Tag: shilton

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hygge, Hops and a Hedgehog 🦔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th September: The Autumn equinox has occurred, the end of the light time of the year and the beginning of the dark time is upon us. Time to reflect and look back at what has worked, what hasn’t and a time to look forward and think about what to do next year. A time of myths, legends and rituals of all kinds, harvest is one of my favourite times of year, the word derives from an old English word meaning Autumn. I like the fact that it gets dark early and you can hunker down inside all cosy and warm having fed everyone with a hearty supper, Hygge as the Norwegian and Danish would say.

Talking of myths we heard a lovely one in Guernsey, some of the older houses have a large stone protruding from the chimney of the building, a witch seat, the belief was that a witch out flying on her broomstick could rest on one of these stones and get warmth from the chimney and if you provided one of these you would be spared of any witchy spells she might inflict 🧙‍♀️

The temps plummeted last night and I think there was a grass frost this morning, good job the Rayburn is ready when we are although the temps are set to climb again during the week.

John did the main of the birds this morning then it was just the orchard lot for me to do, my main thought is to lock up the house while I’m out on the farm, sad times but I’ve heard another report from just down the road that occurred yesterday so there is still skullduggery going on and best to be safe than sorry.

There were plenty of walnuts all over the floor so I have picked them up, washed them off, rinsed them in white vinegar (to stop mould forming) dried them off and put them in open trays in the kitchen to dry off. Quick coffee then outside again to see what else can be done, Sun is shinning this morning though you can feel a real nip in the air.

Managed to get a good bit done, two loads of muck into the polytunnel, plant a shrub in the duck pen and secure round it, plant a bush in the orchard and secure round it, pick a trug full of greens for the rabbits, harvest all the small broccoli florets and collect eggs and put them out for sale, the biggest pain in the arse though is keep locking and unlocking the doors to go in and out!

Tuesday: Mia arrived early in the morning, I had managed to just get the orchard lot fed and watered so that was ok, we did go out about 10am to pick up some eggs but apart from that we spent the day inside. Mia is in the middle of potty training so it doesn’t do to venture too far from the bathroom at the moment although she is doing very well, amazing, as I keep telling her 😀

I am practising Hygge tonight, an extra cardi on, a nice cup of milky coffee and my Norwegian slippers which are very warm and cosy, I have already worn them out once and Mum kindly re-felted the bottoms so I could carry on wearing them 😀

Wednesday: Another sunny, dry day 😀 After doing the orchard lot and re filling some of the bedding in various houses, I decided to try and start sorting out the garden in preparation for the winter. The garden gets ravaged either by the weather, the ducks or the chickens and so putting everything away or securing everything is a must, especially any plants in pots that you want ready for next Spring. The ducks walk over everything squashing it all, the chickens kick everything over then scratch through it and the wind just blows it all around, so it seemed like a good day to start organising stuff. I now have two areas that have plants in that are cordoned off and covered with mesh, I have planted a few more bits along the edible hedge in the orchard, when I say edible that includes food for the birds and bees as well as the chickens and ducks 😀 A bit of egg collecting and sorting in between and suddenly it’s already lunchtime.

I have decided to pull the plug on the new greenhouse for now, we haven’t got round to dismantling it and putting a base down and to be honest I’m not sure I can justify the money really, so I will use the old one again next year and see how things go. No point spending a fortune on something if I’m ill again and can’t get out there to use it to it’s maximum so for now it’s on the back burner.

I’m quite tired after all that so going to have a sit down and maybe a quick nap 😀 I’m am very fortunate to be able to stop and rest when I need to if I had a regular job I think I would have got the sack by now 😝 Don’t get me wrong, what I really want to be doing is ploughing into jobs, the mind is willing, the body is most definitely not!

I tried a little shut eye but I couldn’t so I thought I would read the rest of my book instead, after visiting Guernsey the obvious choice for new reading material was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a delightful gem of a book 😀 I thoroughly recommend it if you are a reader, now I just need to watch the film and see if they managed to capture the essence of it? (I watched it, they didn’t)

I have been eyeing up the light Sussex chickens, they are pretty big now but need to put on weight before we process them, ideally I would like them to get a couple of months on the garden free ranging, some will be selected to hold back for breeding for the next batch and I think there are at least 4 cockerels in there. The joy with writing a blog diary is that I can look back and find out exactly when they hatched, on investigation I find that they are 16 weeks so plenty of growing time left yet 😀

Did a bit of hoovering, polishing and cleaning, the place needs a proper good going through really but I will save it for rainy/colder weather.

I’m still picking up walnuts and there are still loads left on the tree, I need to make a real effort to use them this year especially in cooking but by the time I have cracked them all open I have lost the will to cook 😝

Did the afternoon egg collecting, the pullets are laying really well now, at least half of them, though the eggs are small they are still mighty fine eggs 😀

I need to decide about Tuesdays, it proved quite a logistical event especially as its potty training time as well as having to lock the doors behind me, I can no longer, nip out so I’m contemplating putting a notice out to say there will be no egg collections on a Tuesday until further notice, it would give me a bit of a break from the pressure of having to get them out there on time and who knows we may be able to catch up with sales instead of constantly selling out.

Think it, do it, lol, that’s what I have done, put a notice out, no eggs on a Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

I lit the Rayburn 😋 just for a couple of hours to take the chill off the air during the evening and I must admit it will be nice to have dry, warm towels again. The problem with this time of year is that it’s not quite cold enough to have it full on but it’s too chilly not to have it at all, probably be sweating in bed later lol.

It will take a while to get to know how she has decided to perform this year but I’m sure we will all settle into a routine soon enough, the one regret I have is that there is not enough space to have a chair right next to her, that would have been perfick 😋 mind you, you would have found me sat there all Winter long 😝

Thursday: Fabulous morning, sunny with a hint of mist rising from the ground, beautiful. By 8am I had done my morning bits and was stood having a coffee outside. My neighbour had ask if I have anything for the harvest festival display so I went round and had a look, some hops, a few little pumpkins and some sweet corn stalks is about all I have this year, hopefully they will be of use. I cut down all the hops and put some aside and the rest I have harvested ready to dry, I want to make hop pillows and need to dry the heads. They are very tactile little things once they are off the vine and as light as a feather, I will leave them in the sun for today and finish them off drying indoors for a couple of days. I don’t have very many as I try to keep the vine under control, it’s suppose to grow along the fence but it keeps creeping up the pear tree and strangling it!

