Wealden Times | WT231 | August 2021 | Adding value to your property supplement inside

Slow,
Grow, Eat
Hairdresser-turned-shepherdess, Zoë Colville
farms nearly 100 acres of land near Maidstone
with her partner, Chris Woodhead. With prime
focus on their animals’ wellbeing, together they
rear cows, sheep, goats and pigs, eventually
selling their meat through The Little Farm
Fridge. This month, Zoe contemplates a new
way to educate the public about farming life
The farm becomes a very noisy place for a little while
around this time. We wean our goat kids and lambs
from their mothers and even though their mothers’
milk supply would have hugely reduced and nine times out of
ten they would have been kicked off the teat, they still scream
blue murder for a day or two. I had an interesting conversation
with a local saying that they’ve ‘never known sheep to be
so noisy’ and it got me thinking about what we can do to
familiarise our neighbours and local walkers with our practises
to avoid their worry and all the phone calls we receive.
We have explored putting a QR code on the gates of the
fields the livestock are in, which could be scanned to open
a blog to show what we are getting up to and shed some
light on certain situations, to avoid worry or panic.
A good example would be that we have a few lame lambs
at the moment with a condition called ‘scald’ – this is when
the grass gets too long, it rubs in the soft area where their hoof
splits and creates a sore bit. The way we treat it is to spray in
between the ‘toes’ with a blue spray which is an antiseptic that
aids the healing process. We then mark the affected individual’s
head with a dot of spray paint so we know we’ve treated it
and can keep an eye on their progress. We also quite often
spray its whole foot blue for any onlookers to see, so when
we get a call about a lamb hobbling we can ask if it has a blue
foot and we know it’s been identified and treated already.
Another example could be that when our Highland cows
are due to calf we may put a sign up warning footpath
walkers to be vigilant when walking through that field as new
mothers can be unpredictable. This could sound scary or
make us sound like we are being difficult but if walkers can
ping onto the blog and see when the girls have given birth
and feel a part of the process it’s suddenly less daunting.
A blog for the local community can also make people feel
involved with the livestock in their area as they are up to date
with what goes on week-to-week in the land surrounding their
houses, even learning the breeds, ages, purposes etc. Quite
often we will have dog walkers asking if the sheep are for wool
or meat and if the pygmy goats are for eating, whilst some will
just make their own conclusions and not voice their questions,
so it would benefit us whilst also clearing up any ambiguity
or gaps in their understanding of farming or the food chain.
The Little Farm Fridge Recipe of the month
How to cook it... Lamb leg
steaks with chimichurri.
• 2 Little Farm Fridge
lamb leg steaks
• handful mint leaves,
finely chopped
• handful parsley,
finely chopped
• 3 chopped garlic cloves
• shallot, finely chopped
• red chilli (half or whole
• Serves 2
depending on taste)
• ½ tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp oregano
• 2 tbsps white wine vinegar
• 5 tbsps olive oil
• ½ tsp pink rock
salt (or to taste)
• black pepper, to taste
1 Add all the chimichurri ingredients to a bowl and mix well,
adjusting the chilli and seasoning to your taste or audience.
2 Season the meat and heat the barbeque.
3 Grill on each side for around 6 minutes, stand to rest on
the side for a couple of minutes before adding the chimichurri
and serving. (Best served with home made chips or wedges!)
Follow Zoe on Instagram @thechiefshepherdess
and @thelittlefarmfridge. You can order
meat online at thelittlefarmfridge.co.uk
istockphoto.com/swkunst / winyuu