Catch up with previous news at Clare's Organics.January 2008 NewsletterHappy New Year to you all. Well it almost seems a little late to be wishing you all a Happy New Year, but Happy New Year late as it may be. I trust you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break; we managed to just do the essentials for the Christmas week with our daily feeding, bedding down and 3 daily checks before shutting away the birds at night. Even though we worked each day it was nice to not do any markets and especially nice not to have to get up at 5am. No sooner had the holiday started it was then finished and we both slipped back into our daily routines a little too easily. Chicken OutI do hope that you managed to catch the weeks worth of programmes on Channel 4 this month. I really felt they were very well presented and showed the true realities behind factory farming and producing cheap protein that not only compromises the chickens welfare but also our own. If any thing has come of this it is that people can now make an informed decision before they buy their food. We have both signed up at the Chicken Out website and if you haven’t already, and would like to, the address is www.chickenout.tv . If you would like to tell other people about us in the local area by way of a review, please do so. There is a website that has been set up in conjunction with the Chicken Out campaign to help people find locally produced food - the address is www.freerangereview.com . Also, please do remember to give us your feedback good or bad, we need your comments and suggestions too. Farmers RantIt’s been a while since the last rant but I imagine most of you are just as fed up as me with the weather. It is absolutely awful; the ground is permanently sodden, with even your boots leaving a mark, and the wind is relentless and really making life difficult. We are using more bedding than ever before in the chicken houses and having to bed up around the outside of the sheds with straw to try and reduce poaching of the ground around them. This is also to try and take some of the damp off of the birds feet before they go inside, but I’m happy to report despite the foul weather the birds are all out ranging and taking advantage of all of the worms coming up to the surface. Our Springer Spaniel Molly on the other hand is having a mud bath every day and is also a little fed up of the daily hose off . Box Delivery Dates For 2008We will be moving our monthly meat box delivery day to the last Thursday of the month from February onwards - this is because we collect out meat from our butchers on the Tuesday afternoon and then pack your boxes into the early hours of Wednesday morning, meaning very littles sleep before I get up to catch the birds for the Saturday market and then off to do the deliveries. This change will mean we can pack the boxes on the Wednesday and deliver them on Thursday for local deliveries and any out of area deliveries will be delivered on the Friday.
This Month's BoxesIn some of your boxes there will be some frozen beef and or sausages, this is because we had more than we expected back from our butchers in December and feel it would be a massive waste to throw it away. This is a very rare thing to happen and I hope that you do not mind. On our website we have been putting up examples of the month’s boxes. Since we started to do this we have had an increasing amount of people asking us to remove one thing and replace it with another. This isn’t too much of a problem and if you have told us about any particular likes or dislikes then we will have those on record. However, please bear in mind they are only examples of what could be in each box and it is more than likely your box will differ from the example. If you find you are getting too much of one thing, or would like more of another, again, please do let us know. RecipesBe sure to check out our latest recipe ideas via our Recipes page. This month is 3 meals from one roast chicken. And, as our chickens can be let’s say slightly larger than the norm, you could probably get a couple more depending on your family size. Please do send in your recipes to us for inclusion on our website. Sharing food ideas is really quite exciting and a great way of trying new ideas. Box RecyclingI have to commend our customers for saving the insulated delivery boxes and leaving them out for us each time to collect. At the last count we were getting around 80% back each month. But, there are a few lurking in people's garages and sheds that are not being returned and at £5 per box this adds up to a lot of money. If you have a box delivered by courier you will find a freepost label that can be used to send your box back, just tape it and the lid on and take it to your local Post Office. You can also do this as a local customer should you forget to leave it (or them) out for us. You can find the freepost label here. Recommend A FriendIf you recommend a friend who signs up to a monthly box we will give you £10 off of your next box, once they have had 3 boxes. Don’t forget to tell them to make sure they mention your name on ordering otherwise we cannot give you your discount. Well that’s it for this month. I hope that you managed to get to the end of the newsletter. Have a great month and enjoy your boxes,
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