Escape to Dhikr-tory

Where the hell have I been?

2007-11-30T16:22:00.000Z

Time does fly.....can not believe my last post was that long ago. As you can imagine I have therefore been busy. Work has been hectic for the last 6 months and on top of that I have really gone into my archery and horses quite deeply which has taken up loads of my spare time. Nevertheless I am back and hopefully will be a bit more regular.

I organised a bow-making course back in October. We camped out in some woods near Glastonbury and were basically taught how to take a block of wood and literally smash it into the shape of a bow. Amazing weekend simply being out in the middle of nothing and nowhere. I can't remember the last time I had experienced such pitch black - you could not see your hand in front of your eyes at night. My weekend pretty much ended on Saturday as 4 hours of smashing a piece of wood with an axe also smashed my wrist up. I was left to watch proceedings by the camp fire for the rest of the weekend. Most people finished theirs with a few final bits to polish. It gave me a taste for camping and roughing it though - you feel a different person away from the world and technology (although we did sneak in a tv/radio to watch the rubgy world cup!).

On the small-holding things are quiet. I have learnt what I can handle now...a few chickens for meat & eggs, a couple of goats to breed some meat for Eid and the horses are plenty. Hopefully next year the veg situation will be a lot better - I gave up this summer as it was so ruddy wet. So that is my lot now. I just want to concentrate on the horses/archery and have some spare time to chill. If you give yourself too much you end up without a life! So my huge plans for sheep, geese, chickens, etc, etc, etc have died - RIP!!

My passion in life at the moment is the horseback archery. We had a big meet at my place in November - we had a good turnout and as a result we are establishing the British Horseback Archery Association (BHAA). The logo below is a world exclusive and will be up on the site once done. We hope to have a competition next year and send the top 3 people to the European Championship in Germany in 2008; I am also hoping to go with my teacher to the World Championship in Korea (God willing!). Part of the reason I am also keeping stuff on the smallholding to a minimum is that I need the space now for the horses and also for training sessions. My horse in the pic above is my girl Splash - I trained her myself for the archery and love her like I love my kids.

Anyway, hope to be back soon with more news!

Dinner

2007-05-02T09:39:00.000Z

In hindsight I rather unwisely agreed to take 3 ewes and 3 lambs in exchange for having let a farmer graze some cattle on my field last summer. I thought it would be a good way to learn a bit more about them plus have some lamb grazed on our own land. All seemed fine for the first two weeks until this weekend just gone. I was in Germany on a horseback archery training weekend. Once we arrived back at Heathrow my friend called his wife who told him to tell me one of the sheep was dying! A God....here we go I thought.

After finally getting through to my wife on the drive back to Somerset I found out it had been put down by the vet as it was infested with maggots. I did not know how to spot them and the warm weather meant they struck quick. So next morning I had to call DEFRA to get the body collected and then attempt to catch the orphan to start bottle feeding it as the other ewes were rejecting it, even pushing it around a bit.

This is where the fun started. When we were trying to catch the orphan the rest of them bolted and jumped my fence, ran across the veg patch next door and dissapeared into deep, dark Somerset! We managed to find them on a neighbouring farm but by the time my farmer mate cam with his collie and trailer they had scarpered. We searched for an hour and no sign of them! 6 hours later someone from the village knocks to ask if we have losy any sheep! There they were hiding in a field just next door. After rounding them up I asked the farmer to take them back. I really did not want the hassle of shearing them, worming them, looking for maggots and all that stuff. Forget it I thought. Goats and chickens are enough!

However, he would not take the orphan. So, we decided to keep it (well we had no choice really). My wife wanted it as a pet and started calling it Katie - I was adamant that if we kept it, it would eventually have to be slaughtered - thus the name I have given it of "Dinner". At the moment it is still scared of me so it is tied to a tree to make sure it doesn't escape and hurt itself. I have to bottle feed it which is quite nice - a lot easier than feeding my 6 month old! So we shall see how it goes - I hope it will start to put on weight, get used to us and have a happy little life. Eventualy though it must be eaten!

Other news from West End Farm include the veg patches doing OK. We need rain though and need it bad! I also have some horses coming soon - renting the field to a girl a few villages away with a couple of horses. In exchange for the land I get to ride which suits me fine. After my weekend of training I have decided I want to dedicate a lot of the land to archery so in the next couple of days I will be doing a lot of work to the ground to get it down to lawn level and then erect a massive target made out of hay.

Here is a pic of me in Germany on the training weekend. About 4 minutes after this shot was taken the horse went beserk and I had probably the scariest episode in my life. When people say your life flashes before you they are not wrong. Luckily I managed to throw myself off the horse before I was thrown into a barn wall!

Tired.......

2007-03-21T15:15:00.000Z

I am knackered at the moment. Thoroughly cream crackered. On top of that I am feeling ill. It is times like these you just think why did I get myself into this. No matter how you feel the chickens still need feeding, the goats letting out, the seeds watering and then of course the kids and the full time job.

Oh well - "grin and bear" sums it up I suppose.

As the weather has improved we are starting to taste summer now and its time to get busy. I have lots of seeds to plant although I need to go over my veg patches again with a rotivator. I'm doing loads more veg this year to hopefully see us 80% self-sufficient for the summer. Everyting from beans to carrots to salads to herbs. I have some chillie seeds in the utility room as well as tomato and cauliflower. As soon as they are big enough all will go outside. I am so looking forward to doing it all again this year - last summer was bliss as you could finish work at 5.30 then get a good 3 hours in outside in the hazy sunshine.

There's not much else been going on. Got a few more chicks in, 20, to fatten up. The goats are doing really well although I must admit I completely forgot to trim their hooves and they are madly overgrown! They are a priority for the weekend.

I have also perfected my technique with chicken killing - will post more details once I have some photos.

I also got a but more media coverage this week. The Times Online did a small piece on my organic halal initative. Read the article here.

The Metro

2007-03-05T16:29:00.000Z

I made the The Metro today - a nice little article by the journalist Rahul Verma on my whole life change and organic halal meat venture.

Many thanks to Rahul and The Metro for the publicity!

You can read the article here - Put Prophet ahead of Profit

....and then there were 5

2007-03-05T16:18:00.000Z

I thought the geese were going to be a good idea. Add some colour to the field, keep the grass down, etc. As usual the rose tinted glasses smashed within a week when we realised these things are bloody noisy. And when I say noisy I mean people being tortured at 5 am in the morning noisy. It was waking up Zak which meant waking us up and one of the neighbours mentioned it in that typically understated polite and English manner.

So I thought enough is enough and a couple had to go. So there I was in the field, pouring with rain trying to herd 7 geese into a pen so I could catch them. The herding them into the pen worked fine - you basically think like a sheep dog. Once they were in the pen though all hell broke loose and I had 7 geese running at me at 100 mph flapping their wings. This was man or mouse time.

It took me 3 attempts to catch one! Each time they managed to flap over the fence I put up or ram themselves under it. One managed to get his neck caught in the net so I pounced. The amazing thing with geese is that once they know the game is up they chill out. So off it went to be "dispatched" behind the shed.

I did 2 geese and gave one to a friend. So....5 left.

I also did a couple of chickens that night (one went into a tikka masala lasy night and my gosh the meat amazes me every time) and by accident went and did the last 2 remaning cockerals! I wanted to hold one back to see if I could start breeding from them but a bit too late for that as I ate them! You live and learn.

Where to Start?

2007-02-08T17:06:00.000Z

The end of 06 was hectic and the start of 07 was even more so. We managed to get away for a week to Marakkech which was nice - a word of warning though - if you are bad with cigarette smoke and car fumes it is your worst nightmare. We all came back with awful coughs. If you do however go there be sure to take a tour of the tombs of the 7 Saints with Sacred Sites Morocco. Lovely people.

Work has just been crazy since I got back which has meant the smallholding has suffered. The list of jobs is still a long as my arm and nothing much seems to get done. But this has been good in a way as it has made me re-think what I want from the land. Originally it was sheep, goats, chickens and veg. Now I am happy with a couple of goats, my layers and veg; although today I inherited 7 geese! More on that later. I decided against sheep basically as I dont think you can really bond much with sheep plus I have easy access to good quality lambs when I want due to the halal meat business.