Did a bit of pottering about which was nice, I watered the shrubs I had planted on the front paddock fence line and the apple tree, collected a couple of ‘keeper’ apples there are not many this year, sat and ate the last pear I found hiding on the tree, beautifully succulent and tasty 😋 picked up some eggs and put them out, saw a dragonfly which made me smile, a fab day for pottering out there.

I have a large amount of tomatoes to use up so I’m going to roast them with some olive oil and garlic then sieve them and freeze them for winter use, it’s such a good year for them that you can’t even give them away let alone sell them lol.

I ordered a bulb planter for the daffs, it’s a good strong one which I was surprised as it only cost £24, I took it up the back paddock to have a go but the ground is still much too hard! It needs a bit of rain on it dare I say 😋

Friday: No sun as yet this morning but it’s still early, John was up and out to do the birds just as it got light, patch the dog was barking incessantly, I got up to investigate couldn’t see anything, when John came in he told me it was a hedgehog 😀😀😀😀😀 A hedgehog, I couldn’t be more delighted 😁 they are in decline here in the UK and I haven’t seen one on the farm for about 5 years now so it’s an exciting find and puts paid to any idea that I had about using roundup on the veg garden paths, it will have to be hoed instead 😝

The wildlife has steadily increased over the years, frogs, toads, hedgehogs (well at least one of each) multiple different garden birds, the sparrows that seemed to have gone over the last few weeks have suddenly all come back to check out the roosting areas they used last winter, dragonflies, butterflies, insects galore, it’s a great feeling to nurture nature.

I’m walking back from doing the orchard lot and what do I see in the middle of the driveway but a rolled up ball of prickles covered in leaves, the dogs must have managed to roll it out to play football with it! So I went and got appropriate hand wear and picked it up and took it to the greenhouse along with some cat food, it’s not hungry and I’m pleased to say it looks in good condition, no ticks. I watched it walk around looking for a way out and so went and built a quick hedgehog house out of wooden posts and a broken slab with some leaves and straw for bedding, and then popped it in there. Hopefully it will at least hang around, taking care to stay out of the way of the dogs in future 😋

Blood tests this morning, I was supposed to have them last week but didn’t ring up in time.

Popped in to see my Mum and Ken as they have just come back from caravanning in the south west, came home with lots of killer jars and a couple of shrubs 😀

Went for a walk along the downs road with Josh, Shelley and Flo this afternoon, we played hide and seek behind the trees, ‘room on the broom’, ‘pull me out of the rabbit hole nana’ and conker football 😀

The woodpecker is about, I spotted him hammering a tree trunk this morning, then when I was out doing the afternoon feeding I heard him and then saw him take off in the unmistakable, undulating flight back toward this mornings tree. It is a greater spotted woodpecker the green ones tend to stay more in the hedge-line at the side of the long paddock so I don’t see them as often, one day I will get a picture but they are very quick.

Saturday: Another lovey sunny Autumn morning, I know the bubble is going to burst eventually but loving it while it’s here 😀 Today we are off to the local ploughing match, heavy horses, tractors galore and plenty of ‘Old McDonalds’ for Josh to see 😝

Fabulous day, glorious weather and bone dry under foot, we have seen heavy horses in their finery, steam engines galore, tractors old and new, eaten ice creams, doughnuts, hot dogs and baked potatoes (some of us ate some of them, not all of us ate all of them 😜) had a beer, looked at the produce competitions, watched some old crafts, thank goodness there are people who keep these going and chatted to friends and acquaintances, all in all a great time had by all. I am pretty sure Josh will fall asleep early and not wake up till morning, dreaming of the vintage tractor parade 😀

I bought a Hardy plumbago plant while I was there, mine died over winter and it’s a plant that I miss.

Sunday: I almost forgot it’s blog day! Perfect day for me outside for getting some work done, pleasant enough, not much sun but a hint now and again. I have been planting, barrowing, weeding, covering and generally trying to get things in order ready for Winter. Plants that I have bought and needed to plant out or on, barrowing muck from the heap onto beds, weeding the pathways and covering bare soil that has been weeded. By 2pm I was quite exhausted but feel I have achieved something at least. I pulled some carrots, they are in a raised bed and so not getting waterlogged (chance would be a fine thing as rain is mostly a distant memory this year) I’m hoping to get some cooking and baking done this week and tomato soup is still on my radar, carrots add a great bit of flavour to the soup. I am still picking outdoor tomatoes though it won’t be long before the frost gets them, I would make green tomato chutney but we have enough pickles to last us a while. My Dad always says ‘you should try green tomatoes fried’ hmmm not sure on that one, maybe I should at least try them?

John has been busy, tidying up and burning the bits of wood that couldn’t be cut up for the fire, we always seem to have wood lying around that needs burning, then he cleaned out the front hens and he has a plan to move them off of the front paddock and make a bigger pen where the hens for sale used to be housed seeing as we won’t be doing that anymore. He has now gone to do his Mum and I’ve sent him with a shopping list so I don’t have to go 😜

I washed and dried another load of walnuts today, that’s it now I’m not gathering any more! It’s weird because when Johns Dad was alive he used to ask me for walnuts and we never had that many, the two years since he died have been bumper years and the squirrel has been nowhere near, coincidence? Or is he giving me a helping hand?

I saw a green woodpecker flying around the farm today 😀

Definitely going to light the fire tonight, it’s chilly indoors at 3pm already.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Back from holibobs, back to work & and thieving little s***s 😡

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Wednesday 19th Sept: This is the first chance I have had to write anything, as you can imagine it’s been pretty full on since we got back from our holiday. We had a splendid time, mostly spent relaxing, some acupuncture and massage and lots of eating, drinking and talking. The farm has been in the most capable hands and nothing died or was amiss 😀

We returned home Sunday and I got on with the washing and catching up with everyone and everything, we hadn’t quite got our land legs back yet as we didn’t get off the ship at all until the Saturday in Guernsey so it’s all a bit wobbly at times 😝 We went on a vintage coach trip around the island and it was a fabulous afternoon which included afternoon tea and some views to die for, one of my favourite things to watch out for was ‘hedge veg’ what a fantastic name 😀 Basically anyone who grows anything and has an abundance puts it out for sale in with an honesty box (and they are very honest over there) even the main supplier of Guernsey goat butter leaves his back door open for people to access his fridge when he is not there, imagine that! I saw one sign that said ‘shop or swap’ which I also thought was a great idea.

