November 2024 at Stourton

Lovingly reared venison for Christmas, stock up your freezer or give as a gift!

Whether you are feeding the 5,000 over Christmas or want to give that foodie in your life a special present we’ve got a great range of venison in stock and ready to deliver/collect.

Freshly Frozen Winter Warmer Selection packs IN STOCK NOW

Our Winter Warmer selection packs contain prime cuts of quality, freshly frozen venison lovingly reared on the farm at Baumber, Lincolnshire. There are two sizes available, regular & large and each selection pack includes the following cuts of meat:

• A Rump / Haunch Joint
• Rump / Haunch steaks
• Casserole Steak; &
• Prime Mince

Also included are:

• The Autumn / Winter edition of the Lincolnshire Good Taste Magazine
• A selection of Stourton Venison Recipes

Orders placed now will be ready for delivery or collection now, prior to Christmas (last delivery day Thursday 19th Dec) and we will be in touch to arrange a time with you.

Fresh Festive Venison Hamper

For the foodie in your life why not give them a gift with a difference? Order a Stourton Estates Fresh Venison Box. Packed with delicious, lovingly reared venison from our own herd, as well as some locally produced accompaniments makes this a great gift.

There are two sizes of hamper available, the standard and the large and each will be ready for collection/delivery on Thursday 12^th December.

These festive fresh venison boxes contain prime cuts of quality venison lovingly home reared on the farm at Baumber, Lincolnshire, together with some accompaniments, making a lovely present or delicious treat over the festive season!

The Festive Venison Box includes the following fresh cuts of meat from our product range:

• A Rump / Haunch Joint – a lovely alternative for a Sunday Roast
• Steaks either Haunch or Rump – perfect for ‘date night’ at home – these are incredibly versatile, and super tasty
• Casserole Steak – ideal for slow cooking to let the flavours develop and fill your kitchen with a delicious aroma, our favourite recipe is here
• Prime Venison Mince – use for spaghetti bolognaise, meatballs, a chilli, or get the kids involved and have a go at making your own burgers, or use to stuff peppers – the options are endless!

Plus some delicious locally produced Lincolnshire accompaniments & recipe ideas:

• A jar of reducrrant jelly made by Heather which goes so beautifully with venison and
• Riley Taylors cold pressed rapeseed oil – ideal for quick frying those delicious steaks!
• The Autumn / Winter edition of the Lincolnshire Good Taste Magazine
• A selection of Stourton Venison Recipes

FREE DELIVERY

Delivery of both our Winter Warmer Selection Packs and Festive Venison Boxes is free within 20 miles by road of our farm postcode. Delivery further afield will incur a delivery charge.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Kiln Dried Logs – Last delivery dates before Christmas

As you’d expect, we are very busy packing and delivering our kiln dried logs. To make sure you remain toasty over the Christmas and New Year period please place your order as soon as possible. Delivery slots fill up quickly, and if they aren’t full already, the last day that we will take orders is Friday 13th December.

Our last delivery date for logs is Thursday 19th December.

Please note: we will be closed over Christmas & New Year. The office reopens on 6^th January and we will recommence deliveries from Tuesday 7^th January.

On the Estate

On Wednesday 13^th November we welcomed Pilgrim School from Baumber for a visit. Thankfully it was a bright and sunny day amidst the gloom that has been November. Their visit comprised a farm tour on the tractor and trailer, the children spent some time watching the red deer and listening to us talk about the farm and how we keep the deer.

‘The children were absolutely blown away! Most of them had never been on a tractor or seen a Deer…it was so special’.

Great feedback if ever there was some!

We have started harvesting timber for the wood pasture. This is the last part of our 10 year woodland management plan to restore the parkland. All timber that has been felled so far has been chipped and is now being dried in the kiln ready for our chicken chip customers.

On the Farm

November has been quite a dry month with 40mm of rain, most of that coming in the last 10 days. The dry spell at the beginning of the month has allowed us to finish our winter wheat drilling. Ruth (our agronomist) and I have been keeping a careful eye on emerging crops to check for slug damage and amazingly we have applied no slug pellets to any crop this year. Due to our most bothersome weed on farm, blackgrass, we have to apply herbicides shortly after the wheat is drilled and this kills the blackgrass as it emerges but the wheat and beans can grow through this ok. Blackgrass is a very damaging weed economically as it reduces the yield of wheat quite substantially and produces lots of seeds in every seed head so can multiply very quickly. We have various methods to help control this. E.g. by drilling later (mid October onwards) we can let some of this blackgrass germinate and emerge then we spray these plants off with glyphosate before we drill the wheat, this reduces the burden of blackgrass and then the herbicides we use can work more effectively. Come spring time we can then hand pull any remaining blackgrass that has escaped the previous methods of control.

We have also drilled a small field of winter beans that we are planning to harvest and then drill next year as a companion crop alongside our winter cereals as was covered in October’s update. We managed to use the Avatar for these beans.

There is 28ha of sugar beet left to lift, we are planning to harvest this before Christmas, the land is destined to grow a spring barley crop so will likely require ploughing. We are going to experiment with different cultivation strategies for growing sugar beet in the spring to try to reduce our reliance on ploughing the land as part of our regenerative agriculture journey. We have managed to successfully drill a wheat crop after a field of sugar beet via our minimum tillage equipment; the Sumo Trio and Vaderstad NZ. Normally this land would have been ploughed to make a seed bed ready for wheat but by using minimum tillage equipment we save on diesel use, it also means there is less carbon lost from the soil due to the non inversion nature of the cultivation. It also saves time which is an added bonus!

The team have been busy tidying the yard and cleaning machinery to put away for winter. We also have a Red Tractor Audit due soon, this is where the farm gets audited to ensure we are abiding by the standards of the scheme. When you see a Red Tractor symbol on a product in a supermarket it means that product has been grown to the highest production and/or welfare standards covering everything from health and safety to environmental protection. A Red tractor symbol also means that product has been grown or raised in the UK so please help support our farmers by buying these products in these uncertain times for the industry!

Deer Diary

Due to the snowy conditions here in mid November, winter feeding has started in earnest so the herds are enjoying our herb rich silage now which we cut earlier in spring/summer in readiness for the winter months.

We’re preparing the roundhouse for the calves that will over winter in there. The roundhouse provides the younger deer with some shelter and warmth over the winter months. So far the middle door sections are in, we just need to partition into quarters and connect the water so they stay hydrated. Once this is competed we will then herd and transport them. Upon arrival they will be served a mineral boost to ensure that they stay in the very best of health over the winter.