Month: August 2018

Posted in Friesland Farm

Apples, pears, plums and a whole load of other stuff.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th August: I’m thinking that maybe we should have opening times for the egg shed as last night someone arrived at 7.45pm expecting there to still be eggs available!

A dull but warm morning so after the orchard animals were sorted and I went round checking for randomly laid duck eggs I decided to plant the sambucus nigra which is a black elderflower tree, it has beautiful pink flowers in the spring which make pink elderflower champagne 😀 I want to get it in the ground while there is still some growing time to be had, it’s going in the front yard area to cast a bit of shade by the gateway so that I can stand and chat to customers lol. I dug the first spadeful of dirt out and low and behold a chicken appears, they are fast when they think there are worms to be had, sadly this is a hard area and no worms to be seen. I got it the ground and put some rotted muck in the hole to give it a bit of a boost and then cut some mesh to go around the base to stop the chickens scratching up the loose dirt and exposing the roots otherwise it won’t do very well at all.

Next job was to weed killer the ménage as it has got a bit out of control and with it overcast it’s an ideal time, some of the taller weeds I hand pulled, two barrow loads, and as it looked like the sun was going to come out I then got on with spraying the rest. I can’t use the weed burner in there because of the wood chip, it would be a blazing inferno! Would you bloody coco it though, it seemed like the sun was going to come out and then when I had finished (about an hour) it started to drizzle, now, I need about a 2 hour clearance on this so I’m not a happy bunny ☹️ When you want rain, nothing, when you don’t want it……🌧

I have been busy planning what veg to grow over winter, onions, broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, I think I should put in some more garlic as well, I’m also waiting for some leek plants to arrive but they seem to have disappeared in the post! All I have to do now is decide where I am going to plant all this as I also need to heavily muck the beds to get the best soil I can for next springs plantings.

Then I did a bit of picking, tomatoes, courgettes, more runner beans and some purple French beans (I really need to grow many more of these next year) and half a bucket of elderberries which are beautifully ripe now. I made elderberry syrup with them, for pouring on ice cream or with yoghurt in the mornings, it’s packed with vitamin c and extremely good for you, the syrup can also be used if you have a cough or mixed with a bit of honey as a hot drink for some tlc when you have a cold.

I had a bit of an accident later in the afternoon, when Sam and Mia came over they had picked me some blackberries and so I took Mia out to get some cooking apples off the tree for her to take home for crumble, then when Josh came over I went out with him to get him some apples as well, only this time I failed to see a low (head height) stumpy branch and walked straight into it with a thump, it jarred my neck and put me on the floor 😏

Tuesday: Dull again with that very fine drizzle, almost just a misting really, it was like that yesterday, it couldn’t quite make up its mind what it was going to do. Foraged for the rabbits this morning, a big bucket full of herbs and weeds, some dandelions for the torts along with some fallen apples and a couple of small courgettes. I have watered anything in pots as it is quite dry, I’m contemplating watering the veg later on if the sun comes out as they say it should. Lots of jobs I really should be doing but I’m quite tired even though I only got up a couple of hours ago, it will be interesting to see what the blood results are later this week, I feel like I’m always bordering on getting a cold 😏

I have been constantly looking for something to make another small water garden with and the answer was under my nose all the time, we have some old metal water tanks and one of them by the kennels is no longer connected to any drainpipe so I think I will use that I just need to empty it and drag it into the garden, fill it back up and put some of the pond plants in it, I think it will work fine, if I can summon up some energy I will do it later, It’s mostly to attract insects and increase the diversity in the garden. I might even put some fish in it, I need to measure it and make sure it’s deep enough that it doesn’t freeze in winter though.

In the big raised bed between the poly tunnels I have sown some winter grazing rye, mostly this will be for the rabbits over winter but the roots will stabilise the soil structure and then be dug in as a green manure when the time comes, I have had the packet for a couple of years and never got round to sowing it so hopefully it’s still viable.

I noticed that the dogs are eating the hazelnuts, that fall on the ground much more frequently now, and a quick look on the trees tells me that they are definitely ready which is about 2/3 weeks earlier than normal, it looks like everything is going to come at once now, apples, plums, pears, blackberries and nuts, busy times 😋

Back to the water garden thing and I also realised that I have the perfect opportunity in a tank that is already in the fruit cage so I filled it right up with rainwater and pulled some water plants from the other small pond to transfer over, the pond plants help to keep the water clean and aerated. I will have mini water gardens all over the place at this rate 😀

Shelley, Josh and Florence came over and I had Mia today so we arranged to go blackberry picking along Scrubbs Lane, Shelley and I got a tub full each, Mia and Josh ate every single one they picked 🤣🤣 The plum tree (lovely yellow plums) that is along there is sadly riddled with plum moth this year so we didn’t get any, never mind we will try again next year.

Ooops so I did this thing, I ordered 1000 daffodil bulbs 🤪 guess that’s another job on the list of things to do when they arrive! Next spring however we will be selling bunches of daffs at the gate 😀

Wednesday: A bit cooler today and overcast but just right for me 😀 John did the main feeding etc although I noticed later that he had forgot to let the geese out and turn off the water into the duck pond! I collected rabbit greens and sorted out the orchard birds then Mum arrived to do some gardening, some tidying and some weeding, it’s that time of year when it looks looms a bit scruffy and now it’s looking a lot better 😀 I picked some Victoria plums, on one side of the tree there is no moth that has burrowed in so they are fine, I had the plums picked and made into jam and jarred up in an hour 😀 cant get better than that and it’s a beautiful pink colour, fabulous, I gave Mum a jar in return for her hard work.

Then Mia arrived for the day and she played outside for a bit until she tripped over the hose and hit her face on the wheelbarrow handle ☹️

Out in the evening for curry with my friends.