On Monday it was more washing and then some nut gathering as the winds have picked up a bit and they are all over the floor, hazelnuts everywhere and the walnuts are dropping as well. It was Samantha’s birthday so we went out for tea and cake in the afternoon with a bit of Park time for the little ones.

Tuesday: Starting from today I will be having Mia from 7am till after tea time so I won’t be getting much done on these days in the future.

Somebody local put up on social media free grapes and there were a lot of them, my sister was going to get some and so I asked if she could pick up some for me as well which she did and bought them over.

Wednesday: I better get started in earnest today on prepping and processing things or I will get a bit behind. First up is the grapes and grape juice so I got that under way, then went out to do the orchard birds and animals, once back inside I have some pears that have gone a bit wrinkly and as I have always wanted to have a go at fruit leathers, I puree them along with a bit of melon and they are now in the oven on a very low setting for the next 6 hours 😀

Go round and collect any eggs available to put out for sale

Out to check the torts and give them some more food, the sun is still pretty hot when it’s out and though they are slowing down they are not ready to hibernate just yet. Then pick the tomatoes, I have an abundance this year, a fair few of the outside ones get spoiled or eaten so pick those off and throw in with the chickens, then back to pick the good ones to finish ripening on the window sill.

Get the chops out for dinner later, make coffee sit down and find more grape recipes 😜

There are plenty of things you can do with grapes it turns out! The obvious one is wine but to be honest we are not wine drinkers at the best of times so I’m giving that a miss. I had a banana and grape smoothie mid morning and washed another third of the grapes and de stalked them, some I have put on a tray and into the oven to dehydrate along with the fruit leather, the kids love raisins, great snack, and so I’d see how they turn out. More grape juice I think and I will have to freeze it as I don’t have room to pasteurise it and store it in bottles. I’m definitely leaning towards some grape jam, I’m curious to see how it turns out and let’s face it most jam is pretty good so that’s a contender, and you can freeze grapes, bonus, I will definitely be doing this as well.

It’s very windy out today, squally, as I call it because the wind is blowing in all directions, consequently it’s noisy in here as we have a tin roof and a very large crab apple tree above the roof, bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk every couple of seconds 😜 I have used the apples to feed pigs in the past and we have had people come and take boxes and boxes of them away for making cider but I have never done it myself, mostly because I just don’t have the time in amongst everything else there is to process!

When looking into the jam/jelly making process for grapes I found that it was mostly for seedless grapes, these have seeds in them, most seeded recipes are juice extracted, I think that’s an awful waste of skin and goodness so I did a quick bit of research to make sure the seeds are ok for you and it turns out they are very beneficial 😀 so whole grape jam it will be 😀 I personally don’t mind seeds of any type in my jams, adds to the texture.

So I just finished making the jam and I’m no expert, but I have made a lot of jam and even though it reached setting point, I don’t think it’s going to set, in fact you will be able to knock me down with a feather if it does 😲 in which case I can either boil or I have five jars of grape sauce to find recipes for 🤣

Well the grapes have been a bit of a disaster really, the jam is still not set, the raisins have been in for hours and look like they will take a hundred more so I abandoned that, the juice is lovely, looks like cold tea though, the rest I have open frozen to use another time. It takes more time than you think to process everything. On the good side of today was the fruit leather 😀 although the sides shrank it turned out very much how I thought it would and tastes great so a big thumbs up for that. I am tired again today, the meds they upped have not seemed to help the condition get better, the acupuncture did help in terms of less stiffness and associated pain but I was hoping to feel ready to get back at it, not happening 😏 I sat down for forty winks (may have been a little bit longer 😉) and when I woke up it was raining, and the washing, that had blown around nicely all day, was wet again 😤 hey ho, tomorrow is another day.

Then my Pyrex casserole dish that I’ve had for many, many years fell out of the cupboard when I opened the door and smashed 😏

Thursday: Raining this morning and although it will make things mucky I have to say I’m glad, it was getting very dry and dusty so a change is as good as a rest as they say.

I was looking through all the photos of the summer and if I get time I will do a round up of them, it’s amazing to see what I have grown and produced with it all and a great reminder in the times that I think ‘I should give it all up’, this year has been difficult not only because of the weather but due to the debilitating effects of this damn disease. When I was first diagnosed this is what I expected but after a year or so it went into remission and life was good, I’m hopeful that I can get back there some day but the road is longer than I thought it would be ☹️

Gosh just had a whirlwind of a half hour, someone at the gate to tell me a chicken is on the road, I suspect it’s the same one I keep getting reports of and that she is laying somewhere and crossing the road to do it, I go and look for her but nowhere to be seen 😋 then when I am re boiling the jam and it’s just near setting point the house phone rings at the exact same moment my mobile rings, I answered the house phone, quick convo about going away for the weekend with relatives, then I phone John who was trying to get me on the mobile because he couldn’t get through on the house phone, he has had to call a paramedic for his Mum who is not well, in all that Sam pops in to pick up the travel cot as they are going away for the weekend, and then calm is restored again 😀

Fingers crossed the jam will set this time, it has reduced by one whole jar and I put half a lemon in for pectin so hopefully…

I have been costing up the sale of nuts, we sold quite a few last year and so I will put them out again this year, I have to order paper bags with windows though, they don’t sell in just a paper bag we tried it then changed the packaging and voila, weird but I guess that why marketing is a real job!

On a whim, as if I don’t have enough on the ‘to do’ list, I made granola 😀 I found a great chart and used up items I had in the cupboard, oats, linseed mix, almonds, coconut oil, molasses, mix it and bake it in the oven then added dates and desiccated coconut, I hope it tastes good 😀 I struggle with breakfast because I don’t want to eat toast and porridge gets boring, the supermarket cereals are full of hidden sugar either that or it’s bran based ☹️ so I figured I would make my own lol I’m pretty well practised at granola though because every time I make flapjack, that’s how it turns out 😂😂

My writing is interrupted by about the 6/7th phone call from numbers I never answer probably cold calling, I’m fed up with the phone constantly ringing so I have gone on to my BT and blacklisted them all 😝 oooo feels good 😀

Picked up half a bucketful of hazelnuts, this morning I was picking up walnuts, the wind has kindly made the job easier by dumping them all on the floor 😜 I have just seen a warning from our local police force for the impending storm and possible damage to buildings and trees 😲 scary.

