Month: January 2024

Posted in Friesland Farm

Batch cooking & great weather for gardening.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd January 2024: The wind is still blowing this morning and it was fierce last night but luckily we managed to escape any major damage. Just a couple of small branches down and the quail house collapsed but it no longer has quail in there thankfully.

I got started on a batch cook this morning, following on from yesterdays beef joint I made batches of shepherds pie and bolognaise for the freezer. This was mince I bought especially not some I was using up, this is just for a time saving option when we are very busy. As winter moves into spring we spend longer and longer outside working and if I can grab a meal from the freezer it means I can more work done 😊

Midday I had a meeting with our business insurers, the farm has changed a lot since we last had a review and I wanted to make sure I am covered for the flower side of things now as well.

A quick lunch then out to the greenhouse with some pre sprouted sweet pea seeds. These were sprouted on damp tissue and the reason for that is to weedle out the seeds that are not viable, no point sowing seeds that won’t grow and this way you only sow the ones that have. Those have now been sown into modules in seed compost and I have more seeds sat on damp tissue to go again.

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰

Wednesday: I spent a whole day outside in the garden as the weather was great. First it was in the greenhouse sowing some seeds that are now on the windowsill indoors and the sweet peas that have sprouted, they are in the greenhouse as it is pretty mild at the minute. Next I moved onto the small tunnel and I cleared away dead nettles stems and live roots from down the side and then gave it a wash. The anemone and Runuculas are growing well in there but leaning towards the light, cleaning it down will help massively. The rest of the day I spent clearing the area between the two tunnels, I have a few shrubs growing there and some lemon balm. It is woodchip on the ground but the nettles have been growing through the fence from the other side and so I needed to clear all the roots I could before putting down more woodchip. I went in for a cuppa around 3 and just as I was going out again John came home so he helped barrow lots of woodchip while I started cutting back dead stuff on the perennial beds.

I have a lot of work to do I realise 🤣 but if the weather is this good some days then I will be able to get on well.

Thursday: I went for blood tests first thing, I realised I had not been since last September oops they are supposed be done every 8-10 weeks at least 🤪

Then I went for coffee with Shelley, Charlie and Oscar and once I got back it was nice enough to go out into the garden again so that’s what I did. I am trying my best to make everything run smoothly this year 🙄 I have a few things to concentrate on. Staking is a priority and to be able to do that with ease I need to cut dead foliage from everything that is about to start growing again. I can then put in wooden stakes all the way along and attach netting to those so everything holds up well. Sounds simple but I also really need to have similar plants all together, by that I mean perennials so that I can put some chicken manure pellets on the beds, mulch with woodchip and then put the staking in place. Once that is done they should not need much maintenance at all one problem is that one of the beds was annuals and I need to plant perennials after the cold weather but before everything starts to grow so timming is key. The other problems to overcome are chickens and cats, bare soil is an open invitation to the cats and woodchip is an open invitation to chickens (they would scratch it all off as fast as I was putting it on) When the woodchip goes on the netting will need to go into place straight away or I am doomed. The other problem are weeds, thousands of them always 😂 Because the pathways are a problem (and we didn’t make them wide enough to mow between) I am putting down membrane, not ideal but needs must. I am hoping that with the feed and the mulch the plants will have all they need to get through most of the growing season without too many problems. With the stakes in place I can also use them to put shade netting over if needed this summer.

All of this means I need to reorganise a few of the beds but not to much of a faff hopefully. When spring gets under way I will be dividing some plants and creating a whole lot more and filling the beds up to capacity. The other end of the garden will have all the annuals growing and any veg that I decided to grow this year. Actually the more I write the more I realise there is to do 😬

So today I have been cutting dead stuff back, weeding, clearing debris and putting down membrane before the weeds begin to take hold. I always know when it’s time to stop as my legs begin to shake 😆 time for a sit down and a cup of tea

Friday: Colder but sunny today, I will wait to see if it warms up comfortably enough to work outside. I do have a bit of muscle ache today having not used my gardening muscles for a while 😂 My tooth is still giving me a bit of jip as it is still healing and will take longer than usual but hopefully it will get there without too many problems 🙄

First thing this morning I turned on the slow cooker and have a ‘use it all up’ soup on the go, plenty of remnants in the fridge to be used so waste not want not.

