Tag: raspberries

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, strawberry picking & a hydropod.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th June 2022: Blimey where is the year going, shooting by fast 😝 We have a lot of family social events coming up over the next couple of months and so the time will probably shoot by faster than I would like it too, it won’t be a relaxed summer more a full on charge.

It was lovely and sunny when I first woke up this morning and that’s when I should have got up, but I didn’t, I fell asleep again and then when I woke up next time it was raining 🌧 I am happy to see a bit of rain but I also needed to cut flowers and I got soaked doing that, my own fault I should have got up earlier 🤪 I have plenty of flowers to do this week coming and am waiting patiently for the the summer blooms to appear, they are coming I can see the flower heads they are just not opening yet. I have plenty of veg and soft fruit to get out and pick too but I will wait until later in the day and hopefully I will have dried out a little by then. The rain is a double edged sword, desperately needed to get things growing but it hinders the harvesting, treading on wet soil will damage the structure of it and make a mess to boot if I try planting anything, damp soil is ideal. No matter I have plenty of other jobs to keep me busy 😂 Soft wood cuttings can be done at this time of year as well as things like carnations and pinks. It’s time for sowing biennial seeds though I am wondering if I should bother or not, jury’s out on sweet Williams, not sure if they are worth the bother and wall flowers well, not really my favourite. Rocket and honesty though, they are delightful additions and of course the honesty seed heads are a favourite for drying. My flower drying space is rapidly being filled up and I am already looking at other areas to use, I also need to do a bit of reading up about storing large amounts of dried flowers and grasses which I may do today as it is raining.

The fox got in to my neighbours hens and had the lot 😤 it’s pretty soul destroying when that happens, we are constantly on the lookout and it’s pretty tiring I can tell you. The fox we are seeing looks like a youngster probably last years cub, it is around at all times of the day and evening and raiding our compost bins over night. It is constantly around which means it is probably living close by somewhere, I can definitely smell it when it’s about.

The weather is changeable today, one minute sunshine the next rain, I am doing the hokey, Cokey 🤪 Actually I spent a bit of time in the greenhouse, I had collected some cuttings from dianthus, hydrangea and gaura so I potted those up and also sowed some honesty and sweet william as well as some more zinnia. There is soo much to do at this time of year that I don’t know if I am coming or going at times, just keep moving forward, that’s the key.

After a pit stop lunch I got on with doing the first lot of flowers that were being collected this afternoon. A new customer that wants regular flowers which is fabulous and has a client that may also want regular flowers (little happy dance here) I also just confirmed another order for early July 😁 With the orders coming in really well it’s time to think about next years flowers already and I have just put in an order for some beautiful Italian ranunculus in various colours. The problem is where will I put them 😂 Don’t worry I will find somewhere to squeeze them in, I was a bit late for these this year but oooo they are going to be stunning next year 🥰

Busy afternoon and busy evening it never stops 🙄 Late afternoon I was cutting flowers for drying then decided I needed more drying space so I found an unused welly rack and got John to put that up, even now it won’t be enough space and I am trying to work out where else I can get some hanging 😂 The problem is the boot room gets dusty as does the back area so they are no good really, I am using space in the pantry as well but I could really do with a nice garage with high eaves 😝 Then after dinner I went out to cut some dead stuff back, feed a few things that are struggling, plant a few bits to fill gaps, water the plants in the cold frame area and then pick some strawberries, raspberries and red currants before they go over. Finally sitting down at 10pm! It will be bedtime in ten minutes I reckon.

Tuesday: Up and about, jump in the shower, get the washing on, hang it out, pray it doesn’t rain 😝 Windy enough to dry it quickly today, mixed bag, some sun, plenty of wind, colder when there is cloud cover. Have a hair cut, crack on with the mornings work. The work was planting up anything I have in pots to fill gaps in the front beds. But first each pot needed a thorough watering as did the soil I was digging into, it is as dry as a bone despite rain last Saturday, I definitely need to dig in a good amount of well rotted manure, the soil is great looking but lacking somewhat in substance. I still have gaps, I think last year I filled them with lots of bedding dahlias some of which have returned this year I am happy to say. I may even take the chance of leaving my bigger dahlia tubers in the ground and cover them, it will save an awful lot of work and storing over winter. That took me up lunchtime when I came in for a good sit down, cue John coming home and ‘have you been sat down all morning’ 😤 It is always a working lunch unless I am really tired then it’s a nap 😝 but today I was reading up about dried flowers and storing them, mostly reading Bex Partridge’s blog, her dried flowers are awesome, the colours are amazing and she will have a go at drying anything, nothing ventured, nothing gained 😁 With the inspiration fresh in my mind I set out after lunch to cut flowers for drying.

Before I knew where I was it was 3pm and I had not only read a lot on dried flowers but also ordered a hydropod cuttings propagator, oops. Well as I am notoriously rubbish at cuttings I thought I may as well give myself a helping hand and the reviews are fabulous, I even know someone in person who has one and says it’s brilliant.

Greenhouse Sensations Hydropod cuttings propagator, I will give it a whirl and see how I get on.

A bit of cutting back, weeding and watering the small raised bed at the other side of the house while the dinner was cooking, then dinner, then deliver some flowers, then pop to the shop to get some meat for a bbq at my brothers tomorrow, pop to Mums for a cuppa and say hello to my Aussie family, back home, cut some flowers for tomorrow’s bouquet (because it is supposed to rain overnight and early morning) and finally cut some shade netting and tie in sausage shapes around the cherry tree branches so that I actually get some this year, and that’s another day done.

The Aussie family have been to Sardinia for a week to meet up with Monique’s Dad who is from Czechoslovakia and they flew back to the UK today. They are here until Friday when they will be going home and so tomorrow we are having a bbq at my other brothers house hence the shopping.

I am determined to get some cherries this year, normally the bloody birds strip the tree clean before I even get one. Josh said to me the other day ‘ are you doing cherry pie this year Nana, we have cherry pie every year don’t we’ 🥰 Well the fact is that we only ever had it once, the one year I was able to get some but if my Grandson wants cherry pie and thinks we have it every year then I am doing my utmost to make sure that is the case 😂 hence the sausage wrapped branches on the tree, I will get cherries for that pie 🥧

Wednesday: A busy day as always with an even busier afternoon/evening. I had multiple phone conversations about the ride on mower that went to be fixed, basically it’s so old they cannot get the parts anymore. We have had our moneys worth from it and so we are getting another second hand one. Flowers to do for the weekly delivery, once they were made up we went off to deliver them, then onto look at the mower we are going to buy and then straight from there to my brothers for a bbq evening with the family to say goodbye to my brother and his family who will be flying home tomorrow.

Thursday: A busy morning again trying to get everything done before 10am when someone was coming to collect some plants and then a friend arriving for a DIY bucket of flowers for a wedding she is doing for her friend on Saturday. We have not seen each other in person for about 8 years I think but it’s one of those friendships that just picks up where it left off. We met at college on an Organic Gardening course and so have a lot in common, she owns a very successful green roof company, Oxford Green Roofs, and we had plenty to catch up on and stories to tell. A good few hours of uplifting chatter and positive vibes, plus flower talk, brilliant. After she left I had just enough time to grab a cup of tea before the twins arrived for their Thursday afternoon visit while Mia goes swimming.

Friday: Up early again to get jobs done before going out for the day, such a busy social life at the minute 😂 all or nothing just like growing produce. I got the bouquet made up and some jam jar flowers to go out, did the eggs, plus numerous jobs that I can’t even remember. Then off to get some routine blood tests done, return home, eat some breakfast and hand over a bouquet to a customer. Whizz round and do any last minute things before Shelley arrives and we go off for the day strawberry picking with the three youngest grandchildren. As the twins are always eyeing up my strawberries I thought it would be great to take them where there are thousands of them to pick 🥰 They had a great time and Lucies very primal cry when she saw all the lovely juicy red berries was hilarious.

Back home mid afternoon and time for a sit down and maybe a power nap, if I didn’t then I was never going to function well for the rest of the day.

