Month: June 2019

Posted in Friesland Farm

Garden produce, borage & hot weather.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th June: It’s very humid today, no Sun so that’s great for me but, sweating and glasses steaming up hinders work 😂 On top of that my cold has now turned to sinusitis, bloody brilliant 🙄 I can’t breathe through my nose very well and that even makes eating difficult lol. Having said that I have been working (and eating) I did the morning rounds as usual and then tidied up the front flower border outside the gate, then I went into the brassica cage and weeded all of that, a trugful of weeds divided between the torts, the rabbits/guineas and the young chickens. I picked some peas which we will have with our dinner tonight, some rhubarb which I am planning to make jam with and some artichokes which I have no idea what I will do with! Artichoke is a delicacy and we are not that kind of eaters, they are also a bit of a faff if I’m honest but they make great architectural plants and if there was nothing else available I’m sure we would eat them, I must try the torts actually as they might like them. The easiest way to eat them is cut in half, remove the choke, then use garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, plus herbs if you like to coat them and roast them in the oven, they are delicious but as I said a bit of a faff even to eat them lol.

It was trying to rain when I came in at lunchtime and we have these thunderstorms supposed to arrive but as yet nothing.

I’m sorry a couple of the photos didn’t upload correctly on last weeks blog so the pic of the kittens wasn’t there, nor the greenhouse, I will see if I can fix that this week.

Update on the kittens, Benny is getting a little braver and will have a stroke now and again, Sam bought them some dreamy treats and they love them so it’s a good way to get him to come to me, however when I say love them, I mean love them, addictively 🤪 so much so that I have had to limit them and be careful when giving them as TC bit into my thumb last night because I was holding one, his needle like tooth went straight through my thumbnail, ouch, very ouch 😲

We finally got round to getting the fridge out, it’s an integral fridge so everything had to be unscrewed, we found a mouse nest at the bottom and it had chewed the lagging off the cooling pipe which had then frozen with solid lumps of ice. Unfortunately we also found a hole in the top and water leaking from it, goodness knows how it got there, anyhow we weighed everything up, the fact that it is over six years old and if we got someone to repair it, if they could, it would start to cost the same amount as a new one. The fact that it’s integral means it is quite small, goodness knows what I was thinking when I decided on it in the first place, and I have always complained that I can’t get much in it, so we decided to buy a new one, not integral but freestanding. I opted to have it taken away and recycled and to have the packaging taken away and recycled so I feel better about it slightly, but things ain’t what they used to be these days 🙄

Watered the poly tunnels and a few other bits, no sign of the storms yet.

I decided not to make rhubarb jam in the end instead I cut it and open froze it for use in the winter.

Tuesday: It’s raining this morning, it seems the thunderstorms that were predicted have abated a little, I’m glad of the rain it means I don’t have to water the garden but the temps are set to climb high this week. I say high, probably not by some countries standards but they are by ours.

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary 😲 where did all those years go.

It’s 7.30am and I am waiting for a break in the rain before I go out and do the rounds, I don’t fancy getting too wet this morning 😂

After braving it and not getting too soaked, I made some bread and a mixed crumble with the rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, did a bit of cleaning, then got soaked when someone came to buy some ducks lol, some you win, some you lose 😜

Wednesday: Another good day for me weatherwise, overcast which means I can get out and about easily and do some stuff. Mum came over in the morning (with a bit of homemade Bakewell tart 😀) to give me a hand so we weeded the front area which looks better now 😀 I am not sure what to do about it long term, it’s a huge expense of gravel and normally I weedkiller it but I’ve been trying to avoid that, however the weeds are growing like billio 🙄 and it looks scruffy. One idea is to cast seeds from love in a mist, foxglove, poppy etc so that it’s supposed to look like that lol, what ever I decide it has to be the least amount of work possible to keep it looking ok.

Sam arrived and took me food shopping, the new fridge also arrived and I didn’t want to go before that came so that I didn’t have too much to unload when the time came but now I can fill it up 😀

After a short rest I went out and cut the lawn and the front driveway grass while John pulled up a forest of stinging nettles. The farmers are out busy cutting the hay so we know we are in for a good few days of sunshine, great for everyone, not so great for me 😂 I shall be up early (hopefully) to crack on before the temps climb too high.

Thursday: A sunny morning, feels like it’s going to be hot 🥵 I did the morning rounds, discovered John had turned on the ICB tank at the back last night, forgot to turn it off and now it’s empty! Great just what we needed 1000ltr of rain water gone and no rain forecast for a while 🙄🙄 I went for routine blood tests today and on the way back along the lane a hare ran across the road in front of us, that made my day, week, month 😀😀😀 I have a particular love for hares.

We had lamb for dinner tonight with carrots, kale and potatoes all from the garden, and then raspberries and strawberries for pudding also from the garden, delish, the taste is amazing especially the carrots, John said ‘I don’t know what they do to the carrots in the shops but they have no taste compared to these’ I take that as a compliment 😀

Friday: Another fine day, I often wonder what other countries use as an icebreaker conversation, here in the UK it’s always the weather lol, mostly ‘it’s, hot, cold, wet, horrid, today isn’t it’ but occasionally ‘it’s a beautiful day’ and today is one of those 😀

After doing the morning rounds and collecting forage for the torts I made coffee and sat and watched them to see what they prefer. For both the rabbits and the torts it’s always dandelions first, especially the flowers for the torts they love them. I gave them some borage flowers today, I had picked some along with the raspberries and strawberries which I will eat alongside each other. Borage, just in case you didn’t know is the starflower, all parts are edible but the root is not palatable, it’s contains gamma linoleic acid which is anti inflammatory and helps to build muscle rather than fat, besides that it is a beautiful plant, though it self seeds readily, and it attracts pollinating insects by the score.

I am always interested in what is edible both conventional and wild, John says that I can’t wait for an apocalypse lol, I can, I don’t want one to happen but if it does and the supermarkets run out, I want to know what we can eat 😜 and if that ever happens in our lifetime, he will be grateful too.

I am beginning to get a fair few courgettes, I can feed them to the chickens and I do make the yummy chocolate/courgette cake but as a general rule we don’t eat them, I would like to know how others use them in their cooking please 😀

The baby robins have fledged so I can now rummage around in my plant pot stash without fear of disturbing them, unless of course Mum and Dad come back for a third batch!

