked up some pork (yay! pork links/ hotdogs back in stock https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/collections/pork) and the March billing is done. We've got plenty of highland beef steaks and roasts available too.

Happy Easter

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 08:09:07 GMT

What a treat of an Easter weekend its been so far with glorious warm sunshine and an abundance of chocolate... There's been an abundance of lambs too on the farm - with pens in the shed full of new borns and the fields beginning to fill with numbered pairs. With teetering legs becoming stronger and bellies more full, you can spot them beginning to jump, frolic and group together for running races.

Days (and nights) are long - we are out before 6am to deal with anything in the sheds before heading out to the fields at first light to make sure anything born outside is looking ok. With the frosts this week we've usually had to bring a few wee ones into the lamb warmer. This solid box has a lid but a grated metal floor which we can blow hot air up into. It never ceases to amaze me how something that looks nearly dead can revive so completely. The day is made up of stock checks, feeding and watering, and a lot of moving established mothers and lambs out to fields and mucking out pens. My back and legs are feeling the relative laziness of the long winter. We head out for a final shed check about 10pm hoping that there's not 'much doing' and can get an early night.

For all the tiredness, and occasional stressful moments when I leave the hose running in the water tank and flood the shed, it is a wonderful time on the farm. Farming is about the animals, but most of the time this means dealing with poo. Now the daily handling of the sheep and lambs brings us closer to our stock and the opportunity to reflect on the season of new growth and anticipation. Real joy also came this week with the lifting of the avian flu housing orders - Thursday saw the Leckie Layers back outside with the sun on their backs. Contented clucking all round.

Stocks in the freezer are a bit low - though we are expecting some pork back from the butchers this week and still have plenty of diced highland beef, rump braising steak, steaks and beef roasting joints. The Popeseye special last week cleared us out, but the discount code for diced beef is still there for a few more days so with our EASTERSTEW special you can get 3 for the price of 2 up until 8 April: online shop at https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/ or drop me a message if you've not managed yet to get your order set up online

have a fabulous Easter

Easter Specials

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 07:18:08 GMT

No sooner had the last of my winter TV watch lists been ticked off (BBC's The Serpent - unsettling, creepy but compelling) - silly season on the farm began.

In a 48 hour period we had 7 calves born, a record for our relatively small herd. I reckon I could have predicted it - as for the first time in many many months Fergus had to travel to the East coast for essential work. The cows have a well established pattern now of patiently waiting for him to leave and then going into labour. As I went up to the sheds to check on one new born I caught a first time mum seemingly oblivious to the calf hanging out at her rear. Rather than feel fear these days I've got more used to thinking ‘what would Fergus do?’ so I promptly jumped in through the feed barriers and gave it a good old tug to get its hips out - at which point luckily the penny finally dropped and she turned back to greet her sire with a contented moo.

We’ve had our first trickle of lambs also arriving... the main event isn’t due to start in earnest until later this week but as always not everyone’s got that message. No sooner was the old byre pressure washed than we had pens up, straw down and the bleeting of lambs echoing off the old stone walls. The large shed has this last couple of days been transformed into lambing central, and after a huge push yesterday we managed to get the single and triplet mothers in before the darkness brought wind and chilling rain.

Again this year we’re taking part in The Go Rural Lambathon- every day @1pm on their Facebook page there will be a 30 minute tour of a Scottish farm ... it’s a great way to transport yourself out of everyday life for a short while and visit some beautiful places. The short films stay up on the page so if you can’t make it live it’s well worth a catch up watch later in the day. Fittingly we’re on on April’s fools day - Thursday 1st April @ 1pm - Please do tune in if you get a chance and say hello!

At lambing time good food is essential, but I never much time to cook it! We live on a combination of slow cooked stews and quickly prepped dishes. With lamb out of season, and fergus deciding that our hebrideans need more time on good grass to finish well, we’re running 2 alternative Easter specials for you guys:

EASTERSTEW - buy 2 diced beef and get 1 free

LOVEPOPESEYE - 20% off packs of Popeseye steak

To get the discounts add the items to basket, head to check out and the discounts should be automatically applied (if you want to order both you may have to check out twice - sorry - still learning the new system!) Direct links below to the specials. Plenty of steaks, roasts, pork belly and burgers/lorne and beef links also available through the online shop https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/discount/EASTERSTEW?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fhighland-beef-diced-500g

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/discount/LOVEPOPESEYE?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fleckie-beef-popeye-steak-x-2

Happy mothers day

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 16:08:17 GMT

Happy mothers day everyone...

whether you are one, have managed to spend some time in person (or virtually) with one, or enjoyed nice memories of one, I do hope you've had a good day. Our mothers on the farm are all doing well. Fergus has spent the weekend moving cattle about in the sheds so that our spring calvers can be viewed through our online cow cam. Its a great way of keeping an eye on them from afar, checking progress through labour, or to see that a new born is up and sucking in good time. Earlier in the week the pregnant ewes were rotated round the furthest away fields whilst we keep our fingers crossed that a return of warmer weather this week will see the grass start growing again in the closer fields where they will move for lambing towards the end of the month. Our sheepdog Bee continues to keep a watchful eye on her daughter Bug's progress - now 18 months old Fergus has begun to work Bug with small groups of sheep to gauge if she has what it takes to merit further training. So far so good, though she is equally just as likely to roll over on her back to let the kids roll on her for tummy tickles and coo's of "Bugsy Wugsy." The jury is still out.

With the return to school tomorrow for the kids we've been trying to make the most of the extra hands whilst we have them. Their most favourite job this week was moving 10 pigs down to the old walled garden. Pigs don't move like cows, or sheep. They run about in all directions, their floppy ears bobbing up and down over their faces as their noses follow new scents and soft ground. We use 'pig boards' - sheets of wood really with cut outs for hands to hold them. If we need to stop them going in a direction you put these down on the ground to act as barriers, and with one on either side you can create a kind of corridor for them to move in the direction you want them to go. Inevitably out of the 10 there were 2 that took their time, separating themselves from the group to bring up a very slow rear guard. With plenty bodies on the ground it was eventually a successful outcome and they are as happy as the proverbial pig rootling around to find old tatties and turnips. We're hoping they will help clear out the ground before we re-seed it later in the spring.

Thanks to those of you who have managed to get set up on the new order system. Ill be working my way through any queries when in the office this week, so if you want a hand from me to get you set up just get in touch.

Were sold out of pork links until our next butchery ( 2 weeks) but still have some black pudding and pear and beef links and lorne. We have a good range of mouthwatering steaks and plenty of beef burgers, mince and diced, and joints of pork / beef and mutton. Order via the online shop, or if you're not set up yet, drop me a note.

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/.

