It's a beautiful Autumn here at Berry's and the trees are heavy with apples and pears. Luckily there is no waste as Tiger, our lovely Kune Kune pig does a sweep under the apple tree every evening on his way to his night time barn. He then tries to carry as many as he can to the barn making him look a bit like a hamster!
Craig, our head chef, is in apple crumble and pie overdrive to keep up with the huge Swinithwaite harvest. He's having to come up with some new recipes for all the pears too.
There is a great deal of excitement in the café after the Herriot flavours awards judge announced she was sampling the breakfast. Keep your fingers crossed for the announcement of the winner on 2nd December. We are also holding our breaths to see if we have won the best Farm Shop award amidst some stiff competition!
The Macmillan coffee morning was a great success. There was so many delicious cakes made (and sampled!) by so many generous people. We managed to raise a fantastic £370.00 for the charity.
The farm team have starred in several birthday party tours. Rollo is always the favourite as he has given some lucky young children a chance to ride a pony for the first time and managed to not put them off!
Elspeth's tickly wagging tail is also a favourite. Harry the depressed sheep is still a bit gloomy, he is starting to remind me of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Black Adder, our Billy kid is top of the pops and every day is exciting. Maybe he's Tigger?
Charlie the cockerel is very embarrassed as he will not be looking his best for half term. The poor chap is in the middle of a serious moult and should hopefully grow some new plumage shortly.
The highland cattle are being kept in the park for the daily hay feed on the half term farm tours. Afterwards they will be sent up to the snow line on the top of Penhill to remember what being a highland cow should be like! They are hardy cows after all.
No one can decide if Mango is having piglets or not. If they exist they will arrive late November.
Plans are completed for the steak night on 28th October. There will be fine fare and live music with guitar and singing by locals Colin Bailey and Toby Pearson. We are all very much looking forward to it. There are still some tickets left so don't forget to call and book.
Niamh has been designing a new scary woodland experience for the woodland trail and we have Rhoda, a brilliant story teller booked for our Halloween Family Day on the 29th October. She has some 'spooky' tales for us all so come along and see her at 11am or 1pm.
Our first Berry's bonfire is set for Friday 4th November in the lower carpark. We have hot pork and stuffing rolls, warming bonfire fodder and toffee apples - because you can't have a bonfire without toffee apples! The bonfire will be lit at 4pm.
Don't forget our opening times change to winter hours starting Monday 31st October - 10:00am until 4:00pm, 7 days a week.
We hope to see you over half term!