Monday 17th August 2020: Up and about this morning get some veg picked, I think I need a bigger basket š loads of tomatoes this morning and the conference pears were ready to pick. After sorting it all out, putting some out for sale, finding homes for the rest of it, I got started on the front area we are creating the border in. There were bramble bushes growing which needed digging out and then shredding any material from the existing bush that I cut back yesterday. I had a go at a few of the perennial weeds as well but there is still plenty more to do. That took me up to about 11.30, thatās when I heard the first crack of thunder and felt the first spots of rain. Honestly we seem to dive from one extreme to another as far as the weather is concerned, Iām pretty sure it ought to be a little more constant than this š A customer arrived to collect the last of this batch of hens, the next batch is nearly all sold already and they are not due in until October š The rain got heavier but thatās fine as I have a bit of tidying to do indoors, I havenāt done any all weekend and things get plonked down all over the place, I have looked at the forecast for the rest of the day and itās a washout so might as well stay in.
Although staying in was my plan it didnāt actually carrying on raining and so all I did indoors was the washing up, a quick phone call to Sue and then outside again. I wanted to dig up the rest of the carrots because the rain we are forecast all week will not do them any favours so might as well get them up and into the freezer. I found a marrow that had escaped my eye as they often do, itās not too big but big enough, some of the smaller courgettes had rotted at the ends so I cut those off and threw them to the chickens and I picked a few berries from the fruit cage and some cape gooseberries from the tunnels. The clouds were intermittent and you know what that means for me, diving in an out of shade areas lol, itās pretty strong when it makes an appearance š
Someone gave me some packets of chilli seeds back in spring, I am not a fan of spicy food as it causes my acid reflux to play up but I grew them anyway and now I have loads of little Thai chillies lol. Not sure what I am going to do with them apart from put them out for sale. Itās the first time I have successfully grown chillies though, must have been the high temps we had back in spring and a decent greenhouse, I might try growing some with less heat next year.
I am running out of available space in the kitchen, there are tomatoes and plums everywhere š I think a good amount of tomatoes will be ripe enough to pick again tomorrow as well, I really need to do something with them.
Tuesday: I decided to make today an ordinary day, that is nothing out on the farm or in the garden except the essentials, a day pottering around indoors, a bit of cleaning, washing, tidying away and anything else I fancy doing. I started off with good intentions and got the boot room hoovered and tided and a few bits in the kitchen, then got side tracked by chatting with customers. One couple I was chatting to come once a year when they are down in their caravan on holiday, they always come and get their breakfast eggs here which is lovely š A bit more hoovering and put the washing on the line though Iām not sure how long it will be out there before it rains š I am not picking anything today as I have plenty still to sort out before I get more in, I have ordered a food mill/purĆ©e maker so that I can purĆ©e the tomatoes etc for passata. I made some last year if you remember and I experimented with one jar in the fridge and one in the cupboard to see how they did, well they are still both fine so thatās a year they have kept easily, really ought to use them up lol.
Wednesday: On reflection I should have done some outside things yesterday! Itās 7.30am itās already raining and itās set in for the day according to the forecasters š There are plums on the trees still to pick and there are seeds to collect, none of this couldnāt wait until the next dry day except that there are strong winds forecast after that, the plums will all be on the floor š¦ Hopefully somewhere in between our demented weather I will get an hour or two to do these jobs. They say make hay while the sun shines and I should have heeded the old proverb š Having said that there is only so much you want to be doing or you would be totally submerged in the processes of self sufficiency, maybe you should be, I donāt know. What I do know is that to be totally self sufficient in food you would have to work from dawn to dusk at this time of year. We are ss in fruit/veg/nuts/eggs and that keeps me busy enough imagine if we had a house cow as well, Iām not sure there are enough hours in the day even if I really would love one. Imagine on top of those two you grew your own grain as well and reared meat in what ever form you decided, thatās a very busy, full on life, I salute anyone that manages all of those!
I could bake today, I always used to say, rainy days are baking days but to be honest we are trying to eat healthier and cakes and pies donāt fall into the healthy category š
I was delighted to see The Guardian report that the interest in allotments soared during the pandemic, our fragile food security was exposed during those early days and people recognised the need to have home grown food (and by that I also mean UK grown) instead of relying on imports. My aim is always to encourage people to have a go at growing your own even if you just start with a tomato bush and some herbs, itās something and you never know, you might get hooked š There are so many gardens in our wonderful country, town gardens, country gardens even some city gardens and the potential to grow food is massively overlooked. Even small spaces have potential with the idea of vertical gardening, get creative, you donāt need masses of ground area and the taste is amazing.
In my blog I try to keep it simple and non reactive (on the whole anyway) because itās a diary blog after all but there are a lot of topics that I research or follow in much more depth than I write about. One of those is the fragility of how we live, not just the climate but our fundamental way of life, which is pretty fragile as shown by the pandemic. That was a disease and on the scale itās not a bad one either, of course to those affected it is catastrophic but at least it wasnāt airbourne, can you imagine how cataclysmic that would have been and whoās to say that wonāt happen sometime in the future with a different disease. Now you are beginning to see why I keep it quite neutral arenāt you š The government stepped in and kept the country ticking over by ploughing money into the system because to them thatās the most important thing and even I was grateful for that. Now imagine that airbourne disease and how it is affecting everyone, people are dying by the tens of thousands and the systems that we rely on can no longer function, what are we going to do? Anything is possible as we have just witnessed, how well are we equipped to manage?, on the whole, we are not and that is the scary part. Electricity & Water, outside of the basic food system, are the two biggies to focus on, at the moment they are pumped to our properties with uninterrupted supply, on the whole. We donāt think about it until the supply stops for whatever reason, but if you really think about it you will begin to realise just how much we rely on it, electric especially. If the power plants closed, because there was no one to run them, EVERYTHING shuts down even your water supply š If you want to learn more then there are plenty of pod casts out there, Permaculture for the future is a good one to listen too, and far from giving you nightmares I think the knowledge builds strength within you to cope with whatever life throws at you, I hope so anyway.
Does anyone have the address for āoffmet ā I want to write a complaint about the weather š Seriously, this time last week we were sweating our nuts off, today itās umbrellas and rain coats all day and then we have high winds coming, nothing resembling a ānormalā late summers day in sight š I think I need to stop watching the forecast and just be surprised by whatever it is wet get thrown as us, itās just depressing otherwise.
Thursday: A nice morning so far, not raining and not too hot. The first job on my list was to pick plums, with the high winds forecast later today and tomorrow, most of the weekend in fact, the plums would be all on the floor pretty quickly so needed picking pdq. I now have many kgs of plums to sort and process š I also picked a few other bits, the tomatoes are coming in thick and fast, I picked beans of various varietyās and of course courgettes, marrows and cucumbers. This is where we move from the āgrow your ownā into the self sufficient realm, definitely self sufficient in fruit and veg thatās for sure and so many things can be made from the basics that we wonāt go short for the next few seasons š
There is still plenty to harvest, the sweet corn I checked today but thatās not ready just yet, butternut squash still growing nicely, plenty of turnips, beetroot, swede and leeks still in the ground, cauliflowers coming on, there are also Oca in the ground that wonāt be harvested until after the from and the yacon, I have no idea when to harvest that but Iām sure it will become evident. There are chillies continuing to grow and ripen along with the cues and toms, next will be nuts and blackberries š busy times ahead!
Itās 1.30pm and I am having a sit down, mainly to stretch my back out lol, I have spent the whole morning processing. Itās surprising how much time it all takes but I now have 8 jars of plum jam, and for the freezer two containers of tomato purĆ©e, two bags of plums and a tray of French beans, plus two plum breads in the oven. Seriously, that has taken me about 3 hours and there are still loads of plums left to do something with š Hopefully the plum bread will turn out ok, the recipe was a bit finicky but I just threw it all in a gave it a stir so we will see š
Plum bread was delish š After a rest I did more plums then all the washing up, got some bread on the go, sorted the eggs, got the dinner, knackered now, over and out for today, writing anyway, still got to water the tunnels later!
I did spend a pleasant half an hour gathering some seeds from marigolds, cornflowers, love in a mist, poppies and morning glory. I intend to cast theses next spring, along with a few others that have not set seed yet, in a part of the veg garden that I struggle to get round to. Hopefully they will cover it and provide some lovely colour and nectar and save me weeding š
Friday: Oh my word they were not wrong about the wind, some of the gusts are savage š First job was to get the egg shed sorted with stuff for sale as Fridays are proving to be pretty busy at the minute. There was a lady at the gate whoās words were āI have a strange requestā thatās fine I said, you wouldnāt believe some of the requests I get š¤£ Turned out not to be that strange, not in my experience anyhow, she was after fertile eggs to incubate, all pretty normal so far š The embryo would not reach full gestation though as they would be frozen and used to help develop a new scanning system for animals, a cross between an x-ray and a scan, still in 2D but more detailed, I think I got the gist of it. We have fertile quail eggs and duck eggs but not many chicken eggs as our layer flock donāt run with a cockerel I explained. I also explained that what fertile eggs we do have are currently being sat on by broody hens, we went to have a look to see how many they were sat on and guess what, chicks š£ they had hatched! She went away with quail and duck eggs and my e-mail and she is going to send me the results of any scans that they get, exciting stuff, she asked how much she owed and I replied, itās for science, they are free š got to help science along as you never know when you are going to need it yourself.