New beginnings

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 10:13:39 GMT

The first of our spring calves was born this morning - a super spritely wee black boy, born to a first time Limousin mum (a heifer in farmer speak) and a first time father Eoin who is an old style Aberdeen Angus bull. He’s a funny chap, bought last year from our neighbour who has been specialising in old Angus genetics - famed for flavour and taste and a smaller build than the more

modern Angus breeding - meaning easier calving for our new mums and ability to finish well off our grass. Will be great to see how he grows and turns out - fingers crossed!

In the greenhouse the sun of this week has turned Up the temperature sufficiently well to germinate the first of the Leckie leaves salad trays. Seeded after the last cold snap I’ve been peeking under the fleece like an expectant mother. The salad enterprise is best described as a bit of a vanity project. It’s so time intensive we make very little from it but as a certified salad nerd it brings me complete and unadulterated joy and I love that a lot of people love it too. Makes me feel (slightly) more normal. Here's hoping to be harvesting from the end of April. To make my smile even wider we got a new highland beef delivery back from the butcher mid week so we are fully stocked again with fillet, rib eye sirloin and minute steaks.

The biggest news is that our new online order system and shop is now live and ready to go. Thank you so much to those of you who have helped test the set up and put me and the developers through our paces to tweak and adjust to get it to this point. The link to set up your customer account and orders is:

https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/, or you can find it on our website www.oldleckie.co.uk under the tab for 'shop'.

The online system will hopefully make life easier for everyone - for regular repeat orders payments are taken automatically once you have set up your account and preferred payment details, and the shop features all our products allowing you to shop at your convenience to add extra eggs, meat etc to your order. Stock levels are shown so you can see quickly what is available to order, and if we are out of stock you can enter your email to get a notification when it is back in stock.

You can make a repeat order of eggs on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis (and some meat products too). Once you have selected and checked out you don't need to do anything else at all unless you wish to cancel or reduce your order. It will take payment automatically every 4 weeks without you needing to do anything else. The only difference to the new system is that it takes payment in advance for the next 4 week block rather than at the end of the block. You can adjust your repeat order yourself for the next 4 week cycle at any time, and if you want more eggs one week just buy them from the shop and we will add them to your regular order. If you want to reduce or skip eggs during a 4 week cycle its super easy - just email me direct as you would normally and I will amend and refund whatever is due.

If a repeat order doesn't suit your egg consumption then just head to the shop to buy eggs whenever you need them and we will deliver on the next day we are out in your area. And if you don't want eggs at all, but some meat then the same applies. We really hope you will like the flexibility and options available. We will continue to work the existing order system whilst we transition everyone across to the new system - though it would be great if we can get as many of you as possible onto the new set up before the busy lambing period kicks in at the end of March.

Ill still be emailing every Sunday with news from the farm and am always here by email or at the end of the phone so if you want a hand to set up your orders through the shop just shout!

So - plenty of beef, pork and some mutton available, via https://shop.oldleckie.co.uk/ - let me know what you think!

Spring is knocking...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 12:15:49 GMT

Another cracking weekend - dry, mild and a good bright forecast for the week ahead, if perhaps it's to be a little colder.

We're always looking ahead of ourselves on the farm - whether its tupping or bulling months before we want lambs and calves, best before labelling egg boxes 28 days on from the current day or sowing seeds for salad crops that will find their way onto folks tables in 8 weeks time. Sometimes you need to force yourself to live a little bit more in the present, but sometimes its a welcome promise of a seasonal change, new life and opportunities.

Its amazing what a couple of weeks, a bit of sunshine and a few million vaccinations can do for the spirit. The greenhouse has been gutted, the polytunnel prepped for planting later in the year and the first salad trays sown under glass to capitalise on the brighter weather. The first feeling of hands in warm soil is really good for the soul - a tangible sensation that we're moving on in spirit of hope and expectation - and if you're a salad fanatic - that first taste of super tasty and fresh Leckie Leaves. The tatties are proving a bit more elusive however - the ground still too wet to prepare for planting. We've taken the opportunity before as early as the February half term before to get these in the ground so we will be watching the forecast closely to get this done as soon as we can.

With the pork back from the butchers last week we've still got plenty pork and black pudding and pear sausages in stock for any early BBQs (we've got plenty beef burgers too), and a good range of beef roasts and mince/diced stew... we're expecting some more beef back from the butchers this week so we should be back to having a full range of steaks and cuts next week. We're low on lamb, but still have some mutton gigots (leg roasts) and chops.

Harsh Realities

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 11:04:56 GMT

Do hope this finds you all well on what feels like the first spring morning - birds are calling, it's mild and in the garden the white carpet of snowdrops makes the purple crocus stand out even more. Its lovely to see colour returning. This morning to mark the end of the school holidays we set off at 6.30 and hiked up the back hill with bacon rolls and flasks of hot chocolate to see the sunrise - now wondering what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day! Its been a busy week on the farm with the kids getting pulled into various activities to make the most of their holidays... Sheep shifted round, logs delivered to Granny, and a fun lamb hunt through our woods to find 40 of our neighbours blackies who had escaped through the night and taken themselves off for a jaunt. Its not just us hankering after a change of scene.

I post these weekly updates onto our website blog and this week, having had the time away from home school to review our costs, the title will be "Harsh Realities". As a small operator in the world of laying hens we have more limited bargaining power in our feed supply costs than others. Whilst the price does go both up and down, in the last 5 years there has been an overall year on year increase which so far we have been able to absorb, whilst still investing in our housing, staff and new order system. We try our best to secure longer term supply contracts to help us even out price fluctuations but having just come to the end of our most recent contract it was tough to realise that feed prices have risen by 21% since our last 'fixed price' deal. Looking forward we also know that our pricing per pullet (young laying hen) is also going up this year.

This week then has also been spent number crunching and reviewing what options we have. We have always prioritised quality feed for our Leckie Layers and had the same supplier since we started. Unlike some others the make up of the feed never changes depending on what grain is cheapest, and we love that consistency. It is possible to get cheaper food, in fact last year we did a blind test with another feed supplier to see how it compared, but we were not convinced - the eggs just seemed to lack the creamy-ness that we're used to. We also looked at applying a delivery charge - but that gets complicated with different volumes and wholesale orders. So, in a nutshell (or should that be an eggshell) we have decided that we would rather increase our prices than compromise on the quality of our product, or the customer service that we offer. A 5% increase will be applied for all orders from the beginning of March and will mean that each box of eggs will cost 10p more:

6 Medium = £1.80

6 Large = £1.90

6 XL = £2.00

Having also been skulking around shopping aisles this week taking note of prices I've taken some comfort in that the new prices are still comparable with shop and supermarket offerings. (Kitty Campbells free range eggs are £1.85 for 6 in Sainsburys - despite having the purchasing power of Glenrath - who have 1.2 million hens - behind them). Fergus says I'm too long winded in my explanations so if you've got this far, it's much appreciated, as is your support of the farm.. We value your custom hugely so feel strongly that I wanted to explain the reasons behind the increase - and make the promise that if we do see feed prices drop right back down later in the year then we will adjust prices downwards too.

Lockdown continues...