I was watching the ‘dead stick pile’ the other morning and the amount of birds that use it for cover is amazing, all the fledglings feel safe flying into the piles and there are obviously nests in there as well so I will definitely be using these for the wildlife. I thought I had hit upon something new but apparently they are called dead hedges and I can see how they would be totally useful in a very quick time to ‘fence’ off an area, I intend to use the idea round newly planted trees to stop the geese from stripping the bark and the hens from scratching up the disturbed soil.

I made a lemon and courgette Madeira cake, simple enough recipe and tasty enough, at least it’s a way of getting some of your 5 a day 😜 I’m not actually sure it counts to be fair but it uses up a courgette and they are coming thick and fast now.

The recipe is from thecrazykitchen.co.uk

For dinner we had roasted new potatoes and peas from the garden with steak, I roasted the potatoes and steak in the oven with olive oil, crushed garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, simple but delicious 😋

Saturday: John went and did the rounds while I cleaned the boot room where the kitty’s are and then cleaned out the rabbit/guinea run and collected leaves for them and the torts. Picked a few courgettes and some raspberries and by 9.30am it’s already hot out there, I can feel my skin beginning to prickle and itch, I can see I won’t be outside for very long today. The Lupus makes it difficult to get out and get some work done on days like this because I don’t want to end up with another flare which is what will happen if I was stupid enough to work out in the Sun, the antibodies would have a field day and I would be back in a place that is not good, so although I would love to be out in it, I will hide away inside for most of the day 😏

I was able to work in the shade until about 12.30 sorting out the area around the greenhouse, by then bumps started to appear on my hands so it was time to go inside. Days like these are when I am grateful for the insulation as it’s wonderfully cool indoors 😀 we had lunch and then rested on the sofas for the afternoon waiting for it to cool down again.

The dogs are laying in the shade, they have a great life, they don’t go for walks but have free range of the place from early in the morning to late at night, Mia spends a lot of time trying to round up ducks 😂 patch doesn’t bother choosing to lay and watch 😜

Charlie and Macca invited us for a bbq in the evening, their garden is shaded by that time so it was nice and cool 😀

Sunday: I had set the alarm for 5am this morning in order to get some stuff done before it gets too hot, John got up at the same time and did the morning rounds then cleaned out the hens, I watered things that were flagging from yesterday’s heat and then picked courgettes, broad beans, raspberries and rhubarb. It was lovely and cool at that time of the morning and easy to get on with things. I potted up some peppers that I had been growing in the poly tunnel but moved to the greenhouse, even though they are late they should do ok in there and produce something. Then we went for breakfast at Shelleys, they returned home from a holiday in Italy yesterday so we went to hear all about it, sounds wonderful and they fell in love with Italy 🇮🇹

As it happens it’s about 8 degrees or more cooler than yesterday and cloudier so we probably didn’t need to get up early but it’s a great time of the day 😀

I tried the gooseberries but they need a little longer until they are sweet, I will be keeping an eye on them and the cherries as the crows strip them as fast as anything once they know they are ready.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Kittens, Fairy’s & Bon Jovi lol

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 17th June: Perfect day for me finally, no rain, no sun 😀 so I spent until 2pm out in the garden, mostly weeding, a huge trugfull for the rabbits and Guineas one for the little chicks, some juicy thistles etc for the torts, yep plenty of weeding done today lol. I planted some more sweet corn that Shelley gave me, and watched the little robins darting back and forth to the nest with worms, this is the second brood they have raised in my plant pot holder, I disturbed a little frog under a pile of weeds, good to know the wildlife is abundant 😀

I picked more courgettes today, I was looking at all the plants thinking omg I am going to have a lot of courgettes lol but the hens will eat them so will the torts and the rabbit and guineas so what ever we don’t use or sell will still be of use. The cucumbers I planted out when it was warm are struggling with all the wet weather so I dug one up and moved it indoors, one looks like it may be ok and the other three, well I don’t think they will make it 😏 I do have three more in the big tunnel that are doing fine so should have plenty of cues 😀 There are tomatoes beginning to form on one of the plants and plenty of flowers on the other plants, most things are just beginning to get going now, it always seems like a long wait and then there will be gluts of everything 😜

Just watching ‘The War on Plastics’ again, horrific, it goes from bad to worse! Wet wipes 🙄 Flannels, cloths, cotton rounds, water and baby lotion are the way forward!

Tuesday: Dry so far this morning although the rain is forecast this afternoon 😛 Mia day today, last one as Sam goes on maternity leave after this week. This cold I have gets better one day and comes back the next so I have a headache today, better than a blocked nose I suppose. A quick look round the garden with my coffee in hand, picked a few raspberries and a couple of strawberries but not many.

We had a lovely lovely day, the rain mostly stayed away, Mia was a fairy in the morning lol and then my Mum came over to do a bit of gardening and Mia was her little helper, well more talking her ears off but it was lovely listening to the pair of them while they were working.

I picked all of the remaining broad beans from the plants that have been growing since last autumn and as mentioned the early potatoes have blight so I dug most of them up, there is half a row that as yet is untouched by it. It wasn’t a bad haul from a small space and I will now use that space to grow more carrots I think.

In the evening we went to collect two new animal members of the farm, meet TC and Benny, you will have to be of a certain age to get the names 😜 but it was one of Johns favourite cartoons.

Wednesday: Strange day as far as the weather goes, it seems like it’s going to rain but hasn’t yet, dreary but warm, I know there are big thunderstorms going on in the UK but we don’t seem to be getting anything. I did the morning rounds and then a quick check of the veg garden. Some hoovering and prepping the dinner later, home grown potatoes, carrot and broad beans, yum. Played with the kittens a couple of times to get them used to me, they were born on a farm in a shed and did have humans but being taken away must be quite frightening so I am trying to settle them in gently and hope they realise we are nice 😀

We are fast approaching the longest day, summer solstice, and haven’t even had any summer yet! Hmmm we could definitely do with a bit more warmth for the toms cucumbers and peppers, the rest will tickle along nicely as it is.