Friday: Well the winds were not too bad though it did wake me a couple of times along with the rain 🌧It’s sunny but windy this morning and I have picked up another load of walnuts, that’s a bucket and half, I think I will give up picking up hazels there are thousands of them! As well as the walnut picking I have fed the orchard lot, put on some washing, cleaned the bathroom, collected eggs and put them out for sale, now I’m having a sit down. I’m having to pace myself today, yesterday was a good day, it’s not too bad today but I feel exhausted already 😏 pain in the bum as I really want to get on but can’t physically do it.

I harvested the pumpkins some of them are ripe and some needing ripening so I have put them in the polytunnel, they are early this year and the foliage has now died off, if I leave them they will either get eaten by the hens/birds or with the rain and damp, go soft so I’m hedging my bets and getting them in. Not a bad haul from one plant 😀 Since the grandchildren were born I try and grow them so they each have one for Halloween 🎃 They are only a small variety but sweet when eaten as well so I will probably sell a few of them at the gate.

Saturday: Well if the rest of the blog is a bit uninteresting that’s all about to change! So we did the usual jobs this morning, I manage to relocate a cooking apple tree into the front paddock as well as a dogwood for the fence line, put barricades around them so the chickens don’t scratch back to the roots. John put a new gate post in on the duck pen (he accidentally caught the old one with the tractor) then went and extended the electric fencing round the new hens. He came back to the house and made tea, gave me a yell as I was in the polytunnel clearing the ground, we sat down and were chatting and drinking, the dog, Mia, looked towards the driveway with her ears down and wagging her tail, I thought, that’s funny because both Shelley and Sam are away for the day so it’s not them coming. Nobody appeared so I got up and looked in the driveway and saw who I thought was Charlie crouching at the back of her car, she must be cleaning it was my thought then I realised that when I had gone in to the loo just minutes before she was busy hoovering. At this point I realised someone was pinching her number plates, I yelled ‘oi’ and started running out there along with John, they took off in a car but we got the number plate (one letter wrong we found out later) I ran back shouting the reg number so I didn’t forget it to report it to the police, John and Charlie got in the car to see a) if they had chucked the plates in the hedge along the lane and b) to see if the local community officer was down the road where he often visits. Meanwhile I checked the cctv and found that they had pulled up, had a look in the egg shed, then reversed the car behind Johns van, rifled through that and nicked his drill, rifled through Charlie’s car and then nicked the number plates which is when I saw him. Through the power of social media we quickly found out that the car was pinched yesterday from a village not far away and it seems that there have been a few other incidents in our village. Lessons to learn 1) don’t get complacent, lock your vehicle even if you are going back out in it very soon 2) the dogs don’t always bark but they do act funny, check it out. This was 11am while we were out and about on the farm and it disrupted our day completely not to mention Charlie is out of pocket having to quickly get new plates made up, on the other hand it’s only stuff and nobody was hurt. Hopefully they will catch the little turds soon enough 😡

Life goes on and I decided to process the walnuts so took all the husks off, washed them then rinsed them in white vinegar and put them in racks to dry, my fingers are now a lovely shade of brown, it would make great fake suntan dye 😋

Sunday: Filthy morning weather wise though the sun came out in the afternoon. After the morning feeding etc, John cleaned out Rosie the Rayburn and put her new firebrick and grate in, still need to clean the flue but not while it’s raining 😝 I set about weighing and packaging up the hazelnuts and printing off a bit of random information about hazels, always good to educate myself and others 😀

We went round to see Shelley, Martin, Josh and Flo and hear all about their trip to West Midlands Safari Park, Josh wanted to see a real ‘Ephaphant’ 😀

When we got back there was a message from Thames Valley Police to say that Charlie’s stolen plates and the stolen car they were on, the same one we saw yesterday, had been recovered, this was a direct result of quickly sharing the information on Facebook, well done everyone and thank you very much, it will mean that Charlie does not have to worry about what her number plate is going to get up to, hopefully the stolen car is in good order and can be returned to its rightful owner who no doubt works as hard as everyone (almost) else does for the things that they cherish.

On the upside of yesterday’s escapade, the adrenaline rush seems to have done my aches and pains a power of good 😀 or maybe the meds are finally kicking in 😜

Posted in Friesland Farm

Visitors, busy week, lots done 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd September 😝 What, September already! A busy morning this morning, John is home this week, and by that I mean not going out to do plumbing work, I would say he is not working but he still has to work for his supper here 🤪 We do however have some help this week so they got an early start on the mountain of wood that needs cutting up and stacking away. We don’t usually say no to free wood but we have got so much at the minute we can hardly move, if we have a cold winter then we will be totally grateful, to be honest I think we have enough for about 3 winters at the minute. I will be both looking forward to lighting the Rayburn and dreading it lol, once it’s going full time I will spend a lot of my time feeding it but in return we have FREE hot water, cooking, heating and washing drying facilities so I can’t complain 😀

The other thing happening today is Dad and Sue arriving to stay until the weekend so plenty of preparations in the way of good food, the bread is proving, the veg and meat are prepped for dinner later, the ham is in the oven cooking ready for lunchtime sarnies, they both appreciate good, home grown, home cooked food and so it’s a pleasure to provide the very best of what we have to offer, just need to make apple pie and I’m sorted 😀

Tuesday: Blimey it’s a hive of industry here today, I kid you not, John and his helper are working flat out on the wood mountain, Dad is busy on the ride on lawn mower cutting the paddocks, Sue is out picking vegetables. We have had numerous deliveries and egg customers and I have Mia so it’s been chaotic at times but all very productive indeed 😀 I have been busy on a never ending round of coffees and teas, sausage sarnies and lunch I am definitely going to need that holiday next week 🤪

I have powdery mildew on the summer squash, these were a heritage variety and that’s probably why they are heritage so maybe I will stick to newer resistant varieties in future 😜 The butternut squash are ready to harvest and it looks like the melons are on the turn too, the hazelnuts have begun dropping so Mia and I have been collecting some of those and the Miribelle plums are just about ready to pick though I have only had time to pick a few so far, they are very tasty and nice firm plums, not as many with maggot as I had first thought so that’s a bonus. I still have cooking apples to pick from the tree, I managed to get all the lower ones and need a hop up to get the rest down. We had a good downpour yesterday so that has spurred on the courgettes which are still producing well.

