Month: July 2014

Facebook is a many sided media sending out messages of doom and gloom, weirdness, hilarity, social connection and education.

This morning I watched a video intended to educate, one of the more positive sides of the application, the snippet was about a supermarket chain in France that was selling ‘inglorious’ fruit and veg, at a reduced rate in comparison to ‘perfect’ fruit and veg. Fabulous is my reaction, do you realise how many thousands of tons of fruit and veg are thrown away almost as soon as they are picked because they don’t conform!

The more I thought about the video the wider my thought net was cast, is it us as consumers or is it the supermarkets that are driving this need for perfect looking produce. Either way we should be ashamed of ourselves, firstly for wanting straight carrots or oval potatoes that get chopped up or mashed anyway and secondly if it is the supermarkets, for allowing them to lead us in that direction while we follow without thought.

During the war thousands of men and women died so that we had freedom, that includes the freedom to think for ourselves and act on it, thousands of families during that time would have given their eye teeth for a misshapen carrot or a deformed apple, what have we done with the gift that they gave us, demanded perfect fruit and veg? Are we that fickle?

Waste is something I don’t understand, people work hard for their pay packet yet at the end of each day they toss their hard earnings into a food waste bin and the industry as a whole is doing the same. The cost of living would come down if we utilised everything that was grown in this country, the need for importing would be much less, a bonus point for the whole global warming situation, at the very least, those wonky carrots and short fat courgettes should be going to make soup or stock, not rotting away on a food mountain.

I realise that when you look at a situation like this as an individual you can’t achieve much on your own, one lone voice in the giant world of supermarkets is not going to be heard, but if you agree with any of the above and see a petition or a movement in that direction, climb on board, if and I say if, the British supermarkets ever have enough bottle to follow in the footsteps of the French, take a deep breath and buy those ‘inglorious’ offerings, I guarantee the taste will be just as good, if not better because of the way you will feel about yourself for taking the leap, and as a bonus, you might even get a giggle at preparation time, from the distorted shapes you come across and let’s face it, we could all do with a good giggle now and again, couldn’t we?

This morning I am busy hatching a plan, now when Hubby says ‘I have a plan’ I usually groan and in return if I say I have a plan it’s usually ‘no’ because it involves keeping larger animals over winter. If I am honest Hubby is right, it’s easy to think how wonderful it would be while the sun is shinning but the reality in winter is harsh. Having said that, I am still hatching a plan! We usually buy in wearers and rear them on a combination of feed and produce, then they go off to slaughter when the time is right. This works well for us with the larger breed of pig because a) they get BIG, plenty of pork b) they go off to slaughter and job done. However this never gives us the chance to hone our husbandry techniques so my plan is to consider and discuss (note the diplomacy) a smaller breed of pig, Kune Kune, I have always disregarded them in the past because they are much smaller and I figured if you are going to rear pork, might as well fill up the freezer with it, but smaller has it’s advantages too. They are easier to handle and they do not root anywhere nearly as voraciously as bigger breeds, making them ideal to put into small areas that need clearing, granted it would still be quite hard work keeping them over winter but if we could breed from them once a year (PIGLETS :)))))) ) that would add money to the coffers and pork in the freezer. I have been doing a bit of research and ideally I would like to find someone who has some for sale and who is also willing to answer my questions and offer guidance if needs be. This is my plan, watch this space to see how well it is received and if it is a goer 😉

The rest of the farm is as ever ticking over gently, we have now sold nearly all of the point of lay hens that we bought in spring, I am hoping to hold on to about fifteen of them as new laying stock. The meat birds are getting to oven ready size and so it won’t be long before we start dispatching those. The ducks and geese are pretty much full size now, they are in the adolescent stage, I am waiting for Hubby to finish some DIY before he can build a new duck house, there is not enough room in the one we have for all the ducks, the younger ducks will then move in with the older ones and the geese can move to the paddock the young ducks are in at the moment. For now the geese at at the side of the house on what was a lawn lol, they are getting too big for the area so I hope Hubby hurries up.

The veg garden is still slow and I have noticed that the sweet corn which usually grows to about six foot has got to only three foot and start growing cobs, this year is definitely a challenge. I won’t be defeated however and I have planted some brassicas In the poly tunnel along with another aubergine plant. I have also decided to seed more cucumbers and peas, nothing ventured, nothing gained so might as well try and see how they get on.

