Month: September 2015

The dream was long lazy sunny days with a table laden with home grown and cooked food, a bit like the Dolmio advert where the whole family is busy organising the table for a lesuirly supper in the evening warmth. The reality is that I have already got a soaking three times this week and it’s only Tuesday! Not to be deterred I have decided to sing in the rain, that little plan will probably only last as long as the rain is warmish rain, as soon as it comes with cold wind I think my resolve will disappear 😝

I can’t complain at the weather really as we have had some good spells of dry sunshine, and it is Autumn after all so we are on the slippery slope towards Winter. The vegetables are in the last throws of producing, one great result this year is that the bean wigwams are still standing, normally they have caved under the weight and with the added help of strong winds are usually on the floor by now. At the weekend I picked everything there was and stacked The Little Shed full of beans, beetroot, garlic, artichoke, courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as the first few butternut squash. I have already decided I need a bigger shed next year as it gets a bit packed in there especially with the rhubarb when it’s in full production, I will have to call it, The Bit Bigger, Little Shed lol

There is plenty to do in the veg garden in the form of tidying up, no doubt this bout of rain will put an end to the patty pan, they will be full of mildew if they don’t get chance to dry out so they will need to be dug up as will everything else that has finished. I dug up the main crop potatoes last week and managed to dry off the skins outside before bringing them in and put them in sacks, we have approx 7 sacks of spuds, should keep us going through to next year. We now have a freezer full of fruit, veg, sacks of potatoes, strings of onions and garlic, plenty to keep us going all winter. I have been trying to use up stuff in the freezers on a daily basis, rather than buy anything and so we have had some random meals, I really need to label everything properly as one lot of frozen gravy, soup or stew looks very much like another and it’s pot luck as to what flavour is defrosted.

Bella, the cat, has gone missing, she disappeared last Tuesday evening and we have not seen her since, I have walked up and down the lane to make sure has not been hit by a car, I have asked neighbours to keep an eye out and got in touch with the farrier to make sure she didn’t get into his van and jump out at his next appointment but there is no sign of her at all 😕

Mia and Patch have gone next door today to Muddy Mutts to have a good bath and a hair cut, Patch doesn’t really need a cut but he is going for a shampoo and a bit of socialising, Mia on the other hand is longer haired and I had to give her a rinse before taking her this morning as she was already filthy. I have put clean bedding down for when they return but with this rain it won’t stay clean very long, they love running around in the wet getting as dirty as possible but are no so keen on the bath at the end of the day. The chickens and horses are hating the rain, the ducks and geese on the other hand are loving it, you can please some of the ‘people’ some of the time but not all of them all of the time 😉

We have been lighting the Rayburn every afternoon about 3pm although as Sod’s law goes the sun usually appears just as it gets going, it’s hit and miss at the minute, sometimes it’s chilly outside and inside its cosy but sometimes the temps are higher outside and it gets a bit stuffy inside, nevertheless it is now part of the daily routine and besides its free wood therefore free heat and hot water and that is most satisfying 😁

I took a few photos on the farm last week and thought they would look great in black and white, even the bright orange flames of the fire look pretty good, the only thing that does not show up very well is the steam rising from the muck heap, we really must tap into that energy one of these  days even if it’s only to heat water for washing out feed bowls or something.

Have a great week 🌻

   
    
    
 

Sometimes a little too much if I am honest, I am officially sick of picking runner/French beans and patty pan, the trouble is I can’t bear to waste them and so I dutifully keep on harvesting. I have also been busy picking cooking apples and eating apples for storage, the tomatoes keep coming as do the cucumbers although they are getting a little tougher now and I still haven’t harvested the rest of the potatoes  yet. My hunter gatherer instincts also kick in this time of year and this morning I have been out to pick rose hips, sloes and elderberries for various ideas for Christmas gifts. Still to collect are walnuts, cobnuts and blackberries although it does not look like a good year for the blackberries as far as I have seen,  they appear slightly shrivelled, but none the less it’s good to have some in the freezer. 

I have had moments of doubts this week and moments of inspiration, the doubts creep in every now and then and I wonder why I am doing what I do, feeling that family members would prefer to pop down to the local supermarket and get their wares which would save me a lot of hard work, but knowing that it goes much deeper than that for me at least brings me back to my senses. Living off the land albeit in a small way is satisfying and wholesome, I would like to go much further but there is only so much one person can do, I will have to wait for Hubby to retire before I can grow grain to make our own bread and have a house cow for dairy products. The inspiration comes not from myself but from watching The Hairy Bikers, I love a cookery programme but what I love more is watching them tour different countries and being inspired by the local cuisine. Last night I watched them ride through, Lativia and Lithuania   and it struck me how far removed we have become from our local produce and recipes in this country. Yes there are small companies/farm shops/smokeries that produce these goods but they have become Artisan (and therefore expensive) instead of a very real way of life, I find this quite sad, I think I was born in the wrong country 😟 although being only human I probably wouldn’t appreciate it if I had been born somewhere like that and would long for the convenience of a bright shinny supermarket 😜. As a compromise I will just keep doing what I do, growing and raising my own food and enjoying it no matter who else doesn’t. Of course I realise I am lucky to be able to live this way, that thought is never far away, but again feel sad that I am the exception rather than the rule! 