More harvesting in the afternoon, Sue picked the butternut squash about 13 of them she thinks, I got the broccoli that she picked in the morning blanched and frozen, then after Mia went home we had fish and chips and Dad, Sue and John had an early night (all worn out lol) while I had to stay up and bake some more bread!

Wednesday: If it was busy yesterday, it’s even busier today! The sun is shinning beautifully, Dad was up early and out on the mower, John and his helper are out on the wood pile, it’s gone from a mountain to a pile now 😜 Mum also came up and did some sorting out in the garden, the powdery mildew foliage etc and some more potting up and potting on including the poor peris which has been in the same pot for at least 20 years! I have been feeding, watering, collecting eggs, putting them out for sale along with some veg and plums, putting on wash loads and hanging them out to dry, making breakfast and umpteen coffees, picked a bucketful of plums and prepped some pears for the freezer, I feel exhausted already and it’s only 10am! Sue is up the ladder as I type picking the rest of the cooking apples, I may have to make this a yearly event 😀

I have the consultant this afternoon so a trip to Oxford, goodness knows what time we will get back it depends on the traffic which is usually diabolical.

Well that was a successful consultation, they agreed with what I thought was still going on and have increased my meds so that should knock the last bit of activity on the head hopefully, although I’m back to fortnightly blood tests it’s a small inconvenience I can put up with.

Sue had the dinner under control by the time we got back (cottage pie) so I can relax this evening 😀

Thursday: Sunny again although much cooler first thing and another hugely busy day, Dad has carried on topping the fields where he can, some of it has not been grazed and is long and wet, the horse will have to graze that bit off I think, John sharpened the blade first thing so he could get going. Sue has been helping John and I get the new hut ready with electric fencing, Dad and John moved it into position with the tractor last night. She has also been up the apple tree picking again 😀 John has been busy with his helper and the side area is nearly clear of wood and debris 😀 I have no idea what I have been doing mostly running around like a blue arsed fly 🤪 Then John went to power wash the pen where the POL that are arriving this afternoon will live and it’s FULL of red mite, so they won’t be going in there after all, he had to quickly do a bit of creosoting to try and contain them. Honestly it really makes you want to throw in the towel! We had to search for the Apple picker before Sue could start again today as she couldn’t remember where she put it, eventually we found it up the tree 🤣🤣🤣 And like my writing today my head is all over the place 🤪🤪🤪

And then the chickens arrived on time at 3pm. I also have Mia today for a few hours, I don’t normally on a Thursday it’s a one off but luckily she was fairly tired and had a sleep for a couple of hours, Shelley, Josh and Flo popped in and made a few cups of tea, Josh helped me with the egg collecting and feeding.

Friday: Sunny but chilly this morning, there is a cold breeze. Dad and Sue are having a day off from working today lol, they came for a holiday and have been working every day, I think they have enjoyed it though. Johns helper is on his last day and the side is nearly clear 😀 John had to pop out first thing to do a job that was outstanding but he is back now and straight back at it. The new chickens have come out of the hut this morning, not sure what they make of it all, hopefully they love it enough to start laying soon. I have been busy doing the usual feeding and putting veg and fruit out for sale, bacon sarnies, coffee etc etc. I really need to think about packing as we are off on Sunday morning but there are lists to write and things to tidy up as well before we go.

Yesterday I came across a notification about new a animal license law which comes into effect on 1st October apparently you need to have a license to sell animals, including birds, if you are running it as a business. Not sure what happens if you don’t have internet access because I did not know about it through any other means than Facebook! Anyhow we have decided to stop selling hens as it will cost to buy the license and the act is 96 pages long, I only got to page 30 something and thought, bugger that, I can do without the hassle 😀 It’s a shame because it won’t stop the puppy farms etc all it will do is cost more for the people who do it properly anyway or make them give up because it’s too much paperwork for the small amount you are selling.

I decided, after watching a programme about learning a new language and it helping your brain, that I would learn Spanish lol, I found a great little app, and it’s surprising how much I recognise just from travelling and life in general I suppose, I will be able to practice some of it next week hopefully 😀

Saturday: Raining this morning but that’s ok as we have worked hard outside all week. Dad and Sue had breakfast and then left to return to Wales which some bags of goodies for their hard work, jam, chutney, plums, beans and potatoes, John did the feeding then went to sort his Mum out, I did the orchard lot then waved Sue and Dad off and then did a quick hoover round and change bedsheets before starting with the packing 😝

In the days before the smallholding the routine was take the dogs to the kennels and then go 😀 these days I have to spend time making sure everything is in order and everyone knows what they need to do, it takes quite some organising so that whoever is left in charge can run the place as smoothly as possible, no doubt they are more than capable and I need not worry, indeed I shall not be 🤪

So it’s over and out for this week and Hola to Spain, plenty of relaxation, great food and a bevvy or two.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Scotch eggs, Jumble crumble and Catherine Parr.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th August, Bank Holiday Monday 😀 only thing is for us it is just another day lol, John has actually gone to work today to catch up with all the plumbing before he has the week off next week when his phoned will be switched off for a fortnight 😜

Dry this morning after yesterday’s downpours, the temps are still fairly low though, it’s all or nothing in a temperate climate like ours, I said to John yesterday wouldn’t it be nice to have steady weather lol.

I must just show you a picture of these, I bought them home from the picnic yesterday, Home made scotch eggs made by my Auntie Louie, I can tell you they are delish, which is why I didn’t hesitate to have the leftovers 😀 One day I will get round to making some and hope they taste this good.

I fed the orchard birds and the rabbits have had hay, apples, pears and plums today, we have started a week of worming the birds in order to get them in top top condition going into the Winter, a fair few of them are in a moult so I need to get a spice mix made up as well to help with recovery. I make my own it’s cheaper than buy special tubs of it, I just buy the ingredients wholesale and mix it all, smells the same and a bit of a treat for them when the weather changes.

