This Farming Life - December in Castlefarm

Jenny Young

At the beginning of this month we dried off our herd of 89 organic cows. To slow down their milk production we milked once a day for a couple of days. Then we withdrew their silage feed and replaced it with straw.

Although they were not hungry, the lack of balanced feed stoped their milk production quickly, without using medicines, which are not advised under organic rules.

This month at the farm shop have our last organic beef of the season on sale. We are also finalising our turkey and ham orders for Christmas. Our new season’s apple juice has been bottled and is delicious. Due to the great crop of smaller eating apples in our orchard it is sweeter than last year.

Our honey is also a great seller at this time of the year, similarly due to the hot summer the bees had plenty to feed on and produced a great crop.

It’s nice to have a time of year where things slow down on the farm. We are all looking forward to a Christmas without milking.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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