Thursday: Raining this morning, that’s good because I had started having to water again as it was getting very dry. Spent a couple of hours sorting out insurance and paperwork for our up coming holiday, why does it always take so long, John thinks it’s a 2 minute job! Then did the orchard animals and collected some eggs to put out for sale, I noticed that some of the ducks are growing new wing feathers so hopefully they will come back into lay soon. Out of the 90 hens in the front paddock only around 60 of them are laying at the minute, lots of them are in a moult, that together with the disappearing daylight hours mean egg numbers drop a fair bit but it’s not quite time to put a light in, though we could trial it and see if it helps. I also have wormer ordered and ready to pick up so we will begin a week long dose on Sunday, these hybrids have to kept in tip top condition to perform, just like an F1 car 😜

I picked the apples from my eating apple tree, the wasps have started on them and they are beginning to fall so that tells me they are ready and last year I lost the lot to the birds so I was determined to harvest them this year 🤪 and as they will continue to ripen after picking we are all good, I need to get to the pears as soon as possible too. These are not ‘keeper’ apples so they won’t store all winter but they will last a month in the bottom of the fridge, a bit too many for us so I will be giving some of them to Shelley and Sam for the grandchildren 😀 I also picked a fair few cucumbers, more than I thought were out there, some tomatoes and some French beans which have suddenly decided to kick start production.

Friday: Definite chill in the air this morning though the day itself was not bad. I picked all the pears from my dual pear tree, one side they are fab, the other side they are not so good, scabby and useless, I also picked another load of plums but really need to get some sugar to make jam before they get too ripe. I quickly made a pear and cinnamon cake and then went on a busmans day out with the grandchildren to a farm 😀 While I was there I bought some unhomogenised organic milk and some organic butter, if I get a minute I will try making some cheese with the milk.

Very tired when I got home but I had the afternoon feeding and egg to collect as the egg shed was empty, then as I sit down to type up this and I can hear a bloody mouse or something scratching in the wall cavity. I will either have to set a trap or shut the cat in the back for the night, I really don’t want to use poison because they always choose to die in the wall and then it stinks 😷 besides that it’s not good for the wildlife.

I am aware that I talk about the orchard and the birds/animals in there so I thought I would take some photos from various angles so you can see what it looks like, through the summer it is lovely and shaded, especially useful this summer! The fence along the left hand side in the top pic is the one between the orchard and the paddock and the one I want to plant into an edible hedgeline, so far I have planted a couple of blackcurrants, comfrey, thornless blackberry, feverfew and a dog rose, I have also sprinkled plenty of marigold and love in a mist seeds along there too.

For the first time ever John cooked his own dinner! Now just to clarify he does cook cheese on toast and sausages/bacon and eggs but that’s it, the extent of his culinary talents, so tonight I made him cook his own, from start to finish, peeling the spuds and everything 😜 I didn’t even help him with the timings and voila now he thinks he could manage masterchef 🤣🤣

I found just over half a bottle of vodka in the cupboard and so I figured pear liqueur was a good thing to try, pierce holes in the pear, put in a jar, cover with vodka, add nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel, leave for two weeks and then add sugar and leave until Christmas time 😀 enjoy on a cold night hopefully 😋

So with all these pears, naturally I have been looking at recipes, one thing I have never tried is canning and I will admit that breaking open a fresh jar of pears in the winter sounds very appealing. Looking at how it’s done it seems simple enough, I’m thinking I can do the water bath method in a large stewing saucepan with a lid, I have a trivet, I just need to dig out my killer jars and I will give it a go even if it’s only a couple of jars. If anyone has experience of canning I would love to hear your tips and methods.

Saturday: After last nights rain it’s sunny this morning but with a chill in the air. Sorted out the orchard lot first and then did some picking as someone requested runner beans yesterday. It’s surprising how long it all takes really and to be fully self sufficient would take an awful lot longer or at the least need two people doing it all, at the minute we kind of muddle through, John doing the maintenance and building runs and coops etc, feeding the birds in the mornings and cleaning out the two main lot of hens weekly, while I do everything else! The list is endless, sowing, growing, hoeing, mowing, watering, harvesting, processing, cooking, cleaning, washing, paperwork, and I have been asked ‘what do you find to do all day’! Well in order to make the most of everything it takes time, effort, perseverance and determination, one day I will write a comprehensive list of everything 🤪 in the meantime that’s what the blog is for, so I can keep a check on what I have done.

The cats have been acting very strangely of late, constantly following us around and meowing, even the pizza delivery guy (wrong address it was for next door) said ‘I think there is something wrong with your cat’ well no, there is nothing wrong with him, he is just weird at the moment, I wormed and flead them just in case, the full moon probably has something to do with it, but they have become a bit needy and follow you round like a dog. John did shut Diesel in the back area last night in the hopes that he will catch whatever it was in the wall, one good thing about him being under your feet, you don’t have to go searching 😀

We sold out of eggs within an hour yesterday afternoon so consequently there is a delay this morning until the girls get going again, I hate it when customers come and there are no eggs but there is not much I can do about it, one customer has asked for more plum jam but I need to pick the rest of the plums first and I need a bigger ladder and preferably another person there, John has had to go to work this morning and also do his Mums breakfast and her shopping first thing so hopefully we can pick them this afternoon.

I have a mother load of pears, some small but most are of a good size, so in the oven at the moment on a low temp are two trays of pear crisps, never done them before so I will be interesting to see how they turn out. I’m hoping the grandchildren will like them, Mia’s first words when she gets here are always ‘I very ‘ungry’ meaning she wants a biscuit 😜 o hopefully they will be a good substitute.

The basil needed picking and so I made some pesto, a small jar for the fridge to be used within a couple of days and then a small tub for the freezer which can be used anytime I need some. Basil smells amazing, it’s one of the best smells I think. The older leaves and stalks I have to the rabbits who have had a good mix of willow and herbs today.

The pear crisps turned out ok, they got the thumbs up from Macca at any rate 😀 I will try them on the grandchildren and they may become a regular thing, great for snacking on.

John helped to pick the rest of the plums and I managed to get the last 4 bags of preserving sugar on the shelf when I went shopping so plum jam is on the to do list.

Sunday: Wet today! We picked around 4kg of plums yesterday taking the final amount to around 6kg from the one tree😀 so this morning I have mostly been processing plums, 3kg of plum jam a jar of plum sauce (plums, onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and star anise (take that out before bottling) purée, re heat and bottle) and cooked down some with sugar for the freezer ready for crumbles in the winter.