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 11:29:03 GMT

the thaw is forecast for later today, but for those of you who have ventured out this morning it definitely isn't here yet. Rain on top of frozen ground has left everything coated in ice and is definitely at its most treacherous! Even the hens are looking out onto the frozen white ground feeling happy to be in...

They have been stuck inside on their own lock down now since the middle of December thanks to the circulation of 'highly pathogenic' strain of bird flu. Whilst it doesn't present any danger to humans it is contagious within bird populations with a high mortality rate. I'd been hoping with the migration season of many wild birds mostly passed we may see cases tailing off and the housing restriction's lifted but yesterday our nearest case to date was confirmed at Glenrothes in Fife so I think they'll be in for a while yet. Under previous EU rules we are allowed to still label eggs as free range if they are housed under such restrictions for upto 12 weeks. 5 years ago, under similar conditions they spent the full 12 weeks inside - this time that would take us to about the 8th March. Their timeline an eerie mirror of our own I suspect. In the meantime - much like the school holidays this week - we will keep our heads down, bio security up, bedding clean and plenty of toys and green veg available.

Today Fergus is out in a friends digger trying to clean the ditches running alongside the old military road that runs through the farm. If you are braving the frozen conditions and walking where he is please make sure he has seen you before trying to pass the digger so that he doesn't inadvertently swing his bucket into you. Never a good start to the week. After he's been fed up at lunch with the slow cooked roast beef that's starting to smell lovely he's selecting the next highlander to head away and we have a pig ready to go too which is good as sausage supplies are dwindling! We will be doing a small number of 10kg boxes - do let me know if you'd like to reserve one - £140 per box with a full mix of steaks/ roasts/ mince/ diced/ burgers / sausages etc.

Have a good week, and for those of you with kids at home, enjoy the holidays and break from home schooling...

Rain, rain go away

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 11:38:08 GMT

Despite the constraints of the farm and a young family Fergus and I have always managed to move heaven and earth to get to Murrayfield every year to watch a six nations match - an annual outing to coincide with his birthday, its's a real treat. We had been lucky to be there 2 years ago when Scotland defeated England at home so yesterday farm jobs were finished early, wood brought in for the fire and the kids made to turn the TV away from You Tube to watch the live game. Amazing to use the term glorious defeat, and not be talking about a Scotland loss at Twickenham.

Farm news this week is all about the rain. And a lot of it. Fergus' Mum and Dad always said that it took 7 years to forget a lesson learnt, but whether its a mark of how diversified and busy we are, or how rubbish our memory is, but for us its more like 3 years - which was the last time we had bad floods on the farm. The channels dug then to divert run off away from the farm sheds were long gone, and the main drain we always spoke about up-grading to a larger pipe gauge remained in place with ground undisturbed. And so it was in the dark of Thursday evening that we were both standing in a foot of water watching the hay bales in the shed soak up water, trying desperately to shape out new channels, clear grills of drain covers and move whatever we could to higher ground. Once we had done all that we could we took a dark walk down past the house - the burn was as high as we'd ever seen it, banks breached, our road under inches of water and sheep perching on whatever high ground they could find on the low, flat Carse ground. Water streamed out into the fields, eerily reflecting what little light there was against what was left of the black ground around it.

The dawn brought early shed and stock checks, and relief that the worst had passed and everything was alive and accounted for. It is a harsh reminder though that we need to do better at remembering these lessons learnt. So please do drop me a note in a year or two to ask if the channels have been kept clear, and the main drain replaced! This week the weather is to turn cold and frozen again so hopefully with the water levels low we can get into the burn to clear out all the debris that is hung up on bridges and obstructing free flowing passage. Time to get the warm neoprene gloves looked out...

Attached below the usual list of meat availability. For Fergus' birthday last week we enjoyed a slow cooked Moroccan style stew of mutton chops, chickpeas and apricot flavoured with paprika, cumin, coriander and cinnamon - very tasty and warming, can highly recommend. For those of you who have also had the mutton do let me know how you've been getting on with it - recipe suggestions very welcome.

Scanning time

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 11:04:42 GMT

I can't quite believe its almost February.. but it's now light(ish) by 7.30, the sheep have been scanned for lambs and we've been in the polytunnel preparing beds for this coming year's planting season - spring can't be too far away. The soil was defiantly cold to touch though. Despite sowing the first salad plugs onto heat mats to help germination, and my usual start of salad season excitement, I've had to check myself - we're definitely still a few weeks away from the first seeding.

The scanning is always a big sheep day. At this time of year all our ewes are in the furthest away fields from the farm. This allows the fields in nearby to rest and get an early start on growing once temperatures do rise. We then move the pregnant mothers into them mid/late March so we can keep a close eye through lambing and they can get the best grass to aid milk production as they rear their newborns. With 500 to scan its a bit of a juggling act then to get them all back to the farm to keep a steady flow running past the scanner. We use a nice guy, Stuart, who travels with his scanning trailer towed behind his truck. The trailer is like something Dick van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang would be proud of as it all folds out, down and round to give him a comfortable cab, race for the sheep and gadgets and screens to view the ultrasounds of the ewes' bellies as they move through one by one. We managed to get them all through in less than 2 hours this year which was quite an achievement!

Every farm has its own way of marking the sheep to show who is expecting what. Here the singles now have an orange mark on their backs between shoulder blade, the twins are left bare whilst mothers with triplets get an orange mark on the bum. We scanned 2 quads this year, so keep an eye open and a sympathetic smile for the ladies with a bright number 4 on their rear. After they're scanned we split into groups depending on how many they are having. We give them an extra boost of minerals and supplements in the few weeks before lambing and this allows us to target rations appropriately, and helps when we finally bring them back closer to the farm to lamb in April...

...farming always seems to be about working ahead of yourself! if you're also looking ahead and planning for Valentines Day in a couple of weeks don't forget to order a pair of delicious steaks to tuck into. We can't supply the wine or the chocolates but you can't go wrong with the taste of something a bit special -we have Sirloin and Popseye steaks available in packs of 2. Whilst the weather's still cold and lockdown days run into each other there is also nothing quite like a traditional Sunday roast - just like our weekly Saturday morning pancakes they're a great way of bringing one week to a close and looking forward to the next, bringing us one step closer hopefully to seeing friends and family. We've got lots to choose from - beef topside/silverside, small legs of lamb and mutton, lamb shoulders and super tasty pork gigots with crackling to die for.

Thwump

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 10:38:26 GMT

That'll be the ice back then! Minus 4 last night down at the farm and cold bright days forecast for the start of the week - lovely!

Yesterday was a perfect day for some forestry work - cutting dead standing trees down to log for the bio mass boiler. Beautifully still and cold, skies blue and pine needles crunching softly beneath insulated wellies. My role in all this is chief log carrier - deciding many years ago that whilst chainsaw work looks really satisfying the noisy, heavy, reality was not for me. Fergus and Struan, both of whom have a lot of certificates and strong arms between them, were in charge of selecting, cutting and limbing up.