So you all met Rumble the goat. At first I thought "I can't be bothered with this" and was trying to get rid of him. Nobody wanted him so I had the choice - a) eat him or b) get him some lady friends. I could not even consider option a as I had grown really attached to him. There is something about goats that are so so lovely - they have real characters and personalities and are so loving. So I was left with option b. I luckily have a friend with a trailor (yes you Val!) and she very kindly picked me up and off we went for a drive into deep, dark Devon to the goat farm of Anthea Bay (who once called me barbaric for doing halal slaughter! I sent her some info and it seems she has now changed her mind). Val picked out a couple of lovely nannies and we brought them back to meet their new boss, Rumble. They first night was a bit scary as they bolted into the deep fog we had with Rumble galloping behind them. No sign of them! The next morning they seemed to have settled in OK. I originally built them a field shelter out of bits of wood which I lovingly called the Huckleberry Finn shack. 2 weeks later it was in pieces after they had chewed all the tarpaulin off and smashed it up. On top of that gale force winds took the roof clean off. In this pic you can see the shack in the forefront and their new mansion in the background (only cost me £179!).

I love them to bits now. One of the girls is called Abby (from the Arabic abyad meaning white) and the other is Mrs Toe (originally Mistletoe but my boy Zak called her Mrs Toe and it has stuck). It is a pleasure going out every morning and giving them their mix and filling up their straw. In the past few days they now even let me properly stroke them. I am hoping Rumble is going to do the business but at the mo it looks like he is firing blanks or the girls are not interested. It would be lovely to see a few kids jumping about in the spring and summer.

So I am leaving the main field for them really. I also want a horse but I am not rushing into that for now. As I mentioned earlier there is something special about goats and I came across this saying of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) which seems to sow that goats have some sort of blessed position among the animals:

"Sunan Abu-Dawud Book 40, Number 4705:

Narrated Al-Abbas ibn AbdulMuttalib:

I was sitting in al-Batha with a company among whom the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) was sitting, when a cloud passed above them.

The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) looked at it and said: What do you call this? They said: Sahab.

He said: And muzn? They said: And muzn. He said: And anan? They said: And anan. AbuDawud said: I am not quite confident about the word anan. He asked: Do you know the distance between Heaven and Earth? They replied: We do not know. He then said: The distance between them is seventy-one, seventy-two, or seventy-three years. The heaven which is above it is at a similar distance (going on till he counted seven heavens). Above the seventh heaven there is a sea, the distance between whose surface and bottom is like that between one heaven and the next. Above that there are eight mountain goats the distance between whose hoofs and haunches is like the distance between one heaven and the next. Then Allah, the Blessed and the Exalted, is above that."

Pretty amazing that goats are the thing closest to Allah!

There is not much else going on. The chickens are all OK; for now anyway unless this bird flu thing blows up. I have 10 growers on the grow with a couple going in the freezer this weekend. Once they start to get to a certain weight you really need to eat them otherwise you just keep spending money on their feed.

I have ordered in my veg seeds in time for spring sowing - so excited! We miss quality tomatoes so much and this year the green house is going to be heaving with them. Am also going to give chillies a go. Apart from that it will be the usual suspects; sweetcorn, lots of beans and peas, carrots, beetroot, turnips, kale, etc. I still need to rotivate my veg plots though - have the rotivator in the shed, just need to find the time to go out there and plough it over. I did manage to clear a couple of herb plots though as I want to grow some garlic, mint, basil, dill, thyme and a few other bits.

Well today there was a bit of excitement at West End Farm. We have 7 geese! A friend upped and moved away leaving them behind so being the fool I am I said I would take them off him. I had to go round this morning and his wife was there to help me. I was petrified of them so being a true coward left her to catch them all!! Believe me when you see one of them hissing at you, you get scared. She gave me 7 of them and I slaughtered the other 3 for her. Now that was an experience! I have done chicken and lamb but a goose was a whole nex experience but it did have a bit of a profound effect on me.

I think there must be something in an animal's character that comes to fruition when they die. When I did those 3 geese they went with such grace. Chickens usually flap about, makes loads of mess and are generally mad - pretty much like they are in real life. Sheep are pretty jerky and all over the place too. But these geese! They were amazing...very quiet, no thrashing about.

So anyway, now I have these 7 geese which will be fattened up and then sold and/or eaten over the coming months.

Hectic

2007-02-02T20:07:00.000Z

Yes, I have not posted anything in a while. The end of 2006 and start of 2007 have been extremely manic. I will have some news from Somerset very soon!

Meet Rumble

2006-12-07T16:24:00.000Z

Early Sunday morning.....in a daze (as usual). Phone rings. "Neil, it's Audrey. The storms last night have knocked my buck's house down and I need to move him on. Can you take him for me please?"

Who is Audrey? She owns Eaglemead Goat Farm out on the other side of Yeovil. She and her husband were the first people ot bring the Boer goat into the UK and breed them. After her husband died a few years back the farm has started to look a bit neglected. Slowly she has let her goats go and last time we met she had her buck, "Rumble," and 3 does. She is old and Rumble was getting to much for her even then.

Usually I have loads of thoughts going through my head but for some reason I just said "yes". Then it was a mad dash to eat, bomb it to Homebase to buy a shed, go get Rumble and come back home to set up the shed and settle him in for the night. We had 6 hours - easy peasy my brother and I thought.

The shed was easy - got it into the van but then realised there was no room for the goat. So we had to go from B back to A and then from A to C to get the goat. Time was running out.....

Now all this time I was thinking, "Oh how nice; we can have a goat. He can be a pet. The boys can stroke him. How idyllic". Then we arrive at the farm and walk into his housing. My face dropped. He was MASSIVE!!!! He was stood up on his hind legs looking down at us with these friggin' great bit gigantic horns. I looked at my brother and he seemed to be in a state of shock too. Too late to pull out now....

The owner's friend then went into the pen to bring him out to walk him to the van and even he looked nervous. "What have I done?" I was thinking - "this is going to be a mad mad mad burden on me." Anyway, I just bit my tongue, stuck him on the van and away we went!

When we got home this was my first time at handling a goat...so I was a bit scared to say the least. I got up on the van took his horns and then basically wrestled the bugger off the van and tied him to the tree. Now the real fun starts - the shed!

Now if anyone thinks putting up a shed is easy then think again; it is difficult and having gale force winds and an encroaching sunset really does not do your stress levels much good. We managed to put the flooring together; when doing the side panels we had just got the screws in when this massive gust smashed it apart! We gave up in true English national cricket-team style.

After a few minutes of panicking I decided the only option I had was to clear out the shed and leave him in there. The first night he bleeted a lot but he has settled in well now. He has had to be thethered as I can't let him roam loose, but today I received a calf-shed I am going to use for him.

Just having him these past four days have been great. I was thinking of giving him away but he has grown on me so much I could not bear to do that. Instead I am getting him his own little harem (2 does). By doing this he gets some company, he can sow his seeds plus I get some meat every year from the offspring. It was never part of my plan to have or keep goats but Allah is the best of planners so I will go with the flow.

Apart from permanently stinking of goat's cheese now (his glands give off an almighty whiff which sticks to you) I also have to get up extra early now to walk him around the field so he gets some exercise. Once I have managed to build a fenced off area for him he should be able to be left to it with his female friends which will be a lot easier for me.

Once I get the does in I'll put up some pics......wish me luck!

A very plesant pheasant

2006-11-28T14:07:00.000Z

Had a nice suprise on Sunday. Went to the shed to check on the chicks and found these hanging there. No they did not commit suicide. A friend shot them and left them for us. I was waiting to try some pheasant for ages and that night we had a pheasant salad. It was nice - a bit dry (like turkey) but it did not really taste like anything - not even chicken although my wife thinks it tasted like pork! Will definetly have some more.

All on the small-holding is quiet. The fencing of the field is finally getting finished this week which means some sheep very soon! I think I am going to go for some Wiltshire Horns - they look nice, lamb quite easily and best of all you don't need to shear them in spring/summer. Their wool just drops off by itself and any little thing to lighten my workload is appreciated. All I need to do now is find someone with some good stock.

On Friday night we went rabbiting - I seem to have rubbish luck with rabbits. Either there are none or when I see one it legs it so quickly that I miss. I will bag one one day.....

So many jobs, not enough time

2006-11-14T16:10:00.000Z

I am finding these shorter days a bit of a pain in the bum. By the time I finish work it is pitch black and nothing ever gets done! At the weekends you have to juggle your family with what needs doing outside and most of the time the family wins. My list is getting huge now - on top of that the garden area outside is a neglected mess. I have no idea when I am going to have the time to do anything.

I got in some replacements on Saturday. Drove over to Exmoor to pick 12 more chicks up. Don't they look sweet - give it 6 weeks and I will hate them! I just hope they don't meet the same fate as their forerunners. I was hoping to get a poultry area made but someone gave me a quote for it today and it looks like either I have to do it myself or scrap the idea. They shall live their happy little lives in my shed for at least the next 8 weeks. After that, Fort Knox style poultry area permitting, they shall spend the last 4-8 weeks outside.

