Noix

We are staying in a delightfully farmhouse/barn conversion owned by an english family who moved to france in 2006 and renovated a house for themselves and two holiday cottages. By selling a 3 bedroom Bungalow in Bournmouth they were able to buy the buildings and 6 ha with only a small mortgage and enjoy an enviable quality of live. With 2 young children they integrate with the local communities but admit they find making friends with the locals difficult as most in the rural villages are fairly elderly. But their children are doing well at the local schools and they are happy with the standards of schooling. But even we find it quiet here, i can imagine that someone that never lived in the country before could find it a massive change.
The 6 ha that are owned go right upto the road edge and there is a wide grass verge with well maintained walnut trees. This is another thing that the Perigord region is renowned for. There is 28 walnut trees on the verge (Dora counted them) and these yield around 800 euros of nuts that are all sold to the local co-op. Locally you can find allsorts of products made from walnuts including a wicked walnut wine that seems similar to Sloe gin, made using green walnuts, eau-de-vie, red wine and sugar.
When we found the local farmers market at Riberac there was a stall selling walnuts and walnut products. After Alfred manage to hit the farmer firmly over the knuckles with what i imagine is the local authentic nutcracker and bowl i felt oliged to buy at least something. So we came away with noix confit, nothing to do with ducks but i think like a marron glace or similar. Dad bought some strong smelling nut oil for salads. Again all very traditional and authentic, but also quite expensive, however it was the first organic products we have managed to find.

Canard!

So today we have finally found some ducks and what a revelation the canard industry is. At Val De Chandiere batchs of ducks were bought in at 14 weeks for 12 euros then Gavarage or force fed soaked maize for 15 days and then were worth 50 Euros. Every 3 weeks batchs of 120 were bought in then processed to make everything you could possibly want from a duck, rillette,confit, Foie gras, Grillons,the list was endless! Our host seemed to find it unbelievable that in the UK we did not have a market for necks and gizzards. Here they were even selling the green offals. The processing plant was of reasonable standard but nowhere near the levels of hygiene and maintance that are required in the UK, this was particularly disapointing for Nevil when he struggles at home with constantly changing legislation that is meant to be the same across the EU.
Top price product today went to Foie Entier at 133.33 Euro's per kg, thats the whole lobes of liver in a tin. If you wanted cheaper then you could buy Bloc de foie Gras that is pressed together, much better value at 90 euros per kg. We currently sell organic duck livers that weigh around 50g each at £9 per kg a force fed canard Foie will weigh around 500g.
As usual I came back laden with more tins and jars to try, but for a change tonight we ate Duck sausages with lentiles Vert as even nevil is start to complain about the amount of duck confit he is being made to eat!

The Gavage or force feeder, Ducks are fed boiled maize twice a day.

The Cooker where the fat is rendered and then all the parts of duck are cooked. Looks similar to a ham boiler. (That disgusting thing is a cooked neck being hooked out for making into a rough pate)

Ducks in cages and on slatted floor, something that our customers would find unacceptable. Ducks are Mulards or mules a sterile cross between a barbary male and a female pekin. Finished dead weight will be around 5 to 5.5 kg

The Dordogne France

I thought it was a good plan to take the overnight ferry from plymouth and drive down through France to Gouts Rossignol deep in the french countryside. About 2 oclock in the morning trying to cuddle a seasick seven year old on a very hard floor i had serious doubts that this counted as a Nuffield experience. It is not completely a nuffield trip and we are also on holiday, but for many years we have talked about seeing how the French farm so here we are. Nevil and I, 5 children and 80 year old Dad. So far the weather is better than Devon and there is lots of sunflowers, but we have more in common with french farmers than we would like to admit. Highlights so far include BBQ maigret cannard with potatoes from a night street market, vintage tractor show with line dancers and lots of duck products. So far we have seen plastic ducks at the fair, china ducks and plenty of confit but no real ducks. So there goes the popular myth that canard are wandering free range. As usual i have spent time studying meat in the supermarket and the prices (bearing in mind the exchange rate being rubbish) are about what you would expect to pay in UK. in fact the price is probable more expensive as much for sale seems to be indoors reared and most definately not organic.

Not really Farming

So the last post was a bit of a fib. Not the bit about the farm, but the money actually comes from the farm diversification. Although beef and sheep are very nice there is no way we could live off the farm without an alternative income. As i have never wanted to get a proper job we decided after the foot and mouth diaster of 2001 to diversify and started producing organic poultry. Starting with Christmas geese our business is now based around organic ducks and chickens, all processed and marketed ourselves. I am very proud of what we have achieved, but sometimes look fondly back to the days when our farm work was seasonal. The chicken industry is cut throat and requires us to operate everyday except Christmas day. The last 18 months have been challenging, but we are still here and expanding with lots of exciting plans for the future. Not quite the farming i dreamed off many years ago, but it has certainly been fun and we have met some interesting people!

Nevil weighing & packing chicken plus views of the abbatoir

Higher Fingle

The last few months have been spent trying to catch up with accounts and get all the paperwork up to date before the school holidays begin. So not much time for Nuffield planning, so to fill the gaps here are some photos of Higher Fingle farm a 57 acre county council all grassland farm. It's quite hilly, a bit rundown and only rented on short term FBT but it provides a living for the Amiss family and employs 2 full time workers as well as numerous part timers. The good news is Devon county council have reviewed their farm policies and the future looks much more secure for tenants that are prepared to invest capital and be more innovative. So our next project is to start planning for a longer term future.

