Ingredients:

8 heads of elderflower (preferably picked when fully open on a sunny day)
1 kg of sugar (I used unrefined demerera sugar this time – slightly better for you than white sugar)
2 unwaxed lemons (only organic lemons-or your own- are unwaxed)
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
10 litres cold water

Method:

1. Peel lemon rind of thinly with a potato peeler
2. shake insects off elderflower heads and put in bucket
3. add lemon rind and the juice of the 2 lemons
4. add sugar (gently) and apple cider vinegar
5. pour water over and stir
6. Stir twice a day for a week, and then bottle (plastic fizzy bottles work best – if you use wine bottles store them somewhere where explosions won’t do much damage – although they’ve not exploded for me yet!)

Can be drunk anywhere from week 2 and up to a year, and is only slightly alcoholic but very tasty! Enjoy!

Usually alpacas choose to give birth on sunny days, but there’s not been many of those around, and today was really rainy, so good thing it was yesterday!
Being greeted by all the other girl alpacas
Trying to get up…

Erin & Julie get to welcome baby
Wobble wobble wobble…it took about 30 minutes for him to do what it took Ayla a year to do!!
Love…
Queen Katya the llama on guard!

Here’s her schedule for the remainder of this year:

Discover Llamas Day  Sunday, 3rd July 2011
Watertown Llamas, Nr Umberleigh, North Devon  http://www.watertownllamas.co.uk  Contact Annie Austen  Tel No: 01769 540840

Two day Camelidynamics Basic Husbandry and Handling Workshop  Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of July 2011  Carthvean Camelids, Carthvean Farm, Porkellis, Helston, Cornwall   www.carthveanalpacas.com  Contact Julie Taylor-Browne,  taylor.browne@clara.net   Tel 01209 831672 for more information.  Download booking form here

Two day Camelidynamics Basic Husbandry and Handling Workshop  (Llamas, but alpaca owners welcome)  Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th,  July 2011
Game Lea Farm, Eastmoor, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S42 7DB.  www.gameleactt.org.uk Contact: Alicia Hill Tel: 01246 568206  Mobile 07870 160926  Email: aliciahill@live.com

Two day Camelidynamics Refresh & Improve Workshop
Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th of August 2011
Carthvean Camelids, Carthvean Farm, Porkellis, Helston, Cornwall  www.carthveanalpacas.com  Contact Julie Taylor-Browne,  taylor.browne@clara.net  01209 831672 for more information.  Download booking form here

One Day Camelidynamics Refresher Course
Saturday, 13th August 2011
Sapphire Alpacas. Little Haven, Barford Road, South Newington, Banbury. Oxon. OX15 4LN.
www.sapphire-alpacas.co.uk
Contact:  Val Tew & Paul Stead. Tel:01295 721320  Email:prs.stead@virgin.net

One Day Camelidynamics Basic Husbandry and Handling Course
Friday 19th August
AlpakkaBromma, Bromma, Norway www.alpakkabromma.org
Contact: Bjorg and Leif Inge Reime  post@alpakkabromma.org (alpakkaBromma)

Two Day Camelidynamics Refresh and Improve  Course
Saturday and Sunday, 20th and 21st August 2011
AlpakkaBromma, Bromma, Norway  www.alpakkabromma.org
Contact: Bjorg and Leif Inge Reime  post@alpakkabromma.org (alpakkaBromma)

One Day Camelidynamics Basic Husbandry and Handling Course
Friday, 26th August 2011
Österlen Alpaca, Simrishamn,Southern Swedenhttp://www.alpacka.se
Contact: Ann Marie Gerber-Santesson,Tel: ++46 414 101 52 Mobile: +46 730 92 87 57 info@alpacka.se

Two Day Camelidynamics Refresh and Improve
Saturday, 27th and Sunday 28th August 2011
Österlen Alpaca, Simrishamn,Southern Sweden http://www.alpacka.se
Contact: Ann Marie Gerber-Santesson, Tel: ++46 414 101 52 Mobile: +46 730 92 87 57 info@alpacka.se

Two day Camelidynamics Husbandry and Handling Course
Saturday 3rd and Sunday, 4th September 2011
Classical and Mile End Alpacas, Nr Tiverton,  Devon, www.alpaca-uk.co.uk
Contact Rachel Hebditch  Tel: 01884 243579

Four Day Advanced course with Marty McGee Bennett
(Open to those who have previously attended at least one two day basic course with Julie or Marty.)
15th – 19th September 2011.
Carthvean Camelids, Carthvean Farm, Porkellis, Helston, Cornwall   www.carthveanalpacas.com

Contact Julie Taylor-Browne,  taylor.browne@clara.net  01209 831672 for more information.

Download booking form here

On the bright side the garden and veggies are full of life and gorgeous, as are my girls.  Our immune systems have strengthened and we’re not catching everything going anymore, thankfully.  The goats and alpacas are enjoying the sunshine. The alpacas & llamas love their new mound (the soil from the hole the wind turbine went into), and today they were shorn and all their lovely fleece gathered to be processed into this wonderful yarn.  The bees are extremely happy, in fact perhaps almost too much so…they seem to be preparing to swarm, so bait hives have been set up.

