LOCATION!

We are located 4 miles north of Cirencester, between the villages of North Cerney, and Woodmancote. From A435 you take the turning towards Bagendon, go up past the Church to the T junction. Turn right towards Woodmancote and Scrubditch Farm is approximately 100 yards on the right. The Care Farm is situated down the drive, up the track on the left.
From A417, turn off at Perrotts Brook/Daglingworth, and proceed towards Perrotts Brook. Just before the A435, turn left towards Woodmancote. Go for approximately 1 1/2 miles and Scrubditch Farm is on the right, just past the Bagendon/North Cerney Cross Roads.

Saturday 2 December 2017

SANDY HAS FARROWED AGAIN!  SHE HAS 7 BEAUTIFUL PIGLETS.....and all doing well - so fingers crossed we've got a good mix of boys and girls.

The Cook Book has been launched and is now available from us directly, via the website, or locally from Rendcomb Stores, Made By Bob's and Miserden Nurseries.

i will be taking the Cook Books to North Cerney Village Hall for the School's Christmas Fair next Saturday 2nd December....see you there!

Manny has recovered - not sure exactly what was wrong, but he is sound again now....we think it was a bruised foot.  He is very happy in the paddock, and the students go most days to see him and check him over.

Gerry has been busy halter training two ewe lambs from this year's crop of lambs...it's a slow process and some of the lambs take to it quicker than others!

It's nearly Christmas again ....this year's gone way too fast and it's nearly time for our Christmas Lunch!  This is always a great occasion for everyone who works and comes to the farm to get together. 

This week is the Christmas Spectacular at Cirencester Parish Church on Wednesday 6th December.  The Barn Theatre are putting on a fantastic production and we are raising money for the Care Farm, having a stall selling our Christmas Books and cards.

iI i don't blog again - HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all our supporters and friends and see you in the New Year!


Thursday 5 October 2017

AUTUMN IS UPON US!

Hello to everyone - as usual i've been very lapse updating the Blog!
Loads of good stuff to report though - so read on....

Term has got off to a flying start, and half term is fast approaching...we have been busy picking produce, replanting salad in the polytunnel and digging up bean beds and getting them ready for the next log of veggies.  Our pumpkins look great (although some are quite small) and we are hoping to make pumpkin produce after half term.  We had a great morning out last week at FOODWORKS COOKERY SCHOOL in Colesbourne.  Emma (chef from Wiggly Worm Charity) led the morning's cooking, teaching some very valuable knife skills, with the onions, leeks and courgettes.  The students made leek and potato soup, and courgette and raising muffins - delicious! We took along our own produce, and it was great to see the end results made into edible lunch!  It's spurred us on to do some more cooking onsite (with a portable hob) and we are going to make curried parsnip soup next week for lunch!

Beatrice has come on leaps and bounds with the students leading her round the field three days a week - they thoroughly enjoy this activity and we have some wonderful photographs for their folders!

Manny is lame .....😞  so he is in the stable again - we are hoping it's just an infection in his foot, and not laminitis - so we have to poultice his foot for three days and hope that it brings the infection out.

Sandy is looking fantastic, and will need scanning imminently - piglets should be arriving first week of December!

It's our QUIZ on 13 October (see opposite)
we are having an Open Day on Wednesday 10 October


Friday 21 July 2017

END OF TERM CERTIFICATES!

The Summer Term is over - this half term has flown by!  We have been so busy with all the animals and produce we haven't stopped to write blogs...my excuse anyway!

We have made hay in the paddock at the Care Farm, and in Woodmancote where last year's lambs have been this summer.  We have over 200 bales but sadly 100 of them are getting rather wet at present....😒

The students and Gerry have been working with some of our wether lambs - halter training them each day.  They don't seem as happy about it as last year's Alice though!

Sandy is having a well earned rest up in the woodland after farrowing.  We sold 6 of her piglets, and have kept the tiny 'Tigger' who is now a healthy 10 kilos; along with 'Marmalade' who is a huge 20 kilos!!  They really are little and large!

