Things are starting to slow down on the farm

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Things are starting to slow down here on the farm. Hay season is over. All the small square hay bales are tucked away in the hay shed out of the weather. Most of the big round hay bales are stacked in rows. We only have two more paddock empty of round bales.

The weather is getting warmer and the grass is getting drier. This is okay as our cattle grow really well on dry feed.

Our summer fruits are beginning to ripen. The Apricots are starting to turn orange. These are late this year. Normally the Apricots are ripe at the start of December. The Plumcots are also ripe now. Plumcots are a cross between a Plum and an Apricot. If you haven’t tried these before I recommend it!

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Christmas is only 10 days away. Can you believe it? We will only be opening our shop on Fridays for the Christmas period. So this Saturday is the last Saturday we are open for the next few weeks.

At the start of next week we are getting another animal back from the butchers. So this means we will have most cuts of beef back in stock again. It is time to finalise your Christmas orders. We are offering free delivery for all orders over $100. The cut off for delivery is next Friday 23rd December.

We have a wide range of Christmas roasts available as well as all your BBQ needs. So why not WOW your Christmas guests with some LOCAL, HEALTHY beef this Christmas.

Christmas is fast approaching!

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Hi Everyone, It’s Hollie here. I am your guest blogger for today.

Can you believe how close Christmas is? Only 16 sleeps! We are blessed that we have all our family close by. In fact on mum’s side (Peterson family) we all live within 20km of each other. This includes Granny, Mum and her brothers and their wives (my uncles and aunties). Even my cousins and my sister and brother and my sister in law.

Having family close by means that our Christmas gatherings are big events. With A LOT of food. For some families this means a lot of unhealthy food and regret the next day. But with the Peterson family we eat quite healthy. My uncle started with Biodynamics 25+ years ago.

We traditionally have a hot roast meal on Christmas. This includes our Biodynamic Beef, Biodynamic Pork from our Uncle, Biodynamic roast Veggies and Salads. We have even had some nitrate free Ham in the past. My uncle brings over his Biodynamic Milk straight from his dairy. I guess you could say our Christmas meals are a Biodynamic foodies heaven!

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Here at Eden Farm produce we are taking orders for Christmas roasts. We have a wide range of roasts available for sale on our website. If Christmas Day is going to be a cool day like today, you cannot go past a beautiful roast beef with pan juice gravy. Or if Christmas Day is going to be hot a BBQ might be the way to go. We have a great range of steaks available. These include BBQ steak, Porterhouse Steak, Scotch fillet steak available. We have limited Sausages available so please get your orders in fast.

Our Farm Store is open every Friday and Saturday. You can call in and check out our wide range of Biodynamic pantry items and freshly picked Biodynamic in Conversion vegetables from my farm. You can also order via our website. We deliver almost every day to the local area.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

 

Hollie xx

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Working with the cows and calves

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We have just been doing a bit of work with the cows and calves.  It is important to have a closer look at them from time to time, even though they are checked every day, we like to get them in the yard for a more detailed check.  We look for pink eye this time of year which can be a problem when it is dry and dusty,   After inspection, all our animals have no problems.  You may ask what do we do to cure an infection. Well if you go to our FAQ section you will find out.

I was out on the tractor this morning doing some slashing of dry grass to tidy up the paddocks a bit. There is a lot more of that to do, but it lets the summer grasses grow better when we get some rain.   It is better to do this job in the late afternoon when the grass is dryer as the grass cuts better when it’s dry.  This means less fuel is used to do the same job which is important to us here at Eden Farm.

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Check out the picture of our bull.  The breed is Maine Anjou and he is huge. We are trying to breed a better and bigger animal that is quiet to deal with. My son and I were working with the cows and bull yesterday and we nearly got to pat him.  He is about 1200kg with a great straight  back and excellent rump muscle.

The calves are doing very well.  They will stay on their mothers until they are about 10 months old.  Then we will give the cows a rest from feeding the calves before they calve again.  However, the cows are putting on weight even though they are feeding.  That is what good nutrition can do. This is all done without chemicals and artificial fertilisers.

It’s a great life style here on the farm.  Maybe you could come and see for yourself sometime.   Cheers, Gary.

We are cutting hay Today and tomorrow

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The time has come to cut the hay here at Eden Farm.  It’s a bit later this year after a wet winter, but this means a lot of grass has grown and that means heaps of hay.  Most of the hay will be big round bails and some will be small squares.  The small square bails get stacked in the hay shed by hand. Great exercise!

I was out moving some of the cows this morning while it was cold. 4 degrees.  This is cold enough to slow down the mozzies.  They are thick this year because of the water laying about.  The frogs and birds are having a field day as they are the natural predators of mozzies.img_2110

Our animals are looking amazing.  I will put up a photo or too soon. You can always come out and have a look for your self any day we are open.  Eden Farm is normally open to the public Fridays and Saturdays.  Those are the days you can buy produce like meat and products etc.

A week ago, we took some of our Rump Steak to eat with some friends in Melbourne.  He is a food Tech and he cooked the meat.  The most amazing eating experience!  We will talk about cooking methods soon, but I have been talking about this meat ever since.  There is a photo here and at the top of our home page.  Some video of the cooking will be on our web site maybe today.

Tomorrow is Melbourne cup day, so most of Victoria has a day off.  I think I will take it easy and watch the hay dry, because in a week the real work starts with raking and bailing and carting the hay into the shed.  A great and satisfying time though, seeing the harvest completed.

 

 

Well, its spring time and its finally dried out.

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Well, here at Eden Farm Produce, its spring time and its finally dried out.  We have had some flooding here but now it has gone and we have dried out.  Happy with the wet winter.  Heaps of grass so there will be a huge amount of hay to make.  So we start cutting hay on Monday.  I just pulled the bailer out of the shed to get it ready to go.  So that means greasing and oiling all the moving parts, and there are lots of them.  We don’t buy in hay as we only feed our animals our own produce.  This way we know what their eating.