The kittens are in a large dog cage in the boot room, I thought they were secure 😂 I watched them earlier climbing up the cage and thought, ah how cute, when John went out the back later he said ‘the kittens are out, do you know’? Now maybe the fact that the cage door was still bolted might have given him some kind of indication that, no, I didn’t know! It seems they have climbed up and got out of a gap at the top, obviously a cage made for a large dog isn’t going to keep two tiny kittens in, duh, I should have thought it through more thoroughly. Gap now plugged it remains to be seen if they can squeeze through any other gaps, the problem with letting them out is that we have a large pipe running surface on the floor, right in the middle to be precise and it has to be stepped over every time 🙄 it was temporary about 5 years ago, and until the exit areas of the pipe are checked I have no idea if they are sealed when they meet the walls. John is busy eating an ice cream so can’t do it at the moment 😜 priorities. All checked and secured, kittens now back inside the cage hopefully they will remain there 😏

TC is the friendliest one who will come for a stroke and purrs, Benny doesn’t, he hides away and so he is the one we need to work on.

One thing really bugging me at the moment is the integral fridge, it is freezing everything so at the weekend we are going to pull it out clean all around it and see if that makes a difference.

Thursday: Writing this at the end of the day and can’t actually remember what I have done, can’t be that memorable 😏

I do know that I prepped the dinner early on this morning, I had a random minced pork in the freezer, I probably bought it for stuffing at some point and never used it so tonight John has ‘piggy pie’ a pork version of shepherds pie and I made meatballs to go with some garlic, basil and tomato sauce that I made last year and froze.

The kittens have been given free reign of the boot room, well they were escaping every time we shut them in the cage anyhow so might as well let them out. It does mean the dogs can’t have the door open to come and go like they usually do though, I don’t think they are too bothered and they don’t seem bothered by the kittens who have found themselves a perch high up out of the way 😜

Friday: Summer solstice, It looks set to be a warm day today 😀 I did the morning rounds cleaning out the ducklings on the way round, they are getting big now and have almost feathered up and are definitely quacking instead of cheeping lol. I did a bit of watering, it’s surprising just how quickly things dry out even after a week long of rain showers. The other ducks have been left inside the stable today as we are off to Wembley to watch Bon Jovi tonight, looking forward to that, as the ducks tend to roam far and wide I thought it would be safer if they were in😀 Charlie will be coming after work to let the dogs out and put the birds to bed.

It’s befitting that we are going to a concert today on the solstice, a day of celebration which traditionally combines feasting, music, and enjoying the company of others, yep I think that covers it, I have of course taken time to just enjoy the outdoors and wander amongst the flowers, herbs and veg, stroking some of them so that they release their scents, listen to the birdsong, watch the butterflies and bees flying around and appreciating it all, that’s the main thing, you’d be surprised how many people can be right in the middle of nature and not really notice anything and there is such a lot going on even in the smallest of spaces.

I have begun to pick a few raspberries, not many at the moment but enough to have with a bit of cream after dinner 😀

I did a bit in the poly tunnel, some potting on of plants to put out for sale when they get big enough and some potting on of others that I either will plant eventually or keep to gather seed from. Having been out of ‘flower gardening’ for a long time I am re kindling my love affair with certain flowers, Cerinthe is one that I love, it’s not showy or particularly fabulous but I like it for its understated beautiful purple drop like flowers.

One thing I have discovered while looking up some plants is I seem to be drawn to the ‘wort’ family, cerinthe is honeywort, I have motherwort, soapwort, spiderwort, dropwort (in fact the dropwort was the plant I thought was growing and turned out to be ragwort) and the drop wort was growing next to it. Worts have medicinal uses, must be the hedgewitch in me that is drawn to them 😜

The concert was amazing 😀 Manic Street Preachers were the warm up band, all you can eat food and all you can drink bar, we didn’t overdo it though lol, many thanks to my sister and brother in law for the opportunity x x

Saturday: So busy today that it’s 9.30pm before I sit down and type this up 😜 We have at last got all the glass in the greenhouse and we have 2 out of 3 benches in plus my potting bench that John bought me a few years ago, although I use it as a work station because it’s too nice to use for anything else 😂. Basically that’s what we have been doing most of the day with cups of tea and a bite to eat in between, we went to the DIY shop to get a sander and some storage boxes and called in to see Sam, Luke and Mia on the way back.

It has been hot today although we did have occasional cloud passing over, with the temps rising the forecast is for thunderstorms tomorrow evening ⛈

Sunday: Today we finished off the benches/staging in the greenhouse and now I am as happy as a pig in poo 😝 I have just come in from sitting in there with a cuppa and listening to classic fm, did you know they had a classics chart countdown on a Sunday evening, nope neither did I lol.

This morning I picked 6 courgettes and some raspberries 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, rain & that’s it, just rain 😏

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th June: An ok morning as far as the weather goes, not sunny but not raining, yet, and not cold although colder than we expect for June. We are stuck in a weather front with the jet stream coming down from the North and the warm air coming up from Southern Europe, result, mostly rain 🙄 We do need a bit of heat now to move the veg along a bit, well those veg that need it any way, the melons for instance in the tunnel are not putting on as much growth as they should be and the tomatoes/peppers like it warm, still we have a couple of months left yet so all is not lost.

After doing the animals I went into the garden and picked peas, broad beans, rhubarb and some kale, I will use all these for dinner later, I did put out some broad beans for sale. The pea plants were put in last autumn and they have nearly finished now so I have pulled them up to make way for something else, the nitrogen nodules on the roots were huge so I pulled them off and put them back into the soil 😀 the leaves and stem I will leave to wilt a while before putting them onto the soil to rot down naturally and feed the soil.

The number of bees, I have noticed is great as are the ladybirds but so are the aphids 😂 I guess that’s what you call a balance of nature!

My soft fruit is a bit dire this year and needs an overhaul, when we had to replace the fruit cage at the end of last year, I think it was, I dug up the raspberry canes (most of them) and put them in pots, I thought it would be good to leave them in there but I was wrong. The problem with raspberries is they send out runners underground, lots of them, but on hindsight it’s easier to just hoe them down than to maintain the plants in pots. The blueberries are struggling yet again and these are new plants, the old ones got wind rock during the winter before last and died off, these are alive but not really bearing many fruits, I need a good think about where to site them as they don’t seem to like it where they are even though they have been cosseted with ericaceous soil and feed. A couple of years back I was picking kilos of strawberries then I changed things about and since then I have not had more than a meagre picking so again I need to sort that out.

