Forage Harvesters, Food Festivals And A Flippin' Long Wait For The AA!

We've had a busy few weeks but have finally found a few spare minutes to launch our blog and update you on what's been happening on the farm, in the biltong shed and on our travels around Wales and beyond!

With the arrival of summer there is inevitably a lot to do farming wise; as well as ploughing and planting our maize and fodder-beet for later in the year we've harvested two cuts of silage in the last month, with our third and final crop due to be picked up within the next week. Silage season is very much an "all-hands-on-deck" time of year and there have been more than a few late finishes to make sure that everything is back safely in the silage pit before the next showers of rain!


Luckily we've got a good supply of tasty snacks to stay fueled during a long shift in the tractor....This silage will form the mainstay of our winter feed allowing us to continue feeding the goodness of grass once the temperature drops and the ground becomes too soft and wet to bear cattle.

The last few weekends have also seen us exhibit at our first food festivals and we couldn't have had warmer welcomes! We started our summer season in the beautiful grounds of Tonbridge Castle in Kent with some truly spectacular weather. As expected we were kept busy topping up the biltong samplers and we're glad to say we came home with significantly less stock than we arrived with. A week later (with a cut of silage in the middle, naturally) we found ourselves setting up stall in another picturesque castle, this time Caldicot for the Monmouthshire Food Festival.

Our first event in Wales and another two days of unspoiled sunshine. We had a great time bringing delicious biltong to the taste buds of visitors from all over South Wales and South West England, we even had a steady stream of South Africans who gave our produce the seal of approval, high praise indeed! Yes all was going swimmingly until we departed on Saturday evening only for our trusty(ish) car to grind to a halt in the car park.

A quick bump start confirmed that there was something very irregular going on with the engine so it was rolled into a parking space and an SOS call to the AA was made. Thankfully we were staying with our friends Rob and Grace who became an emergency taxi to save us camping in the car! Another busy day on the biltong stall Sunday was rounded off with our poorly Ford Mondeo being winched onto the recovery truck before delivering us all back to Pembrokeshire, I guess you can't win them all, still there are less scenic places to break down ! (Thanks to Paul at Pentlepoir Garage for getting our wheels back on the road so quickly!) 

So with our transport back to full health we are looking forward to the rest of our summer festival season that lies ahead. Take a look at our events page to stay up to date with where you can find us. There's nothing better than getting to meet our customers face to face so come along to say hello, let us answer your questions and remember, our pitch is the only place you'll be able to get your hands on our delicious biltong, freshly sliced before your eyes. There really is no better way to enjoy it!

Hopefully see you all at the stall soon! Mike & Rachel.