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My Dream Farm on Channel 4

January 20, 2010
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Channel 4 is launching My Dream Farm, fronted by ex-Gardeners’ World host Monty Don. It followed the trials and tribulations of six families who have traded the comfortable urban lives for a life of living and working on a farm.

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We try cheese

January 7, 2010
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After a chat at a party, we discover that our yoghurt is just one step away from cheese. We’ve decided to put the cold outhouse to good use and try our hand at separating the curds and whey.

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Food miles to be cut short?

January 5, 2010
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Wherever possible, we grow our own veg, and when we can’t we try to buy as locally as possible, but now the government looks set to ask us to think less about food miles and the environmental impact of global shopping.

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A year on the plot: another five highlights

January 4, 2010
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The second half of our review of the year just gone by sees us making our own cider, finally triumphing with yoghurt and reviving a 150-year-old recipe for still lemonade.

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A year on the plot: five highlights

January 3, 2010
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From keeping chickens to growing vegetables and brewing our own wine and beer, it’s been an interesting and educational year on the plot. Here are our top five highlights.

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Self-sufficient successes at Christmas

December 30, 2009
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Hosting guests over Christmas was the ideal opportunity for us to dish out a lot of our home-made food. The yoghurt was a great success, but without sufficient time to mature the beer was a mixed bag.

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A second snow for 2009

December 18, 2009
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The chickens were a bit aloof about the snow this time around. Last time, in February, it was the first time they’d seen it, and it completely spooked them. This morning, after I’d poured a kettle of boiling water over the frozen bolts on the gate so I could get into their run to let [...]

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Yoghurt fail

December 15, 2009

It was all going so well. The yoghurt had started to thicken quite nicely after two days by a radiator, but the following day it started to separate. We had a nice thick base filling the jar, but then a milky-yellow liquid started to form on the top. We weren’t overly worried, as it just [...]

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Brighton Council wants amateur shepherds

October 29, 2009
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Brighton council is training residents to look after sheep so that it can use small flocks to naturally control the growth of grasslands around the city, rather than cutting them back with mowers.

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Our meagre tomato harvest

September 29, 2009
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What a lousy year it’s been in the greenhouse this time around. So far we’ve had just two tomatoes, which we sliced onto a home-made pizza. Not great, is it. In an effort to chivvy things along a bit we trimmed the plants back quite harshly. The theory was that then they would focus all [...]

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