The rain came 😏 I took the opportunity to watch the new series of The Handmaids Tale, I know it goes far beyond Margaret Attwoods original novel but I’m loving it.

Omg we have had some torrential downpours! Sam and Mia arrived I could see the car in the drive, Sam waited for an interval in the rain and got out to get Mia out but just as she had fully committed herself down cake another torrential pouring. I grabbed a towel and opened the back door but they were soaked by the time they got in, clothes off and in the dryer, electric fire on, and soup on the go.

OMG what a horrid day, rain, rain, rain, get a soaking, dry off, get a soaking, dry off, get a soaking 😋 peed off 😝 I wouldn’t mind if it was autumn or winter I’d be expecting it but not bloody mid June 😏

Shelley also came over in the afternoon, she has just done a threading course and needed victims er I mean volunteers 🤪 Now not being one to keep up with my beauty regimes I actually had no idea what this was when she said she was going to do it, I thought it was something like weaving hairs into your eyebrows 🤣 I found it fascinating to watch this ancient technique being applied and it didn’t hurt that much 🙄

7.45pm stilling pissing down ☹️ to add insult to injury John was working just two villages over and he said it hardly rained there!

Tuesday: Another grey, rainy morning, yesterday we had about 2” of rain judging by what has been captured in the various buckets around the place. Great because we really needed some rain but really it can stop now and bring back the sunshine 🙄 It’s going to be a long day today, Mia day and no chance of getting outside by the looks of it 😏 looking at the forecast we are not going to get any let up until Friday. Lol I’m aware that I am moaning if it’s too hot and moaning if it’s raining but seriously we don’t seem to be getting much ‘in-between’ weather anymore, just a regular day would be lovely.

I watched Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall on ‘The war on plastic’ last night, it’s shocking stuff to be honest, we really have to make a massive effort to get rid of single use plastics, not just recycle them as clearly it’s just a problem being dumped in someone else’s back yard, but get rid of them totally. I am always appalled at cucumbers, swede, cabbage etc shrink wrapped in plastic, there is no need, when I shop, on the whole, I put the items loose in the trolley if I can. The more I try to avoid it the more I realise just how much is out there, everything is packaged in plastic🥺 I use brown paper bags to sell produce, I do also use plastic fruit containers as I have found it difficult to source cardboard ones at a reasonable price but I do ask people to bring them back so that I can wash and re use them, the same goes for any plants I sell, there is a notice to say plastic plants pots are welcome so that they can be re used.

Wednesday: Hopefully the weather is going to start to be drier from here on in 🙄

I did the morning rounds and cleaned out the ducklings and the hens in the stable, picked some herbage for them and the rabbits/guineas, in between that, put on some washing and drying and checked the garden over. The colder than usual temps are having an effect as nothing is really moving forward and overnight we have lost some of the younger chicks ☹️ A couple of weeks back it was flaming and they were fine but last night they had obviously got cold, gone under the bigger ones and got crushed, bloody weather, although my bad as I should have preempted the situation really. I have a drake missing, I noticed yesterday he was not around, I can’t see any evidence of him being taken but I have no idea what has happened I him.

Now I am coming right down on the steroids I don’t have as much energy as I had before which is a bummer 😏 the difference is very noticeable, I get a bit done and then think, I need a sit down, and could even manage a nap lol, it’s rubbish but it is what it is.

On the plus side the water tanks are all full 😀 even the new IBC tank at the back and I haven’t had to spend hours watering everything, every cloud and all that.

My plan for the rest of the day is housework 😝 might as well do it while the ground is too wet to work on.

I was watching a lecture on regenerative culture and about 2 thirds of the way through I encountered an enlightening moment, really quite profound, SUSTAINABILITY IS A NEUTRAL POINT! WOW, just WOW, I had never thought of it like that before which is why I guess it was such an interesting statement to me. I know it seems that all I do here is potter around with the animals and plants, bake things, make things etc but my aim has always to be self sufficient as far as possible, I’m missing the mark by a mile, I’m aware of that but I’m doing what I can, or am I?

The future of the planet and humanity is dire, it really is, if you having been living with your head in the sand you will not have noticed but when you read, listen to and take note of scientists, ecologists etc you begin to understand what is happening. I am not into activism as such but I’m glad there are groups out there, they are not fanatics or tree huggers or fringe livers they are people who understand ( on the whole) and are trying to get others to take note. Back to the sustainability issue, is it by fluke or is it progression that I had taken onboard the whole forest gardening and tree planting thing because that is the next step forward from sustainability, I can see that now but I had to watch an obscure video to have it spelled out to me!

Do yourself, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and so on, a favour and start thinking about your accountability to this planet before it’s too late. Make changes for the better, better for the environment, better for the country, better for the world, you know what they are and if you don’t then learn the information is out there.

I had a hankering for cake so instead of housework I baked 😀 Two fruit loaves and two small date and nut loaves, using our own nuts 😀. I made that many because as I was turning the oven on I might as well get good use from it. I have started doing a few things that can help with saving water, we don’t have a dishwasher so I wash up at the end of the day, just once instead of many times, unless I have a mountain of dishes of course lol, and I don’t flush the toilet every time, every other time or three times, obviously if there is something bigger than a wee in there I will but I figure it all helps even if it’s just a little.

I need to explore the areas that I am not doing well in, John is the biggest one 🤣 he is just not environmentally inclined and it’s difficult to change a lifetime of habits, some things he gets, like not using weed killers and contaminants and after watching the war on plastic he is beginning to realise how ingrained it all is in society but he doesn’t apply that to the things he likes to eat that come in plastic so he won’t change it which is why it has to be a big turnaround from the manufacturers because I think that is how a lot of people think. I have been actively seeking out things that come in glass bottles, things that are cardboard, paper or wax wrapped rather than plastic but some things are difficult and I don’t want to avoid them altogether. I remember a time when toilet rolls came in paper and now it’s all plastic outers 😕 why?

