Kimbers’ Farm Shop Christmas Tasting – No Need for Wellies!
Well, here we are, eight weeks along from the big move into our new shop and we are very pleased with the response from our customers both old and new.
The fresh meat counter and the lovely Jane who comes up from West Bay on a Friday morning with fresh fish have gone down particularly well. It is clear that fully traceable meat and being able to speak to the people who rear the animals is vitally important to many.
Of course, we have had a few teething issues - mainly with technology, who knew moving a telephone number could cause so much confusion!
The creating and moving of our farm shop has been quite a family journey, we are pleased with the result, and look forward to welcoming those of you who are yet to check it out.
Christmas is rapidly approaching and our free range turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens are growing well. The dry curing of our gammons and bacon is underway; traditional cures take several weeks to complete. Next will come the smoking.
We have a wonderful array of gifts, wood items made by Greg Powers in Wincanton, locally made brandy, vodka, wines and cider, beautiful hand blown friendship/Christmas baubles from Langport, quirky tea towels, smellies from Radstock and much more.
On Wednesday 3rd December we will be holding a Christmas Tasting and Ordering Day from 2.00pm until 7.00pm. At 5.00pm on that day we invite you to the blessing of the crib in the Dutch barn by our local rector. There will be carols, real animals and mince pies. Georgie Newbery will be here during the evening signing her latest bestselling book "The Flower Farmer’s Year".
Come along and join us - No need for wellies this year either, as we have a large car park!
The Farm
We have had a wonderful summer and autumn. The farm animals look really well and will go into the winter at peak condition.
The barns are made ready to house the cattle when the time comes. This will be some of the younger calves and the dry cows, but the store cattle will remain outside and have supplementary food in the way of trailered-in silage. Our grass and maize forage clamps are brim full.
We have just finished calving. We calve our cows in two blocks, one in the spring and the second in late summer. This produces an even supply of milk for our buyer, Wyke Farms at Bruton, to make into cheddar and farmhouse butter.
With its far reaching health benefits now widely understood, our sales of our unpasteurised milk have steadily increased this year.
We were delighted to be awarded the Compassion in World Farming CWFI Dairy Award in 2013, which recognises dairy farmers whose cows graze the pastures and improve key welfare and health issues. To win this award, farmers must be rearing their calves, including all dairy bull calves, in high welfare systems where they are raised in social groups with deep bedding and fed an appropriate grass based fibre diet.
We also won a Gold Medal in the Taste of the West for our farm shop. Our sirloin steaks also won a Gold Award, Silver was awarded for our Gloucester Old Spot pork sausages and smoked back bacon, Bronze for our free range Turkey breast, cured and naturally wood smoked.
We look forward to welcoming you on the 22nd or 23rd of December for mulled cider when collecting your Christmas goodies. (Order forms available on our website www.kimbersfarmshop.co.uk).
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