Country Comfort Farma

11/09/2026

I want to share something honestly today, not to alarm anyone, but because I think people deserve to understand what's actually happening, and it's bigger than just our farm or even our country.
This summer's heat hit our grains, sunflowers, and corn hard. At today's farmers' co-operative meeting, we got the numbers: a bale of hay that cost €30 is now €100, and even at that price, there isn't much to be had. There will be little to no sunflower or corn harvest this year.
And it's not just us. This has been a brutal year for farms across Europe. The EU corn harvest is set to be the lowest since 1995, wheat and barley are down, and sunflower and olive oil yields are down too. The drought has hit farms from the UK to France to Italy, and in the Czech Republic farmers are already having to cull cattle herds because they simply can't afford to feed them through winter.
I asked our co-op the obvious question: what are we supposed to feed our animals through winter? The answer was blunt: you either slaughter them now or let them go hungry. There isn't a third option this year.
I asked a second question: how are we meant to price meat when feed costs have more than tripled but most people's budgets haven't? Again, blunt prices have to rise. There's no other way for small farms to stay standing.
I'm not writing this to alarm anyone. I'm writing it because I think it matters that people understand why meat, eggs, and other products from small farms like ours are going to cost more this winter, across Europe, not just here, and why some farms may simply have fewer animals to sell at all. This isn't a distant supply-chain story. It's happening to farmers everywhere right now because of a summer that didn't rain.
Be patient with all of us this winter, farmers, big and small. None of us are raising prices because we want to.

09/09/2026

Our website's had a proper refresh — and while you're exploring it, here's one from the blog worth your time: why we plant marigolds and basil alongside our tomatoes, and it's not just for looks.

Marigolds do real work in our beds. Their scent throws aphids off the trail, their roots release a compound that fights root-knot nematodes, and they keep whiteflies away while pulling in ladybugs and parasitic wasps to do pest control for us. We use French varieties for the nematode fight and African types for pests above ground.

Basil earns its place too its oils mask the scent tomatoes give off, making it harder for pests to find them in the first place.

We plant marigolds in rows between the tomatoes and around the bed edges, with clusters of basil dotted every 4–5 plants, all started together so everything matures in step. It's one small piece of a bigger four-year rotation that keeps our soil balanced and pest cycles from taking hold.

If you're growing your own, our advice: start small, plant your companions early, pick the right varieties for what you're protecting against, and keep the watering consistent.

Full post on the blog

Walk through our tomato garden in the height of summer, and you'll notice something different from conventional farms. Nestled between our vibrant tomato plants, you'll find cheerful marigolds blooming in shades of gold and orange, and fragrant basil plants releasing their distinctive aroma into the...

09/09/2026

🌱 Building soil from nothing — this is what regenerative farming actually looks like
Four and a half years ago, when we first arrived here, this piece of land was bare clay. Hard, compacted, lifeless clay — so hard that you could have built a house on it and the ground itself would have been solid enough to serve as the foundations. That's how dead it was. You could barely push a spade into it, let alone grow anything in it.
So we didn't fight it. We worked with it.
Years one and two: corn. We sowed corn because its roots are strong and deep — they push down through compacted clay and physically break it apart, opening up channels for air and water to follow.
Year three: sunflowers. With the ground already starting to loosen, sunflowers went in next — their long taproots dig even deeper, breaking up what the corn hadn't reached yet.
This year: potatoes. Once the ground had opened up properly, we grew potatoes in it. Potatoes do something brilliant underground — as they grow and are harvested, they leave behind loosened, aerated pockets of soil. Little cavities where life can move back in.
Now: we're using those very same cavities to build new soil, right where the potatoes once were. And that's what these photos show, step by step:
1️⃣ We dig a trench.
2️⃣ We lay down green matter — fresh plant material, full of nitrogen, that starts breaking down fast and feeds the soil life underneath.
3️⃣ We add mulch — the woody, carbon-rich layer that feeds fungi and slows everything down so it decomposes properly instead of washing or blowing away.
4️⃣ We cover it back over with soil.
5️⃣ We finish with a layer of hay on top, protecting it all from sun and wind.
6️⃣ And finally — water. Because none of this comes alive without it.
Underneath, all of that layered organic matter slowly breaks down, feeding microbes, fungi, and worms, who in turn turn it into rich, dark, living soil. No synthetic fertiliser. No shortcuts. Just time, layers, and letting nature do what it already knows how to do.
This is the whole idea behind regenerative farming: you're not just growing a crop and taking from the land — you're actively rebuilding the land itself, so it gets healthier and more fertile every single year instead of being worn down.
There's nothing growing in this trench right now — and that's exactly as it should be. Over the coming months, all those layers will slowly break down and decompose, and by spring, this will have become rich, new soil, ready to plant into. We'll keep topping it up along the way too, since the layers keep decomposing and settling down as the soil life gets to work on them.
Four and a half years ago this was dead clay, hard enough to build a house on. Come spring, we'll show you what's growing in it instead. 🌿

