This week sees us reach an important milestone in our smallholding life, an event that we have seen coming and been preparing for for the last five months. On Monday, we took the concept of "homegrown" to a new level by taking two of our lambs to the abattoir.

It was very hard and, if I am honest with myself, I am not completely at peace with doing it. I feel conflicted as I wrestle with the ethics of it... is it right for an animal to be born and then slaughtered for meat a few months later? It feels …

There are many soft fruit bushes on the smallholding. I have found raspberries, alpine strawberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. They seem very productive, obviously liking the soil and location.

On Friday, Peter picked nearly 4 kg of redcurrants before I had even arrived. Picked fruit does not wait so, despite us having just moved in, it needed preserving! I was going to make some jam but could not find my collection of empty jam jars amongst all the boxes yet to empty. So I decided to make some delicious redcurrant cordial. I have made this several times already as our single …