One thing I did manage to do this weekend was start getting my winter's supply of fire wood. I bought a whole load of a farmer which I have been chainsawing and chopping. On top of that I had a pine tree and an ash tree felled in the garden as they were not needed. I am trying to apply the prinicple of thrift to everything I do, so with the pine I spent an hour or so going through all the branches and cutting off the tiny bits to leave with me the branches. These I can use for kindling wood.

For the ash tree rather than burn the lot I did the same thing, but thought the cows may enjoy something other than grass. I stuck the whole lot out in the field and sure enough they gobbled all the leaves off the branches. This was thrift at its best! I was then left with nice clean branches to saw into little pieces, again which I will be using as kindling wood.

When looking at energy resources good old fashioned fire wood has a lot going for it. A few logs a night keeps our house nice and warm. On top of that it can also be used to heat water, cook your dinner, etc. Firewood is also one of the best renewable energies around. A growing tree absorbs as much as carbon dioxide as as one in firewood releases - if we planted more trees than we used, we would be laughing. Instead we are doing the opposite which isn't too bright. In fact we were saying the other night that eating beef is actually bad for the environment because farmers in South America are clearning acres of forest to allow cattle to graze. This led to me to think whether Muslim scholars should start looking into these sorts of questions? i.e. what is our position on things like global warming, factory farming, etc? As Allah's representatives on earth do we not have some sort of responsibilty to protect creation?

My (very neglected) veg patch is, well, neglected. All it has going at the moment are some spring cabbage and some kale - the latter is doing OK. I planted it too late though so I think we'll be eating midget kale. The spinach seems to have given up, the radishes are fine but I never have time to pick them and the butternut squash are begging to be picked and eaten. As you can tell, I need help!

One thing that I did come across was one of my marrows I left to grow - I wanted to see how big it could get and then use it for archery practice. It reminded me of that photo you see all the time of that tree in Australia that is apparently making ruku to Allah. What do you think? Shall I start inviting people from the Muslim world to come and visit the miracle of the prostrating marrow? I could make millions!

Guess not - the fact that it is a marrow doesn't make it too appealing, on top of that it is not really prostrating and lastly its not even facing Makkah. Stupid marrow - it could have been a star and will now be smashed into lots of pieces by arrows.

The Abattoir

2006-11-10T18:03:00.000Z

Did anyone see The River Cottage treatment last night? It was fantastic. Mr Whittingstall took his group of townies to an abattoir to show them where their lamb comes from and how they are killed, etc. It turned out to be the abattoir I use! Was quite funny to see all their faces on tv.

If anyone hasn't watched this yet, then try to. He basically takes people that live on ready meals and rubbish food and shows them where meat comes from, the difference in taste organic food gives you and those sorts of things. I'd love to do something similar with Muslims as they have really lost touch with food and its origins. Traditionally food was a way of understanding the relationship between you & God - i.e. the Sustainer and Sustained. People cared about what they ate, where it came from, etc. Now its "what is the cheapest stuff out there and let's pile it into our gobs".

One of the women that went to the abattoir actually turned vegetarian because of it which I think is fantastic. If you don't like what happens to animals you should stop eating them.

Big up to the Whittingstall - smallholding gangsta!

I wish he was my mate....

Nothing.......then.......bang!

2006-10-31T23:04:00.000Z

I was only thinking yesterday how quiet things have been here at the moment. I thought there really is not anything interesting to write about. I have been really busy with work and personal life but on the "farm" it seems to have grinded to a halt.

Until today.

Let me start from the top.

I had to go to the abattoir again today as this is part of getting my full license to slaughter. I went in with my shiny new white overalls, wellies and a brand new knife the abattoir owner bought for me. I did 22 sheep today and it went well. I improved my technique a lot of found a certain way of holding the head which allowed for a smoother cut. I also saw a lot more of the background stuff today in terms of how then bring the animals in and I also kept a close eye on the people stunning the animals - they were really very good; never rough with the animals at all.

The most interesting aspect of today's visit though was a chat I had with the vet there. He is Spanish - nice guy. He came out with some awful stuff about what he and friends had seen in "halal" slaughterhouses in Birmingham. "Covered in shit" he said - well he actually said "covered in sheet". He said he was so disgusted by it and questioned how that could really be halal. And all this coming from a non-Muslim. He was like "isnt halal also about being healthy and wholesome? The how can they be halal if the carcasses are covered in sheet?" He also made a very good point about carcasses in that Muslims take away the carcass for butchering pretty much as soon as it is done. His point was that it isn't healthy and that the meat needs time to relax, cool down and this improves the texture, flavour and health of the meat. I agree with him - I have tasted meat hung for a while and meat instantly cooked and the latter tastes nowhere as good.

Anyway, so that was my morning at the abattoir. There I am tootling along the country roads back home in a very good mood. I get to the front door and see feathers everywhere. "What the....??? Those look like chicken feathers." My heart sank, and when I say sank it saaaaaank. So I followed the trail and then found a pool of blood with loads of feathers everywhere on our back terrace area. Then out of the corner of my eye I see what I thought was one of my dead chickens. I go over to see what has happened and the poor thing was alive! It was ripped to shreds but still alive. I had to run in quickly, grab the knife I was using in the morning and slit its throat there and then. By this time I my head was all over the place. "What about the others?"

I legged it up the garden quicky scanned my laying hens and all seemed well then saw the pen my growers were in. The fence had been ripped, feathers were everywhere and all I could see was dead chickens on the floor. All of them were still alive bar one so I had to leg it back, get the knife and kill them all. It was such a horrible horrible feeling. I don't mind killing them but it was just seeing them lying there injured and in pain. I was really upset. I then realised that there were 3 missing and found them cowering in their coop - on closer inspection they had some injuries and did not look right. I had to kill of them but they were in a good enough state to eat so I plucked and gutted the lot. We just had one for dinner now and although it tasted good the whole meal was tinged with sadness. Tomorrow I have to bury or burn the rest somehow but God knows how I am going to fit that into my day - maybe douse them with petrol?

So that was my day! Hopefully not be repeated. I appreciate the arguments that the fox or badger that did this has to eat too and was only being natural. I have no problems with that if they eat them - but they tortured the poor buggers; just ripped lumps out of them and then left them to die. I would have had no quarms at all with taking a shotgun to whatever did that to them.

It was such a shame. I had those chickens from a day old and they were part of my daily routine and thoughts. When I left the field tonight I just looked across to an empty pen, full of feathers and their feeder swinging in the wind. May they rest in peace. On to the next lot though......such is life in the country.

License to Kill

2006-10-25T11:06:00.000Z

Yesterday I spent the morning working in an abattoir. Why I hear you ask? Well, I wanted to become a licensed slaughter man. Why I hear you ask? Bascially with the license I can go to any abattoir in the UK and perform halal slaughter. This means if I ever have quite a few lambs I want to do for friends and family I can simply run them down there, slaughter them myself and then pick up the carcass for my friend to butcher for me. This way I know all my lambs have been dealt with properly and that they are 100% halal.

It was on the whole a really interesting experience. I have seen a couple of abattoirs before and they can be horrific. But the place I went to (a small family run place) is really well planned and organised which means I am always going to take my animals there. After going through all the scientific ins and outs of how to kill an animal I then donned my white overalls, white boots, hair net and safety helmet and marched off through the bloody floors into the main hall. There was a team of men, some skinning the animals, some gutting and others processing. I think because it was small scale it didn't look too bad but I can imagine what larger outfits must be like. Another good thing about it being small was the men took their time with the animals. There was no crazy rush to get through their target of animals which inevitably means corner cutting.

I was taken to the area where the lambs come in and watched a pro at work. He was so quick it was unbelievable - I'll spare you the blood and gore. It was good though to see people taking their time and making sure the animals were bled immediately. Then it was my turn! I have slaughtered lambs before but this was a bit wierd as they were coming in upside down plus I was being watched by a vet and a senior slaughterman which was really daunting. Anyway, I got through about 10 or 12 lambs and it was intense!! It wasn't hard work it was just really difficult to make sure I was focused before cutting each one and making sure I made the correct intention and prayers. I managed to; but it convinced me that people working in large halal abattoirs must completely forget and on top of that not really mean it when they do rendering the meat not really halal. As I have said before, I believe, when taking an animals life you need to be fully in a state of consciousness and awareness about what you are doing. This not only makes the action pure but the meat pure and within it there are countless spiritual lessons to be learned.

So, now I am a licensed slaughter man - on the down side I still need to go to the abattoir once every 2 weeks to show the vet I am still capable.

