Our first lamb of the season was born on Tuesday 27th March 2018. This photo is before it had tried to get up so it was very new at this stage. Mother and lamb survived Day 1 and now all we need is some sunshine. We are going to call it Robinson whether it is male or female. ...
National Geographic
We would like to thank Will and Rose who came to stay earlier this year. Will wrote to Kids National Geographic about his visit to Cragend Farm and had it published. His Mum contacted us to let us know. ' FUN AT THE FARM I went to stay in a place named Cragend Farm with my mum, dad and sister Rosie. I loved it. I got to feed the 16 sheep, three cows, nine peacocks and 40 chic ...
Mushrooms Part 2
The compost has been made with straw manure, chicken manure, blood, fish bone and gypsum. The grain spores of the White Button Mushrooms have been sown in the compost and newspaper has been laid over them to keep them moist for 2-3 weeks. ...
Mushrooms Part 1
Cragend Farm is embarking on a new harvest this year ... Mushrooms. We are trying to growing Shitake and Oyster mushrooms on logs. The sycamore trees in our wood had been marked for harvesting and so we cut a quantity down to use to grow mushrooms. Unlike when burning a log on a fire, you need fresh, wet logs and a dark space to store them in. We drilled holes in the logs a ...
Snow
Snow in March The weather has been bad all over Britain this month and Northumberland had its fair share of snow. At Cragend Farm it is a chance to have some fun, once we have made sure the animals are all fed and watered. We managed to have 5 days of sledging and plenty of snowmen and snowballs. Our biomass log boiler worked well and kept us all toasty warm, and the Esse 990 ...
Competition
This notice has appeared at an office in Birmingham and we thought it was such a great idea we wanted to thank them for their support by giving them a mention: "TO ALL STAFF: In the Kitchen at Stechford is a picture if the 8 Sheep of which 6 may be in lamb. Some have scans stating 2 foetus seen, some 1 and some are just scanned not confirmed. The competition relates to th ...
Flocks
New arrivals are imminent with another 8 sheep due to lamb in March and April. This will hopefully increase our stock to a reasonable sized flock. ...
Spring
Now the snow has finally melted we have been able to start preparing the garden for the spring planting. The last of the cabbages stand victorious after all the cold weather. Rotovating will help the plants grow and last nights frost will kill some of the bugs that like living in the soil. Plans afoot for some delicious veg in the summer. ...
Half-Term Holidays
Enjoy a relaxing stay at Cragend Farm at East Cottage (self catering accommodation) or in one of our Bed and Breakfast rooms in Cragend Grange. Book DIRECT or call us for further information. Short Breaks and longer stays available. Other websites may charge commission to sell you the same dates so book DIRECT! ...
Farm History
From the 16th century Cragend Farm has been a place of agriculture with approximately 1700 acres at one point. In the 1860's Lord Armstrong of Cragside bought the farm from the Duke of Northumberland and rearranged the layout of the farm for his own use. Most of the land was taken by the main estate and the buildings were altered to house his new inventions of hyro-engineering ...
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your fantastic farm on the Historic Houses tour on Tuesday. We both agree that it was the most interesting HHA visit we have ever done - and we have done many over the years! We had no idea of the extent of the Armstrong connection or what you have there, having visited Cragside on so many occasions in the past 50 years or so. And indeed looked down on the farm from the walks at Cragend quite recently. We particularly enjoyed ascending and descending the ladders to look at the hydraulic equipment and get an idea of how it all functioned, the beautiful and unusual buildings which had housed the cattle, and were intrigued by the contents of your "underground " loo! Peacocks and chicks, hens and a beautiful pet lamb added to the feel of the farm.
Shaun & Lou Renwick are keen to harness the farm's natural resources, using wood to heat their water, to cook with on a wood burning range, and to heat the houses on the Farm. Even if your house is not equipped to totally run on wood there are things you can do to make sure you are using the best quality wood for your fires.
Why seasoned wood?
Why use Seasoned Wood?
Seasoned wood is a definition for 'wood drying'. About 5% of the energy of the log is wasted through evaporation and heating the water vapour of damp logs.
Moisture effects the burning process with unburnt hydrocarbons going up the chimney, which can in time create 'sooting' in the chimney, with the possibility of a chimney fire, all of which requires specialist sweeping.
Drying the wood before burning reduces moisture content in the wood before it is used for burning,
Air drying is the most traditional method, and it takes time. usually over and above 2 years! The fire will use less energy to burn the log if the water content is below 20%. Therefore is can give OUT more energy in the form of heat!
Cragend Farm endeavours to provide their customers with the best seasoned wood possible.
if you would like further information on the process of burning wood please contact us and we will be happy to help.
Thank you so much Lou and Shaun for a great holiday break on your farm at Cragend last week. East Cottage was a super place to stay. Very comfortable accommodation with everything we needed for self-catering and situated next to the beautiful Cragside National Trust gardens. It was super for our dog with fields to walk across as well as a secure fenced place for her to run off lead! Such interesting history too about the farm and how you have restored the buildings, the Victorian silo and so much else of the past farming life at Cragend. We look forward to returning! J&M Nottingham.
Award Winning Accommodation