Corona virus  (COVID-19):

This virus is obviously having consequences in our work. We have already lost

business with school canteens, the hotel trade and fairs. We would however

like to state the following:

We will continue to supply our dairy products to small shops that request them

Our work team will be using gloves and masks when delivering

We will be supplying our dairy goods at their usual price and will request shops

not to increase the prices of our products even should there be any shortage

of foodstuffs.

We are continuing this month with another example of farm

or domesticated plant biodiversity, although, as with all

domesticated plants used for food, this species is also found

in the wild… in the Pyrenees in fact, for example. It is actually

native to many parts of northern and central Europe and nor-

thern Asia, where it prefers damp, fertile soils. Although a hardy

plant, cold weather at flowering time reduces the size of the crop.

As the weather is so very changeable at present it will be interes-

ting to see what sort of harvest we have, although our black currants

are for home consumption and are not planted in the best of soils.

Black currant berries are rich in vitamin C and are used in sweet and

savoury dishes and also in some alcoholic beverages (the French cassis,

for example). Both the fruit and the leaves have been used in traditional

medicine and in the preparation of dyes. The red currant (Ribes rubrum)

belongs to the same family and is also native to northern Europe.

Recipe of the month:Fresh cheese cake

This is not the first recipe for cheesecake we have posted on our

website but we keep being sent different versions. This one uses

“fresh cheese”, a sort of cheese not on sale in many countries, but

well worth trying.

450g fresh cheese

175g sugar

50g butter

1 packet (around 25 biscuits) plain biscuits

6 eggs

Break up the biscuits into small pieces. Melt the butter and mix in

the biscuit pieces. Grease the bottom of a cake tray and then

introduce the biscuit and butter mixture in the  base of the tray

and press down firmly.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Separate the egg white from the yolks. Whisk egg whites until stiff.

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and fresh cheese and then carefully

fold in the egg whites.

Pour the mixture over the biscuit base in the cake tray and place in

the middle of the oven. Cook for 40-45 minutes.

What was the weather like?

The weather went from cold at the start of the month, with snow

on the hills, rainy weather, warmer sunny weather and then another

colder, wet spell at the end of the month, with hail showers and snow

on the hills again.

We collected a total of 185 litres of precipitation in the rain gauge.

Minimum temperatures of just over freezing (1,2ºC) coincided with

sunny days during which maximum temperatures reached 20ºC. In

the warmer weather many bees and bumblebees appeared, including

the white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) in the photo, visiting

both garden and wild flowers.

Damp weather and busy field mice mean the peas haven’t

  germinated nearly aswell as usual. However, they are

beginning to grow, so we may have a few peas in May.

We took advantage of the last few days of sunny weather to plant

onions and sow beetroot, parsnip and carrots.

What did the cows eat? When the weather permitted,

the cows were able to graze outside, whilst the heifers grazed

nearly every day. Weather permitting, we also gave the dairy

cows freshly mown grass. We supplemented their diet with a

little feedstuff and dry forage.

Apart from daily, routine farm chores, we have also cleared nettles

and brambles from some slopes,

The first fresh green leaves appear on many deciduous trees from

the beginning of March. For example, hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna),