September 2020 – frieslandfarm (flowers)

Harvesting, soup making and a trip out of the shire 😀

Posted on September 26, 2020September 27, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st Sept 2020: You may remember, but probably not lol, that I bought a tea bush (sapling actually) Camellia Sinensis, well it’s been steadily growing and although it’s still not very big it does have quite a few leaves on it. Hopefully it will get big enough to make both green tea and black tea, wouldn’t that be an achievement ‘grow your own tea’ I can’t wait to try, maybe next year 😀

Another sunny day ahead and I had been doing a bit of cleaning on Mondays but the weather is set to break quite hard around midweek and so I wanted to get some outside housekeeping done. Firstly though start the bread making process, while the first prove was happening I watered everything out the front and everything in pots in the main garden. Then during the second prove I cleaned out the guineas and quail. While the bread was baking I put together a new feeder we have bought, I did get it for the chickens but am trying it out in the duck pen. After the bread came out of the oven I put clean bedding in the goose hut and cleaned the water bucket refilling it with fresh water, I cleaned out the duck hut and put in new bedding and I cleaned the floor in the chicken hut out the front.

I came in and tried to catch up with the briefing on the virus, it’s not good news as we kind of knew it wouldn’t be 😏 Cases are rising and the government is keen to get control of it, it’s not looking good. But what is annoying me is that we have been really good, doing all the right things during lockdown and the easing measures. We have only socialised with family, we haven’t been out and about at all really except food shopping and the garden centre 🙄 and yet it is going to be the likes of us that are penalised I think and by that I mean families. You can go to work, school, pub, restaurant, swimming, sport activities, even get on a bloody plane and go abroad but you probably won’t be able to have family over for dinner, I am guessing here but if that ends up being the case it’s really going to piss me off 😏 We wait with baited breath for the next update!

It’s quite a depressing outlook what with Winter literally on the doorstep and the possibility of further measures. I am usually the one that says ‘it could be worse’ and of course there are much, much worse situations to be in but still the thought is a gloomy one. I see a few pod cast and box set catch ups coming 😜

Early evening Charlie came round to help paint the cladding, we are getting nearer to the rain coming and it would be good to get it all done before then. I did some bits of clearing up and making the cups of tea, one of my jobs is to tun the magnet over the ground and pick up and old nails or new screws and nails that have been dropped (plenty of those as John is not the tidiest of workers 😜) I ordered some sparrow flats which have arrived, I could have used the bird boxes I made but some nice new ones will look better. Sparrows like to nest and roost in colonies and these are three boxes all in one unit, I bought two of them and am just hoping they are delighted with them. The old boxes will still be used somewhere else, they did use them and so hopefully they will again 😀

Tuesday: Autumn equinox, equal amount of day and night, a time for celebrating the harvests 🌾 and the turning of the wheel, The feast of Avalon, Mabon, blessed be 🥰 It is a lovely sunny morning and so first thing I picked raspberries and then went up the back to pick blackberries. I love the fact that I can pick blackberries from our own hedges, I know they have not had anything sprayed on or near them and they are as good as you can get, full of vitamins and minerals, potassium, magnesium and calcium as well as vit A, C, E & B vitamins and of course they are great antioxidants 😀

I spent a good couple of hours in the garden. Firstly in the big poly tunnel, the tomatoes in there have succumbed to blight so it’s a case of save what I can and pull up the rest. They are now ripening (hopefully) in the greenhouse, any green ones I will probably make chutney from. Then it was onto picking anything that will get hit by frost, we have had some fabulous weather but any day now it will turn. The first frosts will affect anything that has a high water content such as courgettes so I might as well pick them now. I also harvested the pumpkins, again I don’t want the rain to affect them and I don’t want the birds to start eating them once they get ripe enough, they are now stored in the small tunnel. I only got four butternut squash and they were tiny 😜 bit of a disaster as far as they go but hey ho there is always next year 🙄 There were a few cucumbers to pick, they are much smaller now and the skins get tougher but they will still taste good. I picked runner beans and pulled some beetroot and the last of the corn cobs. I then came in and got straight onto sorting it all for the freezer, mostly soup mixes today, I’ll look forward to cooking and eating those in the colder months.

There are a couple of other things to harvest but not until the frosts come, they are Oca and Yacon. I had a little look at the yacon, I found one tiny tuber under one plant 😏 however, I did taste it and it’s lovely, sweeter than I thought it would be so definitely something to try and bring on again next year I think. The Oca get left until after the frost kills off the top growth, I am not expecting great harvests from them though as it has been so dry. I could leave them in the ground and they will be fine and grow again next year with maybe a better harvest.

I need to tidy up the poly tunnel now that I have cleared the tomatoes but I thought it would be better left as a rainy day job. I have basil that needs cutting and drying, some of it I am going to leave to go to seed and hopefully collect that, the more seed you can collect from things the cheaper and more sustainable growing your own becomes 😀 I will give it a good tidy and take out things I don’t want in there, like the cape gooseberry, and then see what I could sow for winter use.

Wednesday: It rained overnight, not much but the weather has definitely broken this morning. Last night we went out (out, out lol) that is the first time since the beginning of lockdown way back in March. We went with Charlie and Macca, Maccas Mum nad her friend Jackie, it was a tasting evening at the venue Charlie and Macca have booked for their wedding next year. The healthy eating went out the window 😜 as canapés were followed by starters, main course and pudding, all the choices on the menu and a taste of all the wines to go with them. The food was amazing, the wine was a treat to try, so many including Prosecco and champagne, the venue is delightful and we had a great time. I only hope that all those that have booked weddings next year will get to have their day 🙄 That will probably be the end of our nights out until next year 😂 The world felt normal (well apart from the one way system) for a few hours 😀

This morning even though it was very fine drizzle, I decided to get a bit of clearing done on the veg garden. First I tided up the compost area so that I could get in there to put more stuff in and then I set about the area with the sweetcorn. Although I had a few cobs, I didn’t have as many as I usually get and I also think that the baby corn would be a more versatile option next year. I found another butternut squash which takes the total to five 🙄 I pulled up plenty of weeds and got stung by stinging nettles and dug up some self set potatoes. We planted some red (Duke of York I think) about four years ago and every year any small tuber left in the ground produces about half a large bucket of spuds, no work needed, brilliant 😀 I have cleared it and piled the compost heap high, I just need to go back and pull any weeds that are left but it started raining a bit more heavily so I decided that was enough.

On the sunny days when there is no cloud cover at all, John has been coming home early to feed the hens and collect the eggs but yesterday and today I have done it as it’s overcast and I can easily move around outside. Yesterday I found a hen with her legs chewed off from underneath the hut which must have happened overnight. Today I suspect we have lost some more, we had four broody hens that get turfed off the eggs each day as they are not viable eggs, today there is no sign of them and the eggs were a mess. It takes ages to break brooding and so I can’t imagine that all four have suddenly decided to stop 🙄 That means a daytime fox which is always bad news.

Thursday: It rained heavily last night for a short while and then again this morning but the sun is out, it’s a cold breeze though. John did the morning rounds and I have spent the early part of the morning prepping lunch and dinner. Tomato soup for lunch, tastes amazing and shepherds pie for dinner this evening.

Fresh tomato soup: 1 onion chopped, 3 carrots chopped, 1stick of celery chopped, 5 good sized tomatoes chopped, I tsp olive oil, black pepper to taste, 1/3 of a chicken stock cube. Sweat down the onions in the olive oil, add the other ingredients and cook on low until soft, then blend. At this point you can sieve out the seeds and any bits of tomato skin if you want but I leave them in. I have been precise with the measurements because if you are calorie counting this is for two people and 1 portion is 111 calories 😀

Fresh tomato soup, easy, nutritious, low in calories 😀

I added a teaspoon of low fat black pepper cream cheese 😀

Home made soups are the easiest thing in the world, they taste much better than tinned soups, you can put almost anything in them but the best three ingredients to start of any soup are, onion, carrot and celery call them your base ingredients, if you can’t have onion (I know peeps with IBS struggle) use leek or spring onions instead, then add whatever you have, a great way to use up stuff in the fridge even half tins of beans/hummus etc. Normally it will be veg I use but bacon is a lovely addition, cook it crispy and sprinkle on and of course chicken bones often have very tasty bits of meant firmly stuck to them, just simmer the bones to release the meat. The soup season is nearly here so get experimenting, it’s a great way to get some or all of your five a day 😀

We have new measures in place to limit the spread of the virus, the rule of six indoors and outside also extends to restaurants and bars with table service only and they have to close by 10pm. Apart from that I think it’s much the same, again people have been asked to work from home if they can and hand washing, the social distancing and face masks are all still being encouraged. A new app was launched today for track and trace, how many people will download it is yet to be seen, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists about warning people not to do it 🙄 I wonder about their theories especially the whole ‘the virus isn’t real’ one, I mean what government in their right mind would pay everyone to stay at home and governments all over the world are doing the same, doesn’t really sound like something they would do unless they had to does it? I would also ask any of them ‘what is the ultimate aim if what you say is true’ because I can’t see what they would gain from it personally.

Urgh it’s that time of year where you put the washing out and suddenly a downpour arrives, which is exactly what happened today 😏 I toyed with the idea of putting it in the tumble dryer but decided on the line would be better, wrong 😝

This years failures are next years compost, I was listening to a pod cast when I heard this, it’s fabulous and I love it, so true and a reminder that nothing is wasted except maybe some of your time 🥰

Friday: You can feel the temperature drop even though the sun is out, it’s a cold wind today. Some days I know what I am going to be doing and some days I have to think about what to do, today was a ‘What shall I do day’. I don’t want to waste the day but I don’t feel like getting outside to do any gardening (even though I really should 😜) I went for a walk, good for the mind, good for my health especially as we live at the top of a pretty steep hill 😂 I took a few photos on the way round, it’s a typical Cotswold village full of creamy stone cottages, very pretty even on a day like today, very quiet though I didn’t see a single soul in the thirty five minutes it took me 🙄

When I got back I set about making some bread and cake, two loaves of whole meal bread, one for now and one for the freezer and two wholemeal flour sultana cakes again for for eating this weekend and one for the freezer. I have switched to using wholemeal as it’s better for you, organic, even better and if you can find organic stoneground flour that’s the cherry on the cake so to speak 😀 luckily for us we have a local mill that does.

Saturday: We went out, not just out but out of the shire out 😮 We were supposed to go to Wales for the weekend but that had to be cancelled so we decided to go on a road trip. We went to Stonehenge, haven’t been there for well over twenty odd years and it’s all different now, not the stones obviously they are still the same but the visitor centre has moved. When we last went you could park right next to them now you have to walk a mile to see them, you can get a shuttle bus but it was a dry day so I made John walk 😂 We did get the bus back though as it was incredibly windy and although the sun was out it was cold. Then we were going to go to the coast but we went to Marlborough for lunch instead and had a walk round, after that it was time to go to Goring on Thames where we had a couple of animals to pick up, more about that in a couple of weeks time 😀 Not quite the weekend we had planned but it was nice to get out and about and see some different countryside. We see a lot of country side because if I am navigating I avoid the bigger roads, John likes to go from A to B in as little time as possible, me I like the scenic route 😜

It’s getting much colder now, almost October so we will have to think about lighting the Rayburn soon, it’s tricky to get it right, we don’t run it all year like some people do as it would be way too hot in here so it will be a case of lighting it mid afternoon for a few hours to build heat then let it out. This is not ideal for this kind of boiler but needs must, eventually it will be on all the time.

Sunday: We went out for breakfast, I know, we only went out yesterday you are thinking lol, but we were supposed to be away for the weekend so I thought a good cooked breakfast this morning would keep John going as we have plenty to do today. When we got back John started on the last leg of the cladding and I got on with cleaning Rosie the Rayburn. She has sat patiently all spring and summer getting covered in dust, had baskets of veg and fruit dumped on her and now it was her turn to shine. Shine she does, she looks as good now as when she was installed all those years ago, mind you it has taken me a good few hours, the flue had to be swept, all the grate taken out and cleaned a general hoover out, check all the fire ropes, replace the ones that were no good, replace the rock wall where it’s needed and finally give the outside a good clean.

I took some photos of the road we go along to get to breakfast this morning, how amazingly lucky are we to live somewhere so beautiful 😍

In the afternoon we were busy tidying up the front area now John has finished the cladding although we have more to do, we need to find some metal flashing for the top and then put in a row of slabs along the front of the building to make it easier to clean the windows etc. After that another flower bed has to be built and planted up, I bought some new sparrow flats as they like to live in colonies hopefully they will begin to investigate them soon, the satellite dish had to go back up and the security light as well. We have a mountain of wood to move which we will hopefully get done tonight and then on Wednesday we have someone coming to take down the rest of the big conifer trees. We can then start on the side of the building and the new driveway that will go along the side, as well as a new fence and gate, so much to do 😜

Friesland Farm

Sunny days, tidying up and ‘surprise’ x 3 😀

Posted on September 14, 2020September 20, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Sunday Evening after publishing 😜 I forgot to update you in last weeks blog that Diesel returned just in case you were worried. He had a good feed, some extra treats and is fine. He is getting on though so I guess one day he won’t come back but for the time being he is around again 😀

Monday 14th September 2020: A glorious day with high temps and for me that means staying inside or shade dodging 😜 I chose staying in and had already decided to do the cleaning, mainly the kitchen. Normally I start in the bathroom and then do the living room and bedrooms and by the time I get to the kitchen it gets a quick going over. So today I started in the kitchen and gave it a good clean, all the walls, cupboard doors, move everything, clean behind things, I didn’t go as far as cleaning out all the cupboards but I did clean the windows and the grill, probably give myself a B+ 😂 I had a phone call from the surgery and I need an phone appointment with the doc to discuss blood results, crap, that won’t be great then 🙄

We need more trees in this country, I know there are groups that have been saying this but I can tell you from personal experience that we don’t have enough. When I travel any distance in a car or try to go for a walk on a sunny day I note the complete lack of trees for shade. If the climate prediction is anything to go by the world will get hotter, another reason to have more shade available and of course it would be great for wildlife. But let’s not plant any old tree, make them native or food trees, I never understand why new housing estates don’t plant a better combination of trees and shrubs than the non producing, standard type they go for, cheaper I guess, I would like to think it was more than lack of imagination 🙄

I did decide to clean the food cupboards out in the afternoon as well as the cutlery drawer, we only have one small under counter cupboard and a shelf in the other cupboard for tins as most of it is in the freezers or the satire cupboard. At least I now know what is in them and for some reason I seem to have three pots of cardamon, I hardly ever use it so I don’t know why 🙄 Then John arrived home and we did the eggs, had dinner and I went to babysit Mia, Lucie and George while Sam went out for a meal with Luke for her birthday which is on Thursday. That’s Monday finished, as a bonus John is at home tomorrow after a job he is on isn’t ready yet.

Tuesday: As I said John is off today after he has gone to do a small job that is 🙄 I got on with some picking and finally had a decent haul of runner beans, lots of people have been saying how poor they are this year so if yours were good you are in the minority. I picked a couple of courgettes, some raspberries & nuts, did a fair bit of watering as it’s so dry and getting pretty hot during the day (ah that Indian summer 😀) then indoors to sort it all out and decide what’s for dinner this evening. Meanwhile John returned and got on with some more work on the front of the building.

Last night a delivery of bulbs arrived, snowdrops, tête-à-tête daffodils and dwarf iris, these will all go under the newly planted shrubs in the new border. Hopefully they will spread and give a good show in early spring when nothing else is growing, that’s the plan anyway along with some taller willowy drifts of things like verbena, Dierama (angels fishing rods), guara (bee blossom) and red flax.

After school finished I left John to work by himself while Shelley picked me up and took me back to hers to do my nails. I rarely (that is only once ever) get my nails done, I don’t like false nails as they are too thick and I can’t always do things with them on and besides it’s little bits of plastic 😏 and I can’t (or couldn’t) have nail polish because of the UV salons use. Shelley recently did a course to qualify and during the course looked at options for light sensitive skin, LED can also be used and is less likely to cause problems (though you should still be careful) so today was a good day to give it a go. Shelley also bought gel polish that didn’t need curing with light but after applying it all it didn’t work terribly well so we took it back off. Then we tried the proper nail polish and using the LED lights. The base layer was cured with hands under the lights for 30 seconds, the colour layers I kept my hands just outside of the light box for 60 seconds each layer and the top coat was also for 30 seconds inside the light box. This worked a great 😀 the idea was not to over expose the skin to the lights in case a reaction occurred. Nice to have lovely looking nails, a real treat for me so thank you Shelley 😘

Wednesday: Another lovely sunny day ahead 🙄 don’t get me wrong I like the warmer weather rather than the cold but wall to wall sunshine means I can’t get out and about much.

I started off in the big tunnel as it needed watering, while I was in there I harvested about 5 cucumbers, accidentally pulled up some raddicchio (which I will now have with my dinner later) and cut back the monster that is the cape gooseberry. It has got huge so I cut plenty of it back and picked a load of the berries, not sure what I will do with those yet, I might freeze them and think about it. At the back is a wonderful smelling lemon verbena, it’s smell is divine so I cut some of that and will probably make a syrup which I can then use in lots of things. When I finished in there I cut back the lavender in the garden and now have a huge bunch of lavender drying. I pulled up some swede, cut some chard and picked some courgettes which will all be prepped one way or another for the freezer (probably soup mix). I came in and de husked the cape gooseberries and made a coffee. I felt tired just doing that bit this morning which is not a good sign, I have noticed I feel more tired over the last few days, I’m guessing that’s the white cells dropping again 🙄 pants! It’s a condition called Leukopenia and it’s caused by the medication I take for the Lupus which is why they will probably take me off of it so the body can repair BUT the Lupus can also kill off white cells and so they need to be sure which one is doing it and the medication suppresses the Lupus, it’s catch 22 by the looks of it.

Thursday: A lovely morning, sunshine ahead but that lovely fresh September start to the day is something I love. Today is Sam’s birthday, my eldest, 35 years, where the heck did they all go 😜 and now she is a mother of three herself 🥰🥰🥰 I always say being a Mum was the most rewarding and important job I ever had, I loved every minute of it and now I love every minute of being a grandparent too 😀 Happy Birthday Sam x

I whizzed round and got a few things done this morning, picking runner beans and raspberries, grabbing a few hazelnuts along the way. Prepped and froze some bits and pieces that have been hanging around on the side for a few days including some cooking apples which are now cooking down with the raspberries. Some swede, courgettes, chard and onion are open freezing for soup or roasted veg, more swede frozen separately with some runner beans, swede chopped for dinner later along with runner beans. Took all the off cuts and ends to the guineas, other softer bits to the torts, also picked them some lettuce and tomatoes.

Sam and Shelley came over with the little ones that are not at school and we had lunch together. Florence insisted on getting me some flowers in the shop, pink roses for Nana 🥰

Late afternoon we went over to see Sam the reason being that Mia had been at school all day and I didn’t want her to think we had missed her Mums birthday 😀 She had made some little chocolate covered fairy cakes for everyone bless her.

Friday: Another sunny day ahead. I started off getting some wash loads on, picking raspberries and planting 220 bulbs of various descriptions in the front border. Snowdrops, dwarf iris, crocus and tête-à-tête , hopefully that will be lovely and cheery from Jan through to March when not much else is around. I sorted dinner for later and made an apple and raspberry crumble, had a coffee and typed this up while waiting for the washing to finish spinning so I can get it out on the line. The postman came with parcels, cauliflower plants and an expandable hose, hoses are a big bug bear for me as they catch and kink all the time which drives me mad lol. The cauliflower I will have to get planted up ASAP, I need to work out where they will go, I think the best place will be where I had the broad beans, in fact yes that’s defiantly where I will plant them.

The pumpkin patch almost ready to harvest now the foliage has all died back. I need to get them in before the birds start pecking at them 🙄

Just before lunchtime I planted the cauliflower plants, 10 in all which will be all we need. First I hoed the area and raked it over, riddled the rakings to get the stones etc out and then planted the plants. I have covered them with environmesh not to keep off butterflies but to stop the pigeons and chickens eating the greenery. Then I spent a little while husking walnuts they are now drying in the greenhouse.