I had Florence and Josh for a couple of hours this morning while Shelley was busy. She runs an eyebrow/eyelash business from home and has only just been able to start up again after the lockdown and so customers are queuing up. Itās funny really as when she left school she qualified as a beauty therapist but ended up in hotel management for years. It would always be something she could fall back on when she needed to and so once she had Josh and Flo she started up again so that she could work from home, it proved to be a great back up plan š
I asked Shelley to pick me up some brandy as she was popping to the shops before coming back here, I think I am going to make some plum brandy, might as well make good use of these plums. It might be a very nice warming, winter tipple if I add some cinnamon as well š„ I used the Rumtopf vessel I have as thatās as good as anything, gradually getting through the plums š
After they went home I went outside to do a bit of weeding and feed the guineas some weeds but although the weather itself is ok the buffeting from the wind is as always pretty exhausting. When Shelley came back to pick the children up she said itās not that noticeable in town, we definitely notice the weather extremes here because itās fairly exposed.
I called John to tell him we will need some chick crumb and now I have to work out where they will go, the last mum and babies I moved out because of the holes in the ground if you remember, I donāt want them falling down crevices, not sure where I am going to move them too, I will need to have a good think about it.
I fed the chicks and there are five little yellow fluffy bundles in there š
We decided to go shopping, we didnāt need much but had run out of washing up liquid and cheese so off we went. Well I wish I hadnāt bothered, it was hammering down when we left and all the way there, got a soaking getting into the shop to start off with, then of course my glasses steamed up. The whole glasses and mask thing is a pain in the arse, I canāt see the labels clearly without them, they donāt sit on my head (they slip off) and no matter how I adjust the mask they constantly steam up. We were just about done and I remembered that I had forgotten something but I couldnāt think what it was and the bloody music they pipe over the whole place wasnāt helping with my concentration levels. I ended up being so irritated I decided Iām not going again, I will send John with a list and do without whatever I forget to put on it. I know Iām a grumpy cow lol.
Saturday: The weather is a bit on and off today. After doing the animals John got the tractor out to dig a trench for the new border, this will have a low fence to hold the soil in and keep the shingle separate. It was sunny and we were out there discussing the outline when out of nowhere it starting raining, 1st soaking. He got on with that while I went and did some picking, again it was sunny when all of a sudden it started raining, I dived into the poly tunnel before I got a second soaking, by now John was on the tractor digging and he got a soaking lol. No doubt that is how the day will carry on by the looks of things.
We had a busy morning, John on the new border and me sorting out the newly hatched chicks (6) and their Mums. I have moved them into Teds pen, there is a little hut in there and the ground is not full of potential pitfalls for small chicks. Both the mummy hens and the cockerel have been moved along with the chicks. That means Ted will have a new place to sleep tonight and that might be difficult encouraging him to change. I cleaned out Teds pen, sorted out food and water then caught up one hen dusted her for mites, moved her, moved the chicks, then the other hen, dusting her as well, then finally the cockerel giving him a dusting too. Then cleaned out then pen where they had hatched and burnt the bedding, where the hens had been sitting tight and the weather has been hot there were quite a lot of red mite in there, burning gets rid of a vast majority of them. I then used the DE to dust the hatching area and I will leave it a while before cleaning it out completely and giving it a wash down with some jeyes fluid. The pen was never intended for chickens (originally it was for the rabbits) so itās a bit awkward to clean out. We never intended to have hatchlings, typical, if you had wanted them it wouldnāt have happened and now we have eight including the two that hatched a few weeks back!
While we were both busy patch started yapping incessantly, I could hear John telling him to be quiet but I also knew that the type of yap he was doing meant he was telling us something. Not all lassie like lol, there was no one stuck down a well or anything like that and usually itās if the horse has got out. I went to investigate and found a large hedgehog, Iām guessing the dogs had disturbed from wherever it was sleeping. I watched it and it was trying to get along the fence line of my garden so I opened the gate and in it went, I turned round to see where it was heading and it was gone, they really moved fast when they want to. I said to John we need to make little hedgehog tunnels so they can move between fenced areas more easily.
Sunday: Another busy morning, the weather has been favourable, for me at least š John got on with the front bed and I did a bit of cutting back in the garden and then some potting on of a few pots of things as well as some pricking out of lupins and huechera seedlings that have grown nicely. After that I went to help John in the front, digging out weeds etc. We are hoping to do the bed without weedkiller which is a pretty big task as itās very weedy and not just easy to pull weeds either but some real tough rooted ones. I think I have settled on putting flowering shrubs in there and intersperse with some late flowering plants, then scatter some annual seeds for a wispy look. I also have some bulbs which can go for spring interest, hopefully hat will cover all the seasons and be changing all the time. Most of the shrubs I already have growing in pots and once they are in the ground they should tare off pretty quickly provided we can get them in fairly soon.
I took some photos of the flower bed in the veg garden as a few smaller plants have got lost in with the giants, there is a lovely little salmon coloured dahlia that can hardly be seen as itās behind a much bigger yellow one, all things to consider for rearranging in autumn. The photos are to remind me once the plants have died down, itās all very well having an idea of what height they grow to but seeing them gives you a much better idea of where to place things.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 