I found a snake this week, it was dead luckily for me, not so lucky for it! It had got caught in the netting that came off the strawberry plants, I identified it as a grass snake (phew) but it was only a baby and so Mum and Dad must be around somewhere, probably in the compost heap, I will be keeping my eyes peeled when I turn it. The fox has not been giving us any trouble lately, given up for the time being but no doubt it will be back at a later date. We had a real treat coming home one evening, driving down the lane, we had almost got to the drive and we saw the little owl sat on the fence post right next to the road, omg it is so cute a teeny tiny owl, I have heard it’s call for five years, and seen it at dusk on the wing but never seen it sat still and so close, fabulous.

We have had some extra help on the farm this week (besides my Mum, who is an absolute treasure on the veg garden) it will be a regular thing, it makes such a difference, jobs I normally walk past thinking, that needs doing, and never getting round to it, will hopefully finally get sorted. Payment is made by way of produce which is brilliant for both parties I reckon and a way of life I could definitely live with 🙂
Baby grass snake

The week has been one of weather watching and waiting for some rain, which thankfully came so that I don’t have to spend each evening watering wilting plants, picking what produce is available and weeding. It has also been routine as far as the animals are concerned, feeding, watering cleaning out, making sure they are as happy as possible so that the hens lay eggs, which they are in abundance, and that everything else is enjoying life as it should be. We have taken in a drake, which was left behind at a local establishment after a function, he settled in very quickly with the older ducks so I guess he is staying. The pesky fox is still around every night but our birds are locked away securely so it is only the disturbance of the dog barking at it that is a pain, however it did strike next door and I think it won’t be long before it strikes in the day here so we are always on guard and the dog has got very good at going looking at the certain times of day and evening.

Now to the headline event! The muck heaps have become a bit of an issue building up to huge piles that need tidying and sorting out, we have three on the go at various places around the farm. The main one at the back has collapsed and as yet has not been tackled, the one to the side has begun to spread much further than it ought to and was the one we tackled first. Our youngest daughter got the tractor out and as mentioned before is pretty good at manoeuvring it, Hubby was busy tiling the kitchen and so we left her to get on with it. Job done in that area it was time to move on to the front pile, this is the oldest and it was decided to remove the boards and push it through to the orchard where the chickens will hopefully scatter it about eventually, she spent a happy afternoon moving most of the muck successfully with no problems at all. At the end of the day there was still a bit left to move but as we were nearly out of diesel we decided it would wait until the next day.
Cue Hubby’s turn to use the tractor in the muck heap! Bear in mind that doing this job the day before had been without incident and you will understand why I decided to include this in the blog.
A beautiful sunny Sunday morning, one of those mornings when it is a delight to get outside and do a bit of work, Hubby goes off to get some fuel and on his return fills up the tractor and sets to work moving the remaining muck so that it is cleared ready to start again. After only one hour, yes one hour, he has got the tractor firmly stuck, there is no traction on the tyres as they are covered in wet muck, the tractor is slipping and sliding to the side every time he tries to reverse it out of the hole he has now created. I very helpfully try to shovel some of it out of the way to see if that helps, it doesn’t, but he keeps trying to reverse anyway causing the ruts to get deeper and deeper. GO ROUND THE SIDE he shouts AND PUSH THE TRACTOR SIDEWAYS AS I TRY TO REVERSE IT, Oh that is sure as hell is going to work isn’t it, me in my half century year trying to push half a ton of tractor in a direction it doesn’t want to go but as the dutiful wife I am, I give it a go, if only to prove him wrong, which of course it does and I almost get a hernia. We turn the tractor off and have a coffee and decide what’s to be done next, if you move what’s in front of you, I suggest, you can go forwards into the orchard and turn around, I will try digging it out he says completely ignoring my comment, ok get on with it then I think to myself. After about an hour of him digging and trying to reverse he has not got very far and is in the shit proper, our youngest daughter has left by this time to go to a festival but our eldest daughter arrives, why don’t you get the rope and use the van to pull it out she says. I would have thought he would jump at this suggestion but no he thinks his digging will work better, while we go off to have croissants, he continues by various means to try and reverse the tractor out, failing miserably. We enjoy our breakfast and discuss his reluctance to do anything other than frantically try and dig the tractor out and keep trying to move the tractor but slipping and sliding and getting nowhere, it s been like this for thirty years I explain to my daughter, he doesn’t listen, the only person he makes it hard for is himself and I usually give up the ghost and go to find something more productive to do.
Croissants and coffee finished, I excuse myself and go to the toilet, this may seem irrelevant but when you think about how long it takes to pee you will see why I included it, by the time I come back outside I can see eldest daughter triumphantly holding the rope in her hands, a big smile on her face and the tractor is freed ready to carry on the days work. In my estimation it took less than two minutes, why, why, why would you spend over an hour trying unsatisfactory methods of extraction when it could have been as painless as that!!! MEN, when will they learn that we ARE always right 😉
I can report that the rest of the clearance went without incident and Hubby’s only remark was ‘alright alright’ you bet we are, I muttered under my breath.

