Anyone able to rescue a few hens! Gotta be quick but what a great thing to do....

So this is what a 320g goose egg looks like in a (normal sized) frying pan. Pictured with some home-cured home-smoked bacon. A diet buster for some, perfect Banting's diet for others. Good food for me 😆. If you fancy a goose egg, it even as a novel gift, we are now selling them in our wee shed. Our gals have surprised us by continuing to lay, 2 months early! Limited numbers and don't know for how long. £1.50 each

So it seems that even the animals know it's Christmas! Our geese have very kindly, and unseasonally, provided us with 2 goose eggs this morning for our Christmas day breakfast! Laying for only 2 to 3 months, traditionally from Valentine's Day, this is most unusual, and very welcome. These girls never were destined for the Christmas table but maybe this is a little thank you?! Merry Christmas all!

All go here! Out with the wreaths and now out with the geese! Lots of geese heading out this weekend, with a few more for the new year. It's been a year of preparing for Christmas so it's with great joy to see it arrive. It's been quite a year too, lots of lessons, lot of good developments, (a lot not happened too!), new friends made with our fabulous volunteers, more flowers than I've ever known, and many happy memories. But at the heart of it are the people who have supported us, buying from us or offering welcome words of encouragement. And for every positive gesture we thank you. Big plans to implement in 2018 and adaptations to the current business. Keep watching! Merry Christmas, and thank you. From Ailsa, Jan-Georg Van Rooyen and the kids, Ayana and Johannes.

TIME PLEASE FOLKS! Last orders for Christmas geese, or for those post Christmas birds, is this coming Tuesday, the 19th. So get your decision heids on, if you're currently wavering, and decide if this is the year to really go for the fine dining at your Christmas meal! They're not cheap, we know that, but the money is in the quality and the happy life that these geese have led. Nurtured here from day 2 (hatched in Norfolk) these have been well looked after; reared outside on grass and evening wheat feeds under cover, and will never know a transport lorry. All processing is done here on the farm, assuring that we bring you the best quality we can and the birds are treated well to the end. Orders can be made through here online, via our little sales shed here or through Bannerman Butcher in Bervie

Short on time on Christmas day? Short of a pudding? The former is a guarantee, and the latter is subject to interpretation :) . Either way I've got a great little recipe for super quick, super tasty Christmas dumpling. Using just a few store cupboard ingredients, a jar of my home made mincemeat, and a microwave, you can be eating your dumpling easily within half an hour of starting to make it! Here's how I made it, with modifications to suit your taste... Homemade mincemeat Christmas pud 150ml water 100g brown sugar (dark or light to suit) 2 hens eggs lightly beaten 250g plain flour 1 jar Fare of Scotland mincemeat of choice 225g margarine (I use cooking margarine for baking having previously shunned it in preference of butter. But in recent economy drive have returned to this childhood ingredient and discovered what my mum knew all along – it make great cakes!) (1tbsp treacle optional) (Up to 200g extra dried mixed fruit for a heavier pudding if wished) (You may wish to add a tsp of so of extra mixed spice and /or cinnamon) 1tsp bicarb of soda Put the water, sugar, mincemeat and margarine (plus dried fruit, spices and/or treacle if using) into a saucepan. Bring the contents to the boil and simmer for one minute. Remove from the heat and mix in the sieved flour and bicarb. Stir in the beaten eggs and mix well. Line a medium-sized microwave-friendly bowl with enough cling film to go over the sides of the bowl (but not over the top of the mixture) and pour in the mixture.(you will need at least 5cm between the top of mixture and top of bowl) Cook in the microwave at 850 watts for 10 mins. If after this time the centre still looks wet then cook for another minute and repeat until an inserted skewer comes out clean from centre of pud. Allow to stand to cool until ready to turn out. And serve whilst still warm. OUR NO-FAT MINCEMEAT IS AVAILABLE FROM OUR SHED UP TILL CHRISTMAS. Made with Charlton farm pears and apples, lashings of sumptuous quality dried fruit, a choice of nuts (walnuts or almonds) and generous amounts of crystalised ginger and spices this is a well yummy alternative to the shop boughts! £5 per big jar. Also makes a lovely gift at this time of year. Not just for mincepies!

My front door! I can do this for anyone else who wishes but due to its slightly bigger size and extra fiddlies this will be £30. By order only. Bling a ling a ling 😊

Some extra special bulb baskets I've been working on. Creating a miniature woodland in bloom to look as beautiful as when the flowers emerge come mid winter. These are delicate and therefore only available to order. Each one is unique and very limited in number. Bulbs are a variety of top quality hyacinths and stunning pure scented Narcissus paper whites.

Goodness gracious me, cold! Beautiful, gorgeous weather and the kids are just loving the snow. But it makes for finger death when trying to make wreaths. Thought I could just press on through the freeze pain using frozen moss to make the wreaths this afternoon, but it was impossible and it beat me. So tonight my moss bin is inside. And try again tomorrow... And, instead of wreathing we got our Christmas tree up! Happy days...

Silver and orange. A twist on tradition. 😍