We have been woken at night on a quite few occasions by screaming, not the locals on the way home from the pub but more excitingly a Barn Owl, it has been right outside our bedroom window. I am hoping  that it stays around and maybe even rears some young in our Barn Owl box in the hay barn, that would be the icing on the cake. The swallows have all but gone which signifies the end of summer for me, I look forward to their return next year. I have noticed an increase in butterflies in the last week or so, some that I have had to get the book out to identify, skippers being one group I have never noticed before, also as I stepped out of the door a lovely hawk moth was feeding on the nectar of a shrub nearby. Starlings have been gathering in our tree tops out the back, one morning I went out and there was a terrific noise coming from the tops of the conifers, I looked up to see hundreds of them all chattering, then it suddenly went quiet and woosh they all flew away in unison. 

I have made runner bean chutney this week (I had to do something with all those beans) only a few jars though as nobody else eats chutneys. It is one of my favourite chutneys and the longer its left the deeper the flavour, one of these days I will get round to making my own pork pies and that will be a feast fit for a King I’m sure lol. The cooking apple tree has not done as well as previous years, there are lots on there but most of them are very small, I did pick a good bucketful of decent sized ones though of which half will go into storage and the other half I have already processed for the freezer, I made 3 apple pies at the same time for a quick pudding when needed. Although they were small and the eating apples are the same, I was pleased that after my efforts of putting grease bands round the trunks and using codling moth traps they are practically maggot free as were the plums, that is a huge success resulting in much more useable fruit than previous years. 

The 2016 seed catalogues have arrived this week, I think that’s much earlier than usual, I suppose they are getting on the same bandwagon as shops flogging Christmas in October and Easter in January, they will meet themselves coming back the other way one of these days! For now I will file them away for mid winter reading and planning, they won’t grow any faster the earlier you order so there is no point in looking at next years produce when this years is still being harvested 😝

The weather looks settled this week until Saturday when the rain is to make an appearance, the temperatures have dropped a fair bit In the evenings and it is time to get Rosie the Rayburn ready for firing up so at the end of the week Hubby will be up on the roof giving the flue a sweep and I will be cleaning out the grates. I will look forward to having the radiators warm, the one convenience I miss is instant and controllable central heating, on the plus side however our wood stash this year is free, that means free hot water and free heating, and you can’t beat Rosie for drying your clothes on the airer over the top and the great slow cooked meals she delivers at the end of the day 😍

Have a great week and enjoy what we have left of the sunshine 😎

I have been asked if I get bored, being here at the farm all day every day by myself, usually by my Father In Law, I don’t think he quite realises how much there is to do. As well as the farm which encompasses animal care, feeding, cleaning, health matters, there is the veg garden, digging, growing, harvesting, processing, the outer paddock areas including maintaining the hedges and verges etc, onto the normal household jobs cooking, cleaning, washing, generally keeping good order and also the accounts for Hubby’s business, so no, bored is not an option! With this comment in mind I decided to voice note one of my typical days, rudely my youngest asked if it consisted of coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, she was of course joking (hopefully) this is how it went:

Alarm goes off at 6.45 and we are pretty good at getting up when it sounds, have breakfast and a morning cuppa, get dressed and go out to do the morning rounds. Turn off the security lights and feed the cats before they pester the life out of me. Let the geese out into the back paddock and refill their water buckets, take the horses some morning hay, feed the chickens in the back pen, collect more fed from the feed room and go round to the duck pen, empty yesterday’s dirty water and refill, fill up feed trough let out the ducks, collect the duck eggs and take them into the boot room to be washed later. Collect more feed and take round to the orchard, refill water buckets and let out the bantams and chicks, give them their morning feed then out to the main chicken paddock. Move the electric fencing to give the hens new grass, fill up the feed troughs, refill the water troughs and let them out, once they have all piled out I go in and scrape the mess off the floor into a bucket, skip out the nest boxes and refresh with new wood shavings, empty bucket, reconnect the electric pick up any windfall apples to chuck in to the hens, check the egg shed on the way back. Feed the dogs and refill water bowls, check the quail and pick up any quail eggs. HAVE COFFEE!