For those not familiar with the actual process of cutting down a tree it all starts with the notch cut - its cut from the same side of the tree as the direction you want it to fall in. Its like cutting a big wedge out of it. You then cut straight across, into the tree, from the other side - putting pressure on the 'hinge' in the middle. Where the tree is large and heavy it can sit back onto the chainsaw as you make this cut, pinching it so it gets stuck. To avoid this you have to carefully time the removal of the chainsaw blade using a big strong wedge of wood that is then hammered into the cut, eventually tipping the tree over the hinge and into the space you want it to fall. (Please don't try this at home !)

A dropped wedge at just the wrong moment then inevitably meant that, on the tallest tree of the day, we had a stuck chainsaw. I really hate being up close to the action - I have so little experience that my instincts cannot be relied upon to jump in a sensible direction should circumstances require. Reluctantly I joined the others in trying to pick up a rhythm of pushing the tree to make it sway out a little to relieve the pressure so we could get the wedge in. It was pretty cool really. Pushing against the trunk felt like pushing a brick wall but as we looked 80ft up you could see the top beginning to swing back and forth - a little further each time until at last we had enough room to position the wedge and remove the saw - a wee lesson for me in mind over matter. A bit of hammering later the tree came down with the noise of the wind whooshing between branches before landing with a satisfying whump. Happy days. Though I was pleased to retreat to the log pile.

Elsewhere on the farm this week I've been mostly busy packing beef boxes and then weeping as the post continues to face challenges in timed deliveries. There is nothing quite like the experience of virtually tracking a thousand pounds worth of prime beef as it limps slowly around the country's courier network. Our amazing recyclable sheeps wool packaging, 'Woolcool' has earned its weight in gold however. With the last box finally making its destination cool and in good condition I breathed a big sigh of relief. Just building myself up today then for another round with our pork and lamb boxes tomorrow - anyone want to bet on a 24 hour delivery to Devon?

The pork, lamb and mutton will be back from the butchers tomorrow so bags of choice for anyone looking for some tasty meat this week - as ever, just let me know

have a good week everyone and may your wedges always be placed well, and your post never late.

Snowy days on the farm

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 11:01:45 GMT

Do hope you have had a good week, survived home school if you have kids at home, and hopefully had a chance to enjoy the snow. Snow and school are not a great combination in our house - although the girls were not at all disappointed to hear that school would be late to start as all the morning jobs take twice as long. we ended up with a lot of snowmen here.

This week its all about the meat - and lots of it! Having not had any butchery back since early December it feels great to have meat boxes being packed and the freezer filling. We've got beef back on the list today, and expecting more beef, pork and lamb back this week. I'd be keen to hear if anyone is keen on mutton? We haven't had any before but will be getting some done later in the week too - any special requests do let me know - i'm really looking forward to tasting it.

We're planning an Easter special too for later in the year with a batch of Hebridean lambs getting closer to finishing. These were born and reared by our friend Sandy Campbell who farms on the unpopulated McCormaig isles off the west coast of Mid Argyll. They arrived with us late last year to finish on our succulent grass. They are smaller animals, more lean than our regular fat lambs -their celebrated meat is darker red, succulent and distinctly sweet with a subtle flavour - more like a delicate wild game taste. We don't have many of them so do let me know now if you want pencilled in for more info in due course on these special lamb boxes.

The online order system is nearing completion with the testing underway. I'm really happy with how it is looking and am hoping it will make life easier for everyone - automated payments, real time info on stock levels, and an easy system to select and pay for extra meat and egg orders on top of your usual delivery. Once the internal testing is finished i'm keen to have a number of existing customers go through the process and give feedback so we can make any final tweaks before the big push to get everyone else set up on the system. Do let me know if you've any interest in helping out, it would be much appreciated!

The thaw

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 10:57:48 GMT

I hope this finds you all well, and not too many of you with leaking pipes after yesterdays thaw. We recorded minus 10 here during Saturday night, rising to 7 degrees by 6pm - isn't it wild that the temp can jump 17 degrees in such a short space of time? Whilst its a bit sad to see it go I am relieved that the biggest drop came right at the end, ultimately freezing water supplies into the hen houses. Luckily they have large header tanks so it had melted before they ran dry - phew!

Fergus was making the most of the hard ground and his holidays from the office job this week - spreading dung, spreading lime, extracting timber from the woods. He's just found the app on his phone that tells him his walking distance covered and is smug that at 10km a day his is double mine. (Lets see how it looks after this week when he's back at the desk ;)). No surprise to me that mine has been low this week - we've got 10 wee piglets that clearly need me to stand still and endlessly watch over, I've been at the desk myself reviewing the final design of our online shop/order system before we move into the testing phase, plus taking some time off at home with the kids before schools go back tomorrow.

Looking forward to this week we've got some cattle heading off to market, beef back from the butcher, youngest puppy Bug starting her sheepdog training and the launch of my home school activity grid which funnily enough seems to feature a fair amount of farm/livestock related tasks in addition to 'life skills' like making regular cups of tea and coffee. Maybe I wont be walking so far after all.

Happy new year

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 15:25:48 GMT

Happy New Year everyone...

This afternoon finds me sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of tea thawing my hands and feet grateful for the warming efforts of 2 pairs of socks, fleece-lined slippers and a heated floor. My, its cold out there. But beautiful, crisp - and in its own way - warmly reassuring in all its wintry normalness. Each year we learn a bit more about the seasonal 'stiches in time' that help to make life a bit easier. Water hoses brought under cover to prevent icing, water bowsers filled and rugged up in the sheds on stand by for the inevitable freezing of cattle water troughs, the pile of pig poo that was left to build higher and higher through the autumn until the ground gets hard enough to take access for mechanical scooping - avoiding a lot of grunt work wheeling barrows back and forth over uneven soggy ground.

We've had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year - whilst the morning feed round takes a lot longer there's not the same pressure as the warmer, lighter months. In addition Fergus, who normally works 4 days a week, has an enforced holiday at this time of the year with the shut down of his office for 2 weeks so everything seems a bit easier with 2 of us full time on the farm. With the extra time available the usually ignored piles of tools, clutter and debris are sorted through and organised and we've even managed some lovely walks with the kids, dogs, ponies and sledges both on and off the farm. With a whole years worth of egg boxes finally delivered just before Christmas, and a Brexit deal concluded with no tariffs on our lamb exports it feels like we will be starting the new year on an even keel - better placed to weather the ongoing Covid storm and whatever it will bring this coming year.