Once recovered I sorted out dinner, put that on to cook and did various jobs like soft fruit picking plus cherries as well, cut a lot of flowers that are too short for bouquets but will do beautifully in jam jars, got the eggs sorted and ready for the morning, watered the tunnels, watched a live online weekly round up with the flower growing group I am with and then gardeners world, day done. Both of the things I was watching reminded me that I still have a lot of jobs to do in the coming week 🙄

Saturday: Up early getting the jam jar flowers made up (still in my pyjamas) getting the egg shed loaded ready for the day ahead, sorting out household bits and then getting ready for the day ahead because I am out again today as well 😝 Hen party today, fancy dress 🤪 And it’s not like me to say this but I rather hope the weather warms up a tad as it’s rather cloudy and breezy today 😏

Just for fun, a little hand held for Sam to carry on her hen do today x

It rained most of the day but that was fine we had a fabulous day on the river 😁 Great fun was had by all, plenty of drink, food and silly games 😂

Unfortunately we lost 7 hens to the fox 🤬 John was one of those giving us all a lift and we left around 11am, he was gone for an hour and a bit and when he drove back in the drive he could see dead chickens all over the front paddock. We lost 3 yesterday as well, all from the front so all our young hens that we haven’t even had our moneys worth out of yet 😏 Totally exasperating, night time raids or even evening ones is one thing but in the middle of the bloody daytime is quite another, what a waste of time, energy and money, feeling deflated 😞

Sunday: I went to bed early last night, it was a tiring day lol, consequently though I woke early this morning 🙄 So at 4.30 I made a cup of tea and took it back to drink in bed while reading. I got up about 5.30 and cracked on with some jobs, might as well get an early start. We went out around 9.30 (kept the hens in the safety of their outdoor pens today) we had some breakfast out, bought some plants, bought an old book on growing flowers for cutting and then made our way home. That was harder than it sounds, first we encountered an accident that had not long happened and the traffic was backed up, once we got past that we headed home on the bypass. Got to the end of it to join the A40 and that was closed for resurfacing, now I am all in favour of them resurfacing the roads but the least they could do was put a sign at the previous exit to say you can’t get off further down 😂 There is a roundabout so everyone was going either all the way round and back on the bypass or off the first exit. We chose the first exit, thought we will cut through left to the nearest village and along the back roads and get back home the other way. Nope every Tom, dick and Harry was thinking the same thing and from the other direction too which caused a blockage in the narrow roads through. We headed back from the direction we came and took the next right through a different village to try and get back across towards home, well the traffic was heavy, every back lane we were driving along so was everyone else, blimey 😧 we didn’t expect that today.

We haven’t really done anything else today apart from attempt to watch the Grand Prix which has had troubles of its own, luckily everyone is ok. What is funny is that we were sat watching the warm up programme and the Red Arrows went over our house and then 10mins or so later there they were on the telly at Silverstone 😝

I have spent a fair amount of time reading about sowing biennials, taking cuttings and Autumn sowing, plus updating my profile on the Flowers from the Farm page. I had a call from my sister to say that she was talking to a florist about 15miles away from us and telling her about me and my flowers and she asked where I was and then said oh yes I have heard about her flowers 😁 (I assume it was in a good way 😂) I am not really planning on doing much today to be honest, I think it’s ok to take a break every now and then isn’t it (even if there are tons of jobs to be done)

Have a great week, either enjoy what you do or do what you enjoy 😊

These poppies are absolutely gorgeous but even with the correct conditioning they will only last around 3 days in a vase. The way to get good value from these is to cut some of the stems in ‘cracked bud’ form so that one the first ones have gone over the next lot are flowering 😁
Posted in Friesland Farm

Wood chip, garden bounty & a change of plans.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 11th October 2021: Must try harder to write every day and not forget like I did last week 🤪

Already this morning the plans I had have changed and it’s only 9.30 am. I had a phone call from a tree company who are working in the area had want to bring wood chip😁 I am on a site where they can ring and ask if you want some, I said yes please and now I have three loads coming 🙄 so I need to decide where they are going to dump it and what I will do with it. We use a lot of it on the pathways in the veg garden, it’s ideal for suppressing weeds and does need renewing each year. We used to use a lot of it in the ménage but that has just become a weed bed at the minute so I can put it straight on there although I will probably put it there when I get time to sort it all out. So the jobs I had on my list go by the way and make way for a different job today, sometimes that’s just how things go. I might have another cup of coffee before having to get stuck in to moving it all.

I have spent most of the day shifting wood chip onto the pathways (still a long way to go yet) I spent the rest of the time, cutting things down or pulling things up. I have tidied up the hoses and anything I left lying around which is always a fair amount of stuff 🤪 and I worked right until it was dark. I did have a short interlude when Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and we cooked sausages on the fire pit (Shelley moved a few barrows of wood chip for me as well)

Tuesday: Another busy one in the garden, I was going to move more woodchip but I was thinking while I was falling asleep last night that I needed to get the fruit cage in order so that I could woodchip in there. If I did all the paths around it first I would find it hard to push the barrow, so I spent the morning tidying, weeding, cutting back and repotting the blueberries and the yellow raspberries. I topped up all the pots with compost and added some pelleted chicken manure and some carbon at the same time. I did actually find a few raspberries 😁 only around 15 but still that’s a win. The raspberries have on the whole been terrible this year but there is a late flush, due to the weather I imagine and so I might get a few more before the weather turns.

I did plan to sit down after that but found I had more energy so I changed jobs and barrowed some of the homemade compost onto the smaller raised beds that John put in for me. I got three of them filled, added some carbon and covered them with membrane, they will stay like that until I either decided to plant into them for winter or leave them until spring. I have a lot of much smaller beds now which is time consuming at this end of the year but will be much easier to look after in the growing season hopefully.

I did get the dinner on first thing in the morning and got the ducks some clean bedding before I started all of that lol.

Wednesday: Another good lot of work in the garden today although I did sit down at 1.30 for a good hour or so, the more I do the more tired I feel the next day 🙄 But I feel like I am really getting somewhere and making good progress with the preparation which in turn will make next spring a lot easier hopefully. I started off in the greenhouse picking any remaining chillies and peppers then putting the plants outside, they will go in the compost bin when there is room. I cut all the lemon grass, took the tops to the rabbit and Guineas and kept the rest of the stems, some are for sale some I will find a use for. I also took one of the plants inside to overwinter along with another ginger plant. I dug up part of the horseradish, it has got huge and I don’t want it taking over, some of the root I put out for sale the rest I will grate and freeze. Next I fixed the side of one of the long beds, the wood had rotted and the side collapsed and then onto a fair amount of weeding. I picked all the remaining courgettes, they are small but still useable. All the while I was popping back and forth to the kitchen because I was baking bread. While I was waiting for the bread to cook I made a batch of tomato soup all with home grown ingredients, garlic, carrot, basil, tomatoes and a lovely red pepper. Back outside to get some more bits done before moving 4 barrows of woodchip. I think I earned the sit down lol.

All home brown ingredients for tomato soup, can’t show you the finished article because we ate it all up 😋

Thursday: Mostly busy indoors today which was unexpected, I was quite tired so I had already decided to potter today rather than get stuck into anything big. But the day didn’t pan out like that, Luke came to rebuild the end side of the building which is the undercover outer area, we had a discussion however an decided to completely remodel the whole thing 🤣

Friday: Gotta love Friday and especially a sunny one 😁 I got busy straight away with putting some bits up for sale to make room in the back covered area and then I started dismantling the worktop and anything around it in the area where the door will now be going. I also rang the surgery as I had notification from nhs vaccine that I need to get a third vaccine booked. There is some confusion over if this is the booster or a third primary vaccine but a bit of research showed that the booster is the same as the origin vaccine so I can’t see it makes much difference really except that I am then supposed to have a booster in six months time as well 🤷‍♀️ Luke is busy out the back opening up the new doorway and re fitting the doors, can’t believe we didn’t do it years ago it would have made much more sense lol. I have barrowed a few loads of woodchip as well today, if I do some every day then eventually I will get it done.

Lemon grass tea, full of antioxidants and goodness and so easy to grow in the UK

Saturday: Did a bit of pottering about first thing, I was waiting for someone to arrive who was coming to buy some equipment we were selling. They were a lovely young couple eager to get started on some land for their smallholding dreams, it was lovely to chat and show them around listening to their enthusiasm 😁 I totally forgot I had a loaf of bread proving mind you 🤣 all was not lost and after I had baked the loaf I went outside and cleaned the Guineas and quail. This was a big clean out ready for the coming winter months, mostly they get skipped out, that’s just the messiest bits clean up but this was a complete job for both pens. The quail often come inside for winter as they will keep laying then but I think this winter we will leave them out and they can rest from egg production. I put in fresh hay for the rabbit and cleaned out all the water and feed bowls. A quick bite to eat and a little sit down before going out to sort the light Sussex pen and the Turkey pen.

Sunday: Been busy today helping John do the side of the building, it coming along nicely now but still a fair amount to get done yet as always 😜

Thai chillies in various stages of drying out
Still managing to harvest a few things though the summer veg is coming to and end now.
The flower garden is still giving up its bounty, this has been one of the best decisions I have made, they brighten up the garden and the house 😁

The summer veg garden is almost finished but there are still things growing for winter, I have leeks in as well as kale and brassicas and winter lettuce.