The Food Bin(s)

2006-10-22T08:53:00.000Z

One of the joys of having chickens is that we no longer feel guilty when not finishing our dinners or throwing away that bit of pasta left in the saucepan (I was always brought up on that "there are children starving in Africa" thing). Now the chickens eat everything! We have a nice little routine now of having a bowl next to the sink and whenever there is the slightest bit of food we chuck it in there and I usually take it up to them after work. It's a funny site to see them all bouncing over to me in expectancy - "What's he got today? Pasta, noodles or if we are lucky cheese." They love cheese for some reason.

It's funny how these things become part of your life. The chickens are like having kids (although much better behaved). First things when I wake up its "gotta let the chickens out" and at night I have to tuck them away from the foxes and badgers. Even when we want to go away for the weekend we need to make sure a neighbour is going to be around to feed them. You can't but help form some sort of emotional attachment to them; although I still have no qualms about killing and eating them. I have already ordered another 12 chicks for my next cycle of chicken meat. This lot in the pic should see us through until Xmas (we only eat meat once or twice a fortnight) and then we'll have to wait for the next batch to get plump. Once I have all the fencing sorted out I am also going to try some different breeds and maybe some ducks too.

Our field is finally being fenced off - so I should have our very own little flock of sheep in 2 or 3 weeks. I think I am going to go for a Dorset Down breed - they are the lazy sheep that don't really do much except walk around. I may chuck in a couple of goats too later on down the line as I am keen to have some goat meat through the year too. So fingers crossed by next March I should be delivering my first ever lambs!

Anyway must dash - I am off to buy an air rifle today as I want to start adding rabbit to the dinner menu and our field is hopping with them!

Lessons from Nature

2006-10-22T08:31:00.000Z

One of the things we are always encouraged to do by our teacher is to draw wisdom from nature, meaning seeing nature as a reflection of the human experience. The world acts a huge book that if read with the correct insight and aligned to proper understanding leads to a greater appreciation of the author. Since moving to the country this way of thinking has become heightened in me, not because I am any great spiritual genuis (far from it!) but because you come across natural phenomenon a lot more. In the city there is only so much you can learn from concrete (although in fairness there is a lot there too).

Anyway, yesterday I was cleaning out the greenhouse and pruning my wilting tomato plants when I came across this. The instant I saw it I drew a comparison to the continual debate in the media and Muslims themselves about how Islam can integrare with British society.

For those who can't see the picture is of a tomato that has grown into and around a piece of wire.

To me the following jumped out at me - it is natural for things when facing restriction to mould themselves, change, accomodate and adapt to their surroundings and situation. This wire did not stop the tomato growing, all it did was change the way it normally goes about things.

Muslims in the UK should be the same. There is no need to be rigid, inflexible and fight against the situation we find ourselves in. As it is natural for the tomato, so it is natural for the Muslim to adapt to local conditions. This is the way of the forefathers such as those who left Yemen to places like Malaysia and Indonesia. They did not spread Islam to the hearts of those people by jumping ashore and shouting and screaming with banners and demanding sharia law! We need to remember that Islam, a religion in tune with nature, is not fixed but fluid, not firm but flexible, not fierce but forgiving. I am not saying we should ever compromise our religion in matters that are obligatory but merely stating that is it the natural state to work around things - in that there is great wisdom and benefits.

Or, I could have just been going a bit doolally due to fasting and working yesterday and this is all a load of nonsense.

Go Pammy...Go Pammy...Go Pammy

2006-10-17T15:11:00.000Z

Came across this shocking video today. Not sure whether the contents were more shocking or the fact Pammy Anderson was presenting it.

Any way - watch it. If you eat at KFC or any other of those cheap high street chicken shops this is what you eat and what you support. If you watch this then carry on eating at these "establishments" then you really do not care what you put in your body.

Panic! The rise in Organic

2006-10-13T12:37:00.000Z

I came across this article in Business Week Online - well worth a read and one that brings up a number of interesting issues.

It comes from a US perspective but nevertheless will apply to the UK eventually. Some of the key points it illustrates for me are:

1) The growth in demand for organic food is so high, there is simply not enough US based produce to meet it. As a result companies are having to source things like milk, youghurt, fruit, veg, meat, etc from abroad in countries like Brazil and China. If so, how on earth do we know they are sending us organic produce and on top of that the chances are we will be supporting poor wages, working conditions, etc and that is just the employees. I am pretty certain animal rights is not as high on the agenda as it is in the UK or US.

2) Due to the high demand big business is muscling in to take some of the action. Walmart and Kelloggs have now got on the organic bandwagon. Does this not destroy the whole idea of organic? i.e. cottage industries, small scale, dedicated family run business, ethical people, local produce, etc? The industry is being swallowed up by the multinationals and ripping the essence out of it. In the UK the same happened with Racheal's Diary organic milk. It was bought by Horizon Foods and then sold to Dean Foods a massive US conglomerate! Green & Black the chocolate people sold up to Cadburys.

3) The whole organic craze has led to the establishment of the organic big brother; in the US it is US Agriculture Dept and here the Soil Association. These "watchdogs" have bills and wages to pay. Their role becomes an overseer and one with very narrow guidelines, i.e. to ensure that the feed is organic and no chemicals and the like are used. However do they vouch for animal welfare? Do they vouch for origin of feeds? Do they guarantee that the company they gave their logo too is really sending their own lambs to the abbattoir or are they sneakily passing through cheaper stock?

To me it is a worrying trend. On the one hand yes, it's good more people are going organic but on the other is could be dangerous. I don't want to put money in the pockets of nameless investors. I want my money to go to people. I think it rams home something I am more and more in favour of - going local. This means people buy as much produce as they can from local people - their meat from farmers, their veg from allotments or again farmers, their eggs, cheeses, yoghurts, etc. This was you can actually see who is selling you the stuff, who is growing it. What kind of person are they? How are their animals treated? What fields do they live in, etc? On top of that you are reducing transport costs and doing something for the environment.

Obviously it is more difficult for people in the big cities to do this but it is not impossible. Forming some sort of network of like minded people you can assign people on a weekly basis to travel out and get everyone's goods. You should not really have to travel more than 2 hours to find producers in the UK.

Read the article anyway - it should make those of us who want more than a logo on our food stop and think where this may all be going.....

What's in a Name?

2006-10-12T16:14:00.000Z

We've been going through some funny emotions this week when thinking about what to call our new baby. If anyone was wondering what tomitv stands for it is "The Only Muslim in the Village". We are very conscious in the current climate that "our sort" are not the flavour of month what with PCs asking not guard the Israeli embassy, Mr Straw removing women's veils and whatever else the gutter press can think up.

Now had this been a couple of years ago I really don't think we would be deliberating so much about a name. We were very conscious with our first that we wanted a name that translated into English/British culture. So Zakariyya became Zak. And now we've run out of other easily translatable names!

It is a real sign of how things have changed or are changing; I may be paranoid but anti-Muslim sentiment does seem to be growing especially in areas where we live where seeing a brown or black face is just as common as seeing a dancing polar bear - well maybe not that uncommon. I think I've seen 10 "Asians" and 2 black people in 5 months.

So we are really grappling with the name this time. Is Ali too foreign? Ismaeel to much a handful? It's a shame we have to be so protective over the name but I suppose it is a sign of the times. My Mum, who isnt even Muslim, lives in fear we are going to call it something like Abdullah - "his life will be hell. He'll be persecuted, never allowed into any countries, beaten, tortured and killed." You think I am joking - she is serious. Yesterday I told my wife that our teacher asked us to call it Osama to test her reaction. She went a bit white.....

So what's in a name? Well in a village like this it could mean the difference between integration and seperation. We are always very careful never to present ourselves, our actions or our beliefs as Islamic - rather we term it as something like "spiritual". People tend to accept that easier and show more interest. If we mentioned Islam, boy I am not sure how people would react although a few people do know and they seem OKish about it.

If I was Sikh or Hindu or Bahai I doubt we would be going through this. On one hand its a shame that people can't be themselves but on the other I suppose its our own weakness - we should be proud of our religion (which we are) and just get on with it. However we are stuck in the middle in many ways. We both have English, non-Muslim parents to consider plus the community we live in. I think, and I hope we are right, that by trying our best to straddle the divide we can forge some sort of middle path that people from both sides can sympathise with.

So.....we are still left with a nameless baby. Maybe "Gareth" (please pronounce with Welsh accent).

RAIN:

It's been pouring with rain here for the last week or so. It continues to beggar belief why we let all this rain water run into gutters and then into the sewer system? If there is one thing this government should do to revolutionise how we approach the miracle of water it should be to have every house standing and every house built in the future to use rain water. What for? Toilets, gardens, washing cars, etc, etc. Wasting like we do is a crime. This is my next project after the sheep - to start collecting all our rain water and to use it rather than waste it.

A New Life....