Manny relaxing!
The ducks are all thriving, although have slightly gone off the lay recently - we think it may be the constant changes in the weather.  The bantams keep going broody, we have 5 chicks with one hen, and another two 'sitting'.

We have moved Manny into the paddock with the four ewes at the Care Farm so he's nearby for visitors.  He seems very happy, and has donkeys next door to chat to!

We had a fantastic Open Gardens on 2 July in aid of the Care Farm.  A local private garden in North Cerney opened their garden specially - it was a seriously hot afternoon, and we had over 150 people through the gate!  We raised £1,500.00 - serving cream teas, selling produce and looking round the gardens.

We had to rush to get the hay bales in on Wednesday before it rained!  Everyone mucked in, and thoroughly enjoyed heaving the bales onto the trailer so we could put them to dry in the yard!

We had our end of term celebration lunch yesterday - slow cooked lamb (our own of course!)sausage plaits with delicious salads and puddings - everyone bought something along with them and we all sat together on the decking.  we used as much produce as we could from the garden - it was a joyous occasion followed by certificates for all the students.  We finished by giving them all a Scrubditch Care Farm cap to take home with them!

We have children's activities during the summer holidays funded by Gloucestershire County Council.
These are on 7, 9 10th and 23rd and 24th August.

Students start back on Monday 4 September.

Veg Boxes are available from the Care Farm on Thursdays during the holidays

Saturday 3 June 2017

HAPPY DAYS!

SANDY farrowed two weeks ago - she had 9, but unfortunately squashed one....she wasn't very well when she farrowed, so we had the vet out to her....and she reckoned she could have had a mild infection that meant she had a very long labour and didn't recover quite as quickly as usual.  we now have 8 piglets - one is tiny, and not feeding well, so we are giving her some goats milk and cereal to try and get the weight on.  Hopefully we will sell most of them at 6 - 8 weeks - some of the boars and gilts are huge already!
Scrubditch Alison went off to the Netherlands and has arrived safely - we got a lovely photo of her today - very exciting to have sold one of our pedigree gilts for breeding.

we have 2 ducklings under a heat lamp - actually we've had them out in the day time in a run but inside at night - they are four weeks old.  We also have 2 lots of hens with chicks - 12 chicks in total .....sadly i think quite a few are 'cockerel' looking...not good for increasing our egg production!
Jolly Nice at Frampton Mansell are still selling our duck eggs and bantam eggs - we can only just keep up with production!
some of our lovely game bantams!

Thursday 27 April 2017

first week back!

We have all had a great first week back - it's been a very happy week!  The lambing's all finished and on Monday, we took the last 3 ewes and lambs down to the bank to join the rest of the flock.  There is loads of grass down there, so we are going to fence off half of it to hopefully get a cut of hay later on in the summer. Total lambs 23, so a good crowd down there!

The two weaners went off before Easter, and we still have some chops, joints and a few packs of sausages left in the freezer.  The other gilt is off abroad next week!  She is going to the Netherlands to breed!
Kate with the gilt who's off abroad
next week!
Sandy is due to farrow within the next couple of weeks and really looks fantastic.  We are going to move her back to the nursery on monday in readiness!

Kate has been frantically planting seeds with the students - we will need lots of volunteer pickers later on in the summer ....will be nearly a full time job!  Potatoes have been planted out, broad beans are up, and carrot seeds went in today.  We have some lovely salad coming up in the poly tunnel (as long as those naughty bantams keep out!)

We bought another 3 laying ducks - Buff Orpingtons - and they have settled straight in, and are laying brilliantly.  We are supplying JOLLY NICE with ducks eggs each week, along with our lovely Bantam eggs too.  If you haven't been there  do call in as it's the most amazing place off the road to Stroud at Frampton Mansell.  They do the best burgers too!

Bantams are going broody everywhere, and we managed to put two into little arks and they should be hatching next week.  We have also put some duck eggs in the incubator....just to see if we can hatch some ducklings (our track record is not good with the incubator..... but!)

Little and large.....a bantam egg with an enormous hen egg!!


Saturday 1 April 2017

lambing is in full swing!