08/09/2026

🦢 Goose Neck Sausage — Nose-to-Tail from Our Own Kitchen
Nothing goes to waste at Country Comfort Farma. This week Elle turned goose neck skin into a sausage casing — a technique straight out of traditional farm kitchens, where every part of the animal earns its place on the table.
How we made it:
🔸 500g minced meat of your choice (we used our own pork)
🔸 Onion, garlic, paprika, and thyme, mixed through the mince
🔸 Fill the goose neck, tie off the top, and roast for 45 minutes
We roasted ours hanging right above beetroot and pumpkin, so the dripping fat bastes the vegetables as it all cooks — nothing lost, everything flavoured. Served alongside a fresh beetroot leaf, tomato, and onion salad, straight from what's seasonal in the garden right now.
This is what Country Comfort Farma is about: eating what the season gives us, and honouring every part of the animal the way our grandparents did.
📖 If this kind of cooking speaks to you, it's exactly the spirit behind Elle's upcoming book, Nourish & Heal From the Farm Kitchen — traditional recipes, nose-to-tail practices, and two years of research into food as medicine. We're close to our crowdfunding goal on ZAAR — every pledge helps bring it to print in time for the Malta Book Fair: https://zaar.com.mt/projects/help-me-bring-this-book-from-the-farm-to-the-table-to-life/ 🌾

05/09/2026

🐣 HATCHING DAY AT COUNTRY COMFORT FARMA 🐣
Our incubator is finally earning its keep — say hello to our first two chicks of the batch!
For anyone curious how this works, here's the process in a nutshell:
🥚 The incubation period for chicken eggs is 21 days from start to hatch.
🌡️ Temperature is kept steady at around 37.5°C throughout.
💧 Humidity sits at roughly 50-55% for the first 18 days, then we raise it to 65-70% for "lockdown" (the final 3 days) — this softens the membrane and stops the chicks drying out as they hatch.
🔄 Eggs are turned several times a day for the first 18 days (we stop turning them at lockdown) to keep the embryo developing evenly and to stop it sticking to one side of the shell.
🔦 Around day 7, we "candle" the eggs — holding a bright light behind the shell in a dark room to check for veining and a developing embryo, so we can tell which eggs are fertile and progressing well.
🐥 The first sign of hatching is the "pip" — a tiny crack the chick makes with its egg tooth to break through to the air pocket and take its first breath. You can actually spot one in our photos: the egg sitting right next to our newly hatched chick has just pipped!
⏳ From pip to fully out of the shell can take anywhere from a few hours to a full day, so patience is key — we resist the urge to help.
🐣 Interestingly, once a few chicks have hatched, they actually start chirping to the eggs still in the incubator — this helps trigger and synchronise the rest of the clutch to hatch around the same time.
This will be our last hatch for 2026, as it's now September and any chicks born this late wouldn't have time to grow strong enough before winter sets in. So we're soaking up every moment with this last little clutch!
These little ones will stay snug indoors with us until April, when they'll finally join the rest of the flock outside. Our winters here can drop well below zero, with days reaching as low as -20°C, so putting young chicks out in December simply isn't an option — it would be inhumane. Better to keep them warm and wait for spring.
🐓 Welcome to the world, little ones 🐓

31/08/2026

🐑 From "Mess" to Miracle: What's Really Happening in the Sheep Pen
Every week when we clean out the sheep area, people assume we're just clearing dirt. We're not — we're moving gold. 🌱
That dusty-looking layer isn't dirt at all. It's the beginning of new soil: leftover alfalfa hay (their feed) mixed with droppings, already teeming with nutrients. Right now it works as mulch, protecting the soil surface and holding in moisture. Given time, the alfalfa fibres break down further and the manure turns it into proper compost, feeding a steady release of nitrogen and organic matter into the ground.
Nothing here goes to waste. This week's batch went straight onto our newly sown spinach bed, giving those seedlings a nutrient boost right from the start.
This is regenerative farming in action: the sheep feed themselves, the leftovers feed the soil, the soil feeds the plants, and the plants feed us. A full circle, no shortcuts. 🔄

30/08/2026

📢 Important label correction: please read

We've discovered today that our Strawberry & Mint and Cherry & Sage jam labels have a printing error on the Consume By date.

It's printed as 12/2026 — but it should read 12/2027.

The jams themselves are completely unaffected; this is simply a printing mistake on the label, not a change to the product. If you've bought either of these jars, they're perfectly good to keep and enjoy well into 2027. Please just make a mental note (or a little sticky note!) of the correct date.

We're sorry for any confusion this has caused, and thank you for your understanding. As always, if you have any questions at all, just send us a message. 💚

27/08/2026

Exciting news from the homestead

Country Comfort Farma is coming to Farmer's Deli in San Ġwann this mid-September!

Our artisan hams, bacon, sausages, jams, chutneys, honey, and more, made by hand on our regenerative permaculture homestead in Bíňa, Slovakia, will soon be stocked and ready for you to bring home.

Every product is rooted in nose-to-tail practice, no seed oils, and ancestral methods we've built from the ground up over the last four years. Farmer's Deli will join Elia Cafe' in Ħamrun and Eco Estates in Żebbiegħ as our trusted stockists in Malta.

Mark your calendars; more details to follow soon.

26/08/2026

🐰 Lunch from the farm, straight to the table.
These rabbit legs came off our own homestead — raised, harvested, and cooked nose-to-tail right here at Country Comfort Farma. Simple, honest food, seared until the skin crisps up and the meat stays tender.
This exact recipe is one of the ones going into my next book, Nourish & Heal From the Farm Kitchen — a collection of the meals that actually keep us going here on the farm, built around real ingredients and zero waste.
We're in the final 5 days of the crowdfunding campaign to bring this book to life, and every donation — big or small — makes a real difference in getting it printed and into your hands.
👉 Help me bring this book from the farm to the table: https://zaar.com.mt/projects/help-me-bring-this-book-from-the-farm-to-the-table-to-life/
Thank you for being part of this journey with me. 🌾