We've still not finished calving - a few of the cows still hanging on, legs firmly crossed. We were pretty excited then the other night to see that 2 of them were progressing into labour - familiar water bags and pacing in the corners of the shed. The cow cam , a xmas present from a few years back, continues to prove its worth when just as we saw the first calf was safely out the poor mother continued to push and prolapse (where a bit that should stay inside also comes out). We were grateful for a quick arrival from the vet to help us get everything back to where it should be and both mother and calf doing well. Whilst the vet was still washing up we then realised the other cow looked like she was needing a bit of help too - the calf presenting breech, with hind legs coming first. A quick shuffle round in the calving pens to free up a second pen saw a lovely bouncy calf safely delivered and we retreated to the house thinking that we maybe we shouldn't be wishing calving finished quite so hard!

We have been expecting piglets from one of our tamworth sows and this morning were met with an absolute guddle of ginger, black, white and spotty piglets. Its taken a while for us to count numbers without disturbing her but it looks like at least 10 are alive and kicking - she will be working hard feeding them all over the coming months! Keeping everything crossed that she can safely manoeuvre herself around them until they get a bit more robust. I'll post some pictures on our facebook / instagram pages, and our website if you want a peek.

We're expecting beef and pork back from the butchers later this month - in the meantime we've got plenty yummy sausages, burgers and mince available so do let me know if you want anything dropped off with your eggs. Deliveries back to normal and December bills should be out this week to so keep an eye out for them.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2021,

best regards

Alison

Winter solstice

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 08:05:28 GMT

As we wake up this morning with a new round of adjustments, cancelled plans and increasingly painful distances between friends and family it feels rather fitting that the darkest day is nearly upon us. The winter solstice this year falls tomorrow, on the 21st, and traditionally it is only now that winter officially begins. Ever the optimist I've always welcomed the shortest day of the year more like a herald of early spring though. From here on in the daylight lasts longer, and perhaps on the farm it is daylight rather than temperature that influences this time of year most. The vernal equinox (when the amount of daylight hours equals the dark) doesn't arrive until around 21st March-the official start of Spring. When it comes the temperatures rise, the ground warms and the growing season begins again.

When I was at high school figuring out what sort of careers interested me I remember thinking that farming sounded a bit dull. The predictability of every year working your way through the same 4 seasons offered little attraction. I now reflect on other jobs where I worked to monthly cycles of reporting and daily same-ness and feel so grateful for the variety that farming life brings. And there is something about the rhythm of the seasonal calendar, when as true as night follows day, summer follows spring which follows winter. Whatever life throws at us the world does keep turning and tilting and I find this comforting.

Thanks to all those who sent lovely messages about out virtual farm tour which is currently on Go Rural Scotland facebook page - so pleased you could see the leckie ladies and all the new calves and pigs.., if any of you are keen to see some footage of a calving check out our own Old Leckie farm facebook page - there's a short video and some pictures of a new born from earlier in the week. Fergus is out working with the cattle today - selecting prime beasts to re-stock the freezers mid January as we are getting pretty low again! We've got an order list already running for boxes from these next batches so just shout if you would like added on. We will try and get some pork and lamb done early in the new year too.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you.

3 for 2 Christmas Special

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 10:56:12 GMT

The tree is up, wreath hung and kids home made paperchains and snowflakes are blue tacked around the house - it's starting to feel a little festive round here! To say a huge thanks to everyone for their support this year for this we're going to offer a 3 for 2 Christmas Special on all our Sausages and Burgers - its a great chance to stock up for all your lazy Christmas breakfasts, warming sausage casseroles and easy 'in-between' dinners. Feel free to mix and match and we will knock off the cheapest item from the bill... and of course, don't forget to let us know if you need to skip eggs if away, or would like some more to feed extra mouths or batches of eggnog! ***HOLIDAY DELIVERIES - will be the same for Monday / Wednesday customers - but Friday customers will get their deliveries a day early - on Thursday 24th and Thursday 31st***

Whilst not feeding my home made Christmas cake with lashings of brandy and peeking at the kids letters to Father Christmas it feels like its been a week of 'getting stuff sorted': hen houses mucked out and dry litter put in in advance of the Avian flu lock down; new calves tagged and recorded; our big store shed reorganised so we can fit in a giant container to allow us to lock more things safely away; sheep records updated; carbon audit completed. It feels good to be getting through the to do list.

Today Go Rural Scotland will be featuring a short tour of the farm on their facebook page... this is a pre recorded tour rather than a live one - filmed a few weeks ago when we had lots of cute new arrivals on the farm... its getting premiered at 1pm, but will remain online for anyone wanting to catch up later... well worth a look to meet our piglets and some new born calves.. and of course the Leckie Layers in their usual good fettle.

Do hope any to do lists you have are also showing progress - its a busy time of year!

Avian Flu

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 18:31:21 GMT

The festive season marches on as frosty mornings become more frequent...and unfortunately so does avian flu.

There are many strains of avian flu - just like a common cold - and some are more dangerous to birds than others (though it's not dangerous at all to humans - or the hen's eggs!). We have a very well established early warning system here through the Animal and Plant Health Agency who text warnings of confirmed cases and geographical locations, and respond with exclusion zones and culling to prevent it's spread. The difficulty is that most outbreaks seem to be spread by wild birds, often migrating over the UK through the winter season. Whilst a report in Norfolk might feel a long way away, a jump to Northumberland feels a bit closer and over the last few weeks there has been regular cases in England of one of the most serious strains of avian flu - resulting in significant levels of deaths in birds. Most winters we are used to seeing a small number of cases but this year it seems more prevalent, and the decision has now been taken to 'lockdown' all free range poultry from 14 December. In effect this makes it illegal to have poultry ranging outside and requires us to ensure the highest levels of bio security on the farm around the hen houses.

This last happened about 5 years ago, I think the first winter we had our Leckie Layers. I remember being terribly worried about how it would effect our ladies who are used to roaming, scratching and foraging outside. I was very grateful to get some helpful advice from other keepers and as lockdown approaches this year I feel much more confident that we can help the ladies adjust through rotations of toys, hanging items like CDs to peck, regular top ups of dry litter and plenty of Kale pinattas to maintain some access to green fresh leaves. I still have the last of this years new zealand spinach in the poly tunnel and I know they will love this too.

In this year of all years we can empathise with them even more - but please rest assured we will do our very best to keep our ladies happy and healthy, and we can all keep our fingers crossed that the housing restrictions do not last too long. The restrictions apply to anyone keeping poultry - even if only a couple of chooks, so please spread the word to anyone you know keeping some backyard hens - there is no legal requirement for anyone with less than 50 hens to be on the Poultry Register, so not everyone may be aware of the current challenging situation.

The Good, the Sad and the Ugly

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 11:17:06 GMT

Wonderful morning today!

it feels like winter has arrived today with the first real frost here at the farm. Lovely to feel the ground crunching under foot and see the steam rising from the cattle as they munch through their breakfast silage. Its been a week of the good, the sad and the ugly here at Old Leckie. Plenty of new born calves and getting beef back from the butcher is always good. It was sad because we said goodbyes to our neighbours who are moving to a new farm in Northumberland. It is a real blessing to have great farming neighbours - sharing knowledge, equipment and support. After 30 years we will miss them very much, and the farming community here will feel the loss of an active farm, soon to be turned over by it's current owner into forestry. And as the for the ugly...

