Well here we are again the start of another year! I cant believe how time flies! We have just about recovered from another busy Christmas, and are now turning our attentions to the Horncastle Farmers Ball which takes place on Friday 14th January.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to keep my blogs as up to date as I should last year but it is my New Years resolution so here goes!!

Last year lots happened, and I will attempt to remember! In November Odile and I when up to Scotland again to the annual Scotch Premier Christmas Carcase Show 2010 which was great fun as every1 The Scots are so welcoming and we always look forward to it. The show saw our first purchase from the prize winning stock with the First Prize Light Heifer and First Prize Light Lambs arriving at the shop just in time for Christmas! The whole trip was made very eventful due to very heavy snow while we were up there!

Luckily we were home in time to start preparations for Christmas. It is our busiest time of the year, and we start to prepare around the beginning of November. We start with provisional turkey orders, curing bacon, taking orders and sourcing the beef for Christmas. All of our beef is hung for 21 days minimum so the beef for Christmas has to be slaughtered at the beginning of December at the latest. For many people looking in from the outside butchers make lots of money at Christmas, and if only this were true! The truth of the matter is we have to make hay while the sun shines and in order to survive January and February when things are always quiet in our trade, not only have people spent up at Christmas but they diet too!! On the plus side though it does give us much needed time for maintenance, all the jobs that you never get done the rest of the year!

So this year on of our first jobs is to start work on the flat above the shop. Last year we acquired the flat and following approval for change of you we are now able to start to expand our preparation area. We are hoping to be able to increase our mail order department’s through put.

Hi All,

Pleased to say that the Horncastle Farmer’s Charity Ball went well, we supplied all the meat for the cold carvery again this year.  It was held in a most beautifully decorated marquee at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa. We were very pleased to hear so many good comments from people on the quality of the meat and were also very pleased to have all 380 people served in record time!

Many thanks to Eric and Beth who came along to help Odile and I carve .  It is the second year that we have done the ball and were very pleased to have been asked to do it again. This year the cold carvery consisted of Lincolnshire Stuffed Chine,  Roast ribs of beef,  Roast Sirloin of beef,  Roast turkey and poached Salmon.

We hope everyone who attended had a lovely evening, it was a pleasure to serve you.