As we have been redoing the side of the building I thought it would be a good idea to buy a bat box, we have plenty flying around at night and so a box seemed like a good idea. It all adds to the diversity of the wildlife we have here.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Harvest time, home grown flowers & plenty of jobs to do 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd August 2021: Well we had the best weeks holiday 😁 the weather was just right for me, the sea was as calm as a lake all week long, the food was out of this world good and we rested and relaxed a lot, job done now back on with the work 😂

Shelley has looked after the farm beautifully, everything was in order and then some as her and Sam had done some mowing and weeding and clearing, it all looked lovely on our return. In order to keep up the good work we have not been idle since arriving home and have been trimming the front hedge, hoeing, sweeping and tidying, still a fair bit more to do but it’s looking loved again. Hopefully we can get quite a bit achieved this week as John has another week away from his plumbing and we can crack on here with tidying, strimming, cutting back, mowing, weeding, lol it’s never ending 🤪

We were up early and ready to crack on, I got some picking done and checking over everything to see what needed doing. John got busy with the morning jobs and then back to the front driveway which he has gone to town on, really pulling out and raking up all the stinging nettles and weeds. I picked another lovely bunch of flowers for the kitchen, beautiful pink dahlias this week 😁 We worked until almost lunchtime then John took me over to Sams to look after the kiddies while she went for her second vaccination. John was supposed to come back home and do some work but he made a cuppa sat down and had a sleep instead 😂 Once he had picked me up and we came home it was my turn for a quick kip, I was exhausted after and early start and grandchildren sitting 🤪 John went out and cut the middle paddock and gave the back paddock a better cut while I had a sleep. Once awake I picked some raspberries and blueberries, I still think birds are getting in the fruit cage as there is not a red raspberry to be seen, normally there are loads, I think I will definitely grow more yellow ones next year as the birds don’t touch them 🤷‍♀️ I picked a cucumber, tomatoes, garlic chives, celery greens, and carrots for dinner this evening, John has chicken with runner beans which I had already picked, plus the home grown carrots and potatoes while I have chicken with salad and baked potato and some home grown fruit with yoghurt for dessert including a home grown melon 🥰

Shelley did some daily recordings for the podcast if you are interested in listening to that, I do a weekly round up on a Thursday and then on a Mondays I cover a topic of one type or another, https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/our-smallholding-life-warts-n-all/id1574503311 or it can be found on Spotify. I am really enjoying doing them, I think it is a completely different perspective when you can hear me talking about things rather than reading them.

Tuesday: We got off to a flying star with all the usual morning jobs and then John continued with the driveway, it’s hard work but he is doing a great job and it looks fab. I picked some flowers this morning to go out with the produce and eggs, I definitely want to be doing more flowers and plants for sale. With that in mind I collected some seeds from a lovely soft pink snap dragon I have growing and I took some cuttings from some pinks, if I do a little bit every day I will soon have plenty of plants to put out next Spring. I have a large order of tulip bulbs arriving in September, most will go into the garden but a lot will be potted up and hopefully ready for Easter next year. I picked courgettes and lots of tomatoes this morning though the tomato plants are coming to the end now as they definitely have something wrong with them, I think it is from spray watering, I really need to get set up to water at ground level really. The lads from Wildpoint arrived to take some photos, they are working hard to get the website off the ground and have already had a piece in the Guardian and have been approached by a main tv station to do a bit on one of their daily programmes which is great for them. Exciting stuff and they were very enthusiastic about our little Wildpoint campsite 🥰

Mid morning we went to the garden centre for a mooch around and some lunch and then round to Mums for a cup of tea or two before returning home. As the sun was out we decided to wait until later in the day to carry on outside. Once it was cool enough John went out to put some things in the skip, it was changed over this morning and we always have plenty to fill a new one up 😂 I went out to pick some plums, the greengage and Victoria’s are ready and I think I will make jam with those. While I was in the vicinity I did all the water bowls for the animals in the orchard, rabbit, quail, light Sussex and turkeys plus the guinea pigs. Sadly I found one of the pigs in the last throes of dying, I have no idea why as it was fine yesterday although he is the one I had to separate because the others bullied him. Maybe they knew there was something wrong, animals have the instincts to detect things we can’t even see and I’m guessing this was something internal as there were no external signs of anything 😢

When we were driving to Mums I spotted a compost bin that had been put out on the pavement ‘free to take’ yay, I had been looking round the farm for something to use in the front area so that I didn’t have to keep taking it round the back and so that little find was perfect 👍

Wednesday: Busy day today, it was overcast so I made the most of being able to be outside all day 😁 Mostly I was weeding and clearing, the peas have finished so I took down the canes and cleared away dead foliage, weeded the bed and I will cover it to stop the cats using it as a toilet area and keep new weeds at bay. There is plenty of weeding to do, it’s amazing how much time it all takes lol I spent most of the day doing that. Meanwhile John was finding things that needed to go in the skip and burning the hedge clippings and all the weeds he has been digging up. It doesn’t sound like we did a lot but we really did 😂 we were tired by 3.30 so went in for a sit down and a cheeky nap 🤪 After I had cooked dinner and we had finished eating I used the tomatoes I picked yesterday to make some quality tomato soup. I used a BBC Good Food recipe as it does not have any extras such as flour as I don’t think it’s needed. Most of the ingredients were home grown, tomatoes, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaves, just the addition of vegetable stock, tomato purée and a pinch of sugar (which reduces the acidity of the tomatoes) were needed to finish it off, lovely jubbly. That will go into some pour and store bags ready for the winter.

Home grown ingredients for tomato soup, I love making this and then getting it out of the freezer on a cold winters day 🥰
I also strung up the red onions to store, these were a good crop unlike the white onions which won’t store and those have been chopped and frozen instead.

Thursday: Had a busy morning, first up after the usual stuff then onto blending up the tomato soup, I left it to cool down overnight so I could do it this morning and then freeze it in four portions of approx 500ml each in pour and store bags. Then straight onto making 4lbs of Victoria plum jam and 3lbs of garden chutney plus a ‘compost cake’ 😂 I found a lovely site with both these ‘formulas’ rather than recipes, formulas because she just talks about the basics and the ingredients are whatever you have. The garden chutney this time had courgettes, onion, apple and runner beans in it and the compost cake had banana, kiwi, plums and a satsuma as the ingredients. Basically it’s a cake that uses up fruit that is probably about to go into the compost, as long as it’s not mouldy or dry as a bone it can go in, the banana was black on the outside but still useable inside, the kiwi was a bit squidgy (it was one from the fruit bowl on holiday lol) the plums were the cherry plums I picked before we went away and so needed using up and there were a few grapes that went in as well. Makes a lovely, fairly heavy cake with is almost like a bread pudding texture, I had mine with some yoghurt when it was still warm 🥰 The chutney has a basic chutney base (sugar, vinegar, apples, onions) and then whatever you have to use up which in my case was some wonky courgettes and some tougher runner beans, I threw in some sultanas for good measure and I added some powdered allspice but you could use any combination of spices that you prefer.

Meanwhile John was very busy tidying up the stable block, over time lots of things had got put away (dumped) in there and now everything has been put away neatly and it looks great, he then went on to start cutting up a huge pile of wood that we still have. We decided to keep the wood and use it on the fire pit, should be enough to last about 5 years 😂

In the afternoon we had a rest, did a bit more late afternoon and then some dinner, out to get a bit of shopping and a bit more when we came back. Watering the greenhouse, feeding the cats and dogs, putting the birds away etc etc, feels like the jobs never end sometimes.

Cheeky little Anna cat playing hide and seek, she will go to Shelley’s once they are back from their holiday, no doubt she will keep them on their toes 😂

Friday: Another busy, busy day today, got to make the most of John still being at home 😉 He started off with the feed rounds and then went off to get a feed load, meanwhile I did the usual morning things and then set about picking which was a big session 🙄 Cucumbers, courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, sweetcorn, jalapeños, all went out into the Little Shed along with some plum jam and garden chutney. Then I got started on covering an area that I cleared yesterday where the peas were, I don’t want the cat using it as a toilet so I have put down membrane to also prevent the weeds growing until I decided what to do with it. Then I was looking at the old bean bed, we moved the runner beans last year and it has been successful (with a modification) and now this bed needed repairing and tidying up, cue John 🤪 I called him over to help decide what was the best thing to do and we spent until gone 2pm taking out the old sides, digging in pallet collars and tidying the whole bed up. It will now be a one of these collars, which make great raised beds, instead of one long bed. It will be easier to cover individual boxes when they are not being used and also easier to make frames to put netting or environmesh over. We did have to leave some things in situ as I have leeks growing at one end and brassicas growing halfway down but we have put in four new collars and will do some more tomorrow. I am thinking that I will use some of the beds for some of the cutting flowers for next year but the decision has not yet been finalised.