Hopefully come late winter, early spring, I should have cauliflower, purple sprouting, leeks, winter spinach and chard all growing fresh, plus a freezer full of beans of all types, peas, swede, turnip and many types of fruit. I have garlic dried and stored, nuts that will be dried and stored, potatoes, butternut squash and pumpkins in store, jars of jam and chutney in the store cupboard, tomatoes/passata puréed and frozen, soup mixes already chopped and frozen, we have a store of chopped and dried wood ready, yep I am all good to go for 10ft of heavy snowfall 😜

Saturday: Martin came over to help John again today and as Shelley was working I entertained Josh and Flo. First we cooked egg and sausage sandwiches for the workers then we went to check on the horses and clean out and fill up the water buckets and then we made raspberry and chocolate chip cakes. After that in between making cups of tea and coffee we watched a bit of tv and played some superhero games, I get instructions from Josh as I have no idea what I am doing having had three girls 😂 Shelley came over mid afternoon and they all went home at 4pm. At 4.30 Sam arrived with Mia, George and Lucie as Mia is staying for a sleepover tonight 😀 John went to the chip shop and got some fish and chips and the it was bath time, we played tunes on Alexa and had fun getting her to burp and sneeze, then story time and bed, I’m knackered 😂 Apart from a bit of painting the cladding first thing this morning I didn’t get anything else done on the farm 😜

Sunday: Mia stayed over and slept well 😀 I did think she may want to go home but nope she was fine. This morning we got up had breakfast got dressed and went out to see the horses, after that we picked raspberries, collected a few eggs, picked up some hazelnuts and found some conkers, those are all for her to take home with her. The blackberries we picked up in the back paddock she ate en route 😜

After Sam collected her mid morning I went out to do a bit of picking, runner beans, courgettes, chillies and tomatoes everything has slowed considerably now. I got three lovely surprises as I was going round, one, the carrot seeds have already started to sprout so I should get some for Christmas even if they are baby carrots 🥕 Two, I have a loofah 😀😀😀 I had given up on these and even stopped watering them, I was watering the peppers and thought ‘that’s a funny shape pepper then realised it was a tiny loofah. And three, my oranges are beginning to ripen 😀😀 whoop whoop, we are moving towards orange season, late winter, early spring so fingers crossed, I hope they taste good.

If you look closely you can just see the carrot seedlings appearing.

My first ever loofah, it won’t be big but it’s an achievement 😀

Oranges beginning to ripen whoop whoop 😀 Also a big achievement in our climate though this year has been ideal for them.

We have had no rain for what seems like weeks, everything is very dry although the overnight dew is keeping things going I do have to water every now and then.

John has been busy again on the front of the house, when it’s finished I will post the before and after pictures. I am reserving judgment on the colour,

Friesland Farm

Autumn pickings, a smack in the eye and a house of horrors (bit dramatic Dawn) 😝

Posted on September 12, 2020September 13, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 7th September: We’ll here we are again back round at Monday, the children have either gone back or are going back this week. Seems like life is returning to normal except the daily reports of the virus numbers which in some countries are scarily huge 🙄 Cases are rising here, well they are going to with everyone moving around more freely but the deaths are not as staggering as they once were, though that’s not much consolation if it happens to be your family member 😢 Life hasn’t really altered much at all for me in particular, never been one to go shopping or to the pub or do much socialising at all really 😂 life is pretty much as it always was except that now I can see the children, grandchildren and wider family members which is fine by me. I must admit that I was wondering when we could go to a live music event or theatre again but in all honesty I doubt we will be going anywhere before next summer. We have got to make the most of what we do have, it’s the only way to get through this whole episode 🤷‍♀️

This morning I have been doing a bit of hoovering and polishing and listening to tunes while I do it. My teenage years were the second half of the seventies and I have some music on the iPod from the ‘Jackie’ album so I was listening to some of that. They were good times, the youth club discos would consist of ABBA, Showaddywaddy, The Jackson Five, Paul Nicholas, The Rubettes, Hot Chocolate, Barry White, Status Quo, T. rex, Slade, Suzi Quattro, Lief Garret, Mud, The Osmonds, Bryan Ferry to name a few, a real eclectic mix totally representative of the seventies 😀 We wore platform shoes and Oxford bag trousers, layered skirts and cheesecloth tie up blouses, we used the phone box down the road to call friends or we went round and knocked on the door. We spent weekends staying at mates houses, going home on their school bus instead of our own and we listened to the Top 40 run down on a Sunday night on radio Luxembourg I think it was. Yep they were great times to grow up for sure 😀

I picked some Autumn raspberries, this is the first time I have been able to pick a decent amount and now they will produce this everyday so I shall be freezing some of them. I cut down on the amount of bushes I had by about 2/3 because I couldn’t keep up with picking lol maybe I should have just done a third 🙄 I stewed some cooking apples and made a batch lot of apple and raspberry crumbles for John, for me I froze some batches of stewed apple unsweetened which I can add other fruit to or cinnamon and maybe a sprinkle of truvia until I get used to no sugar at all lol. John has cut out his one sugar in tea and is now a no sugar tea drinker but I can’t quite let go.

Tuesday: Not a bad weather day, overcast but warm enough for only one layer 😀 Apart from the usual bits and pieces I have been chopping and cooking down tomatoes ready to purée. This will then go into the freezer as a base for soups, slightly different to the passata as it’s just tomatoes. I have begun to stress my tomato plants, I do this every year and all it means is less watering, much less, this then tricks the plant into thinking the season is over and will hopefully ripen what fruit is still on there. You still end up with some green tomatoes but not as many.