Just sat down for a coffee, it’s 11.30, I have been picking and prepping and processing 😀

John has got a one pot chicken dinner for tonight, basically everything goes in the pot at once and cooks in the oven, that’s it very easy and he likes it 😀 veg in there that I picked this morning, carrots, beans, broccoli, potatoes, some leftover chicken from yesterday, stock and cornflour, simple and tasty with all the fresh veg packing in the flavour. Then a jumble crumble, I just invented that, for pudding, which is a mix of blackberry, apples and plums, I was going to have scotch egg and salad but Macca and I ate them this morning 😝 thinking about it they make a very good breakfast on the go, egg, sausage and bread, I really need to get on and make some of these, I want to try them with the quail eggs as a small snack, maybe in the winter when I have more time. It’s surprising how much time everything takes to do, picking, prepping, blanching, freezing, no wonder we love Birds Eye (other frozen brands of veg are available 😆) really they are a working woman’s/mans saving grace and I have watched the process they really are very fresh when frozen, I see no shame in using them.

Tuesday: Dry again, did the orchard lot and a bit of tidying then I thought I better take a look at the mobile coop John is repairing. I did say to him last night that he needed to get it creosoted as time was ticking away and it needs at least a week or so to dry before the hens move in there. Personally I would have creosoted first then done the repairs as time is of the essence but it’s still sat there so I got the brush out and started the job especially in the nest box area. Then Mia arrived and that was the end of that job or any other for that matter lol.

When John came home we spent a couple of hours creosoting the chicken coop, him on the inside and me on the outside 😋

Tonight for dinner we had sea trout with a breadcrumb & pine nut crust which was delish and I take no credit for because Samatha made it before she went home, I need to get the exact ingredients off her so I can make it again.

Wednesday: Small amount of rain over night by the looks of it. Like a lot of people I sit and check my phone first thing in the morning, mostly to make sure there are no urgent messages and the to catch up with any goings on. This morning I had notification through from the neighbourhood watch scheme that another vehicle that was involved in poaching and ramming a game keeper just up the road has been caught and crushed, they caught one last week and they have crushed 5 in 3 weeks linked to rural crimes 😀 That’s a great result because rural crime is endemic round here and most rural areas feel the same I suspect. We are in a particularly affluent area and so it attracts those of a dubious nature from far and wide, and we are always on the alert for ‘strange or unusual’ behaviour. It’s funny how your senses become honed after a while and you can definitely get a feel for something that isn’t quite what it seems, you know instantly when a vehicle pulls in if it is a legitimate customer or not. Sometimes they are lost and that’s fine we can help them with that but sometimes they are up to no good and I have had to deal with this on a few occasions, mostly when you march out there and ask what they are doing they back off quickly, like the time they were rifling though our skip, and sometimes they are more persistent, luckily I had two egg customers with me when one lot were very shifty and not taking no for an answer, eventually we got rid of them, took the number plate and reported it to the police. So remember if you ever pull into a farm/rural gateway/driveway, to use the phone, have a smoke break, change the baby’s nappy (yep we have had that one too) that somebody will be clocking you and taking down your reg number 😋 of course if you are genuine that’s as far as it goes unless it’s a regular occurrence, and if you are not genuine you are probably not reading this anyway 🤪

Did the orchard lot and got a bale of straw from the hay barn to top up all the nest/housing boxes, filled up the rabbit ‘burrow’ etc as the night are getting a little chiller, now I have tiny bits of prickly straw all stuck in my clothing 😝

We have had notification of an increase in feed prices in September then another increase in October 😏 this means we will be putting up the price of the eggs. Demand for feed is going to be high, the yield was lower than usual and most farmers have used their Winter feed already due to the lack of rain and the heatwave over Summer, it is going to have a real knock on effect for food prices, the news said approx £7.50 per month for each household but I think it’s likely to be higher than that in the long run.

When Sam came back from work yesterday we set about taking down the fence at the side of the building and starting to clear the wood that is there. A couple of years ago we started taking down the huge conifers that are just inside the boundary fence, unfortunately we didn’t get round to doing all of them as the ground in front built up with felled limbs, then the grass grew over it all and it was just a mess which is really annoying. So we have begun to clear it, we have someone coming in next week to help John cut up and tidy it up so hopefully we will eventually reach our aim of getting all the trees down and opening up that side of the property to use as the main entrance to the yard at the back. At the moment we use the other driveway which goes right past the back door and curves around the building making it a bit difficult for deliveries such as hay and straw trailers, only taken us about 5 years so far 😝

Thursday: Dry but noticeably fresher, the past few mornings have been slightly warmer than this one however the Sun is already up and doing its thing. Shelley, Josh and Flo are coming over this morning to help with some jobs and I have the ideal one in mind for Josh as he loves to use the broom, the stones all need sweeping back from the drive onto the hardstanding area 😀

A friend dropped off a jar of honey that is produced in the village, so food miles are minimal, well for us not sure how far the bees fly 😜 I couldn’t resist dipping my finger in the jar, oh my, totally delicious 😋

Had a busy day all in all with the hoeing and sweeping and raking and tidying, Shelley picked and processed some runner beans as well and then it was time to go to yet another family birthday 😜 The only thing is at this time of year we always have to leave early (before the cake, much to Johns annoyance) because the chickens have to be shut in before foxy sniffs them out!

Friday: Another lovely early Autumnal morning which turned out to be very warm. Mum came over and set about clearing one side of the poly tunnel, the tomatoes have not been ripening properly and the leaves have gone funny, now I would say it’s blight but these have only ever been watered with mains water so I’m puzzled by that. Anyhow they might as well come out as I have plenty more growing in other places, not least the ‘extra’ plants I shoved in the ground outside which have done better than all the rest! Just goes to show that mollycoddling them isn’t necessary. Meanwhile I did some picking and also cutting back the herbs on the herb bed, later Mum dug up and divided the bee balm, Monarda, and replanted, potting up the other divisions to be planted elsewhere later in the year or maybe in the spring depending on how far I get with things.

Sam and Mia came over in the afternoon and I rested with Mia while Sam did some jobs, then we collected the eggs and did the feeding in the afternoon.

In the evening John and I went to babysit Josh and Florence while Mummy and Daddy went out for a couple of hours.