I did do some cleaning, hoovering and polishing in the end, thought I had better 😋

Fed the birds, collected and sorted the eggs, sat down for a cuppa with a slice of cake, I thought the rain had finished as it has been dry all day but it’s just started again 😐 the temperature is warmer today mind you, the wind from the north east has gone.

Thursday: Another day in paradise, in the rainy season that is! According to my forecast it was supposed to dry up but nope it’s still peeing down which means nothing will get done on the veg garden and the weeds will be romping away, after spending last week trying to get them under control it seems futile 🤪 I have just looked at the forecast again and now rain is on the cards for the next few days 😏 Vegetable gardening in these constantly changeable conditions seems like harder work each year, honestly you never have any idea of what is going to be thrown at you and for how long, our seasons are out of whack! Oh well short of putting everything under cover there is not much I can do about it except moan 😜

Doing the rounds this morning I noticed that all of the geese came out and left the area so I quickly grabbed a torch and went to see what was happening with the eggs they are sitting on. Four nests, one with one egg that looks viable, one with two eggs that look viable, one with four eggs that mostly look ok and one with three eggs that are clear so not viable. I took out the unviable ones and swapped in a couple from the other nests, the reason being that typically the goose who has sat the longest is on the dud eggs! The geese may be getting fed up of sitting now which is why they have all come out and I’m not too worried about them hatching anything except for their own good. After I made a coffee I looked out and could see that two of the geese had gone back so we will see what happens, a couple of the eggs are close to hatching by the looks of it, once they do they will abandon the rest of the eggs anyway, they are pretty fickle lol.

I have seen a few pics of wildflower meadows lately and my sisters neighbour has even done it on her front garden in town, now that the grass is not being eaten off I was thinking I would like to do this in some form. I missed the boat a bit because I could have easily turned the front paddock into wildflowers while the hens were not on it but left it a bit too late to think about it.

Prolonged days of rainy weather like this mean the egg numbers will drop from the hens, they hate the rain and are reluctant to get out in the grass and forage naturally, they stay huddled under or in the coop. You would think the opposite would be true for the ducks and to some extent it is, of course they love the rain but they don’t lay any better 😂

Oh it’s horrible out there lol, Sam, Mia and I went for cake, I mean what else can you do on a day like this 😜 When I got back I did the hens and eggs, as I was walking up the back the sun tried to peek through but the rain soon got the better of it! I went into the poly tunnel, I could see large, dark black clouds looming, I had some late tomatoes to prick out and was stuck in there while the heavens opened, everything is soaking, dripping, puddly yuk, yuk, yuk it’s supposed to be summer.

I found a flower in the driveway, I think it may be an orchid (update, it is an orchid, possibly a pyramid orchid) but I’m not sure yet.

Then I remembered that one year we had them in the back paddock so I took a walk and found a bee orchid 😀 delightful.

Friday: Guess what? It’s raining 😝 we are at saturation point now, previously because the ground was so dry it has been soaked up but now we have standing water in areas. We don’t flood as such, we have a corner in the front paddock where all the water runs to which is flooded for a while but soon runs away and if we have volumes of rain and it can’t get away fast enough we have areas that get very wet but not flooding as such which is lucky. I had a wander round the veg garden, everything is doing ok, we could just do with some warmth to push it on a little bit now.

And then the electric tripped 😏 luckily I’ve got used to this and know what causes it, the pump for the water tanks, it always happens when we have a lot of rain.

Made some bread, did the afternoon rounds and put cleaning bedding in for the ducks. The sun made an appearance and it started drying up, I want to clean out the little chicks but not if the rain is going to come back as it would be a waste of time.

I picked the few Strawberries I have and ate them all myself with some sour cream lol

If you are interested in the Sun in anyway apart from bathing in it 😜 you may be interested to know that it has an 11 year cycle with solar maximum and solar minimum, we are entering a solar minimum, that is a minimum amount of sun spots and flares, the jury is out on how much this affects our climate but I’d say (though I am no expert) that it has to has some bearing on our weather even if minimal and they say it will be a deep minimum 🙄 which could have effects up to 30 years, though humans are undoubtedly causing more damage to the climate overall.

In the evening the lads came over to get the greenhouse along a bit.

Saturday: I have officially had enough of his poxy bloody weather now, the plan today was for John and I to finish glazing the roof but although it was supposed to be mainly dry it has in fact been mainly wet!!!! In between showers we got four panels of glass up there and then discovered we were one short 😡 so can’t finish it, the the lead sealant nozzle snapped clean off so it’s game over as far as that is concerned today. Meanwhile I still can’t get any bloody gardening done and the weeds will be like triffids, time to find another direction in life maybe?? This one seems to have far to many hurdles thrown in the way 🙄

I did pick a few things early this morning when it was dry and sunny, the first courgette some kale, rhubarb and artichokes and I picked peas and mangetout in the afternoon.

I took some dianthus cuttings and went into the poly tunnel just as the heavens opened again.

I have been watching two melon plants which have been struggling, two more at the other end of the tunnel are doing fine but these two are not. I had a closer look and they have severed at the root, I’m not sure what has caused this, either a cold spot in the ground or too wet or something has eaten them off underground. I found some wood and built a box, lined it and filled it with compost then planted the only melon plant I have left in there along with some Chinese gooseberry and a pepper, hopefully I have covered all bases and it will be fine 😀

The sweet potato I put in water to root is slowing doing so, however the process has been long so I would need to start it off a lot earlier next year.

I woke up with a cold this morning, 🤧 very rare for me, I will blame it on the weather 😛

Sunday: Guess what, it’s raining! John did the animals this morning and finally the ducks have started laying more, I won’t hold my breath though as tomorrow we may be down on numbers again. I noticed yesterday that the potatoes have blight (early blight) ffs, that’s the trouble with all this rain it will cause, fungus of all types, I’m thinking a giant undercover area would be an all round option 🤪 No wonder farmers have developed various methods to get successful crops over the years, even though they turned out to be detrimental to the environment, you cant blame them for trying and it’s very trying at times 🙄

I have come to the conclusion that the way I am gardening veg is not really working for me so I need to tweak it a bit next year, just re arrange a few things and do a bit better on planning and siting. I am finding it a bit too muddly for my organised mind, I am sure there is a better way and I will find it eventually lol.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Last of the planting, some picking & Johns birthday

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd June: Well rested after a weekend away it’s time to crack on 😜 After sorting all the birds out in the morning it was straight into the garden to see what’s been happening and what needs to be done.

