December 2007

Hampshire County Council and Hampshire Fare launch a DVD that tells the field to plate story of today's school dinner, presented by Chris Packham. Since the Jamie Oliver series about school dinners, the lunch time meal has been in decline, so a number of stakeholders have come together to produce a DVD that tells the story of school dinners, their nutritional benefits and the fact that as much produce as possible is sourced and produced locally.
90000 DVD'S have been produced and will be distributed to all primary school children in Hampshire, for more information ring 01962 845999

Thats a nice field of cabbages

November 2007

Run out of room yet again. The bigger volumes of Old Winchester that are in the pipe line, all need storage, so we are in the middle of installing another two maturing rooms that will hopefully keep us out of trouble for a year or two. The first one should be up and running by mid December. Old Winchester still remains very tight, however by the middle of 2008 there will be more available.

Cows all milking well, hopefully with Foot and Mouth behind us, the threats are still TB, the Governments lethargy has been outrageous,TB will be endemic in 10 years time, and the then we have the unknown of Blue Tongue.

October 2007

Pumpkin campaign has gone well, all the large cleared, with some small left but still have a tinge of green to them, probably sold in the region of 150,000. The two new customers on the right are from Monkey World down near Bere Regis in Dorset. They are Woolly Monkeys, and thoroughly enjoy their seasonal treat. No waste or sell by date here, they eat the lot

British Cheese Awards 2007

Another good solid result at the British Cheese Awards, a Bronze for Winchester, and a Bronze for Old Winchester in the home market and Gold for the Export class. Lots of interesting news in the pipeline. Lyburn share space with Two Hoots and their Barkham Blue, and Hampshire Cheeses and their Tunworth.

Judy does the BBC 1o'clock news and NEWS 24 and tells the world about Regional Cheeses.

A visit from the EC2B, students of Eastleigh college to lean a bit more about pumpkin and cheese.

Reasonable quantities of pumpkin available, the lager ones are fully orange, the medium and orange but the smaller ones are still 50% green. They will come right with a bit more sun. No wasting expensive power and light on this farm to change the colour, if you dont like the colour, 'tough'.

September 2007.
We have for the time being, shut the farm shop again due to Foot and Mouth. We now have no idea where it will turn up next, so will play safe.

The good news is that the British Cheese Awards are on at the end of the month. We will be exhibiting there along with Two Hoots and Hampshire Cheeses.

August 2007.

There is no end to the grief at the moment, Foot and Mouth is back. News that the bug may have escaped from Pirbright is mind numbing. We have missed Petersfield and Basingstoke farmers markets this Sunday and we are not going to open the shop this week, August 6th until August 12th, this may seem like overkill but sooner be safe than sorry. Try visiting the Royal Oak at Fritham instead, where you get great beer and a great lunch. The shop will be open again from 14th August unless there are any setbacks.

Light at the end of the tunnel for milk prices, as Britain runs out of milk. The big 4 supermarkets, have now put so many dairy farmers out of business, that the milk has run out, helped by the weather and some very strong world markets and of course the WI. Prices are going to rise very sharply in the next few months.

July 2007.
Job to know where to start this month. Strong sales growth with the cheese has been dented by the theft of a large amount of cheese, including a substantial amount of Old Winchester.

The drilling of our first crops of Terraseed, picture right, more pictures. The seed is inpregnated in a mat of paper and polythene, and instead of sowing the seed conventionaly we lay the mat and water it. This ground breaking, (if you will excuse the pun) project is being developed in Hampshire.

Nantwhich Cheese Show.
Old Winchester takes another prize, this time a Silver. What with having some stolen and the growing recognition of this cheese, supply is still tight.

June 2007.
Had a very good run in the last 6 months, lots of new customers for the cheese, and makeing an extra day a week. Having thought that it would never rain again in April, June is the wettest ever, don't complain, rain in June and July is always a bonus on a sandy soil farm. Veg all looking good picked the first runner beans to day 28/6, never picked beans in June before.

Great trip with the Specialist Cheesemakers to Cork in Ireland. David and Jo Clarke win the Patrick Rance trophy for an unpasteurised cheese with their Red Leicester cheese Sparkenhoe.

May 2007.
Tuesday 29th. May, Bath and West Show week, yes and its raining surprise, surprise. Then even more surprises, Lyburn's Old (Aged)Winchester is named Reserve Champion. This event is particularly challenging as it is in the heart of Cheddar country. Our agenda is not to challenge the Cheddar but to add another dimension to the market place. This is not everybody's cheese, but for those that enjoy Old Winchester, it is clearly a star. We still need another year to knock the rough edges of this cheese and to build up commercial volumes. Thank you all, for your kind comments, more than anything else this is good news for our cows, who , without the cheese would be facing a very uncertain future.

We still have the Food Standards Agency prattling on about cheese being junk food, so it's nice to hear Sir Alan Sugar come to the defence of the quality end of the cheese market and telling his apprentices to sell QUALITY. This program is the only TV we will make a point of watching each week, as there is always something to learn. This week we learnt not to cook your breakfast on an old baked bean can, and don't try and sell crap to the French, because they still have their food culture. Selling just 15kg. of cheese is nothing like good enough. Sorry Paul, but you were fired, quite rightly for a number of failings.

April 2007.

The very dry weather, will soon start to affect milk production, irrigating, grass seeds and Broad beans.

Meanwhile, Lyburn Gold goes Japanese. Follow the link for more detail of how our cheese takes on the rest of the world.

Thomas Lord, West Meon, celibrates its first year in business. All done with localy produced food, and now a reputation second to none.

March 2007

Good news and bad news, the good news is that our cheese Winchester won another Bronze at the World Cheese awards this month.

Bad news our 4500ltr milk tanker was stolen. As you can see, can be clearly identified, painted in John Deere green and yellow, stands about 8/9 feet tall. Any one who might have any information please call 01794 390451

February 2007

Not a very happy story, bird flu hits East Anglia. As we watch the story unfold, the overriding message, and this is not Bernard Mathews in particular, there is still a major issue regarding labelling. It is in my opinion quite outrageous that foreign raw materials, can be imported into this country, re-processed, and then, can be passed of as British.

This has to change. We want to know exactly where our food comes from. Those that are not prepared to tell us should be shamed into doing so. Are you listening supermarkets.

No problem with the label to the right.

World tour.

This is a picture of Geobear from Paradise Valley, near Phoenix in Arizona. Geobear is on a quick world tour and came to Winchester Farmers Market last Sunday, that is Winchester in the UK , not California!! Geobear who clearly is an expert in cheese, declared Lyburn Cheese to be the best in the market, and will be looking out for the cheese in the US when he gets home.

January 2007
Tour dates for this summer
Here are the dates as promised for this years tours. June 27th and 28th, July 4th and 5th, these will all be part of the Hampshire food festival that runs for these 2 weeks. We have added 2 extra days to cope with numbers on July 11th and (Now full, 12th.) We can take group bookings and individual bookings. Tel. 01794 390451
Charges are £9 for adults and half price for children. Tours will include organic veg, cows and cheese and sit down supper. Tour guides are advised to organise their own good weather! If it rains you will get wet.