Fergus had parked the livestock trailer on the hill above our house, helpfully opposite the boiler room where every day we need to take access to bring large boxes of logs to be burnt. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I carefully navigated the telehandler around the obstacle to tuck the last of the boxes safely in. What you have to understand here is that telehandlers are like squat tractors - bulky, with bad visibility they do though 'turn on a sixpence' with a crab function allowing front and rear tyres to turn in opposite directions to each other. It can just be a bit hard to judge where the tyres actually are with a large telescopic boom blocking your view to the right hand side. Pride, for me, always comes before a fall and so as I set off back round to the farm something made me look back, just to check - was something moving? Now, Fergus will tell you he left the trailer handbrake on, but I'm not quite so sure. All I knew at that point was I must have nudged the towbar and the whole trailer was beginning a backwards descent down the hill. If it ran straight we might get away with it lodged in the wall of the garden, if it veered into the corner then the house was in the crosshairs. Neither a good outcome really. With a turn of speed I did the only thing I probably could and belted down the hill in the telehandler to swerve beneath it, blocking its path and pushing its end up into the bank. All in all the buckled frame, racing heart rate and sick feeling in my stomach weren't as bad as they could have been. It definitely wasn't pretty, but gratefully effective. A salutary reminder to respect our machinery. And always use the handbrake.

The last cattle beast was perfectly formed but small, so there's not a lot left over, but we have got some ribeye and sirloin steaks back in stock - so feast on!

Sausages and Lamb back in stock

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 11:57:49 GMT

We're well settled into the winter rounds now. First daily checks are of the pregnant cattle in the shed before Fergus starts his feeding routine for all the cattle in the sheds followed by the rolling out of fresh straw for their bedding. Pigs are fed and watered, hen houses checked, eggs collected and food carried in top top up their feed hoppers. The wood boiler gets lit, sheep checked in the fields and the shed gutters cleared of the nightly windblow of leaves. The pre coffee routine concludes with a drive out to our furthest away fields where the Highlanders and wee Aberdeen Angus bull (aka Stumpy) run down the hillside like oversized fluffy teddy bears to enjoy a top up bale of hay. Rainbows have been cheering up the grey drizzle this week - some welcome colour into a moochy season.

Getting a meat delivery back from the butcher is always exciting and we've been out and about delivering our lamb boxes and restocking the farm freezers with deliciously tasty lamb and loads of different pork sausages. In the interests of quality control we have now tried every flavour we got back and are really pleased with them all so take your pick! The beef boxes are due in another week or 2 - we sod out really quickly of these so we've booked in another couple of beasts for butchery early January and have opened the order list for these - do let me know if you want added on for a box.

Elsewhere we've had to shut the farmstay down completely now we are in Tier 4 and are trying to manage surplus egg stocks through cancelled orders from our cafe and restaurant orders. I feel for those having to shut their doors completely at this time and feel especially grateful that we still have such a great direct customer base to help carry us through the disruption - thank you so much for your continued support, it does really mean a lot. Not to worry though any surplus eggs are never wasted - we have always donated them to the Start Up Stirling food bank since we started Leckie Layers a number of years ago. They do a great job getting food parcels out to individuals and families struggling and they're a great charity to support.

Mud glorious mud

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 13:18:44 GMT

Farm update 16 Nov 2020

It's a grotty day today. Grey and damp with the fallen leaves only adding to the squelchy mud as we navigate round the farm on our rounds. It's made for quite a funny morning though as Fergus and Struan make their way round the ewes applying fresh keel to the tups. This is the sticky coloured crayon that is applied onto the males' chests - and ultimately the rear of the ewes as they make their own way round their flock. Watching them try to catch the tups through muddy fields and then wrestle them into a moments stillness to apply the keel is quality comic viewing and even they returned with smiles for a warming coffee proudly bearing their dirty battle scars. That job done we're now onto this years ewe lambs that we will keep here for breeding with - checking over which of these first-time-mum-to-be's are mature enough to put to the tup this week for their first lambing next year.

With the Tier 3 restrictions on travel in and out of Stirling Council area looking like they will be in place for sometime to come we thought we could offer all our local customers a chance to come for a mini break on the farm at a fabulous discounted price. Our farmstay sleeps 6 in 3 bedrooms and has a cosy log burning stove to settle down in front of. There are great walks around the farm itself and local path network, and lets face it, a change of scene can be a wonderful thing at the moment, even if its only a few miles away! If anyone is interested in a farm based break we're offering Monday - Friday 4 night stays or Friday - Monday 3 nights stays at £250. With wifi, roll top bath, egyptian cotton sheets and always something fun to see, we'd love to host anyone needing a bit of R and R. There's plenty of info on the farm stay at www.oldleckie.co.uk but if you're keen to book best to email direct so we can apply our special offer.

We still have a mix of meat available in the freezer (plenty of mince, diced and burgers and sausages) though a bit limited until we get our next batch of butchery back. Am afraid our tatties are now unavailable until we can get dry weather to get into the fields and lift some more!

Leckie Limousin Beef

2 Popeseye Steak £ 16 per kg

500g Mince £5.50

500g Diced £6

Minute Steak (pack 3) £15 per kg

Lorne Sausage (packs of 4) £1.50

Link Sausage (Packs of 8) £3.20

4 x 4 oz Burgers £4.50

Oxtail £2.50 pack of 2

Outdoor Reared Pork

Smoked Pork and Apple Hot Dogs (6) £5

4 x 6oz burgers £6

Trotters - free

Leckie Lamb

6oz Lamb Burger (pack of 4) £8

Beef and Lamb boxes - orders being taken

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 12:08:18 GMT

Delivery 3rd and 4th Week November

We're now taking orders for both our 10kg Highland Beef boxes (£130) and 1/2 Lamb boxes (£95). These will be our last orders before Christmas so don't miss out! Both can be couriered UK wide - just email for more detail: info@oldleckie.co.uk

New arrivals

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 12:04:44 GMT

Farm update w/c 9 November

hope you all enjoyed the better weather this week - it felt good not be to be knee high in mud!

Its been a busy week of new arrivals here at the farm. Having collected the small weaners from Fife last Sunday (extremely cute - pics on facebook) Spotty then delivered her litter on Monday morning. What started as a litter of 4 has unfortunately reduced to 2 - she's a bit of a dozy first time mum and the wee mites have had to take their chances with her relatively enormous bulk. All of our other sows have been excellent mothers so we are not very impressed. Anyways - the 2 that are left are now a bit more robust and will be well rewarded for their tenacity having no competition for her bulging teats. They will grow big quickly.

Calving continues on a pace - on Friday night we had 3 calves born in the space of about 4 hours. Katie always really likes it when we notice something has started late evening as she pesters Fergus to get her out of bed in the middle of the night to go and help. I quite like this arrangement too. Noodles the cow has made huge improvements this week having surprised us all one evening as we turned on the lights to find her standing up looking rather bemused. She is still a bit wobbly but definitely going in the right direction.