My next batch of business cards arrived yesterday and I had made a couple of alterations so they are looking good. I changed the colour of the font as you could barely read the telephone number which is not ideal and I have instructions for fresh flowers printed on the back, I am very happy with how they look now.

I spent the afternoon doing some practice work on various things, candelabra flowers, buttonholes and a wire and moss bunny shape. It wasn’t quite how I wanted it to look but it’s not bad and I enjoyed doing it and learning the method, no idea what I will do with it but hey.

Moss and chicken wire bunny.

Saturday: We need to replace some fencing and gateways here, a lot of them are falling over, the clay soil does not help and together with much weaker wood preservation these days means the fences only last around five years! There are some that have been up nearly forty years treated the old way with used engine oil, not great for the environment but gives a very long life to the wood. The price of wood has gone up hugely since we last ordered and we need new gates as well so can kiss goodbye to a good chunk of earnings 😬 It goes without saying that anything we can salvage and reuse we will but it still hurts the pocket 🤪

After discussing what we needed and ordering everything John went off to get feed, more expense lol.

The temperatures went down more than I had expected last night, I even checked the forecast early evening to make sure my plants would be ok and then woke to a hard frost 🙄 I took some hay to the horses as the ground was frozen and checked the greenhouse. The thermometer went down to a minimum of -1 inside so not too bad and the plants should be fine but I would have covered them if I had known, roll on spring.

I have a lot of jobs to do, the more I think about it the more there are on my radar, pruning the roses is one that I need to do sooner rather than later but there are also a few flowering shrubs that need doing too. The general rule is if they flower before midsummer you prune in autumn and if they flower after midsummer you prune late winter, I am always missing the deadlines lol. Buddliea need doing in the next couple of weeks but I missed the lilac deadline, I often miss the spring flowering because I am so busy at the other end of the year, maybe I need a reminder system.

We spent a good few hours out the front and decided to bite the bullet and cut the hazel trees, normally we just cut back all the top growth whips but they have got so thick that we decided to cut them below this time. Each tree has six trunks (like arms) and on the top of each trunk a knuckle and then all the whips grow from that. You can imagine over time how condensed that all gets as there are 8 trees all with six trunks, 48 trunks in a relatively small space with hundred of whips growing from them. Now there are just the six clean trunks for each tree and they will start all over again. It means more light will be available for the front beds although the birds no longer have a playground there but plenty elsewhere.

Sunday: Ooooosh we have worked flipping hard today, the hazel debris all needed clearing away and there was a lot of it. I did a lot of cutting back dead stuff now new growth can be seen and I mulched all the beds before the bulbs start to grow too big. We started at 8.30 this morning and stopped at 2.30 with a tea break or two inbetween. Then we went off to get some more blood fish and bone as I have used all mine up top dressing the beds before the mulch went on. I ache, not gonna lie, muscles that have not been used all winter have been woken up and are protesting 🤪 The good thing is that the front will now take care of itself for a good few weeks, months even and all I will be doing is looking for gaps that need filling or dividing anything that is getting too big but that won’t be until spring really begins.

Posted in Friesland Farm

The weather is up and down and my tooth is out!

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th January 2024: We had a beautiful warm glow sky this morning, it didn’t last long and when I stepped outside it was trying to snow. There was a good frost which is much needed but I prefer the days that warm as they go and I don’t think we are going to get many of those this week. I will definitely be using some of my ready made soups and stews, it is going to be the week for them I think.

In previous years I have had the January blues but not this year, this year I am just looking forward to all the that the year will bring, even though I reach a big birthday 🤪 it is just a number and besides it is a good excuse to get some things ticked off my bucket list.

A quick dive into the freezer this morning to get some ready prepared meals out for lunch and dinner. Veg soup for lunch and then bubble and squeak (Christmas dinner version 🤪) for John a Moroccan lamb for me and an apple and strawberry crumble for pudding, living the dream 😊

Some household chores for the morning then in the afternoon I cut back the chrysanthemums in the smaller tunnel. These are in old recycle bins and when the weather warms up they go out, when they begin to flower and the weather turns again in Autumn they come back inside so that the rain does not spoil the flowers.

I really need to divide them in spring and find a better or less heavy way of heaving them in and out of the tunnel because they do get heavy plus there is not much room in the tunnel once they are in. I will ponder on that over the next few days, for now they are cut back and new growth is coming from the bottom so they are doing ok.

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 All my minutes are spent with Oscar but while he was asleep I got swayed by looking at seeds and ordered some more 🤪 normally I wouldn’t as I have what I need but then I thought, we’ll they would look nice with such and such, and then I was tempted 😂 oops 😬 sorry not sorry. I then signed up for another online course 🥰 I like the online ones because I can fit them in around me and my life and they usually have lifetime access so you can go back to them over and over again, plus this one was half price in the January sale, win, win.

When I get a minute or too I often read random articles and again while Oscar was sleeping I saw one that intrigued me. Dessert stomach, scientists have studied this and it appears to be part of that primal instinct that we have tucked deep in the recesses of our modern brains. You have had a hefty Sunday dinner and are ‘full’ but you make room for pudding, apparently this is not greed (you will be glad to know I am sure) but a primal need to include as many types of food in your diet as you can. The fact that modern society is addicted to sugar complicates things but put simply your body is after the fruit. You never need an excuse to have pudding again, you are pre programmed 😂

Wednesday: I had a dentist appointment mid morning so I knew I would not be getting stuck into any jobs that would take a great length of time. I had a filled tooth that had fractured and partly broken away leaving half a tooth and some filling and was going in to have it refilled but on further exploration the tooth was going to need to come out. I did have the choice of trying to fill it and see if it would hold but the best case scenario was a couple of years and the nerve was likely to be affected earlier than that so as I was already numbed up I decided to have it out there and then. It was tricky to remove as it rotated and had a slight hook on the end of the root but with quite a bit of effort it came out in the end 🙄

So that meant instead of getting on with anything I needed to go home and have a bit of a sit down for a couple of hours and some painkillers. Lunch was a no no and so a luke warm cup of tea was the best I was going to get for a while 😬

Thursday: I lost the day resting and taking care not to aggravate my empty tooth socket 🙄 I need to be extra careful obviously due to the immune suppressants and I can afford myself the time to do this. I had the online course to watch so that’s what I did and it is very good with plenty of new things to learn.

Friday: My goodness it is cold this morning 🥶 hopefully the temperatures will start to come up at the weekend but in the meantime it is cold and icy out. I didn’t have such a great night, I woke with some pain but once I took some painkillers and they kicked in I was able to get some sleep again. It is Maccas birthday to day and Charlie is taking him to London overnight so we will be collecting Oscar from Nursery and he will be staying overnight with us.

Saturday: A tad warmer today but we have a weather warning, as the temps come up we swing from cold frozen weather into very wet and very windy weather 🤪 I think I need to have a look back over the years at the weather in January to see if it has changed or it’s still fundamentally the same. It seems increasingly volatile and harsh but maybe it always seems like that when there is not much else to focus on. Having said that the volcanic eruptions in Iceland are signs of some kind of Earthly change 🙄

Oscar stayed overnight and he was a little star, we collected him from Nursery late afternoon, he had his dinner and a bath, played a while then went to bed as good as good. Slept 12 hours and was happy when he woke, had breakfast then we took him out to visit Mum and Ken. Back home for lunch and an afternoon sleep 🥰

The sweet pea seeds have sprouted roots, well most of them, the duff ones went in the compost bin. Tomorrow I will go and get some seed compost, garden compost is too rich for seeds and it needs to be sterile. I really ought to get into the habit of doing a leaf litter bin which would be ideal for seeds but I never get round to it. I do have more sweet pea seeds on order, not sure what possessed me 🙄 but I ordered a few different colours. I am not usually very good with them as I forget to pinch them out at the right time but I will try very hard this year and hopefully end up with lots of beautiful blooms.