Late afternoon we went round to water Shelley’s plants while she is away and then drop some veg off to Mum and have a quick cuppa. Back home for dinner and a restful evening (well except the putting to bed stint)

Saturday: A bit late up this morning, we have our daughters dog while they are away and it howled all night long 🤪 Once we were up and about and had got all the morning feeding and letting out done John cleaned out the ducks while I prepped some dwarf beans for the freezer. Mid morning we went out, there was a carnival on in the next town so we went for a mooch about, I won a nice ha dang, a hatching dinosaur egg and a bottle of wine on the tombola stall 😂 I also pledged to go along to the local flower arranging group which is starting up again on Wednesday evening, I am really looking forward to that, I have wanted to do it for a few years now and so I seized the opportunity to have a chat with them and said I would go along, the lady said I will probably be the youngest one there 😂 the way I see it that just means there is a lifetime of knowledge I can glean information from 😁 When we got back we decided to mostly take the rest of the day off as we have been working so hard this week, and we are tired from not getting a decent sleep during the night 🙄

Sunday: After having a more relaxed day yesterday we got on with it again this morning, after all the feeding and letting out was done John did another of the raised beds in the garden, I did a lot of dead heading and cutting back on the flower garden. Shelley, Martin and the children came over to collect the last little kitten who is called Anna and then we went to the DIY shop to get some bags of compost. On the way back we called in to see my brother and his wife for a coffee and came back mid afternoon so up to that point we didn’t actually get much done at all 😂 John continued with that theme by having a sit down but I got on with clearing some of the bed in the veg garden that will make way for more lawn. It has all the herbs in there but also some plants left from when I used it as a nursery bed before the flower garden got finished. My plan was to dig up all the seedlings and plants that were left in there and pot them up ready for next spring either to use or sell on. So far I have potted up 79 plants 😲 of one type or another and there are plenty more to do. I have hundreds of strawberry plants and runners to dig up, some I will save, some will be given away and some will be potted up for selling next spring. The same goes for all the herbs I will be digging up and dividing. John did come back out eventually and did two more boxes/beds, I think he said there will be 11 in all so that is 13.2m long (approx 43ft) by a metre wide, each box is 1.2m x 1m and I think it will be much easier to cover the boxes individually with different things depending on what is growing and what stage they are at. I carried on digging bits up and potting them until I felt I needed a sit down 🤪

Bank holiday tomorrow, it’s always nice when the weekend is extended, then job is back to the day job on Tuesday and I will be back on me tod again 🙄 Things get very busy in the garden at this time of year, harvesting everything that seems to be coming in fast and furiously, taking cuttings, collecting seeds, dividing plants, planting bulbs, cutting back, pruning, planting winter veg, prepping, freezing, drying, jams, chutneys, sauces, syrups, yep it’s a busy time for sure but it keeps me out of trouble.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Funny weather, lots of picking and slugfest in the greenhouse.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 2nd August 2021: It is actually Wednesday morning as I type this, I have missed a couple of days due to external matters that needed my time. On those days I have done only the necessary basics here, feeding and watering animals, picking and sorting veg and household bits so there was not much to report anyway. I did move the horses from the restricted paddock which is all but eaten off now, they are in the side paddock but at some point I need to put the electric fencing up in there so that they don’t gorge themselves.

Today I can get on and as yet I haven’t quite decided what I will do although the cloud looks quite thick at the moment so I should be able to get out for a good part of the day. I had been feeling down and disillusioned with everything as well as very tired, some of that was due to other things going on and some of it just whatever is going on in my body at the minute but today I feel I can bounce back a little bit and focus 😁

Wednesday: A did a really good stint at weeding the veg beds, most of the morning in fact. When we go away shelley will be living here and although I can tell weeds from the veg it’s not so easy for anyone else 😂 so I have made it easier to see what things are and what needs to be picked hopefully. I did a bit of picking, runner beans and some blueberries and Loganberry and then the grandchildren arrived at lunchtime for a couple of hours. We saw some deer in the field beyond ours which was nice for the kiddies (and adults) and the weather was pretty good, not too hot. After they left John arrived home early from work but I still had a lot that I wanted to get done. I needed to cut the lavender before it rains again as I want to dry it off for later in the year, I did some more weeding and then picked tomatoes ready for putting out tomorrow.

I forgot to let the ducks out this morning and didn’t remember until mid afternoon which is really bad of me and I’d better not do that again 😕

Thursday: Weather started off ok but by lunchtime it had turned cold and started raining quite a bit 🙄 First thing I did some more picking, courgettes, jalapeños and peppers, the jalapeños are growing thick and fast and I really need to find a good recipe for them as I don’t really eat them as they are. Once I had done all I needed to I sat down for a quick coffee and publish my weekly round up podcast and then Josh and Flo arrived as I was looking after them for a couple of hours. I love 4/5 year olds, the conversations you can have with them is priceless as are the things they come out with, under that age it’s a bit more basic and over that age they obviously know a lot and don’t need to ask you any more 😂 I think I would phrase it as the ‘conversation gold’ part of early childhood 🥰

Shelley arrived back and we had some soup for lunch before they left to get on with their day and I got on with mine. By this time is was raining heavily and I needed to get some paperwork sorted so an indoor afternoon.

Spent a ridiculous amount of time on the phone (with a very pleasant lady mind you) getting some holiday insurance and all the extra Covid cover we need this time round, but it’s done now all I have to do is think about packing, sort out the farm ready to leave it and not catch Covid beforehand 🙄 Oh and try and find some flat shoes as the ones I ordered are too small 🤪

It carried on peeing down most of the afternoon and into the evening so I found plenty of indoor jobs to be getting on with 🤪

Friday: It started off with rain first thing which cleared up but we still had these blustery winds with some pretty strong gusts at times 🙄 One thing I am glad of is that last year we changed how we grew runner beans as each year the winds would blow the ‘wigwams’ down when the plants were full of foliage and heavy with beans. John built a better permanent frame and this year I have not had to worry about them going over. These are the kind of modifications I am trying to get in place each time to make life easier. I did all the usual morning jobs but no picking this morning as I thought I would leave it and do a bigger pick tomorrow. That gave me time for a more leisurely shower and smoothie morning 😁 Mid morning Sam came over with the children and we went out for lunch to a local child friendly pub. There were plenty of toys to keep the children occupied and active and we ate outside, all part of re introducing the children to social activities that have been lacking, certainly for most of the twins 2 years of life, crazy isn’t it?

Later after returning home I had a quick nap, still feeling tired at times but not as much as before and no blips on my blood tests, well I haven’t been contacted so I assume there aren’t 🤔 John came home early again today and so after a cuppa and catch up we got on with afternoon feeding rounds, poultry, cats, dogs and humans 😁 Popped out to visit Mum in the evening but she wasn’t in so we went up to see my sister, while we were there my sister, John and my nephew fixed the car door. The passenger front door would not open from the inside or out and we couldn’t work out how on Earth we were going to fix it but between the three of them they did it. I have had to sit in the back for the last month so it was nice to sit in the front again. However when we got back home I couldn’t get out 😂 it wouldn’t open from the inside again, luckily it opened from the outside. We keep talking about getting a new car but John loves this one and although it’s old it is a really good car (apart from the door)

I had a notification from WordPress that 67 people now read the blog 😲 oh my goodness that is crazy, that is just on WordPress I know a fair few others read it straight from the Farm Facebook page or my personal page. I would just like to thank anybody that has ever read it, I think it has been going about 10 years now, it has only ever been about sharing the journey with anyone who wanted to come along. When I began it I didn’t have Lupus, life has changed in various ways time and time again, I have got older, grown an extraordinary amount of fruit and veg in that amount of time, probably baked tons of cakes, made hundreds of jars of jam and chutney, tried out a book full of new recipes, laughed, cried, been knocked down and got back up numerous times, I have enjoyed doing it and will keep blogging for as long as I can. I have recently dipped my toe into the podcast pool which I am enjoying as well though sometimes I wonder what on Earth I think I am doing 😂 but it’s just a different way of sharing this life.

Just listening to the late night news and weather forecast 🙄🤪 rain, thunder storms and blustery winds, are we sure it is actually August?? Time for bed and mull over tomorrow’s jobs before I fall asleep 😴

Saturday: Had to crack on this morning and get some picking done, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, chillies, French beans, some to go out for sale some to sort out for the freezer. I picked about 1kg of tomatoes 😲 and put a few punnets out in the shed, some are continuing to ripen on the windowsill and some I have frozen whole on trays to bag up once they are solid. I have done the same with the jalapeños, they will be fine for adding to soups, stews and sauces, I will probably make some tomato soup to freeze with the rest, I have made sauces in the past but I rarely use them, soup is more my thing. After picking and sorting I did a bit of slug hunting in the greenhouse, found about 15 of the little blighters, then it was indoors to clean the spare room, strip the bed and get that all washed before laying out the suitcases ready to fill for our holibobs 🥰🥰 I spent a large part of the afternoon trying on clothes and making piles of what to take. It’s been such a long time since our last holiday I had almost forgotten what we need so I’m just packing everything lol.

John has been to collect some hay bales today ready for winter feeding, I like to have in some of the small bales as well as the big round ones, they are easier to move around for the smaller animals, not much hood for the horses as they would it them in one sitting lol.

The red onions, I am pleased to say, did not succumb to the alium leaf miner so they are now pulled and drying off, they will store unlike the white onions which I have had to chop and freeze.