2006-10-09T12:22:00.000Z

Have been a bit quiet on the old blogging front. And this is the reason why. He arrived at 3 am on Tuesday night. Mum went into labour at about 8 pm so it was a relatively quick process this time around.

Sticking to our "natural as possible" ethics Mum went without pain relief for most of it. Last time we had a baby our teacher told us to concentrate on breathing through the pain - it worked and it worked again this time. Even the midwives said "we don't see people doing this anymore", meaning most Mums are drugged up and feel hardly any pain. Which to me is not what labour is about. I can sympathise that some people really may need pain relief but I think the pain is part of some deeper spiritual reasoning. This is a woman's jihad - just as a man may have to go and fight or struggle in other ways in order to be spiritually cleansed, women get a very similar reward through labour. My wife can testify that through the pain you slip into an almost trance like state, and if your intention is correct backed up with a connection to the Divine it can be a deep deep experience. And at the end of it what do you get?? Allah says in the Quran, "Inna ma'al usri yoosra" - after pain comes ease. In labour not only does ease come but the greatest of gifts, a new life. MashaAllah.....

Anyway she didn't manage the whole thing. Right at the end when it gets very intense she starting asking for gas and air. There I was going "come on, you're doing great, let your dhikr be your gas and air," to be shoved out of the way to take a huge gulp of the stuff!! At least i kept her quiet for all of 1 minute....

So our family has increased by one. It's so nice that these two boys will get to grow up in such a nice environment.

Pretty much everything has come to an end outside now. Just waiting to get the field fenced off to get my first flock of sheep. Also I've noticed loads more pheasants on the roads which means hunting season soon!! More plucking and gutting to look forward to.

R.I.P

2006-10-02T16:33:00.000Z

The day finally came. After 14 weeks under my care, of my waking up at dawn to feed him, giving him water and making sure he was safe from foxes, as well as tucking him in dusk, cleaning out his poultry house and the odd bit of banter here and there about the hens, his number was up.

It wasn't a difficult choice. I decided who the fatest looking roosters were, caught them both, felt their weight and the heaviest was whipped off for a quick cut of the neck behind the shed.

The other one, although escaping death on this occassion, can not escape though and his time will be up next week!

I must admit I did feel a bit guilty when I removed him from their pen. But after a couple of steps I remembered the taste of chicken (we haven't eaten any for 5 months!) and that soon vanished. I had my local mate, Mr Know It All, hold him down while the deed was done.

For those of you that don't know, the term "like a headless chicken" is there for a reason. Once they are dead their bodies go into this mad fit and start jumping and flapping everywhere. It must be some sort of delayed reaction or something? Anyway it was over in seconds.

The next step was to tie it upside down and start plucking. It was a lot easier than I thought; literally grab the feathers and rip. A few minutes later and some discussion over Van Persie's wonder goal at the weekend it was well and truly plucked. All that remained was these little long white hairs everywhere which are singed off. And that, was pretty much it.

The only thing left to do was the insides and get it dressed for the oven. I didn't actually do the gutting bit, left that to my mate. But next time I am going to learn so I can do it myself from now on. So, in the space of 20 mins it was all done and dusted.

That night we had some guests over and I cooked a Sunday roast. Only once the meal was served that I realised everything on their except the potatoes were from my garden! The chicken, carrots, beans and sweetcorn all organic and grown by own hands! A real sense of achievement.

Anyway chicken number one - R.I.P - you tasted great and done us proud.

Nuff corn...

2006-09-29T14:37:00.000Z

My corn has all started turning ready. As with everything else its being put in the freezer to eat. This lot is only from a third of my crop so lots more to come. And I am telling you I have never eaten corn like this before - so sweet and crunchy. Lovely wholesome organic food!

We also dug up all the beetroot and that is all pickled for winter. So most of the veg I planted in the summer has come to an end. All I have on the go for winter is some curly kale, spinach and cabbages.

Things have really slowed down a lot in terms of activity. It's raining more, darker earlier and of course Ramadan has started so I dont have then energy after a day's work to get out there are graft. Project wise there is not much on - still trying to get the field fenced off for my first flock of sheep, getting a proper poultry area fenced off and that's pretty much it. Which suits me!!

I came across this new Muslim eco-group called The Voice of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Check our their newsletter and the website. They seem like a nice bunch of people who seem to appreciate the deeper connection between man and his environment.

The Horse and The Ego

2006-09-19T16:47:00.000Z

Sounds like a great name for a pub doesn't it?

I went horse riding today for the first time since we moved here. One of the reasons I wanted to move was to take the riding a bit more seriously but I found I never had time to go riding - today I forced myself out of the office for a half hour lesson. Anyway, I hated the lesson - the instructor was useless, we didn't hit it off, I got pissed off, she continued to be useless and I don't think I'll go to that riding school again.

Anyway, back to the title of the post. If you ever want to understand how the ego works then take up horse riding. Many people may be familiar with the term "jihad" but only in the sense of war or as "they" like to label it, "terrorism". This is jihad correct, but what many people don't realise is that the greatest jihad in Islam is against the self, i.e. the ego. The ego gets in the way of most things and until you learn to control its animal impulses you don't develop on a spiritual or wordly level. For example - the ego says I want that Lexus car worth so and so. If I have it I will be cool, a success, something to talk about. However, this is ego talking. If you thought outside of your ego you'd probably think, actually I just need to get from A to B so I'll buy a Fiesta and donate the rest of the money to a charity, to the poor, etc as that will give me more brownie points with Allah when judgement comes. In short, the ego puts the self above others. Islam teaches that others come first and foremost. So in order to be a good Muslim, it is necessary to fight your ego so that you control it and it does not control you.

What's this got to do with horses? Well ride one and you will see. A horse is a powerful animal - so is the ego. The horse is stubborn and lazy - so is the ego. The horse needs constant reminders in the form of nudges, kicks and an occasional smack with a whip - so does the ego. Like the ego a horse will just go off in any old direction if you are not in control. You need to be constantly aware, observant and in control otherwise the horse does it own thing. It perfectly sums up the experience of trying to bring you ego under control and reminds of that fact you need to be constant and harsh against it. As with the horse, if you bring it under control it can be an extremely powerful tool that can be used for good.

Berries galore!

2006-09-14T21:32:00.000Z

Took the boy for a walk around the perimeter of our field. In between stopping him falling down ditches, getting stung on nettles and babbling on about "vejbles" (his new word for vegetables) we managed to get a bowl of berries.

We also picked a few cooking apples off one of the trees we have so the Mrs will be making us a nice apple and berry pie tomorrow for dessert.

I finally managed to move the chickens (the one I'm going to eat) this evening to a new bit of pasture where they can roam a bit more freely. One of them, I think, is ready for cooking now. He seemed quote plump so I guess he may have to go first. On top of that he has learnt to cock-a-doodle-do pretty well now which can be quite annoying at the crack of dawn. They didn't venture out of their hut this evening so it will be good to see them out tomorrow morning with all that room.

So you'll be seeing more blood and guts here again soon as chicken number one gets it!

Lamb skins

2006-09-14T16:58:00.000Z

Remember the four lambs in the previous post? Well, I finally got the skins back today. Look at that....flippin' fantastic.

The tannery I took these to have done a cracking job - come up really clean, smooth and fluffy. One of them is for the owner of one of the lambs and the rest are for me.

As we have child number two on the way I will use the smallest for their push-chair to keep them warm when out this winter. The rest we'll use for rugs or to sit on. I am also going to start selling them, so if anyone wants a quality British lamb's fleece let me know.

Anyway, got to run. The chicks (well they were chicks) are being moved tonight as I have set up a new bigger area for them to run about in until I eat them; plus we are going blackberry picking in the field - smoothies for breakfast tomorrow.

Maybe its coz I'm a Londoner......

2006-09-13T15:22:00.000Z

Went back to London this weekend for my boy's birthday party. God I was itching to get out!! It did my head in!! I think I have truly got London out of my system now: the so called "perks" of London really mean nothing at all now. The noise, people, traffic, dirt, etc drives you to distraction.
On the Sunday we were sat in the car and my wife was saying, "How can you not miss London? Bla bla bla" at which point I pulled up to park the car. It just so happened I pulled up next to a Sarf London Yoof (translation: south London youth) who proceeded to limp next to the car, suck his teeth with lollipop in mouth and look at me like I was a piece of shit under his shoe. Hmmmm......do I miss London?

The Canadian Halal Meat Industry

2006-09-08T16:00:00.000Z

I was sent this clip today. Some if it touches upon what I have been talking about on this blog re: halal meat. In the clip you will see some people blatantly taking the issue into their own hands and using it to their own profit; some of the things these people come out with is shocking. No moral, ethical or religious fibre. Just kill the animals, butcher them and make a quick buck.