Sunday: A pleasant enough start to the day, the temperature has improved a lot and it doesn’t feel cold which is great. We do have a weather warning though as I mentioned yesterday but was able to get I to the greenhouse and tidy that up a little. It was lovely in there to be honest and I tidied up, swept, cleared dead leaves and watered the plants that are in there. Now the freezing weather has passed (no doubt it will be back) I was able to give the plants a bit of water and uncover them so they have good light. By the time the temperatures dip again they will have used up the water, they only need minimal at this time of year but it will help to put on a bit more growth. We also went to get some seed compost so that I can get the sweet pea seeds (that I have pre sprouted) growing.

Hopefully my tooth, or rather the hole where it was, is healing nicely. Being on immune suppressants can mean things could go wrong as the body does not produce a quick response to healing but so far so good 🤞

It is the turn for some beef in a batch cook today. I had a large beef rib in the freezer that needed using and so most of it will be roasted for dinner but the smaller bone end has been used for a batch of beef stew. The butcher cuts through the bone so that was already done and then I separated the beef from the fat layers and ended up with some nice pieces of beef that I then cubed. I cooked that off with some leeks and celery and then into the slow cooker with seasoning, once it is cooked I will portion it up into the foil containers and freeze for another day. I have roasted the bones along with the bulk of the meat and they will be used to make beef stock which again will be frozen for another day. I have some mince to use up and tomorrow I will be making shepherds pies and chilli. All this preparation will be fabulous once the weather is good enough to be outside for a large part of the day, it means I don’t have to think too much about what’s for dinner I will just grab something from the freezer. The days when I don’t we will eat fish or have non meat or fish days, beans on toast or eggs are our go to quick meals lol.

It is scarily windy out there tonight 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sorting appointments, seeds and poly tunnel.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 8th January 2024: It is a tad colder now and at least the rain has stopped. This morning a flock of long tailed tits arrived which nearly always suggests a period of cold weather looming.

I spent the first couple of hours trying to sort out appointments etc, trying being the operative word as nobody seems to answer the phone these days, you are always on a call back or in a never ending queue 🙄 The queue would not be so bad if you knew where in the queue you were but just to be on hold with crappy music for 15 mins is not great, no wonder stress levels have risen over the years. The next call was again on hold but at least I spoke to a human in the first place 🤪 I discovered I could book one of the appointments online, great until I realised I had booked it for two weeks away instead of this week! The forth I resorted to an enquiry form online and who knows if they will ever get back to me. Life is just not the same anymore, no one answers the phone and no one replies to your enquires lol. I managed to get three out of four sorted eventually so not a bad effort, the other I might just go in person when I have a minute.

I did up the list of workshop dates for the coming year and circulated those yesterday afternoon and despite the fact it is mid winter I still have a few flowers blooming and so a jam jar went to the local home this morning and I have sold a couple of bunches of dried flowers so it is still ticking over on that front.

Feeding the wild birds was on my todo list and prompted further by the arrival of the long tailed tits. I don’t generally feed the birds anymore, instead I leave everything that was growing, and has now died back, as a more natural eco system. I believe that there is plenty to be found and lots of hiding or overwintering places for insects that way and the birds can access those too. The exception comes when I know we are about to have a cold snap that will freeze everything and therefore either limit access to seeds/berries etc or kill off insects. Yes it does look untidy but we have to live in harmony with nature and not control it for our own vanity purposes, this helps to create a more natural environment for birds and insects and hopefully benefits me because they are sticking around and balancing themselves out 😊

I am determined to work my way through the freezers this winter and so today I have got out a leg of pork that needs using up, we will probably have that roasted tomorrow and then I will find a recipe for any left overs. I also got some chicken pieces that we had prepared for a bbq last year and didn’t use. I love a one pot recipe and so they are going on top of chopped celery, mushrooms and onions, brown rice is added to the dry mix along with seasoning and herbs and then water added to all of it, the chicken sat on top, covered and baked in the oven, easy peasy. I also got out a cake that I made and froze and some bubble and squeak (Christmas leftovers) for John along with one of the plum crumbles. I also made a batch of leek and potato soup (remember all those leeks John bought 🤪)