I planted the cucumbers, loofahs, some tomato plants and the dahlias, all a bit late going in but it won’t harm them. I put a few more plants out for sale, picked some buckets of weeds and herbs for the rabbits and hens and picked some veg that was ready. Today’s pickings were rhubarb, broad beans and baby turnips, some of which I put out for sale, the turnips I kept back were washed diced and blanched and will be open frozen for use in soups, stews and casseroles. It’s it easier to do it this way then I can grab a handful when I need them, I am aiming to do this will all the root veg if possible. The dwarf kale is reading for picking but I will pick it as I need it. I also cut some flowers for the table, roses, sweet Williams and huechera , it looks pretty and brightens the place up plus the roses smell amazing.

There are one or two strawberries that have ripened while I was away, might as well eat those while I am wandering around lol, there are also plenty of radish and salad leaves to be had at the moment.

We have plaice for dinner, I keep avoiding it in the freezer because I need to fillet it first but today is the day I decided to do it lol, I will cook it with lemon and parsley butter, potatoes and the peas I picked before we went away, delish 😋

Did the afternoon egg collection then cleaned out the ducklings and prepped the dinner, then time for a sit down and a cuppa plus a piece of banana bread that Charlotte made while she was staying here 😀 I taught her to bake from about the age of seven, she was diagnosed as a coeliac at 14 months and the whole family mostly ate gluten free while she was growing up and so teaching her about food was important. In fact all three of the girls know about food, they understand the different food groups and how they go together, they understand the difference between ‘real’ food and processed food (you’d be surprised at how many people don’t) they can all cook and bake from scratch without a jar of sauce or packet mix in sight (I’m not saying they do all the time, just that they can 😝) and most of all on the whole, they enjoy cooking, job done ✅ there I reckon 😀

I pruned the leader branches from the cherry tree, two reason, one I don’t want it to get too big and the other so that when they start to ripen I can still get a net over it to stop the crows from stripping the tree in no time at all!

With stone fruit you should prune in June that’s the general rule so they don’t get silver leaf or canker.

As rhubarb is still in plentiful supply I made a rhubarb pudding cake for dessert, a self saucing pud, easy peasy.

Tuesday: Mia day 😀 I got all the morning jobs done before Mia arrived and then we pretty much played all day lol, picked dandelions for the torts, sat on a blanket on the grass for an hour or so, then the rain came. We are getting the ideal amount of rain as far as the garden goes because I’m not worrying about things not growing, on the contrary they are growing well including the weeds 😝 I’m not quite sure what to do about them they have overtaken my ability to keep them in order at the moment. I saw some cornstarch weed barrier but the price is rather high for my liking so I will carry on hoeing until I come up with a plan! Once the veg start to romp away it will be fine as they will shade out the weeds but until then it’s a constant struggle lol.

Wednesday: Well the weather is certainly not flaming June! Not that I’m complaining because at least I can work out in it but it a tad on the cold side 😜 After sorting out the morning jobs I set to sorting out the poly tunnel so that I could get a couple more melons and tomato plants in, I did a fair amount of hoeing outside so that I could rearrange pots of plants that I am growing on and organised those. Mum came at lunchtime and did some weeding and it looks great especially the fruit cage and I no longer feel like I’m drowning in weeds so thank you Mum you are a star ⭐️ I had Josh for a couple of hours in the afternoon he likes to come and be on his own at the farm with me and help do the jobs lol, we collected the eggs and did the ducklings, pinched the tops off of the broad beans as they have blackfly, sang some songs with Mum and then had to watch tv as we had worked so hard 🤣 his words not mine.

I did a bit of hand weeding late afternoon, the carrots have been sporadic to say the least, we will get some summer carrot but I think I will need to sow some more for winter use.

I made some bread and some choc chunk cookies and I also picked some elderflower which is steeping in water and lemon juice overnight to extract the flavour, I’m intending to make jam with it 😀

The 75th Anniversary of the D Day landings got me interested in learning a bit more about RAF Broadwell, part of our land was part of the dispersed sites, No3 to be precise. When the weather is dry and certainly last summer you can easily see where the foundations of buildings were and when you are trying to get anything in the ground in the front paddock you always hit red brick lol. It would be great if I could find a comprehensive map or old photos of where we are but although there are many photos online and some sites are detailed ours does not seem to be 😏 If we ever found an underground bunker I would consider that we would hit the jackpot lol, it would be cold storage at it best.

Thursday: Did the morning stuff then popped to town to get a few bits, it’s Johns birthday tomorrow and so our turn to feed everyone 😀 the forecast is heavy rain ☹️ so I am doing pulled pork rolls and accompanying salads.

I finally got the limoncello under way, basically it’s lemongrass (bashed with a rolling pin) and lemon verbena, steeped for a few days in vodka then make a sugar syrup to add to it and voila. I have also got elderflower and lemons steeping in water to make elderflower jam. It being a creative kind of day I picked some roses and I am drying the petals, to start them off drying I have put them in the poly tunnel but I won’t leave them in there as it will be too hot and also the light will fade them too much, along with that I have picked some flowers to hang to dry, I’m thinking I need a drying shed 😜 as I would like to dry a whole bunch of things. I want to be making wreaths at Christmas after my day out last year and so drying things to use seems like a good idea, I will experiment with all sorts and see what turns out the best.

Friday, Johns Birthday: I spent most of the day prepping and cooking food! Starting with the birthday cake first thing in the morning after getting the animals done. John had the day off from his regular work but neglected to tell me he was going to be home, consequently I had arranged to get all this cooking done and have a visit from a friend so he sat around like a spare part most of the day🙄 It mostly rained so doing anything outside was a bit pointless for him, it was a surprise he said, yes guess what, surprise, I’m busy all day 🤪 next time tell me in advance and we will go out for lunch and I will do nibbles for the birthday guests not a full on pulled pork feast!