This afternoon we are on a whole family picnic 😝 only it’s wet but we have booked a hall (there are a lot of us) in the event of wet weather so that’s good or it would be if I hadn’t decided to take bbq food and a disposable bbq, now I’m a bit stuffed with what to do lol. I needn’t have worried there was enough food to feed an army 🤣 fabulous afternoon had by young and old alike.

Have a fabulous week people x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Runner beans, runner beans and more runner beans 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th August: Not Up so early this morning, the urgency to water everything has now gone as the drizzle keeps on coming, they say the heatwave will be back but I have my doubts about that. John did the feeding, I went out and got started with the picking, the runners have not been picked for a couple of days so there are plenty to harvest, a few courgettes, some mangetout, I also put out some Victoria plums as I still have plenty in the freezer from last years bumper crop. Egg customers come earlier and earlier in the hopes of getting eggs but what they don’t realise is that if we sell out the day before there will not be any more until around 10am as the hens only get going about 8.30/9 The ducks always lay first thing but even they are on a go slow at the minute, the only ones laying like crazy are the quail.

The book I ordered ‘ Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane arrived and I have read a couple of pages, I can see me quoting from it left, right and centre there is already so much in it that I identify with that I wish I had read it many years ago!

The grass is coming back through 😀 it’s amazing resilient stuff, the paddock was almost black with dead grass and now there is a haze of green across it which will make the geese very happy indeed and the hens will benefit too because although they eat layer pellets they do eat the tips of the blades and of course the insects will return so we should see them skipping across the area trying to catch them 😀 The ducks were put in there as a temporary measure and it doesn’t really suit them so I need to move them out, beside the geese have now taken to attacking another one so the sooner the better really. I would do it myself but the hut won’t go through the gateway into the orchard so it needs a bit of muscle to man handle it round. The ducklings are making a proper mess now it has rained so I need to sort them out too and I also need to pick some more plums, better finish this coffee and get on with it I think 😀

By lunchtime I had made a slow but sure start on the orchard area, I managed to herd the other ducks through to there and I let the ducklings out of their run into the whole area. I began planting up the fence line which will be an edible/wildlife attractant hedge so far I have planted 3 blackcurrant, which are in degradable pots, some feverfew, comfrey, lemon balm, a dog rose and a thornless blackberry, I also planted a kiwi root I found growing in the path, under the greengage tree, bonus if this takes and grows. I planted some marigold seedlings in and around various places and I have a buffalo currant in a pot which I have placed under the damson tree for now. So I have a good mix now and all they have to do is grow, easier said than done when the first thing that appears is a chicken because I have disturbed the ground and they think it’s a scratch and freeforall 😝 I have protected a few of the plants and will do the rest later. Hopefully come spring it will have all settled and be growing nicely providing shade, food and cover not just for the ducks but for all manner of things.

I moved Billy into the big tunnel to do some foraging plus it’s a bit warmer in there and as him and Voldy don’t seem to get on too well he will welcome the break I think. I did move the melons up from the floor, I don’t want him tucking into those 😋

I picked some plums and grabbed hold of a wasp in the process, luckily I didn’t get stung, they are everywhere at the moment especially on the greengage but I managed to pick a handful of those that have not been eaten just yet.

Did the afternoon feeding and picking and filled up the water buckets, then went on the search to find something to put it over the plants in the orchard, we were given some water containers like the ones in offices they make great cloches when you cut the bottoms off and I also use the bottoms to stand pot plants in when they need extra watering.

Just when you think you know what birds are around you another surprise pops up, unfortunately this one had got trapped and died some time ago but when I saw it my first thought was a baby green woodpecker, after doing a bit of googling I discovered it was in fact a goldcrest the smallest of the UKs birds, I shall keep an eye out for live ones from now on.

Tuesday: A dry day, warm enough, John did the main of the birds this morning while I did the birds in the orchard of which there are quite a lot now lol, ducklings, two lots of ducks, two lots of quail, the light Sussex chicks and the rabbits and Guineas, I think it’s full 😀 The orchard, just to give you an image, has three plum trees, greengage, damson and Victoria, a pear tree, an apple tree and a huge walnut tree, so plenty of scope to begin under planting for a forest garden.

I did quite a bit of picking and harvesting

The potatoes were from a self setter, I think I am going to give up cultivating them and just leave the self setters to spring up around the place they do far better than the cosseted lot.

Yesterday I didn’t feel as well as I had been doing and feel that some of the symptoms are creeping back slowly, especially in my feet so today I am loading up on the anti inflammatory foodstuffs to see what happens. I will take serapeptase in the mornings and today I am having turmeric tea then later I will have pineapple and see if any of that helps at all. I make the turmeric tea with almond milk, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and maple syrup if you like chai, you will like this, spicy and warming with the added bonus hopefully.

I had some Megrim sole delivered with the fish from Cornwall and we had it tonight for dinner, Sam cooked it for us which was very kind of her 😀 John had his with potatoes and peas but I had a salsa of cucumber, tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts, in a balsamic dressing, with mine, she pan fried it in butter, salt, pepper and a couple of rashers of back bacon, it was delish. Megrim is the poorer relation to Dover sole in as much as it’s not so in demand but actually the flavour is good and it’s a sustainable fish 🎣

I was thinking about making a carrot relish of some type and it seems there is a popular sandwich sold by a well known food store, Wensleydale cheese and sweet carrot chutney, (sounds amazing) so there is demand 😀 I also need to have a go at the caramelised red onion chutney that everyone seems to love although I didn’t grow red onions this year and seems pointless buying them in so I will put it on my list to grow next year. I also want to try getting a pickle as close to the country’s favourite, Branston, I wonder if it’s possible?

I absolutely adore Pinterest, I’m pinning all the time lol, anything you have an idea about can be found on there, my folders take nearly as long to get through as the site itself 🤣

Wednesday: Dry again today, temps are average, overcast. Got the usual morning jobs done and then dug out a tub of fence paint and started painting the fence near the back door, random? , not really as Mum and my niece Anna are coming over this morning to do some jobs 😀 So I thought I would set them onto sorting out the front yard space, as I said before it had always been just left because of Kai but now he has gone I can tart it up a bit. It needed an awful lot of weeding and a good bit of tidying and so painting the fence and gate will make it look a whole lot better to boot! I also made another little raised bed out of the ones I took down, at the moment I have only put pots in it but I will get round to planting it up soon. Mum found four little buddleja saplings growing and has potted them up for use somewhere else or selling on, mine is the yellow, ball type and I would like to get the more common purple one at some point, superb for the butterfly population.

