Good Food For All

 

 I am passionate about good food – seasonal, local and well cooked.  But I am equally passionate about giving our alpacas the best possible feed.  Hay is one of the all-round staples of the alpaca.  We are lucky that at Fallowfield we have the acreage to grow and harvest our own hay.  But this doesn’t mean to say that some years we don’t run into problems.  2012 was an incredibly wet year in the UK.  Our hay was very late in being cut due to the appalling weather conditions.  On the whole, it does seem to be ok, but today I came across a really dodgy bale.  This mould would have been caused by the hay being cut in a particularly wet part of the field.  NEVER use hay like this!  I know there will be many of you who understand this wholly, but there are a lot of new alpaca breeders out there who are new to livestock breeding and who possibly don’t understand these things.  I would always say to you guys, if in doubt ask someone who has more experience than you.

This evening I tried out the Piccalilli recipe I mentioned the other day.  It looks seriously good but of course we need to wait a few days for the flavours to mature. Just as well Mike is not here as he is not keen on the smell of vinegar boiling at the best of times, but adding mustard powder and chilli to that might be just a step too far!  I can’t wait to try it with some home-baked ham.  Our family love good pork and ham products which is why we are getting some pigs in a few weeks time.  More of that later!