That’s a term often heard in farming, well this year as far as the vegetables go it is definitely a famine year! In my last blog I was optimistically awaiting the arrival of plenty, that has fallen short, the cold spring followed immediately by the hot weather has meant that plants are struggling. Last year I was picking up to 40 cucumbers a day, this year I have grown two different batches of cucumber plants, planted them out and they have both failed in succession, I have two plants left that are looking sickly to say the least so we may not get any at all this year.

I garden naturally, and that is a term I chose to use as opposed to organically, a word that has been snapped up by the industry and you have to pay a hefty price to use. Because we use nature to nurture our produce success is always in the hands of the weather, we do not heat the greenhouse, we do not use automatic watering systems and we do not use artificial growth products, we get what we are given, and this year it’s not a lot. The cold spring has forced the plants to bolt, you may be surprised to learn that a vegetable plant is not growing to give you as much produce as you can eat, on the contrary it’s sole aim is to reproduce, it is only the methods we use that prolong the flowing and subsequent fruiting i.e. picking the produce daily that force it to flower again and again. Bolting is the plants way of getting its offspring to grow and set seed very fast, this is what has happened this year, the plants early on detected that they may not get much of a chance and so have bolted. The onions have done exactly this, trying to flower well before the bulb has swollen, we can cut the flower heads off and we do, but this means that the onions will not store as well as they usually do and may well start to rot around mid winter, the lettuces, parsnips and spinach are at it too. The other vegetables such as peas and beans are beginning to flower on short stems, rather than putting on tall green growth this means short stumpy plants with not much produce.

The fruit is not much better, what is there, and that is not much compared to previous years, is small, the black currants are practically non existent, the raspberries are trying but the fruits are small, only gooseberries and strawberries seemed to have been successful, they obviously enjoyed the earlier conditions.

The strawberry harvest is one that I keep for myself, they never go out for sale, that’s because I make jam from them, plenty of jars that will keep us going all year, sometimes they may be given as a present or in return for a favour but mostly they are kept in my cupboard for future use. I also use them for making ice cream, strawberry sauce, puddings etc, the best part of the year for me is using the strawberries even if it can take up a lot of time processing them.

The farmyard birds are all doing well, I had to make a note of their ages this week to make sure they are being fed correctly, the Norfolk Greys are now 16 weeks old, I ended up with four cockerels and three hens so will need to find homes for the cockerels in the near future. The hubbards are 10 weeks old and gaining weight rapidly it won’t be long before they are ready to process, they are enjoying the outdoor life at the minute in a grass pen, they took to it very readily and were quicker than all of the other birds put together when it came to learning about bedtime and going in, it only took one night of putting them inside and they cracked it. The laying flock are still being displaced from under the coop every night and encouraged up the ramp to bed and they have been here two years lol.

I did aim to make elderflower champagne this year but have missed the flowers, we have been busy doing the kitchen and there was not enough space for brewing paraphernalia as well so that will have to wait until next year now. I have picked and dried herbs ready for winter use though so that was an achievement and I have pulled the garlic and hung that to dry ready to string. I can’t believe we are already over halfway through the year and I am thinking about storing for winter where has the time gone.