Welcome to Little Hazelfields
Our journey began when we spotted a ‘for sale’ sign and were curious enough to arrange to wander around the perimeter of two fields in the Sussex countryside right up in the High Weald.
We thought that the view was amazing and just loved it from the first moment, and still do! We say it is like ‘Being at the top of the World’ – lovely views, peace and tranquillity, literally the ideal spot.
Completion was long and complicated and took nearly a year, until this small piece of Sussex finally became ours.
Sometime later we had the opportunity to purchase the field next door to our existing two, something that we had not envisaged, but it had great potential.
We are lucky enough to now have just over fifteen acres of land in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Our very own “Little Hazelfields Farm”
Our Small Farm
From initially having just chickens we began to explore the possibilities of other animals, Large Black pigs and pygmy goats and more recently pedigree Red and Traditional Boer Goats.
We bred our pigs and had two litters, some were sold, some were made into bacon and sausages.
Currently we have various types of chicken Hyline and Sussex hens, Pekin bantams in a variety of colours and a few ducks that we keep for eggs.
Our pygmy goats we keep purely as pets, they also enjoy attention and some can walk quite well on a lead.
We breed Traditional and Red Pedigree Boer Goats and currently have a fairly large herd ranging from kids to mature adults. From 2021 onwards we are concentrating more on our Red Boers.
This next year we are re-establishing our vegetable and fruit gardens, more trees are going to be planted in the Winter and lots of vegetables sown and grown in the Spring.
Our Online and Social Media presence.
We have our website and Facebook pages as Littlefield Boers and Little Hazelfields Farm.
You can shop either through our website, facebook or our Etsy Shop ‘LittleHazelfields’.
We have Growing and Baking Activity boxes for children, Goat Soap Gift sets and Selections of Merino Rovings.
The range online is developing, as well as Goat Milk Soap (Honey, Unscented, Honey & Oatmeal, Coconut Oil and Coconut & Oatmeal, we have Shampoo, Hair Conditioner, Hand Sanitiser and Handwash. We have started to add Merino Wool Rovings for felt and needlecraft projects. We shall also have a variety of British rovings, batts and wool products.
We are currently researching and adding a range of sustainable and eco-friendly products. This will continue to grow & change in the coming months.
Our Farm Animals
Pygmy Goats
Initially we had four Pygmy wethers ‘just to try’ looking after goats. Could we do this? The result is that we now have a small herd of pygmies: pet females, wethers and bucks. We have bred them in the past but now prefer to keep them purely for the enjoyment of having them on the farm.
Pigs
We have kept pigs for some years now. Initially having Large Blacks that we collected from Cumbria. The most we ever had were 18 and we found that a few too many. They ate a lot and constantly moved the fence lines.
As well as being a superb pig they have also produced some marvellous meat for us as a family, a plethora of sausages, bacon and ham, as well as delicious joints of pork slow cooked in our home kitchen.
More recently we have grown on Oxford and Sandy Black Weaners for meat and they too have been brilliant, producing excellent homegrown pork.
This Winter/Spring we shall have some pigs clearing our very overgrown vegetable garden.
Geese
We have just two, who must be about 11 years old and we bought them as two female goslings, but one turned out to be a gander. Other than when he was small and fluffy and we moved him around in a laundry basket he seems to have always disliked us! Hence they have a large run and I try to keep my distance even when feeding them! He is a good alarm system though and honk when he hears the main gate opening and pursue anything and particularly hates the watering can!
Chicken, quail, ducks and turkey
From our very first days we have always had chicken. The beautiful Sussex is one breed we have had for years. We have had rescue hens for egg laying that produce eggs for baking, making lemon curd and quiches.
More recently we have added pekin bantams to our small collection.
Our ducks we hatched from eggs many years ago and have the dark coloured Cayuga that are developing.
Other eggs we have reared have been turkeys for the Christmas and Easter table and Ixworth/Sussex eggs have also made us excellent table birds too. In the past we have bought in day olds for rearing as well.
Quail eggs are tiny but lovely fried or in salads, they are a bit tricky to find in their run though.
Red and Traditional Boer Goats
After a few years of nurturing and developing our small herd of Pedigree Boer Goats we are now in a position to sell our own pedigree stock and occasional goat meat. We have good bloodlines collected from other parts of the country and stock we are proud of. W.e currently run a closed herd
We are members of the British Boer Goat Society, our herd name is Littlefield, and our animals are SAC Cae accredited. We have a facebook page ‘Littlefield Boers’.
We have traditional coloured Boers; white with red reads, and Red Boers (that I particularly like) with their woolly winter coats and sleek shiny mahogany looks in Summer.
We keep a mix of Traditional and Red Bucks too, they smell quite a bit when they are in with the female goats! The girls find them irresistible!
Our Garden Produce
We have always made our own jams; blackberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, elderberry and raspberry.
We now have a larger garden area for us to plant more fruit bushes and intend to have more fresh fruit available too.
Our orchard is small but a work in progress, currently we predominantly have eating and cooking apples.
The no dig vegetable areas are under construction, we are making beds rather than one large area. This is where we plan to sow and grow more foods for the kitchen table. We have lots of seeds ready for sowing in early Spring.
Hedging and trees
We hope in Winter 2021/2 to continue to plant more hedging and trees to provide windbreaks and food for the goats. The goats love the opportunity to browse and willow also grows incredibly fast as a cut and come again food for them.
Field Management
Our pigs continue to clear areas of grass ready for re-seeding, this helps to reduce the worm burden on the land for the other livestock.
We replant with a mix of grass and forage especially suitable for the goats.
We leave 3 metre corridors along the sides of our land to encourage the wildlife, here you can often see the butterflies and other insects too. The deer tend to wander through our fields. The kestrels and the buzzards often fly overhead. We leave the hedges uncut so the birds can enjoy the seeds and fruits in Winter as the weather gets colder. The list of wild birds that we have seen continues to grow.
We still have fencing to do in the last seven acres to make that ready for the livestock too.
At some stage we also hope to set up our two beehives in the wild area where the land dips down towards the valley.
We sometimes make a little hay for the animals in small round bales. We have a walk behind 2-wheeled tractor, tedder and baler. This is a slow process but the animals always seem to enjoy the end result greatly.
Most of our hay is bought in, as is the straw, for our ever hungry animals.
Future Plans
After years working with the Early Years Sector we are continuing to grow our Activity Boxes for younger children.
Our online shop will be the main focus for 2022
If you would like anymore information please feel free to get in touch with us using the form below.
Many thanks!