I made a batch of yoghurt, I don’t make it from scratch I use a yoghurt maker for that and I made a batch of doctored oats. I use plain quick cook oats, add anything dried that is suitable such as sunflower seeds and I have our own hazelnuts to start using so some of those went in as well. I also add cinnamon just because I like it and it’s good for you, mix it all up in a handy jar ready to use each morning. I use boiled water that has cooled a little to mix it and then add yoghurt and fresh fruit, sometimes with a drizzle of maple syrup or the blackcurrant syrup. You could mix in some nut butter instead (or as well as the yoghurt) Whatever you fancy really and it is so much nicer than plain oats with milk, healthier than sugary ready made cereals and good wholesome ingredients.

I love the apps that generate a recipe for you when you tell it what ingredients you have. I am using bing but there are probably plenty of others to chose from.

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 I don’t get an awful lot done on these days, well nothing in fact 😂 but that’s ok because before you know it they are old enough to go to school and these days are gone forever so I make the most of them. I couldn’t tell you how many times a day I sing ‘the wheels on the bus’ or ‘twinkle twinkle’ but it is a lot 🤪

Wednesday: I decided today was a good day to sort out my seed box ready for the growing season ahead. Most of the seeds I want for this year were ordered back in Autumn, again in order to get the varieties I want I have to be on the ball and get the order in early. A lot are half packets from last year but I will be using those up and I have saved seed from a fair few plants too. Everything needed looking at and putting in the correct sowing month which is easier said than done because the time can vary over a few months for most of them but the ideal month to start them off and go from there. Some I sorted out for Mum and there was only one where the packet was empty and I re ordered. All in all it was a good hour or so spent doing that job.

It is very tempting to keep ordering more and more seeds or plants 😂 but I am trying to behave myself, I did spend the last couple of years investing in what perennials I wanted and so this spring I will be dividing a lot of them to increase my plant stock.

We have talked about the need for better staking so that is a priority this year and once that Easterly wind drops we will go off to the wood yard to find some garden stakes. Not point wandering around in the bitter cold is there 🤷‍♀️

John had been out to work for a couple of hours and then came back and we went off to see if I could find a dentist 🙄 For those readers not in the UK our NHS dentistry system has all but disappeared, well in this area anyway, it is even difficult to get appointments for children which is rather disgusting I think. You cannot get an NHS appointment for love and so you have to pay the money which is exactly what I will be doing. Everything went wrong when covid hit and I have not been to a dentist since 2020, I was doing ok and then after a toffee (because I can’t resist a toffee) half of a tooth came away 😝 It isn’t a problem yet as there is no pain but I do not want to get the that stage and so need it looked at. Once I had been in to register and book an appointment we went round to see Mum and Ken for a cuppa.

The rest of the day was spent doing odd jobs, me around the house and John outside.

I have a zoom meeting tonight for social media, they are great and I learn a lot but I do wonder if I am getting sucked into the trap 🤪

January can be a pretty dull month, the sky is dull and there is not much going on but it is a great month to have a good think (in the warm) and decided what the year ahead is going to be all about. We have weeks to go but I can’t wait until the growing season gets going again and of course it will be warmer too hopefully.

Thursday: Getting bits and pieces done this morning, putting things back in their right places (I think they wander by themselves 🙄) Measuring and ordering muslin to make some curtains for the workshop, in summer it gets very hot as the sun shines directly in and last year I used some old bed sheets 😂 A quick reel for Instagram, which is never quick due to glitches 🤪 put out the rubbish, put on the washing all that sort of thing, nothing exciting but all necessary. I have a dentist appointment today but accidentally double booked it with looking after Oscar for an hour so I need to tweak timings, as long as the appointment is on time it should be fine but we all know how the best laid plans go! I also ordered some more business cards as I have used up the last batch 😊 to be honest I ordered them wondering if I would ever use them but each one went out on some flowers and I need more for the coming year.