Ive finally managed to secure our order for the new green egg boxes (end of year hopefully) , and am trying to stretch out the recycled green labelled ones for our shop orders until we get the temporary labels next week for the grey boxes. I really appreciate your patience with this and for helping recycle the boxes where you can.

My seat in front of the fire has been well used in the dark evenings this week. If anyone is looking for some recommendations for reading/ watching around farming/ environmental topics i've really enjoyed reading English Pastoral, by James Rebanks, and also on Netflix watched Kissing the Ground. Both consider impacts of different farming approaches and promote regenerative agriculture as part of the solution to our climate emergency. Both explain really well the thinking and science behind our approach to having a mix of animals, rotational grazing and attention to soil.

Wet and windy!

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 07:50:40 GMT

Farm update 2nd November

Hang onto your hats folks - its a wet and wild morning!

What a stormy weekend it has been - seems fitting for the growing sense of a winter season under tighter restrictions. I've spent the last day or 2 dealing with cancellations for the farmstay holiday accommodation, but still feel very fortunate that the main farming work goes on, keeping us focused and with a sense of purpose. There's nothing quite like a calving period to keep you on your toes. Noodles from last week is still having trouble getting to her feet, the vet has been keeping an eye on her - though she seems bright enough in herself. Fergus regularly checks in on her, helping to move her around as much as she can and altering her position to help spread her considerable weight. We've seen straightforward births of a few more calves and assisted with the birth of a pair of gorgeous twins that the kids have named Alfie and Anna.

Always looking ahead we had the vet out to scan our spring calvers and found them all pregnant which is great news, though he confirmed that only Spotty the pig is pregnant, not Dotty. Spotty looks pretty imminent, teats swelling and sleeping a lot. Selfishly I try and get out first in the morning to feed her in the hope that I discover the bundle of steaming piglets first. Out batch of tamworth weaners that were in the woods were brought in out of the mud onto straw beds last week and they look very happy for it. They'll be joined by some 10 week old weaners im collecting today from a smallholding up in Glenfarg - they'll help to make up numbers with Dotty not being pregnant.

Despite the wind and rain yesterday Fergus and Struan spent the day moving breeding sheep around the farm into their 'tupping' groups and then the male sheep themselves got divided out amongst the different groups. Encouragingly most seemed to remember what they were supposed to be doing and for those that are 'keeled' with a marker there was a good spread of blue bottoms on the ewes as the day progressed. If you're walking out from Gargunnock you can keep your eye on progress in the field just beyond the beeches path!

With Skinners always flat out in December we have booked in our final beef and lamb butchery before Christmas - lamb to be done mid Nov and beef the last week of November. If you would like to order a lamb box, Highland beef box, or pre order something special to have in for the festive season, let me know as soon as you can. Also doing the usual Christmas vouchers so again, let me know if you would like to order any of these for gifts.The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Fall back..

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 12:39:03 GMT

Farm update 26 October

For those of you without small children I do hope you all enjoyed the extra hour in bed. I like the change in clocks. A hint of morning light as we do our early rounds makes a big difference and I've tidied up the fireplace in anticipation of some evenings spent with a good book, feet up. Here's hoping anyway!

This week we've been doing a good check over of the tups before they head out to do their business with the female sheep, had another 'draw' of lambs off to market and moved more of the cattle inside for winter housing . Its been great to finally see some progress on the new website which has migrated over to a new, more mobile friendly platform - have a look www.oldleckie.co.uk and let me know what you think! The second phase - the online shop and ordering - is getting close to being finished and this will then replace the product pages of the website. Hopefully not too long now.

Despite keeping my fingers crossed our April order of new egg boxes has yet to arrive so over the next few weeks you'll see you eggs in a plain grey box. Beyond the post lock down issues in the Netherlands where the production factory is it now looks like there are some additional supply chain problems with the Scottish distributor so we have still very much in the dark about when this might be resolved. After a sleepless night it looks like we may now have found an alternative so am hoping at some stage we might see our lovely green boxes back.

Today our autumn calving has started but a difficult labour through the night has seen us this morning out in the sheds, kneeling in straw beside 'Noodles' the cow trying to get her to stand. A trapped nerve perhaps, or exhaustion, has left her unable to get to her feet. No luck so far so the next efforts will see us trying to get a sling under her considerable girth to give her an assisted lift to try and get her up again. Fingers crossed.

A week to look forward to though - our next batch of beef back from the butcher tomorrow and boxes will be out in the afternoon and the rest frozen down for orders over the next few weeks. A full range available - see below with also what we still have left with pork and lamb, oh.. and the kids back to school. It's all good!

Farm update 11 October

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 18:22:01 GMT

the IT problems we've had with our webmail server over the last few days have been indicative of a week where things just haven't worked as they should.

When we moved back 8 years ago to take on the farm from Fergus' mother this included us ultimately moving into the old house that his mother and late father had painstakingly restored over the previous 40 years. It's an amazing house, full of character and history dating back almost 500 years. But it didn't have heating, and once you've lived with central heating its hard to go back. We installed a biomass wood boiler at the farm and for the last 8 years have collected wind blow trees from the woods on the farm to provide heating and hot water to both our house and a couple of other properties on the farm. No oil or gas, just a lot of wood splitting and boiler stoking.

Whilst 8 years in farming isn't such a long time, its long enough for boiler installers to retire, engineers to disappear into the ether, and the biomass industry move on so that we are no longer large, or small, and definitely not the perfect fit for heating engineers who don't 'do' biomass and the larger servicing and maintenance companies more focused on industrial scale set ups. So when the current farmstay guests checked in and called to say there was no heating I have to confess my heart sank. A hasty provision of plug in oil heaters tidied us over until I could make a sanitised entry to the dreaded 'cupboard' under the stairs. Despite eventually finding a manual for the electronic display that was faulty I could make head nor tail of it, but a call to a couple of engineers gave me confidence to tinker around and with the help of a google video or 2 eventually found a manual bypass which at least got the hot water flowing again to the radiators.

The arrival of a specialist Tony later in the week managed to give us a better long term fix and I desperately tried to ply him with socially distant tea and cake in the hope that he wont mind me calling on him again when the inevitable future problems happen. So, alongside Tony and Gary - the IT guy who resolved our email problems (on a Sunday!) I finish the week feeling grateful for the skills of others. If only there was someone who could relieve me of the need to actually load the boiler with heavy hardwood logs - I've lost 2 fingernails in the last month through getting my fingers pinched by logs behaving badly - ouch!The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Weekly update 21 Sept 20

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:23:04 GMT

Another busy week...

Afternoon all,

an exciting week this week with new Leckie Lamb and Pork in the freezer and available for order - yum! We were delighted with our first batch of lamb boxes, packed and delivered out at the start of the week and have managed to get a wee bit back in to sell in smaller quantities - will make sure we book more in for the future...