Wing-er Clippin' Good

2006-09-07T06:17:00.000Z

Finally got round to clipping my hens' wings yesterday. They kept escaping from their electric fencing and walking around the garden which I didn't want. The process may look a bit horiffic but it does not hurt them. It is like us having our hair cut.

The idea is to cut back the flight feathers from one of their wings. When they then try to take off they dont have the balance to do so and sort of spiral into a crash.

In the process of doing all this I discovered their poultry house has red mites! Disaster has struck, so I am off to the farm shop to buy anything to kill the bastards before they kill the chooks.

In the news: Organic sales up!

2006-09-05T17:27:00.000Z

The Guardian reports that sales of organic produce have increased 30% in a year. Although I have issues with the whole "organic label" thing it is still a very good sign that people are starting to take this seriously. Suprise surprise all the supermarkets are now stocking organic produce - wonder why?

You can read the article here if interested.

An emotionally draining evening

2006-09-05T16:57:00.000Z

Last night I slaughtered 3 lambs for some friends who have recently had children. It is customary for Muslims to make a sacrifice for newborns - it becomes their first act of charity in this world as the lamb goes towards feeding friends, family and the poor.

Anyhow, I found the whole process a bit traumatic and very emotional. By the third one I was desperate for it all to be over. None of the animals suffered, in fact they passed on very peacefully, but I just really felt a bit shellshocked at the end of it. It made me question how people working in abattoirs must feel. They must go one of two ways: 1) get completely detached from the process and see each animal as yet another "job" on the conveyor belt or 2) become quite impacted by it in a deeper way. Either way it can't be good!

Yet again the whole experience really made me question the meat industry. As a nation we eat way too much meat that is causing us to breed, farm and slaughter animals at a crazy rate. It should not be like this, however the British Meat industry has to keep making money I suppose. That's why I am convinced that for those wanting an alternative approach to meat is to search out local people who see their animals as animals first and not profitable commodoties. They are more than likely going to care a lot more about how their animals live and die than mass producers.

After last night I have also vowed never to eat meat I have not slaughtered personally (unless a trusted friend has). I somehow don't feel right about it....can't put it into words but I want to make sure the animal I eat was killed with compassion and that genuine sorrow was felt when it went off to lambs' paradise. Otherwise I think that animal has been disrespected in a way......I felt sad last night and it has really knocked me for six.

My Dad came and watched the procedure too. I thought he was going to be a bit shocked but he said he was quite impressed with the swiftness of the procedure and relatively humane approach to the whole thing. He told me about a book called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair in which the author exposes the disgusting and barabaric practices of the meat industry in Chicago at the turn of the century. The book describes thing like pigs being hooked into their hing leg and hung upside down on a conveyor belt (alive) until they met up with the guy with the knife who would just slash them open. If they didnt die then it was up to someone else with a big mallet to go crack their heads open. There are lots of horrible other little tales in there - I am actually going to read it as it is the first expose of the whole meat industry.

Anyway it made me think that it is quiet funny that people now describe Halal slaughter as barbaric. The Abrahamic faiths had been slaughtering according their (very similar) ways for centuries, always ensuring compassion was shown to the animal. Then just because the "West" all of a sudden gets exposed by people like Sinclair they change their ways and get a bit more health & safety conscious and now somehow occupy the moral high ground. Makes you think.....

Lots going on at the mo and still loads of jobs to do. My hens escaped again today! I have to clip their wings tomorrow or I will never get round to doing it. The farmer who rents our field is taking a couple of his cows off for the abattoir tomorrow. Will be sad to see them go - the family sort of built a relationship with them and my boy will wonder why 5 became 3? Still got to pickle my beetroots which are MASSIVE now and also harvest all the carrots and stick them in the freezer. I have missed the boat for veg to plant over winter so it looks like the only thing I can stick in will be lettuce - great. Will have to be much better organised in 2007 and get things in the ground when they should be in.

Oh and I went rabbit hunting the other night with a neighbour. Took my bow and arrow - shot at 3 rabbits - hit none! The next morning I was so determined to get one I went and sat up a tree at the end of my field waiting for them before dawn - didn't see a single one. I WILL get one soon - but suppose I had keep practicing the archery in the meantime.

to Stun or not to Stun?

2006-09-01T15:26:00.000Z

Again as part of my research into the meat industry I have met quite a few local smallholders who either breed lamb or goats. A few of them whinced when I mentioned I slaughtered animals in a "halal" manner. One even told me I was "barbaric" and that "if they can ban fox hunting they can ban halal". Well, what could I say? Most of these ideas are based on ignorance.

For one most people think that all halal meat is not stunned. In fact, most halal meat in the UK is stunned. I thought this was the case and it was confirmed today by another local abbatoir owner I was speaking to. If Muslims think that their meat is not stunned then think again. 95% of abbatoirs in the UK stun their meat. However, this does not make it "haram" meat, i.e. unlawful to eat. I asked my teacher and scholar about this and he said that as long as the stun does not kill the animal, i.e. the heart is pumping, then it is still halal. The actual act of stunning is considered "makruh" (disliked) but it does not make the meat impermissable. This viewpoint is accepted within Islamic school of law now, but obviously not by all.

As I have said before I truly believe that stunning is for the benefit of the abbatoir owners and those that profit from the meat industry. It really cant see how it is for the benefit of the animal?? Sure they are unconscious when they are killed but why is that humane? So I did some research (I like research) and found this very interesting study carried out in Germany on pain felt by animals when slaughtered - some with stunning and some with a knife.

In the study they surgically implanted electrodes onto the surface of animals' brains. They were then left for a few weeks to recover. They then tested the animals' pain when they were slaughtered. The results showed those that were slaughtered with a knife felt no pain compared to the others that did.

You can read the report here.

But due to the law in the UK most meat will continue to be stunned - its not ideal but there is not much we can do about it.

Halal - a joke!

2006-08-31T23:16:00.000Z

I have been doing a lot of research the past few days into the meat industry. Some of this has included trying to source local abbatiors that will allow me to go and slaughter my own animals which I can then sell on to friends and family (at the mo I can only slaughter for my own household's consumption).

Speaking to a few owners of abbatoirs has opened my eyes to the joke that is the halal meat industry. Today I spoke to two places and this is what they said:

1) "Yes, we do halal here. We have a Pakistani gentleman who brings lambs, reads a prayer and then leaves them with us. "

2) "Yes, all we do is halal. The demand is so much that we turned to 100% halal". "So all your slaughtermen are Muslims then?" I asked. "Well no, but the gentleman who brings us the lambs is."

There was obviously more to these conversations but you get the gist. In both cases the owner of the lambs is conning his customers. Neither of their meats is halal in any way whatsoever!! An absolute shambles.

Now dont get me wrong - I am sure there are people out there that do it properly but this goes to show that a lot of it is a big con. In short, you can go to market, buy 100 lambs, drive them to an abbatoir and then sell the carcasses to "halal" butchers saying that is halal. All of that meat is then eaten by unsuspecting Muslims.

This needs to change. Muslims need to demand they know where their meat comes from, who slaughters it and that is has been cared for ethically. Only then can they feel 100% confident that their meat is pure and halal. It is better to pay for meat like this from small, local and principled suppliers than line the pockets of unscrupulous meat traders with only one thing on their minds: money. If you dont want to pay then go vegetarian - it is better for you and the animals.

For anyone interested on what halal is all about, please leave a comment with your email and I will send you over a PDF file I have prepared which is aimed at local people to try and introduce the concept and what it means.

Disaster (well not that bad)

2006-08-29T12:45:00.000Z

It has been really really windy down here for the past few days. On Friday all my French beans keeled over from the wind. Managed to get them all back up, re-tied the bamboo together and all looked fine. The next morning all down again. Put them all back up again.

Same story the next day.

Then yesterday evening after a very long day driving up and down the county with friends I came back to see them down again; I had enough! What the picture does not show is the two plants I had growing on the right hand side - they were ripped out in a fit of frustration and and anger!! I did regret this after doing it but it made me feel better.

Anyway, I thought sod it for this year. So far I have got 3 Tesco bags full of beans which is plenty. So I am going to pull the lot out later today, pick what is left of the beans and stick some kale in there instead.

At least I have learnt not to use bamboo again. Next time I am going to drive a couple of metal poles into the ground with one across the top. The beans can then crawl along some string instead of bamboo.

This is what it is all about; trial and error.

Corn

2006-08-29T12:40:00.000Z

My corn is starting to come through - a bit late but should be OK. Hopefully in a week or so these should be ready for picking. Again, they will be half cooked and then frozen to eat over the winter.

Jobs are never-ending at the moment. Got logs to cut for the fire, apples to pick and do something with, beetroots to pickle, carrots to store, chicken's wings to clip (they keep escaping) and about 100 other things to do.

