Monday 16 February 2009

Marvelous Middle Farm

I loved it, as did the children. We saw baby pigs, cows and lovely llamas. The llamas in particular were very attractive, with their long lashes and nosy dispositions. Not so keen on dirty sheep or older pigs, who were a bit rough. But it's truly the best place I've ever been to see animals. Not an unhappy fat animal in sight, and they all looked clean and well cared for. Much as I think City Farms are a good idea in principle, in practice some of them, are well hideous. And as for the local zoo here - well it is not right.

But Middle Farm has the animals, the lovely coffee and cake, the playgrounds, and the children's favourite - a barn of hay to play in. A real hay barn to roll around in with the feral cats and the friendly chicken. And there are many chickens, they've obviously learnt to lurk about a bit when sandwiches are out, and to sort of push your legs to get a bit of attention. Some of them are massive breeds, and allowed to play all over the farm. Clearly not good for anyone scared of birds, but fantastic to see what it'd be like to own them. In honesty I think I'd find it like sharing a garden with a tortoise. Which we used to, and it was kind of cool, but really a bit scary as he'd try and nibble your toes if you lay down and forgot about him.

The bestest thing about Middle Farm for grown ups though is the cider. Barrels and barrels of it to try, and then buy. We did manage to be very adult about it and only try a few varieties. Really I just wanted to pretend I was in California at a vinery and try every one. But I didn't. And we managed to only buy four pints. Four pints, at about a million times stronger than normal booze. Yay!

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