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The Santa letters have been written, and the boxes of decorations are being opened. Only a few weeks until our first Christmas "Cocktails and Canapes' Cookery Class with Mary Wilkins on 2nd December with the Grand Finale for 2016 of "Christmas Fayre" on the 14th December. Book now www.marywilkinscookery.co.uk ...

A new cattle handling area has been built at Cragend. This will allow the safe handling of cattle and more control of the animals when arriving and leaving the farm. It might even be useful for handling sheep as well! ...

Witches' markings: "Public urged to check their house for strange symbols carved into the walls by Historic England".   When we saw this headline today, 31st October 2016 Halloween, we thought we must write a blog about the ones we have near the front Door in our Hall. Carved into the lime plaster near the entrance there are several markings, with one very clear Daisy Wheel. ...

Mary Wilkins and Lou Renwick took cooking equipment and ingredients along to Cambo Village Hall, Northumberland to entertain the local W.I. Group in October 2016. Lou gave a talk on the history of Cragend Farm and the renovations that are on going. The talk included viewing examples of items found on the farm during the renovations, including a cannon ball, a hedge splitter and ...

We are always pleased to meet the interesting people at Cragend who come through our doors, but none more so than the delightful Cleo and Mark Butterfield who came to stay with us whilst visiting Woodhorn Archives and Northumberland. They are fabulous collectors of Vintage Clothing, and were so interesting about some old dresses and fans we told them about that are family heirl ...

Cutting the tops from the weeds means they do not seed and will control the spread of weeds like thistles. ...

Open Day 9th June 2016 We had an excellent day of showing visitors around the newly restored farm buildings with a demonstration by ESSE chef Steve Evans. Supported by local producers, we raised money for Macmillan and Rothbury Christmas Lights. ...

The restoration of the weighbridge took a few years but we have finally got the building in order. Our thanks to Roger kagan and Delilah for all their help. ...

East Cottage is finally ready for guests as Easter and spring arrives in April 2017. New beds, sofas and furniture. The Esse 990 woodburning range is ready for heating the water and cooking the food, with a fully equipped kitchen with microwave and electric oven and ceramic hob. King size bedroom, and twin bedroom. Bathroom has a high cistern lavatory in keeping with Victorian ...

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 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.

Why seasoned wood?

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.

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