Cows and calves in Sale field

Gloucester Heifer 'Zeriba Bramley' with newborn calf

Looking down on the farm and house from the top fields.

View looking the other way towards Drewsteignton, much of the farm is steep.

Parlez vous francais?

I have finally booked some foreign travel, not on my own this time,but en masse with all 5 kids, 1 Farmer and my 80 year young dad. This will be quite an adventure! We are off to the Dordogne, an area I have always wanted to go to, looking at duck farms. The planned visit is to see Mylène et Yohan Guicheteau at Val de Chanedière, which just happens to be a cousin of a friend of a friend, or something complicated like that. They run a diversified farm a bit like ours with farm visits, holidays and canard production.
What i have always admired about the french is the way they are not frightened to know how their poultry is reared and slaughtered. It amazes me that websites for Foie Gras production and Poulet de Bresse show you with great pride and detail all the gory bits. We sometimes have customers that visit us and really like to understand all our process but I am unsure that having a website with it on would help my marketing much. Obviously Foie Gras is not organic and is seen by many as cruel, but i feel that we need to look to have an opinion
I am hoping not just learn about the help new entrants get in France, but how to preserve Duck and increase not just value but shelf life. At Val de Chanedière they produce canard Foie gras and then Confit with everything. Nothing is wasted even the Gesiers is made into a delicous confit (that's giblets to all you uneducated!!).

The other week We had a brief visit from the family that will act as my translator and they bought us some tins to try. They were a real treat, perfect convenience food and I am now counting the days to our big trip. I was left a bit embarrassed during their visit by my lack of French. Being obsessed with farming from an early age I never saw the use of learning it at school and so far that has not been a problem. At college we had some good French friends and we spent three days at their wedding not understanding much but getting along just fine (it may have been the muscadet.) Since then we have had French Agriculture students on the farm for the last 11 years and my french has still not improved beyond describing the anatomy of a poulet and canard (Nevil can do it in polish and Latvian too!).
So in the true spirit of the Nuffield Scholarship i have bought myself learn french on the computer and sit here trying out weird phrases as I try and do the wages. More fun is the school program that Elsa found for me which is a game with aliens speaking french. I've got 6 weeks to go.......

Farming: The Next Generation 18th May 2010

In the lovely peaceful settings on Stoneleigh Park this conference jointly organised by Fresh Start and Easton College had the aims to look at;

‘Who are the next generation of farmers?

What is being done to ensure they have the tools and support to become established as business men and women who have a real impact on UK farming?’

So did it achieve those aims? Now I love the idea of conferences, it’s a day out, the food is normally good and it is a chance to meet lots of jolly interesting people with lots of interesting ideas. However quite often I come away and feel that it’s missed the point or failed to deliver what it set out to do.

This conference was no different, the company was good and the ideas and motivations excellent, but I do feel it failed to really get to grips with the problem. But what is the problem? It really is such a big subject a weeklong conference would likely to be needed. The most important thing is it happened and that is part of the first steps. Several speakers suggested succession planning for farms will take 15 years; maybe it will take 15 years for the industry to come up with a plan how it is going to deal with the recruitment and retention of youngsters.

There was certainly some interesting speakers that are worthy of noting! Luckily I booked to attend the meal the night before, so I was privileged to listen to Sir Don Curry as the pre dinner speaker. Although not all farmers agree I have always thought the Sir Don speaks a lot of sense and his food and farming report after foot and mouth helped us decide the direction our farming career took. He has recently headed a report into the importance of council farms and he told us his concerns about the vulnerability of the council estates in the current economic climate and how he had just issued a press release condemning Gloucester Councils decision to terminate tenancies and sell farms. His solution to the lack of farms to rent for new entrants is to work with estates and landowners to create opportunities.

The first speaker during the day was Dr Matt Lobly from Exeter University who for many years has been collecting farm transfer data both nationally and internationally. He showed us some very interesting slides, that in his interpretation said, yes there is a problem with farmers making some sort of succession plan, but the problem in the UK is not half as bad as most other countries. An interesting point he pulled out was the small number of daughters be included in the plans. He talked about the ‘Succession Effect’ where a succession plan drives the business forward and stimulates expansion. He also quoted a government survey from 1979 that showed concern that farming was in danger of becoming closed shop which created lower levels of innovation and less business dynamism.

The other Inspirational speaker was John Baker from Iowa State University and he runs the Beginner Farmer Centre. He set out how they are dealing with the same problems in Iowa. Sorting out succession plans, matching new entrants and farms and the tax breaks that now available to get these things moving. And it seems to be working, but from the figures we saw earlier there were greater problems to sort out.

Other interesting people to note include Denis Chamberlain MBE who is the chair of fresh start and is committed to the next generation, Richard Longthorpe a pig farmer that is driving the Agriskills forum forward to try and improve the skill levels and professionalism in farming, Mike Mack a recent Nuffield scholar who is keen to get a national Mentoring program going, Henry Cator from RASE who is also farmer and land agent and the case studies that included Christina Hope that runs a village shop from her parents farm and David and Lizzie Otley who trade as Blue Welly farm and produce pork for direct sales and hog roasts and would just like 10 acres in one place to make a living form.

So quite a mix of ideas, some of which has given me some thoughts where to go next. But the whole event has left me a bit uneasy that still farmers are not yet ready to embrace the next generation, but I’m hoping that this maybe just the start on something that will contribute to the future success of our industry