Sunday afternoon: thought I would just add this in as I did do a bit in the afternoon, I hadn’t intended to but John said it was going to rain and be really windy 🙄 I thought, in that case I had better do a bit of picking while it was sunny and dry and then anything spoilable will be saved. I picked butternut squash as all the foliage has now died back, some are very small but they will still feed us and so I won’t waste them. I picked the rest of the sweetcorn, some dwarf beans, swede, courgettes, tomatoes and then I dug up a bed of potatoes as that foliage has died back to. I then had a look on my weather app to see exactly when the rain was coming, no sign of it at all on my app, I said to John it doesn’t say anything about rain, oh I thought I heard it he said, note to self, check facts don’t just rely on Johns say so 😂 I had been very relaxed and for a change my hands were nice and clean until then!
Monday 20th September 2021: So I have been very busy sorting out everything I picked yesterday 😂 I have sorted out the squash for storing and out some out for sale, put the potatoes in a sack for storing but we will probably start using them soon as the last lot have nearly run out. I have made up soup bags, one general mixed bag and one specific squash soup bag, a bag of veg for for stews with the turnips, swede, potato and carrots. Cooked the sweetcorn and vacuum packed that (had some for my lunch as well) cooked beetroot and poached some pears in honey and vanilla extract, they will be for dessert tonight. I have sorted out courgettes, cucumbers, runner beans and tomatoes to go out for sale and bagged some up for the girls.
Late afternoon I started watering the front beds as they are looking very dry and the plants are a little stressed, John came home and made a cuppa then went out to feed the birds and that’s when we got a bit of a surprise 😲 About three weeks ago the light Sussex hen that was out with the front lot disappeared, well she reappeared today with three little chicks 😂 I have never had that happen before, it’s late in the year and we have no chick crumb for them, I am just going to leave them to it and hope they survive, they should do with her to forage for them.
Tuesday: First thing this morning I got my apple catcher and picked a bucketful of cooking apples. They are not the best this year but last year we had none so I am not complaining. I spent most of the rest of the day weeding the front beds, deadheading dahlias and clearing bits of dead foliage so that the beds keep looking good for as long as possible. After a rest in the afternoon (feeling tired at the minute) I then went out and watered the front beds, I had a bit of a situation when I couldn’t turn the tap off 🙄 It had happened before and John says I turn it on too far but I only use it the same as all the other taps, for some reason this one gets stuck. I was afraid to use too much force in case it snapped off 😂 eventually I managed to move it and get it shut off but I will have to be careful I future, don’t want that happening too often. I got the dinner cooked and then once we had eaten and had a cuppa we went out to round up the mother hen and her chicks. Yesterday she let us pick her up and move her but today she just flew straight at me, we mated to get her herded towards the hut but had to pick up one with a dodgy leg as it couldn’t keep up. John went off to put the rest of the birds to bed and I picked the rest of the pears from the tree, a couple more apples and some sweetcorn I had missed on Monday. That’s today done and I am looking forward to a restful evening.
Wednesday: Autumn Equinox, Mabon, the part of the year when the wheel moves towards the Winter Solstice, harvesting, reflecting, giving thanks for the last year and giving hope for the year ahead.
I had a plan for today, I was going to pot up various plants but plans often change which is exactly what happened today. I had about 1kg of runner beans I had picked the other day and sales are slow at the gate. In order not to waste them I decided to make runner bean chutney, it’s always quite popular with family. I chopped everything and then mixed it all up and got it on the go, while I am in the kitchen I might as well do other things so I made batches of crumble mix for the freezer, an apple crumble for dessert tonight and some tomato, garlic, onion and basil sauce which I will use for spag Bol etc. Then I made a fruit cake as I had some open flour that really needed using up, it doesn’t sound like a lot but it took all the morning to make it and clear up afterwards lol. In the afternoon Shelley and Flo came round and we went up to the back paddocks to pick blackberries, lovely to be able to pick them from our own land. I had a sit down in the afternoon before hoovering round and getting the dinner sorted and a plethora of other little jobs including feeding and watering the Guineas and rabbit. The torts are still out because it’s still warm enough, they are active and feeding, no sign of them winding down yet. When they do they will go into the greenhouse for a few weeks before taking themselves off to bed for the winter, initially they will eat but it will be less and less as time goes on, they can’t go to sleep with food inside them, that would kill them.
I am having a go at making some cider vinegar with the apple peelings from the crumble, takes a couple of months but if it works I will have around 2L of it 😁
The moon tonight is amazing, I tried taking photos but they were rubbish 😂 it is a massive orange ball in the dark sky, just beautiful and very fitting for the equinox 🥰
Thursday: It’s been a long and busy day today, mostly I have been potting up plants, plants that have self seeded, plants that are not doing well where they are and plants that have needed potting on for a while. It’s a good time of year to move things, not too cold yet and still a bit of growing time to get established. I dug up a lot of the strawberry plants which have been put out for free, someone came to pick up the mint I dug up, I had the twins while Mia went for swimming lessons, then picked some more elderberries for someone, had our dinner, picked up some live plants (delphiniums for cut flowers) that had been delivered wrongly, unpacked them and watered them, sorted out produce I had picked to go in the shed, did the eggs, fed the cats, did a bit of star gazing before finally sitting down at 8pm. Pooped but had a good day and tomorrow we are off to Malvern Autumn show, the tickets were transferred after the Good Life show was cancelled back in summer so I am looking forward to a day out with plants 🥰 Pretty sure I did a lot more but can’t for the life of me think what and there always seems like soo much more to do 🙄
Friday: Road trip 😁 We went to Malvern Autumn show, the weather was lovely (a bit too hot really but I factor 50’d everywhere) plenty to see, do and admire plus lots of plants and bulbs to be purchased, I obliged naturally 😂 When we arrived home we had a cuppa and then I got on with planting some of my purchases. I watered the front beds again, I think it’s a few weeks since we had any decent rainfall 🙄 I then got started on another little planting project I have in mind in the front. The dog kennels are looking old and tired, we don’t use them for dogs anymore but they will make an excellent framework for climbing plants. At the moment I have a hop, and climbing rose and the wisteria slowly covering it, the hop looks lovely there, but I have a jasmine I want to use as well and a hydrangea that needs to be a statement piece, so I have been trying to put it all together this evening before it got dark. It is just sat in situ until I can get it all planted up but I think it will look good 😊 John did the animals and collected the eggs, the little chick that had a dodgy leg didn’t make it 😕 To be honest I didn’t think it would but there is always hope.
It’s 10pm and John has gone to get fuel if he can, he needs some in the van for work but the panic buying has been ridiculous, queues everywhere and garages selling out. It would be rough justice if someone who had panic bought rang up Monday because they needed him but he couldn’t get there because he had no fuel lol.
Ooops it’s Monday and I totally forgot to publish this yesterday 🤪 Saturday morning I had to get a few things done including moving the electric fencing for the horses and then over to Sams to look after the kiddies, I was then away until Sunday afternoon. Later after a bit of a nap I dug up potatoes, these were from the straw method I was trying out. I didn’t have a big haul but it was ok and it was easy to pick them, considering I didn’t think it would work at all I would notch it up as a success 😁 I also dug up quite a few herbs, before it got dark, from the section I am moving, I will aim to pot them up tomorrow.
Week over sorry I forgot to publish 😝
frieslandfarm (flowers) 