Off to the dentist at lunchtime and I had the nicest dentist I have ever had 😊 Also very knowledgable about my medications and the impact they have on my teeth as well as how Lupus affects my mouth and teeth, impressed (even if it is going to cost me a chunk 🤪)

Straight after that I went to Charlie’s to look after Oscar while she went for an appointment, he went for a nap as I got there and didn’t wake up until Charlie came back. I had a lovely time as Charlie had left me some home made soup and I watched an hour of tv 🥰

I had taken this evenings dinner out of the freezer before I went out earlier as I knew I wouldn’t be here to make anything and that’s what the cook ups are all about. We had lamb stew and I made some dumplings to go in there too, nothing better on a cold Winters evening than a good stew and dumplings. That was followed by a fruit pie, slightly tart, I never like to overshadow the flavour of the fruit with too much sugar and surprisingly John didn’t even add extra sugar today either. I have a bit of a thing for evaporated milk 😂 and like to keep a small tin of it to have with a pudding occasionally.

Friday: I spent a good couple of hours making sure all my media was up to date and all linking with each other. Gone are the old days when you put a card in the local newsagent window 😂 or even just a straightforward website for that matter. Today social media pages need to link to websites, blogs, Google business profiles and vice versa, it is made all the more difficult because in my wisdom I set up separate ones for the flower side. In hindsight I should have just amalgamated it with the farm one which was already running 🤪🤪 I have updated a couple of the pages on this site to hopefully link with those social media sites so if you haven’t already had a look then please pop over and introduce yourself, you would be most welcome to follow me on:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/frieslandfarmflowers?igsh=bDlqNmFmZ2w3Z21u&utm_source=qr

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnepearse

I still have some tweaks to make and one day I will streamline it all 🙄 but all in all you should find me one way or another!

I do have a podcast as well 😂 it started off really well and then when I changed direction it kind of fizzled out and I am floundering as to how to re invent it really but it was well received and I even have people who are now friends on Facebook from it 😊

Saturday: John spent the morning riddling compost, another 10 bags 😊 that will be very useful for topping up the beds come spring. Too rich for sowing seeds but good for everything else. Meanwhile I was in the workshop making some Muslim curtains for the windows, the sun shines strongly into the room in summer so if I can diffuse a little that will be helpful. I also collected up some of the weeping birch that naturally sheds when the winds are strong, I use that for making hearts. The hearts are then used as a base for grave flowers and in the past these are usually bought on appropriate calendar dates or for anniversaries.

It is cold enough today but we have an artic blast coming over the next few days, down to -8 at times 🥶 and that could potentially bring snow with it 🙄 All I think is just keep marching on and spring will be round the corner in no time, let’s just hope we get an early one lol.

Sunday: We went out for breakfast first thing, there is a place not too far that starts breakfast at 7.30am, ideal for us early risers who want to get on with the rest of the day. We called in to see my brother and his wife on the way back and had a quick cuppa with them before returning home to get on with some work. Right through until early afternoon John spent his time riddling the compost while I cut back the chrysanthemums in the big tunnel. I then got the staking organise for them for the next lot of growth, I covered the doorway at the end with bubble wrap and put a protect wrap around the stocks that are also growing in there. John came in with wheelbarrows full of compost to top up the beds at times and I feel that we accomplished quite a bit today. The sun came out and the temperatures in the tunnel were lovely but I needed to make sure that if we get that artic blast, plants are not going to suffer too much. I am also determined to get the staking sorting early in the season as I lose too many blooms that fall over otherwise. Mid afternoon my brother came over to get some wood chip to mulch his beds also to protect them from the cold weather.

I put some sweet pea seeds on damp kitchen towel to get them sprouted, I had a successful sowing in Autumn which is still growing I am glad to say. It is getting to the time of the gardening year when I am chomping at the bit but know I need to hold off for a long while yet but every little I can do is a step nearer.

Have a great week.