If people wanted to go self-suficient I think it would be a full time job plus more!

Hurry up!

2006-08-25T13:11:00.000Z

Getting hungry for some chicken meat now...hmmmmm.

But the little buggers are taking their time getting fat. I thought they should be ready by now but looking at the diary they are only 10 weeks old now - meaning they have at least 2 weeks to go. One escpaed the other day, so when I finally managed to catch the thing (it is tricky on your own) I felt its breasts (don't be silly) and they were thin so no point in cooking them yet.

I am trying to find out what else I can feed them to help them put on some weight. McDonalds, ice-cream and Pringles are out.

"The best lamb I have ever had"

2006-08-21T14:47:00.000Z

Had two mates come down from London - we had a traditional English roast made by yours truly on Sunday. "The best lamb I ever had" - she was probably lying to be polite but it made me feel very very very happy!!

It was also satisfying for someone to see the difference between the mank they sell in shops and something done small scale, natural and personal. I need to do one of those "which one is Diet?" type tests with people when I go back to London, i.e. try a moutful of mank chicken and a mouthful of my chicken. I may try and do that actually next time I go back.

Thanks Mr Badger

2006-08-21T14:42:00.000Z

Sunday morning - noticed the cows had taken an interest in the spot where I had buried the lambs' bits. Mr Badger has dug it all up and taken it home! Had to find all the bits strewn across the field and bury them again.

I think next time I will bury the heads and then leave the rest at the edge of the badger's set for them to munch. Will save me the hassle of burying it and they at least get a good meal.

Harvesting

2006-08-21T14:19:00.000Z

Lots of my veg are ready for harvesting now - beans, carrots, courgettes, beetroot. You don't realise how much of the stuff you actually end up with when sowing your seeds. At first I was giving it out to neighbours, but there is so much veg people can eat or want. So I decided to get off my arse and get ready for winter.

Friday night I spent a few hours picking the courgettes and French beans. I then washed them, cut them up, steamed them for a few minutes and the packed them up in bags for the freezer. I now have a plentiful supply of both for the winter when I want them. The courgette and beans in this pic are about 15% of what I will have by the end of summer.

This week I will do the same with the carrotts and the beetroot will be pickled.

It's nice to kind of get into a natural cycle with nature - i.e. summer you are busy doing loads of things and then winter it all slows down and you have a bit of a break. Come winter time we should have loads of stuff in the freezer which will save us lots of pennies and also give access to things out of season.

I really need to get everything out of the ground now so I can start planting a few winter crops too such as kale, winter cabbage, etc but because I was playing catch up this summer lots of my veg is late. I also want another veg patch but I am waiting for the hens to get that allocated area as grass free as possible to make rotivating it a bit easier.

I read something in The Independent last week about a farm that was bought by a collective. They all chipped in the capital to buy the land, seeds, tools, etc. They all then help with the manual labour and share their crop when ready. This is a great way forward. If I had a few people dedicated enough here I would probably try and do something similar but as with most things they may think it is a great idea at first then once it all gets a bit hard they jump ship and you are left with 1/2 acre of land to tend to on your jack. But for those who are serious the concept if fantastic.....

Thrift

2006-08-21T13:33:00.000Z

I remember one of the concepts Mr River Cottage always used to bang on about was "thrift" - i.e. not wasting anything. This is something I am trying to implement as much as possible at mine, but these things take time; eventually all our rainwater will be used for watering the garden, all housewaste for the compost heap and anything else that does something to be used elsewhere outside.

For the lambs I slaughtered last week, I tried to use everything possible. The only parts I threw away were the head and offal. The trotters went to somene who boils them up to make soup. I kept all the bones and made a healthy stock from it. Basically you get all the bones, chuck them in boiling water and boil for about 4 hours. Afterwards you strain out all the bits and put in the fridge for a night. The day day you get this very appealing jelly type stuff - nice huh?

This is then bagged into lots of little bags and frozen; you then add it to whatever you are cooking and it adds loads of flavour and loads of iron, protein and good stuff.

Lambs to the Slaughter

2006-08-16T15:12:00.000Z

I slaughtered my first ever lamb yesterday. Before I continue please don't worry - it is perfectly legal to "home slaughter" as long as the meat is eaten solely by the people of the household, which it will be.

I won't hide the fact I was very nervous about the whole experience. You tell yourself it wont be any problem but once you have that knife in your hand and the lamb's eye looking at you it is a totally different ball game.

We first had to catch the lamb which was a bit like cat 'n' mouse stuff ending up with a rugby tackle. We then held it down and stroked it until it calmed down and was a bit more relaxed. According to our tradition we can only eat meat that has been slaughtered in accordance with the Prophetic way that goes back to the Prophet Abraham, i.e. a swift clean cut across the throat that severs the windpipe and all major arteries. I know a lot of people think this is "barbaric" (as one person down here put it) but if you think this is barbaric go to an abbatoir. OK they may stun the animal, but the stun is hit or miss. Some get fully stunned, others not and some not at all. By the time the slaughterman sticks them some regain consciousness to find themselves upside down and then stuck in the throat which must be bloody painful. I truly believe that the whole stunning thing is a joke - it is presented as for the benefit of the animal but I think it is for the benefit of the abbatoir who can get through more livestock in one day.

Our way is different. You spend time with the animal to calm it, you say a prayer and you cut it so quickly that is immediately faints as all oxygen and blood stops going to the brain. They have a painless and peaceful death. Also, scientifically this is the cleanest way of slaughtering an animal as it bleeds it the quickest possible way. One other reason, and if you don't believe in the soul/spirit then this will mean nothing to you, for cutting them this way is that the soul is immeditaley released

The whole process was a bit daunting. I didn't feel guilty but you just want to make sure the animal feels no pain at all. I did not enjoy the actual cutting - I think anyone that does needs their heads examined and should not be let near an animal again. I was totally conscious of the fact that this animal was giving its life in order for us to eat - it had to be treated with the upmost respect and it was. A wsit cut and everything was severed and the animal fainted and then died.

My friend also cut 3 lambs and the bodies were then bundled into a van and driven to my house to be gutted and skinned. This is where the hard work began. Without being too graphic there was a lot of mess, a lot of blood and a lot of smell. I have a slaughterman as a neighbour so he skinned and gutted them for me. It did not look like something I would like to do, but according to my ethos I do want to be able to do it in the future. As a skill I think it's important to have.

So here was the end result. Four lambs hung-up and ready for butchering (which will be this evening!). Last night, after spending 1 hour trying to smash a whole into the driest earth possible to bury the entrails, heads, etc, I sat down to a nice meal which included some liver! Very very nice!!

On the whole I can see why people would not be bothered to go through all this. It was a lot of hard work - not only was there the mess, there was the time spent cleaning up afterwards, burying the remains, cleaning myself up, etc. I was shattered at the end of the night.

One final thing - the skins. I you want to have them as rugs, etc you need to pour salt on them as soon as possible after being taken off. They were left overnight then this afternoon I took them up to Fenland tannery in Bridgewater. A very very nice man by the name of Andy took some time out of his own accord to show me how the whole process works. For £15 they basically turn your mangled bloody mess of a sheep skin into a lovely rug. When I get them back in 5 weeks I will show you the end product which will be floor rugs I think.

So, all in all it was an enligtening experience and one I think people should do or at least witness so they understand where their meat comes from. People are so far removed from the reality of the meat industry they dont look beyond the nicely packaged chops or leg of lamb in Tescos. Doing this has made me all the more keen to continue to only eat meat I know has had a good ending.

Not much fun

2006-08-11T17:19:00.000Z

As I want to be able to have sheep, both for myself and to sell, and to have them as organic as possible I can't use any sort of spray on my field. I spent 3 hours the other evening walking the field and chopping down thistles.

Twas rather boring and my back killed. Which reminded my to put up a post about how much hard work everything is. If you have land be prepared for a lot of hard work or spending a lot of money to get people to do it for you.

And I have only got rid of 80% of them...so another evening next week has gone.

On other fronts the new hens are all settled in nicely; they spend a lot more time now outside taking dust baths. One of them is still laying everyday like clockwork at around 5pm, always in the same place. The neighbours though have complained a bit about them and want them moved.... hmmm. Don't think so, unless they want to put up the electric fence themselves.

My runner beans were savaged by strong winds yesterday. Luckily I was out there at the time and caught them before they collapsed. Tip: if growing runner beans in an exposed area dont row them in a line - rather form a shape like a tipee. That's what I am doing next year as they are less likely to get battered by the winds.