Some things I've learned this week:

- Electric net fencing (rather than the white tape) is fairly ineffectual at keeping small pigs in a pen. By the time they push all the soil on top of it it shorts and they just walk out over the top of it

- lots of you have spare windblow apples - thanks to folks who've brought them by and yes please, the pigs love them if you can manage to drop them off!

- Fergus' hen house pooper scooper works... but does not self attach the winchline to pull it back out from under the house

- I may not be the shape I once was but I can still fit under a 44cm gap if I crawl commando style

- 3 showers is not sufficient to remove the smell of hen poo once you've been rolling around in it

But, the sun is shining and I'm away to pick up an Old Leckie Pork Burger from Gargunnock Inn for tea. Life is pretty good.

Hope you've all had a good week - let me know if you want anything added on

cheers

Alison

1kg Charlotte Tatties £2

Highland Beef

500g Mince £5.50

2 Sirloin Steak £32.4 per kg

2 Popeseye Steak £ 16 per kg

Briskett Joint £13 per kg (only 1 left at 0.9kg)

Lorne Sausage (packs of 4) £2.50

Link Sausage (Packs of 8) £3.50

4 x 4 oz Burgers £6

Outdoor Reared Pork

Chops (pack of 2) £5

Rolled Shoulder £10.95 per kg

Gigot Roast £10.95 per kg

pork Belly £10.95 per kg

Ribs £10.95 per kg

Pork Mince 500g £4.50

Pork Links (8) £3.50

Black Pudding and pear (8) £3.50

Cumberland (8) £3.50

Smoked Pork and Apple Hot Dogs (6) £5

4 x 6oz burgers £7

Leckie Lamb

Shoulder of Lamb (on the bone) £17.8 per kg

Rack of Lamb (7 chop) £15 per kg

Chump chops (pack of 2) £6.40

Double Loin Chops (pack of 2) £6

Double Loin Chops (pack of 4) £12

Shank (Individual) £4.5

6oz Lamb Burger (pack of 4) £8

Lambs Liver (approx 300g) £4The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Farm Update 28th Sept

info@oldleckie.co.uk (Alison Younger) — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:18:57 GMT

What's happened this week?

It was a chilly morning folks!

The first real frost of the autumn today saw ice on the windows, frost on the grass and the Leckie Layers hopping over cold patches to reach the sunlit corners of their runs... though it wont be long until this glorious September sun warms us all. Blue skies remain - bringing us to the close of a week that has been joyful for its bright, dry weather - a welcome counter balance to the covid clouds that seem to be gathering once again.

With a bit of an eye injury early in the week that rendered me useless for a couple of days, and Fergus having some planned minor surgery on his shoulder we've had an odd week on the farm - and the help we get from our regular part time workers has been much appreciated. We were also hugely lucky this week to have some additional volunteer help from Megan and her friends. Megan lived with us for a month before as a WWOOFer (a global volunteer programme for folks to work on farms) - and for those of you who came to the Barndance last year (remember when we could get 300 people together for a party?) she was to thank for the clean sheds as she seemed to spend a LOT of time pressure washing them to get ready for it.... A physio based in Glasgow she has always been enthusiastic about being outside and living a rural life, and it turns out her other doctoring friends are too. So this week, between night shifts in paediatrics and maternity anaesthetics we had Megan and 3 of her friends here clearing out the poly tunnel and getting their hands dirty - the perfect antidote it would appear to hospital life, and a massive help for us given we haven't been able to host our usual overseas volunteers this year.

This weekend has been another busy one with livestock - 240 ewe lambs through the yards yesterday getting tagged and vaccinated and today lots of cattle moving about as we select the largest of the calves for sale tomorrow. Kids proving again that they can be helpful when they want to be! In the freezer we've got limited roasting joints - only pork gigot or pork belly left at the moment, and the beef is getting low too...Ive clearly made a schoolboy error in talking up the black pudding and pear sausages - stocks have gone completely leaving me a little bit sad, but we've got a new batch of leek and tomato links so not all bad ;)

hope you all have a good week and this settled weather sticks around for a wee bit longer...

let me know of any add ons or changes to eggs this week ,

cheers

alison

1kg Charlotte Tatties £2

Highland Beef

2 Sirloin Steak £32.4 per kg

2 Popeseye Steak £ 16 per kg

Briskett Joint £13 per kg (only 1 left at 0.9kg)

Lorne Sausage (packs of 4) £2.50

Link Sausage (Packs of 8) £3.50

4 x 4 oz Burgers £6

Outdoor Reared Pork

Chops (pack of 2) £5

Gigot Roast £10.95 per kg

pork Belly £10.95 per kg

Ribs £10.95 per kg

Pork Mince 500g £4.50

Pork Links (8) £3.50

Tomato and Leek (8) £3.50

Cumberland (8) £3.50

Smoked Pork and Apple Hot Dogs (6) £5

4 x 6oz burgers £7

Leckie Lamb

Rack of Lamb (7 chop) £15 per kg

Chump chops (pack of 2) £6.40

Double Loin Chops (pack of 2) £6

Lambs Liver (approx 300g) £4

Weekly update 5 October 2020

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:18:57 GMT

When I opened the door this morning and heard the roar of the nearby waterfall I could tell the wet forecast had delivered, by the bucket load. As we picked our way round the sodden path beneath the wild garlic bank to see the torrent of water the kids held on tightly to puppy Bug, nervous that her enthusiastic bouncing around the edge may not end well.

It feels like we've spent a lot of time this week getting ready for the deluge. Gutters cleared, drains unblocked and the cattle sheds getting cleared out of the summer's machinery, wood and even kayaks. Just before the rain arrived yesterday morning we managed to slip the group of autumn calvers into the sheds - they are ready to start calving any moment and the warm, dry bed of straw was met with much contentment. Over the next few weeks we will bring all of the cattle into the sheds - keeping them well looked after and fed through the lean winter months and protecting our fields from irreparable damage by 800kg animals walking on 4 small feet through wet pasture. The silage and hay we have harvested through the summer will be used as winter feed whilst they are housed.

Today we have our next batch of lambs heading away for our 1/2 lamb boxes (£95) which will be ready hopefully by the end of this coming week. Alongside them a Limousin which has been born, reared and finished at Old Leckie. Its been a couple of years since we last did one as we've worked our way though the older highlanders on the farm so we're really looking forward to having the meat back from it. Its a really tender, great tasting meat - we will be taking orders for 10kg chilled meat boxes (£130) and also keeping some back for smaller quantities. If you would like a lamb or beef box reserved please let me know. Beef boxes will be ready at the end of the month.

To make room in the freezer we're needing to find hungry tummys for some of our stocks of burgers and lorne sausage - so these are 'on special' this week with savings of 15%- 25% on beef burgers, lorne sausage, beef links and Pork and Apple burgers - so now is your chance to stock up!The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.