Went for a walk with Sam, Shelley, and the grandchildren this afternoon, we walked round the village which was lovely. Plenty of nice looking apples on some of the trees, might have to go and raid some, the ones on the roadside of course, my scrumping days are long gone 😂 In a village I lived in when I was about 10 there was an orchard over the road from where we lived (now a housing estate 😏) but we would often go over the wall for an apple or two. I am not sure who the land belonged too but they didn’t pick the apples so we helped ourselves lol. It’s funny is t it that people go blackberry picking but you don’t see people picking apples or nuts 🙄

Wednesday: Well it’s happened and the country is back on restrictions, gatherings of people are down from 30 to 6 and no more than two households indoors or outdoors, I think 🤔 Anyone who is surprised by it must have had their head in the sand, the groups that have been gathering in bars, certainly local ones, have been ridiculous and there seems to have been no policing of the rules either by the bar staff or the authorities. Most of the pubs and restaurants I know of have been sticking to the guidelines but the micro pubs and bars have had large gatherings outside on the pavement which is indeed difficult to police, hopefully these new restrictions will stop all that and still allow the pubs and restaurants to continue providing the excellent service that they have been.

Meanwhile I have been doing a few bits this morning, picking some apples I missed on the last look, some courgettes and a couple of pears. Watering the poly tunnels and picking the tomatoes, I have had a good haul of toms this year and there are still plenty on there, I just hope we get the weather to keep them going and ripen them, especially the indigo ones which are always slow to ripen I find. I watered all the plants in the new bed out the front and the ones in pots and tided up the front a bit as we are expecting the wood delivery today for the cladding.

I picked a few blackberries this afternoon from the hedgerow lining the back paddocks, there are more but I’m pretty sure the horses will start mugging me for them if I go into their paddock. Then wood delivery arrived and I called John to let him know as he was coming home early to do some of the work. That’s when we found out that our phone number (new one) comes up on the receiving phone under the old owner which was a business in Carterton under the name of fitfigures! Great so when I phone out if someone has caller ID they may not answer it, bloody unbelievable that this saga continues. On the funny side John quickly quipped ‘I’ll know it’s you darling’ 😂

I had a small accident, John was on the house phone in the kitchen calling the wood yard as the delivery was short, I was in the kitchen and going into the boot room. You make a very fleeting assessment of the path you are going to take without even realising it and that’s what I did, the pathway was clear and I walked toward the boot room door, at the same time John got up from the chair with the phone still in his hand up by his ear, finished the call, turned round, went to put his hand down and bang it caught me on the corner of my left eye, worse I had my glasses on which seemed to clout the corner of my eyebrow. It all happened in a split second. How the glasses hit the eyebrow I don’t know as I have tried to manoeuvre the glasses to see but they are rigid so it must have been a heck of a clout, I ended up on the floor as the stop was so abrupt and I reckon I will have a black eye tomorrow 👀

Oh a had a wander and looked at the bees in the tree, loads of bees going in and out so they are definitely thriving, no sign of honey oozing out yet though 😂

I made dinner, John worked on the front of the building, after dinner he carried on doing some more. Meanwhile I fed the dogs, why is this relevant I hear you ask, well John has been doing it but I kept telling him he was over feeding them. Every time I looked at their bowl it was FULL of biscuits, we feed them a decent dog feed which I researched thoroughly and they only need a third of what he was putting in there. Naturally being dogs they were eating it all but I could see that Mia in particular was putting on weight. Despite being asked (told) he still kept over feeding and so now I am in charge of doing it 😜

My eye hurts, I have a small, hurts to touch, lump on the eyebrow 🙄

Diesel still hasn’t appeared that’s a week now, not having much luck with cats at the moment. He has been here ten years mind you and been more and more absent lately so either found himself somewhere better or met his demise 😏

Thursday: A lovely morning, warm but mainly overcast, I had already decided as I was falling asleep last night that I would get out and tidy up the fruit cage. One of the support wires had snapped and there were quite a few weeds that needed pulling. So that’s exactly what I did, a very pleasant couple of hours of weeding here and there as well as the fruit cage. Then I watered some things because the ground is very dry again, luckily there is plenty of rain water in the storage tanks at the minute. I picked a few ears of corn, might have to have one for lunch 😀 I am going to try the microwave method, you leave the corn in the husk (un shucked is the term) and microwave it and apparently the husk is then easier to remove, we will see 🙄

The corn was delicious and very easy to do in the microwave, I was impressed with the ease in which the husk came off and the tenderness of the corn, winner 😀

Lunch, freshly picked corn on the cob, hard boiled egg with mayo and home grown salad 🥰 life is good 😀

My eye didn’t blacken thank goodness and it is less tender today but still a lump there and a little bit sore.

I did a walk around the perimeter of the paddocks just for a bit of exercise and picked up some walnuts. I can tell the squirrel is fearing on them already this year because there are peelings and bits of shell all under the tree, occasionally he must drop one that he has peeled and that’s a bonus for me as it means I don’t have to do that one 😂 Hulling walnuts is my least favourite job, there is no easy way to do it and I have tried multiple methods over the years. The main thing is to wear gloves otherwise you have brown fingers for weeks afterwards. As with the hazels this year, I am not planning on gathering all of them, just enough to keep me going, we have them growing so might as well use them in cakes etc.