Thursday: Raining this morning, normally I would make rainy days, baking days, but I need to do the cleaning instead 😜 Before going outside I had cleaned the washing machine, Charlie was complaining it’s stinks, it did, so I cleaned out the drawer and put a solution through it, cleaned all the sink plug holes nearby and it smells much better now. I sprayed the bathroom ready to give it a clean later, and the back toilet, got the dinner underway (braised beef with garden veg) and a pudding, plum crumble, John will be very happy tonight 😀 put some washing on then went out and did the orchard animals before coming back in and getting on with it. Mid morning my cousin came with a bag of seaweed from his holiday, I had asked for some to make my own fertiliser. I had to put the sold out sign up because we are out of eggs until this afternoon as I don’t have time to keep going out and collecting them besides we would never catch up if I did. There has already been a steady stream of customers, we can never seem to get this balance right, too many customers, not enough eggs, too many eggs, not enough customers, I don’t know what the answer is?

My vest veg customer came twice this morning, I saw his car, but there was nothing out there mainly because I was not going to go out in the pouring rain and pick it! A quick lunchtime sit down before I carry on 😋

I had a brief look in the office/playroom/junkroom and decided that was a whole mornings work on its own so I shut the door again 😜 I think I need to employ the services of a professional de-clutterer! Besides the Sun is out again now so I may go out and do a bit of picking, I will just have a quick browse on Pinterest first 😋

Well looking on there mad me hungry cos it’s mostly food that comes up on my feed lol, luckily I had got some soup out of the freezer and ate that, then I really needed to have a bit of a rest because things are playing up a bit and I’m having to take ibrufen to get anything done ☹️ so I popped a couple of pills and had a lie down on the sofa 😀 But not for long, I think I will get a ‘do not disturb’ sign for the gate 😜

Fed the birds, picked up the eggs, picked some runner beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, I am trying to decide if the melons are ready, I think I shall have to pick one and cut it to see, I’m not sure what variety they are and it’s not totally clear if they have ripened. The rain and now the sunshine will give everything a bit of a growth spurt hopefully as it has dwindled a little bit, better be careful what I wish for because it will take me longer to pick everything lol. I think another batch of runner bean chutney is needed as the last lot went fairly quickly.

I made some Greek yoghurt in the yoghurt maker, another packet I’m afraid as I haven’t got round to reading how to do it without but I will, beside it does taste delicious 😀

Friday: Beautiful morning, fresh to begin with, no idea what the temps went down to overnight but must have been fairly low, then warm sunshine which looms as though it’s here for the day 😀

Got all the orchard animals fed and watered, I did a good bit of foraging for the rabbits so they have some diversity in their diet, I cut a melon to test for ripeness, its not quite ready but not far off so I gave it to the torts and some to the light Sussex chicks, who are now getting to a good size. Some of the runner beans are now getting older and so I made a batch of chutney with those and I am just investigating ‘shucking’ which is removing the bean from the pod and possibly then blanching the beans and taking off the outer layer leaving a lovely green bean that splits in two, can’t be much different from a pea really.

The kitchen smells amazing 😀 as well as the chutney I have tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, basil and oregano, salt, pepper all tossed in olive oil, reducing down in the oven for a sauce, delish. A bit of an indulgence really as John doesn’t like pasta so the sauce is all for me and whoever I share it with, it’s a bit of a shame because if I’m honest it is the part I love the most about harvesting it all is making lovely goodies to eat either fresh or later in the winter time.

Saturday: Dull as far as the weather goes though not cold. I spent a fair bit of the morning chatting with various customers but in between that did some picking, runner beans, courgettes and broccoli. The brassica cage is still holding up really well against the cabbage white so I am able to harvest quite a few sproutings, I also filled a trug with old leaves and bits that have ‘blown’ as I call them, there was also a cabbage in there which was supposed to be broccoli but isn’t, I gave that to the light Sussex chicks to pick over, it should keep them busy for most of the day. I need to put some kale in for overwinter and will definitely be using the cage for that. I noticed the other day that the few French beans plants I planted had got more flowers on so I thought I will leave them a few days and then pick the beans, well something has been eating them ☹️ at first I thought rabbits, but they would have eaten the whole bean and this is just the end so something that can’t quite reach all the way up, possibly a mouse which will be more difficult to protect them from.

I was walking down the garden and heard a familiar noise, oh shit, I had left the water on in the poly tunnel, for 24hrs 😜 damn, it won’t need watering for quite a few days now but hopefully it will swell the melons!

Had Josh and Florence for a few hours, mostly played with playdough that my sister had made for him, it started off four different colours now it just one 😋

Sunday: Another dull day, not that I’m complaining as it means I can get stuff done outside. John did most of the birds while I did the orchard lot. Today that meant cleaning out most of the huts and runs, putting in clean bedding and washing out the water bowls. Two of the huts needed moving as they don’t have floors they are just on the dirt ground. Meanwhile John has started repairing the movable chicken hut which will go into the side paddock to house a new batch of hens, just 30 in order to keep turning over the laying flock and meet the demand for eggs.

I went for a little wander around the farm to see what blackberries were about, not many they are still red, quite small and look dry due to the lack of rain I suspect. My cooking app,e tree continues to chuck apples all over the drive especially when it’s windy, it’s a shame as the tree showed great promise at the beginning of the year. I picked some more Victoria plums, a fair few of the last lot I picked had codling moth grub in them but the branches on the other side seem fine, it’s my own fault as I didn’t put grease bands around the trunk nor did I put up the moth traps, I definitely will do next time.

Have a great week 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

‘Timeless simplicity’, tortoises & pasta sauce.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday August 6th and the year is rolling on😜 By 9am this morning I had already done a 4hr stint in the garden! Watering the bits I didn’t get done last night and tidying away pots, I have a place where I keep them all over winter then as they get used I tend to chuck them down by the front of the greenhouse along with anything else I have been using 🤪 I figured it was time to tidy it all up, I also demolished one of the narrow raised beds in front of the greenhouse. Over the years it has had various different things growing in it, mostly flowers but the trees have got a bit big and it’s too shady, I did however shove the potatoes in there when I could finally get them in after the wet spring, they have not amounted to anything so that was waste of time, the wood at the bottom was rotting and coming away so it’s time to remove them. As always I didn’t take a before photo so this one is of the remaining bed so you get the idea of what I am talking about and the nice clear space I have now made. I contemplated doing the other one straight after but sitting here having my coffee I’m thinking that was probably enough action with the lump hammer and spade for today.