Saturday: Fresh and sunny this morning, I think it will be another very warm day, did the animals then John went off to sort his Mum out, I need to start getting sorted for our holiday next week as in between that Dad and Sue are coming to stay, they will be staying in Charlie’s room as her and Macca are away in Cyprus for a wedding 😀

I am really looking forward to getting away, more than most holidays in recent years, as soon as we get there it will be ‘and relax’ 🤪

Cut the grass in the driveway and had to wait to cut the lawn as it was pretty sunny out there, when I could do it, it was hard going because the bottom end had got long and thick, it’s the only grass in the place that has grown 😝 John carried on fixing the hen coop ready for delivery of hens next week, had to do some watering as it has got amazingly dry again. I have a resident frog in the big poly tunnel, goodness knows why he has set up in there but he has been there a couple of weeks now. In light of the fact that Mum cleared it yesterday and most of his cover has gone, I filled up a bowl of rain water, put a brick in it and another on the outside, found a piece of slate to cover it put it under the melon foliage and hopefully he will be very happy 😃 great slug eaters so I’m glad he is in there.

I strained the pear and spices in the vodka and now I just have infused alcohol, so I have added sugar and this will now go into a dark cupboard for a couple,e of months, the colour is wonderful, a bit like sherry, can’t wait to try it on a cold night.

Sunday: Another fresh but sunny morning no doubt temps will climb again today, after doing the morning bits and some bits round the house, I am going out for the day 😀 Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire has a Catherine Parr day and I am going with my Mum, Sister and Niece, a rare day off, Johns in charge 😝

We had a lovely very day and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the area. I made a good discovery though as I was beginning to think that all the work here was what was causing problems with my feet and hands but nope, even on a day out without any work my feet/ankles swelled and hurt and my hand, not really sure where that gets me but at least I know and can report this to the consultant next week.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Apples, pears, plums and a whole load of other stuff.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th August: I’m thinking that maybe we should have opening times for the egg shed as last night someone arrived at 7.45pm expecting there to still be eggs available!

A dull but warm morning so after the orchard animals were sorted and I went round checking for randomly laid duck eggs I decided to plant the sambucus nigra which is a black elderflower tree, it has beautiful pink flowers in the spring which make pink elderflower champagne 😀 I want to get it in the ground while there is still some growing time to be had, it’s going in the front yard area to cast a bit of shade by the gateway so that I can stand and chat to customers lol. I dug the first spadeful of dirt out and low and behold a chicken appears, they are fast when they think there are worms to be had, sadly this is a hard area and no worms to be seen. I got it the ground and put some rotted muck in the hole to give it a bit of a boost and then cut some mesh to go around the base to stop the chickens scratching up the loose dirt and exposing the roots otherwise it won’t do very well at all.

Next job was to weed killer the ménage as it has got a bit out of control and with it overcast it’s an ideal time, some of the taller weeds I hand pulled, two barrow loads, and as it looked like the sun was going to come out I then got on with spraying the rest. I can’t use the weed burner in there because of the wood chip, it would be a blazing inferno! Would you bloody coco it though, it seemed like the sun was going to come out and then when I had finished (about an hour) it started to drizzle, now, I need about a 2 hour clearance on this so I’m not a happy bunny ☹️ When you want rain, nothing, when you don’t want it……🌧

I have been busy planning what veg to grow over winter, onions, broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, I think I should put in some more garlic as well, I’m also waiting for some leek plants to arrive but they seem to have disappeared in the post! All I have to do now is decide where I am going to plant all this as I also need to heavily muck the beds to get the best soil I can for next springs plantings.

Then I did a bit of picking, tomatoes, courgettes, more runner beans and some purple French beans (I really need to grow many more of these next year) and half a bucket of elderberries which are beautifully ripe now. I made elderberry syrup with them, for pouring on ice cream or with yoghurt in the mornings, it’s packed with vitamin c and extremely good for you, the syrup can also be used if you have a cough or mixed with a bit of honey as a hot drink for some tlc when you have a cold.

I had a bit of an accident later in the afternoon, when Sam and Mia came over they had picked me some blackberries and so I took Mia out to get some cooking apples off the tree for her to take home for crumble, then when Josh came over I went out with him to get him some apples as well, only this time I failed to see a low (head height) stumpy branch and walked straight into it with a thump, it jarred my neck and put me on the floor 😏

Tuesday: Dull again with that very fine drizzle, almost just a misting really, it was like that yesterday, it couldn’t quite make up its mind what it was going to do. Foraged for the rabbits this morning, a big bucket full of herbs and weeds, some dandelions for the torts along with some fallen apples and a couple of small courgettes. I have watered anything in pots as it is quite dry, I’m contemplating watering the veg later on if the sun comes out as they say it should. Lots of jobs I really should be doing but I’m quite tired even though I only got up a couple of hours ago, it will be interesting to see what the blood results are later this week, I feel like I’m always bordering on getting a cold 😏

I have been constantly looking for something to make another small water garden with and the answer was under my nose all the time, we have some old metal water tanks and one of them by the kennels is no longer connected to any drainpipe so I think I will use that I just need to empty it and drag it into the garden, fill it back up and put some of the pond plants in it, I think it will work fine, if I can summon up some energy I will do it later, It’s mostly to attract insects and increase the diversity in the garden. I might even put some fish in it, I need to measure it and make sure it’s deep enough that it doesn’t freeze in winter though.

In the big raised bed between the poly tunnels I have sown some winter grazing rye, mostly this will be for the rabbits over winter but the roots will stabilise the soil structure and then be dug in as a green manure when the time comes, I have had the packet for a couple of years and never got round to sowing it so hopefully it’s still viable.

I noticed that the dogs are eating the hazelnuts, that fall on the ground much more frequently now, and a quick look on the trees tells me that they are definitely ready which is about 2/3 weeks earlier than normal, it looks like everything is going to come at once now, apples, plums, pears, blackberries and nuts, busy times 😋

Back to the water garden thing and I also realised that I have the perfect opportunity in a tank that is already in the fruit cage so I filled it right up with rainwater and pulled some water plants from the other small pond to transfer over, the pond plants help to keep the water clean and aerated. I will have mini water gardens all over the place at this rate 😀

Shelley, Josh and Florence came over and I had Mia today so we arranged to go blackberry picking along Scrubbs Lane, Shelley and I got a tub full each, Mia and Josh ate every single one they picked 🤣🤣 The plum tree (lovely yellow plums) that is along there is sadly riddled with plum moth this year so we didn’t get any, never mind we will try again next year.