Shelley and the children called late afternoon and we went up to the back paddock and picked a good haul of blackberries 😀

Friday 11th Sept: I put the date in today because of course it’s a day that we can never forget. Long before we bought the smallholding a terrible day unfolded in the USA and the whole world watched the events as they happened, not something I will forget in a hurry, I remember exactly where I was sat and how the room looked as I watched the news reports of the Twin Towers being attacked and the horror as I watched live when the towers began to fall 😢 RIP

I started the morning with that Friday feeling 🥰 and got on with some picking, cucumbers, sweetcorn, runner beans, beetroot, hazel nuts and walnuts today. You can tell what time of year it is without a calendar by the shift in what you are gathering in, early Autumn is a time I love.

I have a couple of marrow and I decided to make a marrow cake, they are the same as a courgette just bigger. I sort of followed a recipe, this is a healthier version of what I found, it’s still in the oven so hopefully will taste just as good as a version with fat and sugar in it.

Marrow cake: 300g Marrow, grated 2 eggs 150g whole wheat flour, 150g SR flour 100g coconut oil (melted if you are in a colder climate 😂) 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp cinnamon 1tsp vanilla extract 3tbls Maple syrup (or to taste) put it all in a bowl and mix thoroughly, bake at around 160c for approx 40mins or until you get a clean knife. I figured it would be about 12 slices from a loaf tin and so each slice is around 200 calories a slice which is not bad when you ‘NEED CAKE’ 😜 You could add nuts or chocolate chips or even add cocoa powder if you want a chocolate version but obviously that increases the calories. I think I will mix up a little icing sugar and lemon or lime juice to drizzle on top as an extra treat.

Saturday: Busy day today, we started off with the usual rounds and I did a few bits while John started on the second half of the front of the building. He pulled off the cladding and horror, the main timbers at the bottom were rotten through and through, I mean crumbling rotten and some of the timber that goes going under the building 😏 He kept saying ‘oh dear this doesn’t look good’ no shit Sherlock, I was starting to panic a little and to be honest felt like crying. I came indoors and had a word with myself then went back out, ‘right then, instead of being negative how about we look at it properly and see exactly what is what and then decide what we will do about it’. So John went underneath the building as there was space (just about) for him to get under and assess the situation fully. Turns out that only the first couple of foot of the timbers were gone and the rest was fine which meant we had something solid to attach new timbers to 😅 thank goodness for that. Martin arrived to help and as Shelley was working I looked after Florence and Josh while they got on with some work. Me and the kiddies went and picked raspberries, had a good look at the pumpkin patch, I think they were impressed with my efforts, which is good because that’s who I grow them for 🙄 we fed the guineas and the torts, went for a walk in the paddock to look at the bees nest, picked some walnuts, had some snacks and some chit chat and then it was time for them to go home. Martin came back in the afternoon and carried on helping John and now we have half the building sorted and the first layer of ply has gone on. John and I couldn’t decide (agree) on the colour to stain the cladding when it’s finished I wanted a brown shade, John wanted grey which I wasn’t keen on. He bought home a tin of the grey anyway (to my disgust 😂) but actually now he has done a sample I quite like it and think it will look great. There is a first time for everything and John was right, which is a first 😝

You can just see Johns foot as he scrabbles about underneath to assess the extent of the rotten timbers 😱

Sunday: Lovely sunny day, John did the animals and then got on with the front of the house. Luckily the rest of the timbers are not as bad as that lot yesterday and so he was able to get on well. I did some watering in the greenhouse and tunnels and then decided to clear one side of the small tunnel. There were a couple of tomato plants that have all but gone over a sorry looking parsley and a large cape gooseberry in the bed. I had decided previously to take out the gooseberry as it’s got too being, I don’t get many from it and it casts a lot of shade. Once cleared I had to top up the beds with some fresh compost and then I sowed some forcing carrots, I have no idea if I will get any but it doesn’t cost much to give it a go so I have nothing to lose. They are Amsterdam forcing carrots, quick maturing and so I might be lucky enough to get some for Christmas.

One filled the other waiting to be filled then sown with carrots for a Christmas crop hopefully. There is parsley growing right in the middle too lol.

It’s twilight and I went out to collect a delivery that just arrived, I can hear an owl in the hedgerow between us and the next field, twit twoo 🦉🥰

Friesland Farm

A bank holiday, a new month & the same routines 😜

Posted on September 6, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 31st August, Bank Holiday: Busy in the front area today, finishing planting bits in the front border, off to the garden centre to get a few more plants 😜 and then begin to dig out the plants in planters on the other side near the front of the house as that’s the next area to be done. Move all the pots out of the way (there are around forty of them I think 🤣) and time for a quick sit down mid afternoon!

Tuesday: September 1st, White Rabbits, A busy morning again today and by 10.30 I had put two loads of washing through, changed the bedcovers, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned out the ducks and the geese, picked berries and tomatoes, got the dinner sorted and chopped a load of veg for a soup batch, not bad going 😀 I had just made coffee when Mum and Ken called in so we had coffee in the garden. I still have plenty of jobs left on my list which is not actually a written list it’s one in my head 😜 I also need to go and get some shopping later as the whole ‘John can go with a list’ idea didn’t really work out so well, he came back with plenty that wasn’t on the list and a few things that definitely were he had forgotten to get 🙄 well I wouldn’t mind but my breakfast cereal was one of them, he did however buy hot cross buns and some muffins which he likes!

I needed a chocolate fix so I finally got round to making this avocado chocolate pudding and while it’s not going to make any ‘wow that’s amazing’ lists, it is chocolatey without the sugar and fat and it does feel like you have just had a treat 😀 Avocado, banana, maple syrup and unsweetened cocoa powder, blitz, eat, it’s as simple as that.