You can see that I have mounded up the soil in the background and covered it with black plastic, the soil was dead, there was hardly any life in it at all so covering will help to bring it back to life and get some composting done.

And then I finished my coffee and thought, sod it, in for a penny, in for a pound, and got on with demolishing the other one 🤪 although as fast as I was trying to rake up the chickens were in there scratching it all about! The asters that were growing on the end have been put in a tub of water, each year I kept meaning to divide them as they have been struggling for a couple of years, so now after a good drink I will pot the, up ready for selling or planting in various areas. Once the soil has broken down a bit I will be re using it on other projects I have in mind or to top up any existing raised beds, that area is going to have a small compound and house built for my new arrivals so that they are nice and close for the grandchildren to help feed and watch.

After collecting some eggs, as trade is brisk this morning, and finishing tidying stuff away it was 10.30 and time for a well earned rest and catch up with my fave tv programme at the moment 😀

Tuesday: Lay in, Up at 6am 😜 I only did a small amount of watering today I will do more tonight but the night are much cooler and full of moisture so it’s not as needed as it was. Picked a good amount of veg, 14 cucumbers lol, they have been hiding I think, beans, mangetout, tomatoes that will ripen out in the open sun and some baby corn. Then I got on with removing another raised bed that is under the trees and doesn’t get much light or rain so things struggle, actually the hens all scratch in in too so most things have died off. I moved it to the front, dug up all the soil, added some rotted manure and planted it up with the plants I bought ages ago and haven’t been able to sort yet and gave it all a good soaking. Then I made a coffee and sat down for five minutes peace, I got to about three and Sam, Mia and Alfie arrived. Sam and Mia helped to put the run up and move the ducklings outside for the day, they had great fun splashing, washing and preening themselves, the bigger ducks came to have a look and it’s got me wondering if I could get them to adopt the same way the geese did, it’s worth a try I reckon. Then we fed the rabbits a couple of the cucumbers and the light Sussex chicks some spinach and a few weeds, I collected up some eggs as customers keep on coming this morning and then it was time for Sam to go to work and Mia and I to entertain ourselves 😀

We have some roast chicken left over so I am going to make a curry with that today, John won’t eat curry so I will have to come up with something else for him.

While Mia was asleep I made a chicken and broccoli bake for John, the recipe suggests breadcrumb on top but I will just use potato and cheese. When Mia woke up we went outside to hang out the washing and pull some carrots to go with Johns dinner and then we fed the chickens and collected the eggs, Mia very carefully carried the quail eggs back and put them in the egg box, none broken 😀 Then we had a well earned rest and watched Wisspa 😜

Not many eggs to put out this afternoon and we had completely sold out, they have dropped in numbers by about 20 a day which is a lot!

Oooo when is it ever going to rain again, just keeping everything alive is bloody tiring, sometimes I look at how dry the ground is and think shall I just stop? The paddocks have now gone from brown to starting to blacken, I know they will come back as soon as it rains for long enough but honestly I don’t want another summer like this one!

We made a decision to put the ducklings in a hutch outside with the run around them, they are only three weeks old but they haven’t been under the lamp for the last week and the nighttime temps are not cold, in springtime I wouldn’t have taken the risk but at this time of year, with the weather as it is, it should be fine.

Wednesday: Noticeably cooler this morning though the rain forecast for the end of the week has disappeared off the radar again! Did a bit of watering and Mum arrived early to do some more hoeing, it’s great because I would never keep on top of it all otherwise, so thanks Mum 😘 I tidied up the small bed in front of the front gate, a bit of chopping and cutting back, clip the grass edges (the only bits of grass growing) planted up one of the lime trees in a pot and put that out there and pulled out no end of shasta daisies they are so thuggish and take over entirely. A quick cup of coffee and then set about sorting out the greenhouse, throwing away stuff I don’t need, taking down the staging that is in there, it will be burnt, it’s not very good as it had to be screwed to the frame to stop it falling over! Plenty of stuff to keep but I need to sort out the shed so I can get it in there lol, always a knock on job, once it’s cleared it will be ready to take down then John can put the base down and I can get it ordered, we have some very large tree branches to remove as well so that will be quite a big job. We pick up my new pets tomorrow and they will be living in there temporarily until we get sorted for them. Molly the cat has disappeared again, sometimes she does this for a few days but as she is quite ancient I know one day she won’t return.

The evening sky was totally awesome tonight, we were driving back from my brothers (another birthday 😀) and the view across the Windrush valley was fantastic, it reminded me of a Wild West sunset (not that I’ve ever seen one except in films) I did say to John that we are lucky to see things like that, people living in cities and big towns don’t get to see it very often and we see great sunsets every evening, I did try and get a photo but my phone camera just does not capture the magnificence of it at all.

Thursday: Awake early because it’s become the norm and I can’t turn it off now 😜 This morning we are off to pick up the two new members of the menagerie 😀 I will introduce them later.

On one of the smallholding pages during a discussion about meat production and all that comes with it, was a quote from a book, a book that I have now ordered and look forward to reading.

‘The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking his pipe.

“Why aren’t you fishing?” said the industrialist.

“Because I have caught enough fish for the day.”

“Why don’t you catch some more?”

“What would I do with them?”

“Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.”

“What would I do then?”