The rain just couldn’t help itself today and there were some pretty sharp showers at times, it is supposed to settle down after tomorrow with some warmer weather on the horizon. It has been the weirdest of summer seasons so far who knows what else is in store 🙄

The turkeys have been laying well, one more and I will be able to put them out for sale 😁

Jalapeños
Tigerello tomatoes

Sunday: Bit of a busy day off the farm today, after all the morning jobs were done someone arrived to collect the first of the kittens to go, I have had an update and she is settling in well her new home 😁 As soon as she had left we went to Witney to get a few bits of shopping for the holiday (did I mention we are going on holiday 😂) then back home again just after lunch to let the dogs out and do a few bit before going off to my brothers for the afternoon into early evening for his birthday celebrations. It is the first time that so many of us have been together and not everyone was there but we all had a lovely time. Once back home there was a bit to sort out, I took some hay to the Guineas and rabbit and got them fresh feed and water, and the quail. My main aim in the orchard was to separate the lonesome light Sussex hen that leaves with Ted and his ladies and get her in with the light Sussex flock. I watched her the other day and she has been plucking out Teds feathers that were newly growing through after his moult 😲 I managed to get her out but had to leave putting her in with the others until it was nearly dark. We had some other hens that have been in quarantine, they were also moved to the main flock once it was nearly dark, then on to do the water for the horses, feed the dogs and cats and then on to do another slug hunt in the greenhouse. The slugs are flipping getting to every pepper but I was able to see them by torchlight and get them out, probably still plenty more but if I keep doing it I might be able to sabotage their efforts.

Another week over and onto the next one, it will be a short blog as I am going on holiday (did I mention that 🤪) Only one obstacle to overcome and that is the testing centre at the terminal, fingers crossed 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

It didn’t come home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿😕 painting & hot weather 🥵

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th July 2021: 😢😢😢😢 We lost the football final, but what we got was a nation riding high on hopes and dreams for a while and that was worth it’s weight in gold especially this year.

Still the weather is not typical but it’s fine for me except the rain showers which are making the weeds enormous, the soft fruit and flower buds wet and soggy and me run in and out with the washing 🙄 Today I ah e been spinning plates again (metaphorically of course) trying to get the kitchen washed down, holes filled, caulking done, almost ready to paint it but not looking forward to doing that job especially the ceiling 😂 At lunchtime the farrier came so half an hour beforehand I went to get the horses in, as soon as I took the electric down Jack jumped the rails effing donkey is what I called him 😜 I got biscuit in and tied her up, Jack was wellying around the yard and then found the big paddock with lots of grass. Of course he then did not want to be caught so I had to use some psychology on him, shut him in the paddock, go back to biscuit where he couldn’t see me, come back, stand with my back to him and eventually he came and stood so I could get his head collar on. Only then did he get half an apple and it was just in time as the farrier arrived. Feet done I turned them back out into the restricted grazing, I might let him out towards the end of the week when it’s going to be hot rather than raining.

Back into the kitchen to get some more bits of filling done, just some rubbing down to do and then it will be ready. With that and a chat to a couple of customers not much got done outside though I might get out and do a bit tonight if I can, providing no more rain that is.

Well tonight instead of getting on the garden I went out to the paddock as Sam came over to get the fencing sorted for the horses. We have now moved the fencing to go round the whole perimeter of the paddock with a gateway I can open and let them onto better grass at the weekends as a treat. Had a bit of trouble getting them back in as we had let them into the other paddock which is full of nice lush grass and obviously they didn’t want to come back in, but again with a bit of bribery, something tasty, and grabbing hold of biscuit to lead her in first, we got them in and put the electric back on, job done.

Tuesday: Up early, before 5am, I thought it was going to be a hot day so I got up and got on, turns out it wasn’t but at least I got plenty done. Hoeing, picking, cutting back things and I was in the kitchen painting by 9.30 😂

I have two large blackcurrant bushes in the fruit cage but one has struggled for the past two years and so this year I have cut it right back down to hopefully give it some vigour next year though it won’t produce fruit until the following year now. That’s fine because the other bush is healthy and loaded this year, I’ve no idea why the other is not 🤷‍♀️ Currants fruit on two year wood which is why I will have to wait for that long, normally you would just cut back this years growth and thin it out a bit but a hard cut back will either finish it off or renew it, I will have to wait and see which one happens. Then also in the fruit cage I have this triffid of a kiwi which takes up loads of room and as yet has never produced a kiwi even though it’s self fertile. So I made an executive decision to cut it down, I will dig up the root and plant something more productive in its place. I can pot the root and put it somewhere where it can just look attractive rather than keep waiting every year for something to grow.

Rain showers again today 🙄 tiresome and we are going straight into bloody hot weather I believe in the next couple of days urgh can’t win.

My scythe arrived 😁 it needed putting together so following the instructions I think I have managed to do it properly. I did contemplate not touching the blade until there was someone else here just in case I cut myself but I went ahead anyway 😜 and no injuries I am glad to say.

Painting the kitchen is the worst room isn’t it, you just think right I can get on and sort this and then you have to tidy away so you can get dinner, slow progress as I don’t want to be sanding down with food on the side, I’m sure I will get sorted eventually.

I did most of the cutting in and that took me till gone 6pm, more than a 12hr shift today, pooped 😜

John went out to put the birds to bed around 9.30 he was in the stable shutting the geese in when he heard the hens making a racket, ran out to them and a fox was carrying off one of the hens 🤬 I have ordered a cheap solar powered radio which we will put up the back with the hens and see if we can keep the bloody fox away like that, running out of options, and hens 😕

Wednesday: Spent most of the day painting, first colour coat was on by 10am, walls and ceiling, then while that was drying I went out and sorted the onions and garlic, the onions have had the first few layers peeled off and are drying in the sun. The garlic I divided into individual bulbs, they were starting to regrow and have become disfigured lol but if I dry each bulb out it should be fine to store. The onions will not store as they had to be pulled early due to the grubs in them and so I will have to chop and freeze most of them 🙄

I took some pics of what else is growing nicely, a melon, an aubergine and peppers, I also have some jalapeños growing nicely, happy with those especially the aubergine as I have not managed to grow one before now.

I did the second coat of paint in the afternoon but I think it will need a third coat 😭 my hands are swelling from holding the roller and the pressure used, I can officially say I bloody hate painting ceilings. I told John I am getting too old to do them now 🙄 especially in the kitchen where there are so many unmovable obstacles. I want to get it finished and get the kitchen back in some sort of order, seems to have taken ages to sort this out.

The weather has been pretty good for me so far this summer but it’s about to get hot 🥵 shame really as I have been able to get some work done nearly every day without feeling tired, all good things come to an end I guess, enjoy the sun while I sit indoors 😂

Thursday: I had already decided not to finish the painting today, I usually have the twins and didn’t want the kitchen upside down when they came, as it was they didn’t come because their cousin, who they saw on Monday, developed chicken pox today and so Sam and I decided it was best if I didn’t see them until we know if the have contracted it or not due to my lowered immune system. So that gave me a full day of doing what I had started in the morning, weeding, I kid you not, all day long I have been weeding 🙄 John made a cup of tea at 8pm and I had fully intended to carry on after I had sat and drunk it but as I got up I realised my legs were just not going to go anymore lol 😂 That is more than a twelve hour shift today and I am knackered, tired, grumpy, so I will quit now rather than push myself to beyond my limits and regret it, I feel a snooze coming on 😴

Friday: Grabbed a banana and a cup of tea for breakfast before get straight on with the day, it’s going to be hot, it was already very warm at 7am this morning.

I started off hoeing the flowering shrub bed in the front, this gets the first sun the morning and seemed a good place to start before it got too hot, pruned some of the spring flowering branches out that have now gone over. Onto some picking in the veg garden, a few bits and pieces before the main picking which was blackcurrants. Only one bush to pick this year but it is loaded. Into the kitchen to process them and so far I have blended and sieved blackcurrant purée and that is now freezing in ice cube trays and I have a tray of whole blackcurrants open freezing ready to bag up once they are done. Quick sit down and some lunch and then I will use the rest to make some apple and blackcurrant crumbles for the freezer, I have some cooking apples already that need using up.

Blackcurrant haul
Puréed blackcurrant, frozen in ice cube trays to use in smoothies etc

Keeping the house cool by closing the curtains and blinds, at least on a hot day I can get inside jobs done, it not painting the ceiling 🤪 that will have to wait until another day 🙄

The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of the usual jobs, feels quite warm and muggy tonight, I still have some blackcurrants to sort out tomorrow, probably cook them down, extract the juice and either make jam or some cordial maybe, not sure yet.

I had to water some of the plants in pots tonight, it’s amazing how quickly they dry out, I really need to amend that and put something in to hold the moisture longer though these are out in the blazing sun most of the day so it’s no surprise really.