We have had 9 ewes lamb so far....2 lots of singles and 9 lots of twins...more ram lambs than anything else, and some of them are very large!
The weather has just about started to improve....thank goodness - the sun should really help.

Our hens are all back in their run, having weeded our fruit cage beautifully, and the nets are off the ducks too.

We are just about to finish term for a short Easter Break, when we will be doing one day of EASTER ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN on THURSDAY 20 APRIL. It's almost fully booked already!

we have started selling duck and bantam eggs to Jolly Nice - their shop is at Frampton Mansell (off the Stroud road) and incredibly busy...we may have to buy a few more ducks to keep up with demand!

The students have been busy with Kate, planting lots of seeds out in the poly tunnel, and some straight out into the raised beds






Thursday 2 March 2017

lambing due to start in a week or so!

we brought the ewes back from the bank; first day back!  They all came to Mark's call, and are now very happily settled in the field by the Care Farm, ready for lambing.   We have cleared out the yard and are just sorting out / disinfecting all the hurdles ready to make lambing pens up.

Last year's lambs are still very happy in Woodmancote and we will shortly be sending some of the weathers off...for Easter Mutton!
the lambs nearby

At last after ....time we have managed
to get the topper out of the yard!


Perry has moved on to a happy retirement, not far away.  The students were sad to see him go, but he was not able to perform any more, so we had to make a difficult situation.  On a brighter note, Sandy who went off to a boar locally, is definitely in pig now.  She should be due around 2nd week of May.

We have opened up the poly tunnel doors into the fruit cage for the hens!  They were SO PLEASED to be able to scratch around for worms finally, having been shut in for so long.  It is still 'wild bird' proof as it is fully netted.  They are laying like mad, and some of the bantams are even going broody!

So it's full steam ahead for lambing now......watch this space!

Thursday 9 February 2017

catch up!

The hens are still in our polytunnel and wow do they love it - they are laying like mad!  The students have been busy health checking them each week; scaly leg treatments, being on the their favourite - they look fantastic, and hopefully we can let them all out again at the end of the month.  If not, we are going to organise a tunnel roof between the poly tunnel and the fruit cage, where they can scratch round our soft fruit....saving us too much weeding!

Perry continues to cause us problems - he just doesn't seem to be coming sound enough.  We moved him into the yard, in order to keep a better eye on him.  He seems very happy there, but still holds up a foot when feeding.....Meanwhile we wait to see if Sandy was properly 'covered' when she went off to a boar near Brinkworth for a holiday!  Hopefully the scanner will be able to come within the next two weeks.  We still have 3 gilts ready to sell, so are advertising them locally....fingers crossed they will go within the next few weeks too.  Then the woodland can have a rest and recover from all this wet weather.

The ewes look fantastic on the bank, and they will soon be coming back for lambing.  We are due to bring them back at the end of the month.

The students have a two week break now, but for us....there's still all the animals to feed each day, and training to catch up on and of course the mounds of paperwork!


Friday 20 January 2017

IT'S LOVELY AND COLD AGAIN!

AT LAST SOME BEAUTIFUL SUNNY COLD WEATHER!

The students are all back and wrapping up warm (most of them!) and we are all working hard.  There's lots to do with the animals.  We had the sheep scanner coming last week, so we had to bring all the ewes and Gerrhalt (the magnificent ram we borrowed) back to the farm.  They are so good and all came running up to the gate when we called them and we all walked them back across the fields to the farm.  They have been up at the farm for a week, and a very successful scanning - 9 sets of twins, 6 singles and two sadly 'barren'....but one is an old ewe anyway.   We walked them back to the bank on wednesday - they were thrilled to be back in their favourite field again.

Sandy our favourite sow has been off on holiday for a couple of weeks - she has gone visiting another boar, as sadly our boar, Perry, has had a sore foot, and so was unable to get married this time.  She has been having a wonderful time, and we are due to pick her up again tomorrow!
The other pigs are all looking great, and we hope to sell at least two of the 6 month old gilts on shortly.

 We have moved all our hens to the end of the poly tunnel due to the avian flu trouble....they love it in there and are laying many more eggs as a result - our salad beds are looking rather bare...but they are doing a great job weeding them!