“Then you could sit back and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” ‘

from ‘Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane

The hens are looking decidedly worse for wear with this continuing lack of rain and consequently a lack of green grass! In the industry they are kept for 52 weeks from point of lay and we are nearing that point so have some decisions to make, difficult because around 60 of them are still laying and I think if we had better ground the others would probably still be but the relentless heat has taken its toll as well, do we get a new batch at a cost and retire the others but that means twice as much work, do we sell off the older birds cheap even then we would have a cross over period of waiting for the eggs to get big enough, hmmm we will ponder on it for a while I think. It will be better to get new birds later in the year so that they carry us through the summer months when demand is higher but that means keeping more birds than would be ideal through the winter months. It is not just the hens, the ducks have dropped off too, with this in mind I have ordered feed with wormer in the hopes that keeping them in the best condition possible will help bring them back into lay, then of course you have the added problem of the daylight hours getting shorter all the while, it’s not easy 😝

So we went on a road trip, not long, about an hour and look what we bought back with us, meet Billy, who we shall call Big Billy and Voldertort or Voldy for short, currently they are in the fruit cage on weed patrol. Their owner is relocating out of the country and was looking for new owners and we were chosen 😀😀😀

In the afternoon I carried on clearing out the greenhouse, goodness knows why I’ve got so much stuff in there but I do use most of it at times, I have tidied up the shed a bit so I can get some stuff, that shouldn’t be getting wet, in there, the rest is outside! Hopefully I can get John started on taking it down this weekend and then the base can go down ready for the new one.

The tortoises spent all afternoon trying to get out of the fruit cage, Billy is very astute, he knows where the door is and if I’m in the garden he comes over or follows me while I’m walking round the outside. He also likes feet lol, especially ones in flip flops and kept making a beeline for Sams toes. We just (by a whisker) got their hut sorted with dry bedding in it before the rain came down, they had taken themselves off to bed about 6, into the trug with the straw in it which wouldn’t have held off the rain, so they are now nice and cosy for the night.

I found a great list of what torts like to eat, it’s very extensive and we have plenty of most of that on and around the farm 😀

IT RAINED 😀😀 not a huge amount but enough to wet the ground and hopefully we will get a bit more before the night is over.

Friday: Still raining 😀 giving the ground a good soak, I did intend to get a fair amount done but with the rain to begin with then visitors it ended up with nothing, not outside anyhow, I made bread and used fresh tomato/basil/ garlic to make bolognese and a batch for the freezer for another day. Picked some veg and weeds for the tortoises who were slow to wake today with temps dipping so much, then picked more herbs and weeds for the rabbits.

Saturday: Dry and sunny today and after getting all the morning chores done I went off to Worcester with our next door neighbour to a sheep sale 😀 Yvonne has Oxford Down sheep and this was a special sale of that breed.

John had instructions to clean out the ducks, geese, and hens and we discussed creosoting one of the moveable huts so that we can move it to the side paddock and purchase some news hens to overlap the older ones.

By the end of the sheep sale if I never hear another sheep bleating again that will be fine 😜 it was a very interesting day mind you and the whole operation is very slick. I spent the day wandering around and watching some judging and some of the sales and people watching too, fascinating day all in all, and with a few purchases made and loaded we headed home.

Rain in the evening.

Sunday: Wet start maybe it will dry up later on, John did the birds then went off to work for a couple of hours. I made pasta sauce for the freezer, tomatoes, basil, onions and garlic all homegrown mixed with salt, pepper and olive oil then roasted in the oven, cooled blitzed and frozen. I also had some bananas to use up so I made a GF banana, chocolate (cocoa powder) and peanut butter loaf, a basic chuck in the bowl and mix along with maple syrup and some coconut oil, baking powder so it’s dairy free and low in calories as well 😀

Sam and Luke stayed overnight as they went to a function locally and we looked after Mia so we had Mia to entertain us this morning 😀

We are off out for a Sunday roast later with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence so depending on the weather we might not get much more than the routine things done today.

Molly returned.

Well as usual once it starts raining it doesn’t flipping stop, it always goes from one extreme to the other!

Posted in Friesland Farm

Grazing tables, runner bean chutney & and soup mix.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday night again: As I usually start the blog on a Monday morning I sometimes miss out something relevant or interesting, tonight while John was watching the F1 highlights I was reading a book I ordered last week.

Pretty interesting stuff and quite a lot of plants I had no idea you could eat, some of them are obvious and well known but a lot of them are long forgotten for instance we all know what Quinoa is these days, but the victorians were eating it long before we ‘discovered’ it and then it fell out of favour for many, many years. I have got quinoa seed that I was going to grow this year but when I got ill I couldn’t sow it, I will defiantly give it a go next year, along with some other grains, amaranth, millet, and wheat.

The sky, for a very brief period tonight (about 3 minutes) was amazing, it looked like someone had lit up the whole place with orange floodlights, I have seen some amazing sunsets in the years we have been here but that is a first, it was quite eerie, it was quickly followed by rain and dark foreboding skies.

Monday 30th July: It’s my birthday 😀 and as is custom I will be providing the food for any visitors today, I have decided to lay on a grazing table, look them up, they are amazing, I’m not saying mine is going to look anything like the artistic offerings on Pinterest but I will give it my best shot. My present is not arriving until mid August, I know what it (they) are and they will be increasing the menagerie by 2 but I will leave you guessing until then 😜

First thing I turned the water on in the poly tunnel then indulged myself with a coffee and a catch up with The Handmaids Tale, difficult to watch at times but a fascinating series.

We sold out of eggs yesterday and nearly every day before that and by the time John went to work the hens hadn’t laid so after a quick shower and another coffee 😝 I went to collect so that we will have some for sale today!

Top up Jacks water in the field, give the burning bin a kick so that it keeps smouldering away, lay out some cardboard on the garden, we have another heatwave ahead apparently, hard boil some quail eggs ready for later, FaceTime with Shelley! Josh and Flo, then with Sam and Mia, sit down with coffee 😜 I actually feel rather to tired today so I’m not going over do it although there are many jobs to get done, it’s my day, they can wait 🤪

Had a wonderful evening with some amazing presents, my family know me very well, I did the grazing platters for food and I was really pleased with how they turned out

Tuesday: Family funeral today and so it was just get the necessary jobs done first thing, I then watched a short tutorial on forest gardening, then out for a large part of the day, come back to get the necessary jobs done then out for dinner in the evening with Dad and Sue who came up for the funeral. Very tired by the end of the day!

Wednesday: Lammas 😀 Up fairly early not for any other reason than the dogs barking to go out, they don’t normally but they were in for a good few hours yesterday and so it was only fair to let them out, mind you they were barking at 3.30am however I ignored that and they then waited until 5.

