Catch up with previous news at Clare's Organics.April 2008 NewsletterHello to you all. As I sit here it is drizzling outside but it is quite warm. The outlook for the week is a cloudy one but definitely a warmer one than we have been getting. It feels like winters' claws may have finally lost their grip and we can start to look forward to some warmer less windy weather. I check the met office website daily and noticed today the long range forecast was for a ‘typical English summer’ - what exactly that means who knows? I think it means they haven’t got a clue and it could be nice, or it could be wet and miserable, or maybe both! If the last few years worth of summers are taken as the average than it really could go either way. I also heard on the radio an American talking about the English obsession with talking about the weather and he/she (can’t remember) said it was totally understandable as you never know from one day to the next what you are going to get. Cover CropI managed to get our cover crop in last week while it was dry. This will grow to about 3 – 4 ft high and is planted in 6 meter wide strips the entire length of the chicken field, either side of each house. This will provide a nice lot of cover for the birds to range around in and should be grown in a couple of month’s time (providing I can keep the pigeons off of it). It is made up of Mustard, Forage Rape, Black Sunflower, White Millet, Sweet Clover and Phacelia and should also look very nice too. The rain this week and rise in temperature should get it off to a good start. Here's HopingOur birds have white feathers (as a rule) and occasionally we get a few brown feathered birds, but not very many. However, there is one who is a quite handsome beastie. He is the same breed as the chicken in your boxes but is obviously some kind of genetic throw back, so I decided to keep him and try and use him as part of our breeding experiment. So here’s hoping that he will be the start of our own closed flock and will produce a really good chicken that you will all be able to enjoy - who knows, I may even name him one day. PricesWe are going to be increasing some of our prices from May. These will only be very small increases and will not affect the set price boxes at all. The reason we have had to do this is because of feed price increases. To give you an example our Growers ration in December 2006 was £274 per tonne. Today, for exactly the same ration, it is £422.15 per tonne. We have been swallowing the extra costs ourselves but can’t keep doing it. We check our prices regularly against our competitors and, even though we are very small compared to them, we are still offering the best value for money and without compromising the quality of our produce. For your reference, you will find our new price list included in your box this month. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Well, that’s about enough for this month. So, until May... Until March,
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He is now 6 months old and really loud, crowing all day long!
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