My other veg are getting there. Lots of spring onions, lettuce on the way, carrots getting picked, fresh tomatoes every day. Check out my marrow - never even realised a marrow was an overgrown courgette! Anyway, I used to hate the things but I sliced it up, added some garlic, butter and pepper, under the grill for 10 minutes. My gosh! Fantastique as the French say.

P.S. I was having a bad hair day.

Dhikr-tory???

2006-08-11T15:22:00.000Z

I guess anyone that has visited this might be wondering what I have exactly escaped to. No, Dhikr-tory is not the name of a Somerset village.

Dhikr is an Arabic word meaning "remembrance" but is used when talking about the remembrance of God. All Muslims aim, in theory anyway, to reach a constant state of remembrance of God, i.e. He is in our hearts all the time. Why? Well this little story explains.....

There was once a teacher who lived on a farm. He had 6 students to whom he each entrusted one chicken which they had to feed and care for. When the day for slaughter came he went to each student and told them "go where no-one can see you and slaughter your chicken, then bring it back and we shall have a feast". All went off in the own directions and a few hours later 5 of them returned ready to add their birds to the pot. After waiting another 2 hours the teacher went off to look for the remaining student and found him deep in the woods. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Oh master," replied the boy, "I have been everywhere to slaughter this chicken but realised that where-ever I go I will be seen." "What do you mean?" enquired the teacher. "Master, there is no-where upon this earth that one can not be seen as Allah (God) sees everything."

This student actually went on to become a great Saint.

The point is, if you want to do something (whether it is naughty or not) do you do it when people can see you? No. The same principle applies to a Muslim's life in that if you constantly remember Allah, you constantly know that he is watching. As a result you grow to cut out bad habits and behaving in a manner that is unbecoming.

That is the essence of dhikr.

So what's this got to do with me? Well, living in London you can fall into this trap of getting caught up with "dunya" (worldly things). I was getting like that. Even though it goes against my nature and principles I sometimes caught myself thinking wouldn't a BMW be nice, or I wish we could have a bigger house, etc. To me those things are not important. So, part of the reason for moving out to the country was to become more in a state of dhikr, i.e. to try and increase my closeness to Allah and do things that would help me appreciate the things we are blessed with a bit more. Already through working with the land, feeding animals, growing my own veg I have got a bit of this.

Thus, Escape to Dhikr-tory!

Responsibility

2006-08-10T16:01:00.000Z

I think one of the quickest lessons I am learning is responsibility. Even though I have a wife, kid and mortgage you dont feel as tied down with responsiblity as you do with a few vegetables and some poultry. A simple example, I need to go to London this weekend to watch the greatest football team in the world (I wish) and I have to rely on a neighbour to feed and water everything. And then you get into the whole issue of "will they do it properly". Last time I did that I came back to dehydrated chicks and was not happy. Then what do you do if the neighbour goes away?

Even part of your daily routine is to some degree ruled by the smallholding, up at dawn to let the hens out, water the veg every day, check on the chicks a few times, make sure the electric fence is working, bla, bla, bla the list goes on.

We have booked a holiday for later in the year and I also wanted sheep by the end of the year and now I am in the dilema of what to do with them while we are away!

So for any wanna-be small holders, head my warning - be prepared to be tied to the land.

Veg

2006-08-08T11:29:00.000Z

Naturally as part of this whole "going back to nature" thing I wanted to grow my own veg. The more you read about the crap they spray on crops the more it worries you. Organic really is the only safe option. We started to go organic when in London but the cost was really high plus the major difference between supermarket stuff and organic is that the latter goes bad so much quicker.

So, a kind neighbour lent me a rotivator (that's the thing that turns up the ground) and I attacked a piece of garden. About 4 hours later I was still raking and picking out bits of grass. If anyone thinks all this growing your own stuff is fun, think again. It is hard, back-breaking work. The next day I spent another 4 hours or so raking it over, levelling it and getting it ready for seed. Half of me thought, "I really can not be bothered to do this; Tescos is the best!"
But there is something deeply spiritual (for want of a better word) about the whole process. Its like removing something bad in order to grow something good, i.e. getting rid of your bad traits to sow some future good actions. While doing the work it was satiating at an internal level. I actually remember thinking at the time that there should be some law whereby everyone has to to grow at least one thing, whether some basil in the kitchen or a cucumber in the garden. You get much more appreciation for food and how mother nature works.

At the moment society is no detached from food - meaning its something they eat. Food is more than that. I really do believe the addage "you are what you eat is true", literally. Everything has an energy and is made up of ingredients - those gets transferred into your body. Although it is not scientifically proven, and is more of a personal idea, I really think that kids nowadays act so badly because the meat they eat is so full of hormones, drugs and God knows what else. Man wasn't built to eat so much meat, and when you do it should be real meat not some poor animal that has been bred in a 2x2 metal cage and fed crap from morning to night. Their misery must translate someohow into the meat too, having a knock-on effect to those that eat it (maybe?). At a certain time in my life I was asked to eat meat once a week. Over the coming months I really did notice a change in myself: less anger, more patience, a feeling of being light (weight wise not the stuff the sun makes) and on the whole a lot happier.

Anyway, enough rambling, I now have tomatoes (my God! I didn't know they tasted so sweet), marrows, sweetcorn, radish, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, french beans and runner beans. Not bad.....

Hopefully next summer there will be a lot more to come as I am still planning out how to use the land. I want to get as much of our veg from the land as possible.

My First Egg

2006-08-07T16:19:00.000Z

Well I didnt lay it but one of my 6 hens did.....

Having built up the confidence to look after the 8 chicks I now decided it was time for eggs. So off we trecked for an hour to a breeder's farm, picked up the smelly hens, stuck them in a cardboard box and an hour back to introduce them to their luxurious palace.

After 3 days then finally decided it was safe to venture out of the poultry house and after 7 days one of them lay the first egg. Still have not had another one out of them but we have at least started. Again, it was a sense of achievement; a boy-like excitement that something you were working on a watching finally happened.

Had it for breakfast on Sunday morning and boy was it tasty - I dont know if it was pyschological (forgive me if that is mispelt) but it did taste different.

Anyway we are now off on the egg production!!

Chickens

2006-08-07T15:59:00.000Z

One of my first projects was to address the whole meat issue. Having never held a chicken in my life I took the plunge and bought 8 day old chicks. After many a sad evening studying a "how to raise chickens" book I felt confident enough to enter into the world of a poultry keeper.
I set up a square area in my shed with a light, a feeder and some water and away we went. At first they were all very fluffly and sweet; actually looked forward to feeding them and watch them chirp away. Slowly an emotional bond began to develop and secretly, despite telling my wife the opposite, I did actually question if I could slit their throats, pluck them, gut them and pop them in the oven.
Well now they are 6 weeks old (see pic) - a lot uglier, a lot louder, a lot quicker and shit a whole lot more. They drive me a bit insane as I hate mess and they are the messiest little things you could ever wish for; all emotional bonds and guilt have been lost!! I am now really looking forward to number one (who has been earmarked as he/she is the largest of the lot) which should be in 2 weeks time. Hopefully I will post photos of me attempting to pluck and gut.
There is a sense of achievement in that I know they have been treated well, fed well, warm and all the rest of it. I will feel happier that I am eating a decent bird rather than some poor thing that has spent its whole life in a small cage with nothing to do but eat.
They are now big enough to go outside so I have bought them a new house for the last few weeks of their lives.
Once that is done another 10 will put in the shed......

Introductions

2006-08-07T15:48:00.000Z

What is this blog all about? Well, I am doing what many people would like to do and that is move to the country, go green, go organic and get back to the simple life. My family have now been here in Somerset for about 2 months now. We moved from South London with a little boy and another (dont know the sex yet) on the way. Why did we move? London was getting too much for us. Bad vibes, generally materialist attitude to life and we never did much except watch tv! This move has been about making a change and doing all the things we said we would love to do one day.
Why the blog? It does 2 things. 1) Allow me to capture my thoughts and create a diary to look back on in the future and 2) give people an insight into such a move. What are the pitfalls, highs, lows, etc?
What are my aims? Ultimatley this is about a lifestyle change. We wanted to live a greener life (everything from energy conservation to recycling more efficiently). On top of that we also wanted to address the food we were eating. We are Muslims which means we only eat meat that has been ritually slaughtered; most of the meat sold in the shops and butchers is rubbish. Since moving here and seeing and speaking to people about the meat industry you hear real horror stories about the conditions animals and brought up in and what they are fed. So, my aim is to now breed, feed and slaughter all our meat by myself. Good, happy, clean, organic and fresh meat. As to vegetables - I am aiming to reduce our dependence on Tescos by about 50%. There simply is not enough time in the day to go full out. Living in the country also gives you access to lots of other people that grow their own which means you can pretty much buy everything locally rather than using the superstores.

Wish me luck!