Tara is producing massive amounts of milk, but she is the hardest goat that Andrew & Julie have ever had to milk, continuously trying to put her feet in the bucket, etc.  She had bleeding teats and a bit of mastitis which probably only contributed to this, poor thing.  However after using the lovely homemade soothing cream that Jane & I made, her chapped teats are on the mend( “bag balm” for goats & Sudocrem just made her leap around). What can be more soothing than our medley –  Carthvean grown comfrey and calendula, with some beeswax, almond oil & chamomile essential oil.

We had a bit of excitement some weeks ago when Andrew & Julie discovered an Adder (England’s only poisonous snake, I believe)  not far from our back door.  They caught it in a box and released it in one of the fields, but not before we got a photo of the beauty.  It was only little, and the first any of us have seen on the farm.  First of many, we hope…as long as they stay outside the house and we can train the girls,dogs & cats to leave them alone!

Julie’s mum, also one of our veggie coop ladies, has broken a bone and had to have an operation, so our thoughts are with Tisha…wishing her a super speedy recovery.

We have decided to have a community bring & share meal once a week from now on for all 10 of us who live on the farm (although the girls will probably be in bed!).  We hope to bring some focus to our plans & goals and just have a jolly time together too (games, films, playing musical instruments, wine making…whatever ). Who knows, maybe one day we’ll form the Carthvean band or something…hahaha.

While the absolutely gorgeous t-shirt weather we had in April seems to have vanished, the sun does still shine a bit most days and the wind is blowing lots which means lots of free electricity. So, really, life is sweet!

sharon xxx

Karen, from Penryn college also has started some seedlings off and this is what she said on the 10th of March:

Our seeds were all sown on 14th and 15th of Feb – the calendula, echinacea, parsley, feverfew, meadowsweet and valerian are coming up nicely, the others are still to show through. Maybe its still too cold for them? Do you have rosemary, lavender, chamomile, thyme or borage yet?

I wonder how she is getting on now? Our rosemary has been unsuccesful so far… but we have lots of lavender, chamomile, thyme and borage. I’m not sure if we’ve sown feverfew! I will check.  Some seedling photos belowThe first 2 are Karens):

The wind turbine has been up and running for a couple of weeks now! Here are some photos!

Ayla finally cut tooth number 3 last week, the wind turbine is up and running (pics to follow) and I went for a ride on Molly mule! Andrew & Julie have been making funky shaped bottle beds. We’ve spent most of the week outdoors as the weather has been spectacular.

sharon x

Happenings of the last little while:

• The broad beans are pushing through the soil in our outdoor beds.
• The first early potatoes are in the ground (some in the polytunnel and some outdoors)
• The wind turbine has arrived! The lorry that brought it couldn’t fit down the lane, so the energy company who are putting it up had to bring other vehicles to get it onto the farm
• The propogators & greenhouse have gone crazy…most things are coming through now. We’ve been sowing things in the polytunnels too!
• We have HUGE to do lists for our veggie coop.
• Ayla has been crawling for a while and is now pulling herself up on things & enjoying trying out walking (just holding our hands still!) She’s 8 and a half months now. Still only 2 teeth!!
• Erin is enjoying Zelda School, which is a Steiner inspired school run in a yurt in Gweek. Erin and Ayla have also gone to a lovely playgroup at nearby Trannack School.
• Julie is getting her energy back after her 5 weeks in bed with pneumonia. It’s so good to have her back!
• Tara (the Golden Guernsey) has been scanned and only has one baby, which wriggles a lot now! he’s due on the 25th of April.
• Steven has been doing cutting loads of wood, and we have enough kindling to last us a looooong time! Jane has done loads too.
• The miniature southdown sheep have been sold! All except old Daisy who needs TLC and is quite a pet. Erin loves that she follows her around!
• Andrew fitted a compost loo in the mobile home for Spike & Andy. It’s not a longdrop but a rather funky one that looks pretty similar to a normal loo. Basically, your wee goes in the front bit & poo in the back(2 separate compartments). We did have an incident where Erin used it for a number 2 without the child seat…meaning her bottom was too far forward….need I say more?!
• Polly came to visit. She used to live and wwoof on the farm and it was lovely to see her & catch up. She did lots of jobs while she was here, including helping Julie train the horse & mules and sowing lots of seeds.
• Spike, Andy, Julie & Andrew planted about 50 trees today! We were meant to help but I had to go to the dentist and Steven took the girls out but it was a bit cold for them!
• Andrew has been building the shop that is going to have Julie’s alpaca shop stock in it (and possibly my Nature’s Mother stuff too).
• Here are our feb and march to do lists for the veggie coop side of things, if anyone is interested what is going in where and when.  feb-to-do-list march-to-do-list
• Julie has been training Molly the mule, and Erin has been on a little saddle on her back!!
• Steven made a wonderful table in the greenhouse to create more spaceClick to view slideshow.

The white silky had a gunky eye and wasn’t eating much so was brought in for some TLC. She lived in her cage on the kitchen table for a few days, but is now well and happy to be back with her mates.

Erin and her little friend Pompom. Pompom lets Erin pick her up, but we’re not sure if it’s just because she can’t see her coming with her magnificent hairdo.

The digger has arrived to dig the hole for the wind turbine, which we should have in a few weeks!! MAJOR excitement!  Soon we will have all our own electricity!!  We already have our own water and we get our heating and hot water from the Rayburn which we light daily. We have solar panels to heat our water too, although they need fixing. Erin was a little wary of the digger.