Wednesday: It’s definitely September 🙄 a chill in the air this morning but with the promise of sunshine warming things up. I haven’t done much but potter today, I love a pottering day, no agenda, no task list, just waft about and do whatever I think needs doing 😜 We had a bit of good news this morning, we invested in some premium bonds and we each have some. Johns idea was to have a competition and see who wins the most lol, this does not bother me as I do not have a competitive bone in my body, seriously I couldn’t care less if I win at monopoly or not 😜 We both won something which is great for our first ever draw but the funniest thing is that I won more than he did 😂 It must be terribly frustrating for a competitive person to come up against a non competitive one, it’s not that I don’t believe in it just that it’s not in me. From what I have read it means I have an inner peace, that I am comfortable with who I am and that I focus on bettering myself 🙄 on that note I’m off to meditate 😀

Thursday: It feels warmer this morning compared to yesterday, it’s grey and overcast but pleasant enough. I decided to get out and do some bits in the garden, a bit of picking first, it has all slowed down now which is good as I can focus on other things. Getting the beds ready for winter is what I decided to do, I have a few small raised beds that have now finished bearing crops. I weeded them, put a good layer of mushroom compost on them, covered them with the biodegradable covering and weighted that down with some mesh grids I have. The jury is still out on the biodegradable stuff, it’s not really for winter cover more for spring planting but as I have it and the life is six months I thought I ought to use it. It’s very flimsy and even a slight breeze makes it difficult to manage, then the drizzle started which made it stick to my hands but I got there in the end 🙄 I weeded round the leeks which are still pretty small but they have growing time left as they can be left in the ground all winter. My back started to ache so I figured that was enough of that but if I can get bits like that done every couple of days it shouldn’t take long to have it all back in order. You may remember I was going to do the whole chop and drop thing but I have decided that I can’t work with that, I found that there was no order to how I needed to work which may be fine for some but not for me. I think I have finally got to the age when I realise that if something doesn’t work for you give it up and change it, you can change it as many times as you like before you decide what is harmonious 😀

Mum called in to pick some elderberries and had a cuppa and a chat, we decided that it’s going to be a long winter this year lol, that’s a depressing thought and we are as always hopeful of an Indian summer but in all honesty I’ve only really known one year when that happened. It was Samantha’s 21st birthday which was mid September and it was glorious weather, we sat outside drinking bottles of champagne on Mums lawn, of course it may have only been that one day, I can’t really remember 😜

Friday: I had a bloods appointment this morning so shelley picked me up and took me and then we went to visit my niece for a cup of coffee, a quick trip into town to find Josh some trainers and then back home for the afternoon stuff.

Saturday: John went off to order wood for the front of the building as we are recladding it. It was done once about 8 or 9 years ago but it was never done properly, new cladding laid over old. This time the whole lot is coming off and it will have ply on in first and then the cladding. It’s a doubled edged sword really as all the birds nest in the bits that are hanging off as well as wasp nests lol but it has to be done. He came back from ordering and started the demolition, I did point out that there is still stuff lying around from the old fence he took down to replace, I’m hoping he spends a bit of time tidying up, I always say ‘it’s easy to make a mess’ not so easy to clear it all up 🙄 Meanwhile I have been weeding and pulling up old foliage in the veg garden again well I was until the sun came out then it was inside to wash up and organise lunch and tomorrow’s dinner. I am planning in advance as I am following a healthy eating regime and trying to keep on track which I find I can do better if everything is thought about well ahead of time. I did clean out the guineas as well first thing and pick a few hazelnuts. I am not going to collect as many as I did last year better to leave them for the wildlife as I can’t possibly use all of them.

I picked a few berries and a couple of courgettes but everything is beginning to slow down now, you have that manic few weeks when everything needs picking at once, even if you make successional sowings, and then calm returns and it is much more manageable. It is the time of year you will find my pockets full of nuts though as I tend to pick them up off the floor as I go round. I am thinking about what or if I want to winter plant, I have some things in like leeks, sprouting broccoli and the chard but do I want other things like winter salad leaves, hmm probably not but winter spinach would be a good idea I think and as the welsh onion are not doing particularly well I think onion sets and garlic would be a good idea.

In the end I ordered onion/garlic and shallot sets, some forcing carrots which will go in the tunnel and I should get some around Christmas time and also some cauliflower plants, I think brassicas do better overwinter the butterflies and pests are not so voracious 🤞

Sunday: After the morning routine John got on with the front of the building, it needs quite a bit of prep work before he can start to put it back together and by that I mean some of the timbers are rotten 😂 My morning was mostly spent picking, there was quite a lot which was surprising, French beans, runner beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, beetroot, swede, chard, cape gooseberries , sweetcorn and a couple of courgettes, still picking up nuts as I go 😜 Everything is now either out for sale or prepped for the freezer. Time for lunch and a quick sit down.

Ted is becoming a bit of a heartthrob with the ladies, Florence in particular loves Ted, everyone loves Ted, I think he may need his own Facebook page soon 😂 I have hopefully found him a mate though she needs to grow a bit first but watch this space.

We haven’t seen Diesel for a few days which is a worry, he is getting on a bit for a farm cat, hopefully he will appear soon.