Saturday: Hot, hot, hot 🥵 Got as much as I could get done this morning, should have got up early but I didn’t (again) I did some picking, blueberries, courgettes, Blackcurrants, French beans, cucumber, let the horses out into the bigger paddock for a treat, all the other usual jobs and then planted some cauliflower and cabbage plants. They had to be covered as the cabbage whites are out in force at the minute 🙄 Meanwhile John had done the morning rounds and he spent a few hours hand weeding the paths in the veg garden which was nice of him, he also cleaned out the ducks. Once it was too hot for me I came in and hoovered and polished the sitting room, closed the curtains to keep it cook and did a quick clean in the bathroom. By lunchtime John was in and watching the F1 build up and then we had a rest for a couple of hours.

Mid afternoon I said to John I fancy and ice cream and so he has gone off to get some 🥰

I have been doing daily round ups on the podcast if you are listening to that, it’s just a different media and I quite like doing it, you get a different perspective on the same subject really 😂

In the evening I tried out the scythe, yep that definitely needs more practice despite watching a you tube video lol. After that I watered the greenhouse and the two poly tunnels and then indoors to sort the eggs and then de flea, cats, kittens and dogs and worm the adult cats and dogs, finally finished at 10.45. Time for a quick shower as it has been really muggy this evening and then collapse into bed ready to start again tomorrow. If I set the alarm for 5am fingers crossed I can actually get up and do some extra work.

Sunday: Phew it’s hot again today hot 🥵 sweltering temps mean most of my work is done in the early morning, inside most of the middle of the day and then out again in the evening until late to get stuff done.

This evening I have also washed Johns van as we went out to collect some shopping in it this morning (the air con in the car is not working and in the van it is 🙄) and I said I was embarrassed to be seen in it as it was filthy dirty lol, so I washed it. John meanwhile was out digging up ragwort, that should be all of it now and then I went on to do the watering until 10pm while John weeded some more of the pathways. He is doing a great job but I told him by the time he finishes it will be time to start again 😂

Fabulous evening 🥰
Posted in Friesland Farm

Surprise! Mid week interlude 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I thought I would do a quick round up of the photos of produce I took over the 2020 growing season in date order so you can see how the year progressed. I love how vibrant the colours all are and can’t wait to start harvesting again this year. What I really should do is weigh everything to see exactly how much I get, the photos represent probably 1/2 of what I actually harvest so it would be interesting to have an accurate record.

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on 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.

10 tiny cauliflower plants

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,

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on 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.

Autumn Raspberries

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 🦉🥰

Posted in Friesland Farm

Windy weather, picking and freezing & John returns home.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th June 2020: It very windy today, I’m sure we don’t normally have winds as strong as this in June 🙄 yesterday was the same, strong enough to damage plants and whip bits off of trees 😏

I spent the night on my own here which is only the second time in 11 years I think. I can be pretty scary as we are a bit out in the sticks but to be honest I was so tired that I went straight to sleep anyhow. This morning I was up early, showered and out to do the animal rounds, I walked round the garden thinking I would do a bit outside but the buffeting from the wind soon put me off 😂 I decided to get a few bits done indoors and at 9am John called to say he could come home. I arranged with Shelley to go and pick him up and by 11am he was back home again. They are not sure why it happened and not sure if it will happen again 😏 but in the meantime we go about life as normally as possible. John had something to eat, a cup of tea, a nice bath and at the moment is having a sleep, you know what it’s like trying to sleep in hospital so he is a bit tired today.

I am still doing the glacé cherries they take 10 days and I had missed a couple of days, which doesn’t matter as long as you continue the process for the number of days rather than in succession, I should be on day 7 but am only on day 6 in the process.

The last topic in last weeks blog was the link to the grow.foodrevolution.org and I did say I would come back to the subject. In my opinion anyone who eats 🙄 has children, grandchildren or cares about their future generations really ought to be looking more closely at how food is grown, what the processes are and why it should change. Remember way back in my blogs I always said I was prepared for an apocalypse of some kind and then the pandemic came. Up to that point even I thought maybe I was a bit barmy but it happened and life was not how we had always known it to be, to me it just confirmed that we shouldn’t be complacent, never mind being alert during a pandemic, we should be alert at all times, or at the very least awake to the problems in the world.

Declining soil fertility is a real worldwide problem, one that you should be aware of, the over use of pesticides, weedkillers and artificial fertilisers has depleted the soil of its vitamins and minerals and turned the vast growing acres into dust bowls with no nutrition in them or at least only enough to last a few decades longer. Years ago farmers would spread muck back onto the fields (and some still do) but the bigger the farm the less likely they are to do this and of course it’s the big farms that provide a vast quantity of the crops we eat in one form or another. Mono cropping is also an issue, vast areas with one crop do nothing for biodiversity, which should be all part of a healthy system. The fruit and vegetables you buy from the supermarkets, that you think are giving you a good healthy diet, are not providing anywhere near the amount of nutrients that they used to 50 years ago because of the reduced soil fertility. What can you do? It’s my firm belief that as individuals all doing our bit we make a strong collective, and that goes for any issue. You don’t need to be an activist or an ‘alternative’ or join a cause, all you need to do is understand the issue and adjust your thoughts and actions accordingly, in my mind it really is that simple.

Getting the fertility back into the soil is relatively easy on a small scale and should be done even in the flower garden, composting your own green waste rather than sending it to the council to compost is a great way to ensure that you know what is going back into the ground. With communal composting schemes they don’t ask you not to put waste that has been treated with weedkiller or pesticides in, that means there is a possibility that residue is left in the end product, the product which is then bagged up to be sold or sold in bulk, makes you think doesn’t it. Even organic compost only has to be organic in origin not organically treated. Once upon a time every garden owner would have had a heap and that would all eventually go back into the garden, it’s my belief that every garden over a certain size (a size that can accommodate a small compost bin) should not be allowed a green bin 😏 (and I did write to our local council to suggest that idea) I’m not sure where it all went wrong when as a nation of Gardeners’ we forgot the basics of gardening!

Tuesday: Not raining, not windy, not sunny, happy me it means I can get on. John did the rounds with me but he was tired afterwards and so went in for a sit down. I got on with some picking, mangetout, peas, carrots, rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackcurrants and cherries. I wasn’t going to pick any more cherries but the urge to gather is irresistible 😜 The peas and carrots are for dinner later, the strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and raspberries are going into a mixed fruit crumble for pudding 😀 After doing a few other bits we went to town to get a little bit of shopping, but they still don’t have any jam sugar on the shelves, I will have to see if I can get a bulk buy. When we got back John had another rest lol and I prepared a shepherds pie and the crumble for later on. A quick rest and a cuppa and I got on with making some blackcurrant jam, I had some sugar in the cupboard already but will need more before the season is out.

Mixed fruit crumble mix

Be careful what you wish for lol, remember I said I was hoping to get some cherries, well the morello tree is loaded with them and although the black bird is having some there are hundreds 🙄 I have already picked quite a lot and today I couldn’t resist picking some more. The problem with cherries is they do not continue to ripen once picked and you can’t leave them to get the very dark colour (the birds get there first) but they are ripe at the cherry red colour so that’s when they get picked. I have some cooked and in the freezer, the glacé cherries are still on the go and now I have about another kg to do something with. I have told Mum to come and pick some tomorrow if she wants some, I hate to see them wasted.

You can see why they use these vibrant cherries to glacé 😀

Wednesday: First it’s hot, then it’s not, then it is again, one of those days when the jumper is on, off, on, off and sometimes a raincoat is needed too 😜 John did the morning rounds and I got on with some picking, as well as the things I have already been harvesting, I picked peppers, some small courgettes, some beetroot and a very small handful of dwarf beans. The beans were cut up and frozen along with the peas I picked yesterday and I also froze the mixed fruit. I still need to do something with the beetroot, I was thinking of grating it and freezing, that would be quite useful I think. The courgettes and peppers can wait and I may use them tomorrow or put some out for sale. One job I wanted to get done was to repot the yellow raspberry, it was getting a bit big for the pot it was in. When I took it out of the old pot the soil was really dry, even though we had the rain this week so I gave all the rest of the pots of raspberries a good soak. I grow them in pots because the runners take over the garden otherwise although you do get far more berries if they are in the ground, I think I should identify a raspberry patch and let them romp away lol. Mum and Ken came up to pick some cherries and blackcurrants, the timing was not great as it started to rain as they got here and slowly got heavier but with Ken on the cherry tree and Mum on the blackcurrants they soon had enough to be going on with 😀

Thursday: Busy morning for me again, John did the morning rounds then went to have a lie down. I have been working on the decorative side of the garden instead of the growing side. I edged all the lawn and then gave it a cut, cut back some overhanging branches, potted up some self sown plantings and put some bits out for sale. John bought coffee out mid morning and we discussed getting some fence panels for the decking area as the wind blows right across there from a westerly direction. He went off to get some now that the suppliers are open but had to get someone to help him lift them in as he didn’t have the strength on his own 😏 It takes a lot longer than you think to recover from something like that.