John did the feeding as normal (it’s fallen into normal anyway) and I did some watering in the tunnels, fed the rabbits some forage and hay, took the sheets off the bed to wash, still feel pretty tired this morning.

I potted on the honey berries, red currants and cranberry, the cranberry I actually potted into an old recycle bin, which I lined and filled with ericaceous compost, it likes to stay wet apparently so I need to remember to keep it watered. Sue and Dad called in for coffee before departing for Wales and after that I did a bit of housework and had a little rest.

By 2.30 we had sold out of eggs and when I was ill it had to stay like that until John came home but as I am on the mend I went round and collected them up, feeding the birds thief scratch corn in the process, a bit early in the day but I would never get anywhere near the hut without tripping over them or standing on them if I didn’t do it😝 While I am there I turn out the persistent broodies, we are down to about 4 now as apposed to 11 at one point!

Did a bit of watering in the evening just to keep on top of the bit of good the rain did.

Thursday: Had a bit of a lie in this morning, the dogs barked at 5 so I let them out but went back to bed till 6.30 and I feel better for it, I feel like I have some energy to get on. I turned the sprinkler on at the bottom of the veg garden and the pressure was down so I went round the farm and checked that all the outside taps were off, they were so it wasn’t that, I went back and took the sprinkler head off one hose and attached it to another, nothing wrong with the pressure there so I went back to the other hose and found a piece of wood chip lodged inside, problem solved 😀 Then onto foraging for the rabbits, this morning they had a selection of weeds and herbs, I have also got into the habit of giving some to the light Sussex chicks who love picking over it. There seems a huge difference between the hybrids and the pure breeds as far as forage goes, the hybrids would certainly eat chickweed and brassicas but they wouldn’t pick over the plantain or the herbs as I have tried it before so I am really pleased that the pure breeds are going to be able to forage, and therefore sustain themselves. much more widely than the hybrids.

I dug up a few bits that I want to bring on for the hedge lines, lemon balm being one plant as well as a couple of dog roses that have self set, there are hazel trees and elderflower that sprout up all over the place which I will also be using, the ground is still too hard yet though.

I am still looking for something to create another small pond with and trying to decide where to put it, it will have to be covered with wire in the winter or the ducks will just demolish it when they are free ranging. I intend to let the Welsh Harlequins roam over the vegetable garden at the end of Autumn, they will help to control the slug/snail population and the light Sussex will also have free range to control any pests both above and below the ground, all the while they will be fertilising the area, win, win.

I went for a gentle wander around the farm, I was in the hunt for butterflies because we haven’t seen very many this year, plenty of cabbage whites but not many others. I did encounter a few common blues, my dream one day would be to spot large blues 😀 I have seen a few over the last couple of weeks, a speckled wood butterfly, red admiral, tortoiseshell peacock but not very many, I’m guessing the weather is making it difficult for them. I need to print off a little chart I can carry so that if I see any I don’t recognise I can look it up there and then, mind you it’s quite difficult to get a good look when they are fluttering about.

I did find a good amount of blackberries that I will be able to pick when they are ready , we haven’t had many for a few years as John cleared them all out of the hedgerows when he was tidying up 😝 plus the horses used to eat them before I could get to them and as there is just Jack now hopefully he won’t get round to scoffing the lot!

I thought I ought to stop chasing butterflies and do a bit of housework 🤪 besides it was getting a bit hot out there for me!

I picked up the post and in there was an invitation for a health screening which always gets me thinking. The questions are pretty generic especially on exercise, I don’t go to the gym or go for long/brisk walks, I don’t swim (anymore) BUT I spend most of my time (when possible) outside in fairly clean air, put it this way, I can smell the fumes when I go into town, and most of that time is spent on the move so that can be about 6/8 hrs a day, some of that time is spent doing hard physical work. Scraping dried chicken poo off the floor is pretty physical even though it doesn’t sound it, I hump 20kg feed sacks up and down, straw bales, barrowfuls of horse muck and occasionally there is some hard digging to be done, at times I have shovelled 14 tons of shingle, mixed up tons of concrete and barrowed it to where it’s needed, carried heavy blocks/pieces of wood and pushed heavy chicken houses/horse boxes/trailers, who needs a gym membership? Then there is the food question, do you eat healthily? Well this one always gets me, depends on what you consider to be healthy, I do not consider fresh vegetables/salad/fruit to be healthy unless it hasn’t been sprayed with either pesticide/insecticide/herbicide ( and lettuce the most heavily sprayed crop there is) or treated with artificial fertiliser and growth hormones. I don’t consider animals that have been routinely pumped full of medication of any sort to be healthy either, I don’t really consider farmed fish to be the best option and I am beginning to wonder because of the state of our oceans if fish is actually a good option or not (and I rarely eat prawns because of their preferred abode shall we say 😩) I cook from scratch so I know what is in the dish I am eating and most of it is home grown, not every ingredient, that’s impossible, but those that are not, are on the whole responsibly sourced. Yes we eat pies, puddings and cakes but they are not shop bought (except if I am catering for lots of people a couple of times a year) have you looked at the ingredient list on a shop bought cake ?? 😩 there is barely a recognisable ingredient in them. I drink decaf coffee (haven’t quite made the leap to tea yet) I drink less alcohol than a nun who has taken her vows, mostly because alcohol does not mix very well with the meds I have to take, if I do, I have have two G & Ts (I prefer an artisan gin, should you ever need to know that 🤣) max so my unit measurement is a grand total of around 2 a month pushing the boat out if it gets to 4! Sometimes it can be 0 for months on end ( That does not include holidays away when it could be considered as binge drinking in context 🤪) So I think I do eat healthily, and sometimes heartily 😋 but always mindfully, PLUS I take very good care of my gut bacteria, a subject that the medical profession, in this country, on the whole has not woken up to yet. Now, back to the subject, where do you think I will find the tick box for that lot 🤔

The grains I ordered arrived today, amaranth, wheat and millet, oooo now I’ve been looking them up and milling at home is a possibility I am full of enthusiasm for growing it 😀 originally I bought them to grow for the chickens but we may as well benefit too.