In amongst all that two new Guinea pigs arrived, I wasn’t expecting them until the weekend and so I hadn’t got anything ready, I put them straight in with the rabbit (who is still fine) and the other pig, later in the day when Sam and Mia came they cleaned out the run which I had intended to do tomorrow morning.

Later in the early evening everyone arrived, ate, drank, chatted, sang happy birthday and then went home, Happy Birthday John 😀

We had a bit of thunder and lightening but not much, I love a good storm.

Saturday: Pouring with rain this morning and looks like it has been from early on, June, such a lovely warm month 😂

We are off out to have breakfast this morning with Sam, Charlie & Shelley as a little treat for Sam as she didn’t want a baby shower, the twins are growing well but she could go into labour anytime and she can’t eat a full on meal anymore, no room 🤪 so breakfast is the lighter option.

Breakfast was lovely, I had waffles, bacon and maple syrup 😋 we went to The Old Shed just outside Charlbury, it’s delightful there, shame the weather wasn’t better or we could have eaten al fresco!

We popped in to see my brother and sister in law on the way back, then home, John cleaned out the ducklings while I got Jacks stable ready to get him in for a day or so, with all the rain we have had the grass is going to grow like billyo and he needs restricting so until we make his field smaller, he is coming in and going on hay, he won’t like it one bit but it’s for his own good.

The sun came out but it’s really windy, it makes moving straw a bit of a futile effort, get a load on the end of the pitchfork, turn around to put it in the barrow and you’d be lucky to get half of it in while the other half blows away!

I decided to call the guinea pigs Boris and Donald 🤣 Josh has named the other one socco? Until now he hasn’t really had a name lol, the rabbit is called Peter even though she is a girl, that’s at Mia’s insistence and she is still very well thank goodness. When we went for breakfast they had animals and I noticed that they had double lined the cage with two lots of wire with a gap inbetween, this seems like a good idea as any wild animals could not get nose to nose with the enclosed ones, an idea I think I will implement on future runs.

Sunday: John did the morning rounds while I went out and picked broad beans and rhubarb to put out for sale which went within minutes!

Yesterday Martin came over and did a bit more to the greenhouse and today Luke came over and we got some of the windows in, just a bit more to do and it will be finished.

It’s cold for the time of year this evening, the sun was nice today but now the temps have dipped a bit ☹️

The elderflower I had steeping, and it said 48 hours, went mouldy so I’m going to have to start that again 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain 😀 a few jobs done & a trip to Wales

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th May: Bank Holiday. Although it looked like rain threatening all day, it never came.

We did some cleaning out this morning, John did the the two big hen huts while I cleaned out the now vacant rabbit pen. The other rabbit is still looking fine which rules out my two suspicions of how they might of got infected, one being the forage I collected from the field but she also had it so can’t be that, and two, taking her for a walk, her contracting it and passing it to them through the grille, obviously not. Their pen can easily be reached by wild rabbits and maybe some nose to nose contact through the bars, her pen cannot be reached so that’s the conclusion I have got to so far.

In the afternoon we went to the local steam and vintage rally which was a nice break although the wind was a bit chilly, great to see all the old vehicles and steam engines, from a bygone era. When we got back I watered the poly tunnels and the recently planted stuff and that was it for the day lol.

I took some Clematis cuttings, I have been taking cuttings of everything and anything 🤪

All the things I am growing at the moment 😲 no wonder I’m busy!

Garlic, onions, beetroot, bulb fennel, dwarf beans, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, sprouts, turnips, swede, broad beans, peas, tomato, cucumber, melons, carrots, salad leaves, spinach, radish, spring onion, strawberries, parsley, coriander, peppers, cape gooseberry, grape, lemon grass, raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, kiwi, apricot, cherry, apple, pear, honey berry, Logan berry, runner beans, pumpkins, courgettes, potatoes, garlic, chives, mint, fennel, caraway, sweet cicely, horseradish, rosemary, oregano, sage, lovage, lemon balm, lemon verbena, asparagus, rhubarb, artichoke, red currant, cranberries, olives, fig, peach, plums, choke berry, loofah, gooseberry (red and green) mulberry, Angelica, bay, thyme, amaranth, quinoa, tree spinach, and then there are things like small leaves limes, Hostas, day lilies also edible, flowers/trees and shrubs for the beneficial insects a mixture of native wildflowers and trees and of course weeds 😝 something for every living thing here 😀

The rain came at 9pm and yessss it came down in bucket loads which will help to fill the rain tanks ready for more hot weather predicted for next weekend. It got torrential just at the time that John went out to put all the birds to bed 😬 ooops, I put the fire on and made a hot drink for when he came back in, he was soaked! It just happens that it’s his job to do the putting away as I’m am usually clearing up or washing up or typing up my blog notes 📝 still I spent many years walking the kids to back and forth to school and clubs in the rain so do I fell bad…..nah 🤪

I have been reading up on biochar, the good and the bad, I haven’t made up my mind which wins yet yet but I do think that with practice you could make it yourself rather than buy it.

There are four geese sat on four nests of goodness knows how many eggs in them! Typically because I wasn’t planning on having goslings this year it will probably be a successful hatch and there will be loads of them 😝

Tuesday: It’s half term so Sam is not working and I don’t have Mia today, I can crack on with a few jobs, John is also home so he can get stuck in to some work as well. After doing the morning stuff he started to make a base and fit one of the IBC tanks on the POL pen, this had a water barrel but it doesn’t hold much so a tank of this size (1000ltr) will be great. Then he started adapting the pen so we can put the ducklings out in it. Some draught proofing is needing but that’s about all it needs, the remaining five hens in there will move out into the paddock with the laying hens. Meanwhile I started tidying up the orchard pen, raking the ground and moving stuff that had been used and just got left and cleaning out any cages that are now also vacant. The little light Sussex that I hatched out, are inside a pen, inside the orchard pen if you see what I mean but I have been letting them out into the bigger area which they are loving.

In the afternoon, Shelley came over with Josh and Florence, Shelley and Martin have both got a vomiting bug 😷 so I took the kids out for a wander round the farm for an hour or so while Shelley got a bit of sleep, it got them out in the fresh air and running off a bit of steam as well. We saw a Little Blue butterfly which are quite common here and another small pretty one that I don’t know the name of and I didnt have my phone with me so couldn’t photograph it. One year we had some orchids growing in the big paddock so I had a look for those but couldn’t see any sign of them, maybe one year they will appear again. I may go back out later with a camera and see what I can photograph.

