Monday 16th November 2009 - The future of the farm.....

The sense of autumn is stronger than I have ever felt before; the glory of summer is coming to end and making quite a show of it. Warborne Farm’s shop and box scheme is, I am sorry to say, going to have to stop too – and we’ll be going out with all guns blazing, right up until Christmas.

There is a limit to what we can possibly produce here, and as the market has galloped away from us in the last 18 months or so, the one thing we’ve found we can’t produce is cheap food. It’s all grown with too much care and attention to detail, as our organic system promotes and we all deeply believe is the right way of farming.

Really I should have stopped last Christmas, but we have such a great team here - the most loyal, trustworthy and hard working people that I couldn’t face telling them they’re all out on their backsides. In fact it’s what finally made me face up to the inevitable – that even with such a great team – there are no weak links, and I still can’t get it to stack up financially.

Having said all this I have been approached by a fellow box scheme operator who is keen to be able to continue our deliveries. Assuming this goes ahead, I hope the transition will be as seamless as possible, and that you will be able to continue to receive the freshest, seasonal, organic produce.

The past 12 years have been a great adventure, and I’m very proud of what we have achieved – we have won every major food and farming award, thanks to my supportive family and the quite fantastic team we have working on the farm; and you, our customers, many of whom have been with us from the start – you have been battling all the same plagues and pestilences as us, every week of the year – and sharing in the same triumphs.

Since my plan will now be to not lose too much money, the farm will be doing as little as possible. I will still grow some fruit and vegetables for extended family sustainability, and will run 100 or so breeding ewes and keep some horses at livery. The rest of the land will be down to arable – wheat followed by beans is the cropping plan for the first 2 years anyway. All organic of course!

The buildings, of which we have a fine range, need to be used in the most appropriate, sympathetic way. It’s a bit like trying to maintain 10 old houses without any income. I have been very proud that I have been able to use these traditional buildings for the original purposes for which they were designed and built nearly 200 years ago – namely agricultural use, since the farm shop, butchery, cold storage, packing area, kitchen and farm office are all ancillary to the farming operation, as 90% of what we sell has been grown on the farm. But I’ve run out of ideas now.

We will be taking orders for our traditional organic Snow geese and will have plenty of our own home grown, organic vegetables right up to Christmas.

So when the door closes on Christmas eve, and Nathan has delivered the final box on his round, the sheep will be turned in on the best field of winter brassicas we have ever grown and we will all go our separate ways. Bon voyage!

George Heathcote
Warborne Farm

7th June 2009

Warborne are proud to have been voted in the top 50 food websites by the independant. The Independent - Information

5th June 2009

Shearing time !Once again it is time to shear all the ewes and hoggets on the farm. Obviously it helps with keeping the ewes cool but also helps prevent flystrike, to find out all about this click here....

7th May 2009

Christmas is coming ! The arrival of the day old goslings on the farm is always met with great excitement, the goslings have been put into the 4 stalls with heat lamps, they are absolutely gorgeous and fluffy! It wont be long before they have feathers and can begin to live outside during the day. To find out about the geese click here....

30th April 2009

Warborne are proud to have been voted into the top 50 farm shops in the Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/5252095/Britains-top-50-farm-shops-The-Home-Counties.html

14th April 2009

The first lambs have appeared into beautiful sunshine. They are happily bouncing round the field only another 250 to go!

6th March 2009

WARBORNE ORGANIC FARM EASTER OPEN DAY - as seen on Animal Planets 'Farm Life'
Sunday 12th April 2009 12pm - 4pm

Our award winning organic farm will be opening it's gates to the public. Take a self-guided tour and Easter Egg Hunt in our tunnels, veg fields and livestock to see where and how we grow your delicious organic produce with minimal food miles and maximum taste. Food tastings and shearing demonstrations in the barn!

Organic, homemade goodies and refreshments will be available throughout the day from our farm kitchen. All welcome (though please no dogs). Free admission.

5th March 2009

THE GREAT HAMPSHIRE SAUSAGE, PIE & READY MEAL COMPETITION
Last week our lamb & apricot sausages and beef & chilli sausages both won Bronze award, and our Sausage Rolls made using our own sausagemeat won GOLD award. The sausages were rated on texture, flavour and palatabilty.

20th January 2009

Dont miss the last episode of Farm Life tonight on Animal Planet at 7pm. We hope you’ve enjoyed Farm Life; it has been a great adventure for us as a farm and as a family, and we have all enjoyed watching it even more than we enjoyed making it.

18th January 2009

Good news, just in case you were getting worried that your evenings would not be the same without a dosage of Huckle, Animal Planet have confirmed that they will be rerunning the programme from episode 1 starting on the 21st January at 7pm.

7th January

Great news ! The Farm Life premiere was Animal Planet’s most popular show on that day by some distance. The premiere pulled in twice the amount of viewers registered by the second place show and rated over 3 times the average number for the 7pm slot. Long may it continue...

6th January
Episode 2

Some very funny scenes at the viewing tonight as the sheep staged an invasion of the barn when their fellow bleaters were up on the screen, and when I gave Mirk the command to “Come Bye” Bash, who had been relaxing at my feet, shot off around the sheep and insisted on trying to bring them into the barn, while Huckle barked at himself barking on the screen! It would have made, as they say, great TV. We wil be back on again tomorrow night at 7!

5th January
Farm Life Premiere

Wow! After spending a year filming and then waiting a year for many technical reasons unknown to us mere farming folk, finally the first episode of Farm Life hit the 'big screen' . Thanks to everyone who supported us by watching the premiere in the barn at Warborne along with all the winter lambs, hopefully everyone managed to avoid sitting in sheep poo and enjoyed the hot rum punch! Episode 1 gave a good overview of life at Warborne and we delighted that it very much reflected the warmth and passion we all have on the farm. Don't forget to tune in for episode 2 'January' tomorrow on Animal Planet at 7pm.

2nd January 2009

Happy New Year! All our winter lambs have now been born, we have had a really good lambing with no orphans! The last lamb was born on christmas eve and has been named Jesus! The lamb is easy to spot as it is the only black one we have. Don't forget to take a look at the lambs when you visit our farm shop, they are in the barn opposite.

Coming Soon

"Farm Life”, a 13 episode documentary focusing upon life at Warborne Farm. Showing on Animal Planet Sky Channel 525 / Virgin 275, premiere is on January 5th at 7pm. Click here for further details.

1st December 2008

We are now offering our home delivery service to Lyndhurst and Burley, in the past we have used 2 drop off points, this has now been changed to deliver direct to your door! If you would like to join the home delivery service you can email us boxscheme@warbornefarm.co.uk or call the office on 01590 688488.

1st December 2008

Lambing has started! The first of the winter lambs has been born in the barn today.

29th November 2008

Christmas Fayre in the barn at Warborne, all local produce for sale. With money donated to Childrens Charity

14th November 2008

Warborne in the Telegraph.....click here to read the article

1st November 2008

Warborne voted in the top 50 farm shops in The Independent, click here to read the article