The rest of the day was spent pottering, some of the time in the poly tunnel where I dug out the flat leaf parsley, it had got huge and was taking over, I managed to save a root to pot up. I seem to be lacking momentum at the minute, I am ok in the mornings but by mid afternoon I’m flagging lol.

One thing I forgot to mention is that John saw a hedgehog the other night, I know we have them but rarely see them and then you wonder if they have moved on but nope they are still here, all part of my lovely little eco system 😀

Friday: Not sure what kind of a day it’s going to be weatherwise, at the moment it’s overcast and dry but the sky is moody and looks like it is threatening to rain. We could do with a bit, the wind that we have had has dried the ground so quickly and we have stronger winds tomorrow apparently 😏 What happened to summer? I am certain the seasons are shifting, the ants are on the move and they don’t normally start until the beginning of August but I think the next lot of warm sunny weather and they will be flying.

I have been doing various things this morning, picking mangetout and broad beans, then some sour cherries to put out for sale. I picked a big bunch of basil which is now in the dehydrator and smells amazing, I prepped everything I picked ready for the freezer, I am only getting small quantities at the minute but they soon become a big batch if you do it daily. I find open freezing the best way to do them and I have started mixing up the veg and fruit as I think I would be more inclined to use it like that besides it makes it easier for soups and stews. I pulled a few baby turnips, one I grated along with beetroot and carrots chopped a baby pepper and that with a hard boiled egg will be my lunch, all home produced 😀 I potted up a few bits I dug up in the polytunnel yesterday, some bits of mint, flat leaf parsley and aquilegia which had been growing in there for a couple of years. I seem to have a few things that have self set or have been sown but got huge and are happily growing in there but I really need to have a clear out as there is less and less space for the things I want to grow. I want to have a go at pak Choi (I have sown seeds which have come up nicely) this winter and also get some more salad leaves sown to take us through the end of the summer and into autumn. Looking at the weather forecast there is less than 50% chance of rain, much less at times, so I’m thinking I will have to water some of the veg growing outside, the courgettes and patty pan seem to be taking ages to get going so a bit of extra watering might help boost them along a bit. Really I should weigh everything I pick and add it up at the end of the season, that would give me more of an idea of how much is actually produced I think. Picking it daily and then freezing some, eating some or putting some out for sale, it doesn’t seem like a lot bit it probably adds up to much more than I think.

It struck me when eating my lunch that we probably eat as well as folks who dine in a fancy restaurant, without the price tag 😋 The presentation isn’t as good I grant you that, but it’s all fresh, hand picked and prepared, organic, yep we feast like kings here 😀 It also occurred to me that the phrase, you are what you eat, is not strictly true 🙄 I, we, have eaten fresh homegrown produce for 11 years, the ten years or so before that I bought organic and yet I ended up ill, I would probably be worse if it were not for the good food but it means that environmental factors play a part as well, in that I would include stress. Stress plays a very large part in your health as far as I can see, I was the person who worried about things, even little things and the big things, well they sent me into overload lol. These days I am more of a ‘couldn’t give a toss’ type 🤪, I learnt not to worry about things that hadn’t happened (nor were likely to) and only to worry and then deal with things that did actually happen. That’s a far better way to live and certainly better for your health, so if you recognise yourself in there take a tip from me, stop worrying. Be kind to others but be kind to yourself as well, Life is too short to spend it worrying.

Rain stopped play in the afternoon but at least I won’t have to water tonight 😀

Saturday: I have done very little outside today, picked some greens for the Guineas and clean out the water buckets for the horses and that’s about it. I spent a lovely morning with Charlie at a wedding dress shop trying on dresses, Charlie not me obvs lol. She was the shops first appointment since the lockdown and it was by appointment only 😀 Afterwards we went to a local independent coffee shop where the new normal is to give your details, when ordering for sitting in, so that they can track and trace if necessary, social distancing in place and it all seems to work well. Considering more shops and the pubs are allowed to open today, the town was still not very busy, I feel this is all going to take longer than we first thought to get back to the old normal 😏

Sunday: A very windy but dry day today. John put up the fence panels around the decking area, it was to hopefully reduce the wind but it has still blown the chairs around 🙄 I did some picking again this morning, rhubarb, mange tout, broad beans, dwarf beans, courgette and a few blueberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries. The it all had to be sorted and either put out for sale or prepped for the freezer. We went round to see Mum and Ken and have a coffee, not sure what else we have done today lol. I need to organise myself a bit better to get jobs done as I have slacked a bit lately. One job is to sort the freezers out, with the picking prepping and freezing I tend to just find any space for it to go but then everything is all over the place and I have no idea what I have. I usually use sacks in the bottom of the big freezers, one for veg, one for fruit at least that way I know which sack to look in, I might not know what is actually in there, but I know if it’s one or the other 😜 The white woven sacks (from the builders merchant) are ideal if anyone is thinking of doing it as they don’t stick to the side of the freezer at all.

Have a great week, I think the weather is going to improve, hopefully this wind will do one 😋 Stay safe, stay alert.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Ladybird larvae, picking begins & pyramid orchids.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th June 2020: A few bits of catch up news that I have forgotten to update on: I am easily making 10,000 steps a day on my Fitbit 😀 so at least I know I’m not lazy lol. The chive flower vinegar is at last in the bottle, now just need some chips to try it out on 😂 I’d forgotten that I had taken a photo of the muck pile gates as they were and so I can show you a before and after picture.

Last night I ordered some ladybird larvae lol and now I have to make the brassica cage a des res for them hoping they will stick around. I am hoping to get a bug hotel that I can put up for them to hibernate in come winter. A bit of research tells me it’s better to get the larvae than the ladybirds themselves as the larvae will at least stick around long enough to eat a few thousand aphids before flying off 😂

An early start and a busy morning, picking mange tout, broad beans, asparagus and rhubarb, at last we are starting to get a decent return from the plants. Though I have heard people talking about their raspberries and courgettes, mine have not started producing yet, some small fruits but nothing more. I seem to have been constantly on the go but I can’t remember what else I have been doing, some weeding and planted a couple of small plants, feeding the rabbits/guineas all the weed pickings, a bit of watering, then indoors to do a bit of cleaning, all sparkly and fresh and time for a sit down I reckon.

I have ordered some things that hang in trees to keep the birds away from my fruit this year, I am also hoping it frightens off the crows. We have about 30 of them each morning squawking and cackling all morning long, they come for the crane fly larvae in the paddocks but roost in the trees making a right old racket.

Thinking about the easing of lockdown measures and not much has really changed for me, I’m not bothered by the shops opening, I don’t spend my time shopping for clothes and goods etc, the only joy will be to go out for something to eat preferably at a good garden centre 😜

The strawberries are coming thick and fast, not enough to make jam yet and besides we are eating them just as fast. I was going to make a French strawberry cake for pudding later but then I thought we might as well eat them as they are, almost 😀 they are sprinkled with truvia not sugar and I have taken a liking to having mine with marscapone 🥰 try it, delicious, fresh, home grown, seasonal, doesn’t get much better than that as far as I am concerned 😀

Just had the biggest rumble of thunder, I love a good thunderstorm and a bit of lightening too 😀 An hour or so later and we haven’t had any more thunder but we have had a good dose of rain 🌧 😀 no watering for me tonight except that I had already done the front lot about 2 hours ago 😂 Ah well it won’t hurt for them to have extra and the rate it’s coming down it will definitely fill the water tanks.

Tuesday: A misty morning after the rainfall last night and the weather is going to be humid 😜 with outbreaks of sunshine and possible rain showers, perfect for the garden not so much for us lol. The ladybird larvae arrived, that was pretty quick, I opened them up and there were lots of teeny weeny larvae in there, supposed to be 100 but I don’t know if quality control had to count them 😂 anyway they come on shredded paper and you tip them into a little bag that is provided and place the bag near where you want the larvae to eventually move to. So at the moment they are in the bag underneath a big cabbage leaf in the brassica cage. When I came back I and looked at the box they came in there were one or two still in there so I took them to the greenhouse and let them go in the pepper plants, I have had to keep wiping greenfly off these plants each morning. That’s what I spent the first half hour doing this morning, that and moving the aubergine plants outside. I keep trying aubergine each year but this year I think will be the last time, I have tried everything I can, various growing mediums and conditions and this year I bought grafted plants (they are not cheap) but although they flower, the flower just drops off, I even hand pollinated them with a paintbrush to no avail. They also seem to attract multiple pests, greenfly and whitefly particularly, so they have been put outside to either fail completely or by some miracle produce at least one fruit we will see which. I picked some mangetout, with the rain and sun there will be plenty of pickings every day, I also picked a few broad beans, I haven’t checked anything else yet but as the sun is now out and on the garden it will have to wait until later on or some cloud cover lol. I did check on the cherries this morning and so far so good the birds have not been at them, I am hoping he sun today will turn enough of them for me to pick a bowl full. Everything comes at once which is why you need methods of preserving the produce, I noticed there are a few raspberries to be picked and plenty of strawberries again today.