On the way round I made a mental note of how much weeding there is to do and that the main crop potatoes have nearly finished flowering and will need digging up soon on a dry day. The amount of rain we have had lately means everything is growing at a great rate, weeds, veg and grass, the latter we have been waiting all spring and summer for, finally the September flush as its called, is producing results.

Go out to veg garden and pick runner beans, French beans, cucumbers, courgettes, patty pan, tomatoes and artichokes, bring them in and organise the ones for sale, weigh, price and bag up and take to little shed any that don’t look too good put aside for the chickens. HAVE COFFEE 😄

The early morning sun has now disappeared and it looks like it’s going to rain again, my greenhouse leaks during heavy rainfall and at the moment that’s where the onions and garlic are drying out, or trying to, so I need to move them into the back covered area to prevent them getting damp. While I am there and have deposited the onions I look in the freezer for something for dinner, I decide on chicken casserole for Hubby and think I may have curry.

Take out the rubbish and at that point take a moment to refocus and prioritise jobs because the weather looks like it is set to get worse, get outside jobs done first. I check the greengage plums on the tree which are already starting to split because of the rain yesterday and the wasps are gathering (note to self, pick before they are ripe next year) so I pick what I can and bring them in the check the current supermarket prices, weigh, bag up and put out for sale.

11am go out to veg garden and pull up a large bunch of carrots, to use for dinner later, take the tops to the horses. Prepare all the veg for the freezer that I picked earlier along with most of the carrots, keeping some back for the casserole which I prepare at the same time. Tidy up the kitchen and do a quick tidy around the rest of the house. 

When I blanch veg for the freezer, I don’t change the water in between so beans, carrots etc all use the same water, then if you taste it at the end you will find it makes pretty good vegetable stock 😄 which can be frozen or used the same day.

As predicted earlier it did begin to rain while I was preping veg, I decided it was a good day for soup so I used the veg stock and made roasted garlic and potato soup which I will have later instead of the planned curry. I also stewed a few more plums for the freezer while I was in the kitchen.

That took me up to 2pm when I sat down in the living room with a cup of tea, checked my emails, had a browse on Facebook and a text conversation with my brother who has just dislocated his shoulder, I also made a much needed appointment with the hairdresser. 

2.45pm it’s still raining so I decide to fling the Hoover around the kitchen and living room, hard floors mean visible dust on a daily basis! After that I  decide to try and find the rectal thermometer as the cat is looking a bit off colour, not Bella, she has recovered well this time, but Deisel is a bit lethargic and off his food, I did spot a regurgitated rodent that may have caused some tummy upset, and although I found the thermometer I thought it might be wiser to let the vet have the pleasure. Meanwhile I put on a load of washing and it’s already time to go feed the chickens and ducks their afternoon scratch corn and collect the eggs. 

I collect 53 eggs from the main laying flock in the front and 12 from the pullets at the back, wash any dirty eggs and box them up, check the egg shed to see what has sold, pick up the money and restock. Our eldest daughter arrives home from work and I tell her about the cat looking poorly so we go and find him to give him a look over and decide what to do, he eats the tuna we have bought him as a treat, has a bit of a groom, looks a little sorry for himself but not too bad so we decide to wait until tomorrow and see how he is before taking him to the vets.

Feed the dogs and then feed me, I opt for the soup I made earlier with a couple of slabs of bread and butter, Hubby is working at our daughters cottage after work and so will be late home tonight, when I finish my supper I put his dinner in the oven on low so it’s ready when he comes home.

I plan on giving the dogs a bath as it has been raining and they are now filthy after running around the farm in the rain but my Sister and Brother in Law turn up for a cuppa so we sit around the kitchen table and chat about the Victoria Plum Jam I have made especially for him as he has been unable to find it in the shops anywhere. Hubby arrives home around 8.30pm just as its getting dark, he puts the kettle on again to make more tea for everyone while I go outside and shut away the chickens, geese and ducks for the night and turn on the security lights, that’s it done outside for the day, I just need to wash up and relax on the sofa till bedtime with a quick wee break for the dogs around 10pm and bed for us around 10.30pm. 

And that is how my voice noted day went, not much chance to be bored unless I choose to be! 

Footnote: The cat had perked up no end by the next morning and so no trip to the vet was necessary thank goodness 😸

  
Roasted garlic and potato soup

2 whole heads of garlic, roast whole in tinfoil with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt for 40 mins
3/4 medium potatoes cooked until soft

1 onion chopped and sauted in a pan with some butter

Add cooked potatoes and veg stock to the onion pan along with salt, pepper, thyme and Parmesan cheese to taste, add a cup of milk and squeeze the roasted garlic from the heads into the rest of the ingredients discarding the outer remains, you can add cream if you like and purée it if you prefer, heat up gently and eat with gusto! 

Have a great week 😃