I have just been reading an article on how it would be possible to be self sufficient in fruit and veg in this country. I have had this conversation with people before, some saying it isn’t possible but I really think it is, if we utilise what spaces we have well, then food can easily be grown in the garden. There are small patio fruit trees and bushes these days making it easier for small gardens and you would be surprised with just how much you can pack into small areas. We import 70% of the apples consumed into this country, which is ridiculous given that our climate is perfect for growing them and in Autumn the amount you see lying on the ground is criminal. The same can be said for nuts, perfect climate, they grow in abundance yet we are importing them, go figure 🙄 If you want to but think, I can’t, I don’t know how, then just push yourself a little bit, learn or just try and see what happens, most plants want to grow they just need you to look after them, water is essential for all plants and some need more warmth or a bit of protection from birds etc but it’s really not that hard. Start with the easy stuff like herbs, this time of year even tender herbs will thrive, Then there are tomatoes, given plenty of water they will do well in a grow bag by the back door and there is nothing better than a sunwarmed ripe tomato, dwarf beans, easy again, get the plants make sure they stay watered and voila fresh veg. Ok you will still need to go shopping but you may just get the bug and want to learn/grow more 😀 There is no magic, green fingers help but we don’t all have those 🤣 yes you need to water but imagine standing outside with your wine or tea in your hand while doing it, perfect.

If you want to know more or learn I am more than happy to show you round my veg plot and you can ask as many questions as you like and endeavour to help you get going 😀

We moved the ducklings to their new abode, they are loving the extra room.

John moved a load of muck with the tractor from the back to the front, hopefully we will get the back cleared and a fence up, that’s the plan anyway.

We have an old caravan which was here when we came and it has lots of stuff stored in it mostly crap lol, I made the mistake of going in there and then one thing led to another and I started going through stuff 🙄 It’s been on the to do list for about 8 years 🤣 you never know I may finally complete the job.

I don’t need to water today yay, so after dinner I got a few hours off 😀

Wednesday: Rain again today so that’s fabulous, we are heading to high temps at the weekend apparently.

John has gone to work today so I get a bit of peace and quiet 🤪 Did all the morning feeding, letting out, filling up water troughs etc, the ducklings are fine despite being outside overnight so that’s good. Then I collected a couple of bucketfuls of herbs and weeds, one for the rabbit and guinea pig and one for the hens in the stable, not sure what I am going to do with them yet but I can’t have them on the veg garden so for now they have to stay there.

I moved the big poly tunnel around a bit so that I could plant some more cucumbers in the ground also a couple of tomatoes and some dill. I didn’t really think it through when I said no rush about finishing the greenhouse because everything that was in there is stored in the tunnel, including a very long potting bench and now I need to be planting into the ground I can’t 😬

The rain came so I went indoors to do a bit of cleaning, polishing, hoovering, washing all the boring stuff lol.

On Friday we are going to Llandeilo in Wales to see Dad and Sue, we are using Airbnb for the first time and staying on a smallholding which I am very excited about, I will tell you all about it later. Shelley and Sam will be here for the day on Friday to look after things then Charlie will be staying here Saturday and Sunday to look after things. It means I have to sit down and write a list of the routines and jobs that need doing, fairly straightforward except for the idiosyncrasies that everyone has lol such as the tap that is connected to the rain water tanks. It is connected to a pump but that is playing up and you have to turn it on then off again before connecting the hose otherwise the pump won’t kick in, then when you turn it off the pump keeps running so you have to listen out for that and turn the tap on then off again and it goes off, if you don’t it will blow the electrics by keep running, haha these are things I know but need to remember to tell others!

Quick cuppa and a natter with my neighbour in the afternoon who bought me a bag of bottom shearings (they are off of her sheep not her 😂) which I will use as a mulch, added bonus are the dags which are basically poo caught up in the wool, extra fertiliser 😀

I made a schoolboy error of not putting my wellies on when I went to do the afternoon feed and egg collection, I know have wet feet and trouser bottoms, div 🤪

When John came in from putting everything to bed he said he couldn’t find one of the light Sussex hens and she hadn’t gone to bed by herself, he looked everywhere 🙄 I went out and found her fairly quickly, you have to think like a chicken, she is too heavy to go up so she will hunker down in a corner somewhere which is exactly how I found her.

Thursday: The sun is back this morning after a couple of chiller, wet days. John is home again today and we did the morning routine between us.

This morning I have a blackbird that seems fascinated by the bag of sheep’s wool, I have now idea why by it keeps hopping up to it tweeting away, maybe it wants some of it for a nest.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the forest garden approach, I’m struggling with letting go of the control of the garden, it’s better for me because I’m not stressing trying to keep everything together but still there is that part of me that wants to clean, tidy, hoe, rake, cut back lol. At the moment it looks like organised chaos, eventually, and I know it’s a process that can’t be hurried, it will all make sense but getting there is taxing me 😝 Of course is going to be so much better in the long run, especially for the wildlife, I can see the sense in it, even though I haven’t used pesticides or artificial fertilisers etc for years the difference that not having bare earth between veg rows makes is noticeable both for the plants and the insects/birds. One day I will achieve ‘forest garden’ gold 😂 Meanwhile I am busy learning as much as I can about it.

Friday: We were up and busy doing the feeding and letting out before we set off for Wales to visit Dad and Sue.

We had booked through Airbnb to stay on a smallholding which was absolutely delightful, very rural and very quiet. We had a homemade honey topped cake on arrival which was delicious and ate heartily at Dad and Sues plus a trip to Aberglasny gardens.

At the smallholding old habits die hard and I was up at 6am each morning sitting outside on the patio with my coffee, just the birds, a few sheep, a goat and some cows a couple of fields away for company total bliss 😀 On the first morning John got up about 7 and we went for a walk along the lane lol, not a soul around, we will definitely stay then when we go back again. Doug and Stella were our hosts, friendly and very easy to chat with and ‘The Cartshed’ was just perfect.

BIG thank you’s to Shelley, Sam and Charlie for looking after things superbly while we were away.