We have had a bad run with the rabbits we got back at the beginning of the year, all three came from the same place but all three have died, the last one died yesterday, he has not been anywhere near the other two so it’s not infectious and he looked completely healthy just like the others did and yet died so I’m thinking it’s got to be genetic. I know the chap we got them from and the same problem with all of his but he didn’t have this until after we had got them for him so he wasn’t to know.

The compost delivery came so that enabled me to get on with some potting on, I have a fair bit to do, shrubs and flowers I had put into pots and now need bigger pots, trees I have been growing need bigger pots before I decide what to do with them, seedlings that need pricking out and then there is the mushroom compost for soil conditioning.

I got a bug house from a friend who’s husband is making them and then they sell them for the Air Ambulance charity 😀 I am hoping the ladybirds will move in a hibernate over winter and then be around for next years growing season 🙄

A couple of things to report, firstly, I am impressed with the biodegradable membrane/mulch it really does keep the moisture in, I only wish I had got it early enough to plant into rather than having to cut round but will def get this at the beginning of the season next year. Secondly, the orchids are back 😀 and this time there are more 😀😀 I deliberately left some long grass around the edges of the front paddock as I knew that’s where they grow and success they are back. Another thing to report is that if you wear your Fitbit on the mower and the ground is rough it counts the bumps as steps 😂😂😂 Another thing I want to share is the pinching out of side shoots on tomatoes, I do this, I guess most tomato growers do it to. What I usually do is discard the bits but you can plant them up and they will grow, so this time I thought I would have a go and just pushed them into soil with the basil I have growing. I think they are taking 😀 that means that if you buy tomato plants normally, you really only have to buy one plant, wait patiently for the side shoots and pinch them out, there are always plenty of them. I have also done it with the indigo rose tomato as that is the only one I have bought the others have all been raised from seed, watch this space, Im hoping that one takes as well, more bang for your bucks as they say plus it means I could buy a few different varieties and not have hundreds of seedlings just a few plants instead, worth remembering for next year.

Pyramid Orchid

I went outside after tea to collect some Huechera seed, sow some into a pot and save some for sowing next year if the pot ones don’t come up. John decided that we should top the front paddock, taking off the heads of any plantain etc that’s when I noticed the orchids, we then did the small back paddock again leaving a large patch in the middle long, there were plenty of insects flying around so I thought it best to leave them something to feed on. Apparently we are due two inches of rain tomorrow so getting it cut beforehand is a good idea, at least the rain we get will be used by the grass and not the weeds.

I picked strawberries, blackcurrants and a couple of cherries, the rest are not ripe enough yet. The Blackcurrants are not as prolific as they were last year, I had to cut it back quite hard last year as the greenfly decimated the new growth, this year they don’t have greenfly, you never know what is going to happen from year to year. I don’t mind there not being that many as I think there are still some in the freezer I can use if I need to. I froze 500g of the strawberries as there were not enough in one picking to make some jam and they will spoil if I leave them too long. I picked a few raspberries that were ready too, I have sun gold raspberries as well as the regular red ones. I had three of these canes but I think I have lost one over winter so come autumn I will be propagating these as they are very reliable and more importantly taste lovely. I think it will be a real novelty to make jam with them don’t you? But I need enough to be able to do that so I need to increase what I have already.

Wednesday: Ooo I’ve had a lovely morning so far, I have been concentrating on bulbs, that is pots of bulbs that I planted up and now need thinning out. I ordered the bulbs a couple of years ago and just shoved them into big tubs, they grew well but not what I had intended to do with them, I just ran out of time or enthusiasm or something. Now I have the compost and lots of big pots thanks to my brother, I spent the morning sorting them all out. I now have smaller decorative pots with a few bulbs in and lots of little pots with bulbs in ready for selling on next year, I have had to use an old cold frame that has environmesh on it to keep them in as I’m not sure if the squirrels will eat them otherwise. There are ranunculus, tulips and English bluebells and probably some others but I will have to wait until they come up next spring to see exactly what they are. One more tub has yet to flower so I will leave that until they have and then sort them out too. I picked a few mange tout but nothing else this morning, there will be a good picking every day from them for a while, keep picking is the key, the more you pick the more they will produce.

You may read my blog and think, she spends a lot of time in the garden, well yes I do 😀 it’s what I love doing, it’s the lifestyle choice we made that enables me to be able to do exactly that. we made sacrifices along the way and we have had our struggles just like everyone else but eventually we got there. During the lockdown John was beginning to see why I enjoy it so much, it’s a more relaxed pace of life and certainly much less stressful than out in the workplace which I never really fitted into, I love being my own boss, making my own choices and mistakes with only me to account too. I love having my time to do what I want to be able to do (on the whole) if I want to do something I will, if not I won’t, having said that there are things that have to be done of course especially when you have animals, they come first and foremost. I don’t make a lot of money at it, it’s not about the money for me, never has been, it’s about quality of life, we only get one shot at it might as well spend it as close to how you would like it as you can 😀

Sam, Shelley and the children came round in the afternoon for garden time, the kids spent a bit of time running of some energy in the front paddock, it’s great that we have the space for them to run around especially in times like these. 4pm and still no rain yet though just as I am typing the thunder starts lol.

Thursday: Rain and plenty of it, I woke at 4.30am and could hear torrential rain and then when I woke again at 6.30 it’s was still going, 11.45 and it still raining though a steady rate rather than heavy and it’s supposed to move slowly on during the course of the afternoon. It is a very welcome decent load and will do the garden good, the veg will come on a treat now 😀

As working out side is not an option I decided to tackle the office 🙄 Paperwork which should have been sorted, has been dumped on the desk for the last 12 weeks, the room itself has had stuff just dumped in it with the idea of sorting it at some point and today is that point. So I spent the morning going through some of the bits, stuff for the bin, stuff for the charity shop, stuff to sell on and then there is stuff I have no idea what to do with so it goes back to where it came from 😜 I call it the office because it’s where I go to do paperwork and it has a desk but it also has the Hoover in there, some coats, a cupboard full of bits and pieces, photographs, Christmas stuff, children’s toys and books, I should re name it the multi room really 😂

Friday: It was still drizzling first thing but gradually the day improved. I did some picking, the rain has ramped up the growth so I will probably spend many hours picking from here on here. Mangetout, raspberries and strawberries this morning and cherries this afternoon. I cooked the cherries with sugar and cornflour to make a pie filling that I will freeze and use at a later date. We have plenty of fresh fruit for puddings at the minute so need need for pies and crumbles much to Johns disgust lol. Once it had dried up a bit more I did some hoeing, the weeds will also ramp up after the deluge especially if the sun comes out as well. I was showing someone round the garden this afternoon when they said ‘oh is that a lizard I just saw, or a baby snake’ 🤪 I guess breeding has been successful for my grass snake and now there are babies, not sure what I think about that 😂 as long as I don’t find any while weeding by hand I will be fine 🙄

John came home at lunchtime today and has a new plan for the hens at the back, he is moving them to the side paddock next to the others. First he had to go and get a battery for the tractor from the scrapyard and he also refelted the duck house roof (the wind ripped off the last lot) and then cleaned the ducks out as the rain lashed in there making a right old mess. It makes sense to move them to the side as I am out there more often than not during the day and in the evening we can nip out and check at intervals hopefully frightening the fox away.

Saturday & Sunday: I forgot to make any notes yesterday so I will have to try and remember what we did lol. John moved the chicken hut that was up the back, down to the side so that we can put the hens back out and keep an eye on them 👀 He burnt a bit of rubbish which now we have had some rain was safe to do. I can’t remember what I did lol but I was busy 😂

Solstice blessings to you all,. Today has also been a busy day, mostly with Father’s Day visits, I do a couple of hours in the garden this morning hen we went to get a coffee, pop in to see Ken, back here to see Samantha, then off to see Charlie and back here again to see Shelley, a full day of fatherly love 💕 This evening we had someone taking care of our disappearing chicken problem 😉 which I can report was mission accomplished so now at least John doesn’t have to spend all evening guarding them. Now we just have a couple of rats and a few dozen crows to deal with, the crows will hopefully move on soon, they are after the crane flies in the ground, once the hatch into daddy long legs they will move on to another food source and as long as it’s not my fruit trees I don’t mind. The rats, and I saw one this morning in the light Sussex pen, have been given a hearty meal 😜 I don’t like poison on the whole but they are being a bit of a nuisance and I don’t really want hoards of them. My elderly rabbit died sometime over night and by the time I got to her this morning the rats had eaten her eyes out, urgh horrible creatures. I thought the run was rat proof but obviously not so we will need to look that over and see what else we can do, though rats can chew through concrete so I’m not sure there is anything that will some them except poison or shooting them.

John has another week off this week coming, we were due to go on holiday on Tuesday and obviously that’s not happening now so he might as well make himself useful at home 😀 Have a great week and as always, stay safe.