The runner beans are coming in thick and fast, I think chutney is on the cards, the butternut squash are growing well I’m really pleased with them, last year they were very small and not very many of them either. The melons in the poly tunnel are also doing much better than any other year, and the tomatoes are looking like a good crop too. I grew three types of tomato, money maker, your average size tomato, beefsteak, giant ones, though they haven’t got that big yet and then plum tomato which will be for making sauces or cooking with, great because the basil is also doing exceptionally well, yum.

My dual pear tree, although it’s growing very well, has got scab, just on the one variety, the other must be more resistant, so I spent the evening reading up about it, how to control it and also how I need to prune it, there are lots of pears on it, it’s a shame that about 50% are no good 😏

Friday: I set to pruning the pear tree first thing, I need to make sure every leaf and fruit is picked up in autumn and burnt to try to prevent it happening again next year.

Going round the garden I discovered that something, either chicken or blackbird, has been pecking away at my spaghetti squash 😏 they are growing under the asparagus which has now gone to fern, so I had to cut the fern down low enough to be able to put environmesh over the whole lots to stop any more losses, if it’s not one thing it’s another, I thought they were well hidden away under there. Mum came over early and got started with the hoeing, it always looks so much nicer when it’s done but I hardly get time to do it so I’m very grateful 😀

We have had Samantha’s dog Alfie all week while she was away on holiday and he can be a real pain in the butt, he chases chickens (doesn’t hurt them it’s just a game) he chases the cats, same again, he will torment Jack in the field by trying to round him up, he jumps the gate when egg customers come and has even jumped into their cars when they open the door this week, he tears around from the back when he hears the back door open and barges through the gate nearly knocking you flying if you haven’t remembered he is there, he constantly carries the longest stick he can find in the hopes that you will throw it for him and you have to have your wits about you when he has that in his mouth, but he does have one use that the other dogs don’t have and that is that he barks at anything unusual. So when he started barking at lunchtime and it wasn’t in the direction of the front gate I went out to investigate. I found him down the strip between the duck pen and the veg garden barking away, I couldn’t see anything so I stood for a couple of minutes, then I heard someone whistling from the direction in the next field from us, up popped a familiar face, guess who has lost his hawk again 😂

Later on in the day I did some watering and harvested some of the potatoes that were growing in pots because it’s really hard to keep them going, there wasn’t much on them but a few boilings which will do us. I dug up some lemon balm and mint with roots and potted them up, I will be using some of it to plant in the hedgelines for the hens to forage on and of course the insects love them. They have both flowered and gone over now so I harvested the mint in big bunches and hung them to dry in the greenhouse, some of it will be crushed up and used for adding to the horse feed in winter and the rest will be dried for the rabbits. I will probably do the same with the lemon balm and both of them will put on some new growth before the end of summer, some mint that I already cut for feeding fresh to the rabbits has grown back and I have cut that to make mint sauce. I also harvested sage, again I cut it back after flowering and this is all new growth, that will be dried for winter use, I will probably give it a hard cut back in a couple of weeks which will then be dried for the rabbits in winter. I will also dry some mint for culinary use, I’ve not done this before I don’t know why it’s just not something I have thought about using dry, first time for everything 😀

Saturday: Got straight on with making runner bean chutney this morning and also some mint sauce both are pretty easy to do, if you have never had runner bean chutney give it a try it’s well worth it, very tasty 😋 I picked a few more runners and some mangetout, but that was about all I did outside. We went out for an impromptu lunch then of course the afternoon nap 😜 and out again this evening for a surprise party. Not achieved very much today!

Sunday: John got on with the feeding and letting out while I started the watering, had a bit of a lie in until 6.30 this morning 😀 It has been so hot again that the ground dries up fast, luckily overnight there is still moisture but not enough to keep everything going on it’s own. I did some picking, runner beans 😝 courgettes, baby corn and broccoli, although the brassica cage has kept the butterflies out it hasn’t kept out the flea beetle which arrived in hordes when the field next door was harvested. They make thousands of little holes in the leaves but eventually they will die off and the plants will recover with new shoots. The second lot of broccoli I planted, you will remember, kept going to seed and I had to keep taking the tops off, well they never produced anything, except seeds 😀) so I will let them go to seed and hopefully some self set plants will grown next year. The general rule is not to grow brassicas in the same place twice because of club root but I’m willing to chance it and see what happens.

Once it started to get too hot out there I came inside to prep what I had picked, firstly blanch the broccoli for open freezing, I soaked in in cold water after for a good while so that any beetles float to the top of the water and can be taken out. I finally got round to making my ‘Souper mix’ this is basically any veg and herbs you want to put in and blitz in a processor, in the photo everything except the celery Is from the garden and will make an excellent vegetable stock for soups or casseroles/stews, I can sneak things in there that John wouldn’t normally eat 😝 The original recipe suggests adding an enormous amount of salt and putting it in jars for storage however I decided to freeze it and the only thing I could find that would be about the right portion size was cake tins, so I used cake cases and filled them to the top packing down tightly and open froze them, when they are done I will discard the cases and pop them all in one labelled bag for use as and when.

I wanted to get some passata made as well but I haven’t quite got enough ripe tomatoes yet, I grew the large plum variety this year especially for this reason and as the garlic and basil have done really well I’m hoping it will taste divine. 😋

We had tickets for countryfile live today but as the temps are set to go above 31c and there is never enough shade at these kinds of shows we gave the tickets to Charlie and Macca, she reported that it was very hot and they were melting so I’m glad we didn’t go.

There is a very good reason why, when I but plants in, that I do not plant them up straight away, and today I am really glad that I don’t because the peach tree I bought has sprouted horsetail or marestail in the base 😩 an invasive weed that is difficult to eradicate, at the moment it’s one piece that I will break off and burn until such time I can take the tree out of the pot and clean the roots thoroughly. I could inform the place I got it from but as it spreads by spores it could have come from anywhere but I have never had it before and it is not growing anywhere else, yet!

An evening of watering, with the temps as they are it really doesn’t take long befor everything is dry as a crisp again! Rain forecast for the end of the week and I hope we get a bit more than last time, it’s getting a real struggle to keep everything going with the days shortening as well. A bit of tidying up in the fruit cage, the rabbits and Guinea pigs love raspberry leaves and so they had a bucket full of cuttings, and I’m done for the day 😀

Have a good week 😁