Out and About Poultry

My Turkeys are Golden

My Turkeys are Golden

It’s lunch time and I am yet again sat on a smelly train! I seem to sit on lots of smelly trains these days! All around me are individuals casually crunching their way through the cheesiest bags of crisps that there ever could be.  Why oh why when you sit on a train do people think it appropriate to eat smelly food, specifically cheesy crisps, curry (I shit you not, there is someone eating a curry right now) or fish based sandwiches!!  Anyways, why am I on the train this time I hear you ask. Well I have been down to London town to the Golden Turkeys annual marketing meeting. A first for me as despite being a Golden Turkey farmer for a number of years now, I feel like I have been the Scarlett Pimpernel, this mysterious farmer who nobody has ever met.  It was a fabulous night and it was good to put faces to names of many of the farmers that I speak to on social media but have never met and talk all things turkey. There is definitely some new equipment inbound thanks to some top tips from Treway Farm Turkeys, thanks guys. I even managed…

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Easy like a Sunday Morning

Easy like a Sunday Morning

It’s 7am on a Sunday morning and I am currently sat in a courtyard garden in Sunny Bridgend, West Wales, in an Airbnb just round the corner from the local prison (they missed that bit off the listing!) I am sat quietly, coffee in hand with no TV blaring in the background, nobody needing an urgent pooh and, most importantly no phone! I’ve disappeared off the farm for the weekend and left Mr O & A in charge, I am away celebrating one of my very best friends special birthdays and, in true Jade style, I have packed the weekend so full of activities that everyone is still fast asleep, shattered from the previous days program! Roll on day two! Finally, I can sit down and write a proper update to where we are back on the farm and what the last few weeks have been like. To sum up the last few weeks in a nutshell, I would say, rocky. All started off well allbeit I was flying by the seat of my pants somewhat in terms of being organised and ready to take delivery of birds. A huge thanks needs to be extended to the incredibly helpful staff…

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White Space

White Space

How often is it that we get that time to just stop, to put down technology, to turn off the phone, to just sit and think? When was the last time you sat down without your phone or a piece of work or sat and watched a TV program.  I can’t remember the last time I did it, and I’ve forgotten how much I’ve enjoyed it.  Do you remember back to when you were a child and there were no electronic devices, when the days felt long and you would moan to your Mum you were bored? I miss those days! I don’t think my children know the meaning of bored. We are either flat out going from activity to party or catching up with jobs at home. Most of their waking hours are spent pre-planned, weeks in advance. Where we live,  my children have a lot of access to outside space and trees and streams in which to play in. At this point in their young lives, they don’t know how lucky they are. In the UK recent research has shown that children are now spending only half as much time playing outdoors as their parents’ generation did (National Trust Survey),…

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Writing is my therapy

Writing is my therapy

I am broken beyond words today! As I write I feel like the whole world is against me right now. Writing for me is like therapy, writing allows me to release things I otherwise would, couldn’t or perhaps shouldn’t say. I have come to a point in my life where I’m tired and I’m worn out. I’m pretty much single handedly bringing up three children whilst running my little farm and in the background have other businesses running to make ends meet. For years now I’ve just kept going. I’ve papered over the cracks; I’ve tried to change things, improve things, take more control of things and try to give less fucks about things! This method has not been overly successful. The cracks are now showing some serious subsidence, the changes have gone unnoticed, I’m yet to see an improvement, if you have seen me in public with three kids you will realise I’m definitely not in control and although I probably look like I couldn’t care less, most days I want to liberate the shotgun from the cupboard and ram it up the arses of people that have pissed me off that day! (No humans have been harmed to…

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Women Empowering Women

Women Empowering Women

Hi, it’s been a while, how are you? I am sorry I haven’t written for a while, I seem to go into a bit of a hole when the birds are not in. I find it difficult to write, well unless I am pissed up or pissed off. The two generally go hand in hand! So international women day in March completely passed me by, I have no idea how but it did and some of the amazing people who I have met during my time running the out and about social media accounts said some lovely things about me. Agriculture and the rural economy has to be one of the few places I have found where women empower women, where women celebrate each others’ achievements  and where women actively seek to build each other up.  Many of you will have read my blog post ‘integrity’ where I talked about my time in the corporate world and what the final straw was that finally gave me the balls to walk away. What drove me away was the inequality I faced as a woman in a predominantly  mans world. As much as the company dressed up the fact they wanted women…

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