Ooops so I did this thing, I ordered 1000 daffodil bulbs 🤪 guess that’s another job on the list of things to do when they arrive! Next spring however we will be selling bunches of daffs at the gate 😀

Wednesday: A bit cooler today and overcast but just right for me 😀 John did the main feeding etc although I noticed later that he had forgot to let the geese out and turn off the water into the duck pond! I collected rabbit greens and sorted out the orchard birds then Mum arrived to do some gardening, some tidying and some weeding, it’s that time of year when it looks looms a bit scruffy and now it’s looking a lot better 😀 I picked some Victoria plums, on one side of the tree there is no moth that has burrowed in so they are fine, I had the plums picked and made into jam and jarred up in an hour 😀 cant get better than that and it’s a beautiful pink colour, fabulous, I gave Mum a jar in return for her hard work.

Then Mia arrived for the day and she played outside for a bit until she tripped over the hose and hit her face on the wheelbarrow handle ☹️

Out in the evening for curry with my friends.

Thursday: Raining this morning, that’s good because I had started having to water again as it was getting very dry. Spent a couple of hours sorting out insurance and paperwork for our up coming holiday, why does it always take so long, John thinks it’s a 2 minute job! Then did the orchard animals and collected some eggs to put out for sale, I noticed that some of the ducks are growing new wing feathers so hopefully they will come back into lay soon. Out of the 90 hens in the front paddock only around 60 of them are laying at the minute, lots of them are in a moult, that together with the disappearing daylight hours mean egg numbers drop a fair bit but it’s not quite time to put a light in, though we could trial it and see if it helps. I also have wormer ordered and ready to pick up so we will begin a week long dose on Sunday, these hybrids have to kept in tip top condition to perform, just like an F1 car 😜

I picked the apples from my eating apple tree, the wasps have started on them and they are beginning to fall so that tells me they are ready and last year I lost the lot to the birds so I was determined to harvest them this year 🤪 and as they will continue to ripen after picking we are all good, I need to get to the pears as soon as possible too. These are not ‘keeper’ apples so they won’t store all winter but they will last a month in the bottom of the fridge, a bit too many for us so I will be giving some of them to Shelley and Sam for the grandchildren 😀 I also picked a fair few cucumbers, more than I thought were out there, some tomatoes and some French beans which have suddenly decided to kick start production.

Friday: Definite chill in the air this morning though the day itself was not bad. I picked all the pears from my dual pear tree, one side they are fab, the other side they are not so good, scabby and useless, I also picked another load of plums but really need to get some sugar to make jam before they get too ripe. I quickly made a pear and cinnamon cake and then went on a busmans day out with the grandchildren to a farm 😀 While I was there I bought some unhomogenised organic milk and some organic butter, if I get a minute I will try making some cheese with the milk.

Very tired when I got home but I had the afternoon feeding and egg to collect as the egg shed was empty, then as I sit down to type up this and I can hear a bloody mouse or something scratching in the wall cavity. I will either have to set a trap or shut the cat in the back for the night, I really don’t want to use poison because they always choose to die in the wall and then it stinks 😷 besides that it’s not good for the wildlife.

I am aware that I talk about the orchard and the birds/animals in there so I thought I would take some photos from various angles so you can see what it looks like, through the summer it is lovely and shaded, especially useful this summer! The fence along the left hand side in the top pic is the one between the orchard and the paddock and the one I want to plant into an edible hedgeline, so far I have planted a couple of blackcurrants, comfrey, thornless blackberry, feverfew and a dog rose, I have also sprinkled plenty of marigold and love in a mist seeds along there too.

For the first time ever John cooked his own dinner! Now just to clarify he does cook cheese on toast and sausages/bacon and eggs but that’s it, the extent of his culinary talents, so tonight I made him cook his own, from start to finish, peeling the spuds and everything 😜 I didn’t even help him with the timings and voila now he thinks he could manage masterchef 🤣🤣

I found just over half a bottle of vodka in the cupboard and so I figured pear liqueur was a good thing to try, pierce holes in the pear, put in a jar, cover with vodka, add nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel, leave for two weeks and then add sugar and leave until Christmas time 😀 enjoy on a cold night hopefully 😋

So with all these pears, naturally I have been looking at recipes, one thing I have never tried is canning and I will admit that breaking open a fresh jar of pears in the winter sounds very appealing. Looking at how it’s done it seems simple enough, I’m thinking I can do the water bath method in a large stewing saucepan with a lid, I have a trivet, I just need to dig out my killer jars and I will give it a go even if it’s only a couple of jars. If anyone has experience of canning I would love to hear your tips and methods.

Saturday: After last nights rain it’s sunny this morning but with a chill in the air. Sorted out the orchard lot first and then did some picking as someone requested runner beans yesterday. It’s surprising how long it all takes really and to be fully self sufficient would take an awful lot longer or at the least need two people doing it all, at the minute we kind of muddle through, John doing the maintenance and building runs and coops etc, feeding the birds in the mornings and cleaning out the two main lot of hens weekly, while I do everything else! The list is endless, sowing, growing, hoeing, mowing, watering, harvesting, processing, cooking, cleaning, washing, paperwork, and I have been asked ‘what do you find to do all day’! Well in order to make the most of everything it takes time, effort, perseverance and determination, one day I will write a comprehensive list of everything 🤪 in the meantime that’s what the blog is for, so I can keep a check on what I have done.

The cats have been acting very strangely of late, constantly following us around and meowing, even the pizza delivery guy (wrong address it was for next door) said ‘I think there is something wrong with your cat’ well no, there is nothing wrong with him, he is just weird at the moment, I wormed and flead them just in case, the full moon probably has something to do with it, but they have become a bit needy and follow you round like a dog. John did shut Diesel in the back area last night in the hopes that he will catch whatever it was in the wall, one good thing about him being under your feet, you don’t have to go searching 😀

We sold out of eggs within an hour yesterday afternoon so consequently there is a delay this morning until the girls get going again, I hate it when customers come and there are no eggs but there is not much I can do about it, one customer has asked for more plum jam but I need to pick the rest of the plums first and I need a bigger ladder and preferably another person there, John has had to go to work this morning and also do his Mums breakfast and her shopping first thing so hopefully we can pick them this afternoon.

I have a mother load of pears, some small but most are of a good size, so in the oven at the moment on a low temp are two trays of pear crisps, never done them before so I will be interesting to see how they turn out. I’m hoping the grandchildren will like them, Mia’s first words when she gets here are always ‘I very ‘ungry’ meaning she wants a biscuit 😜 o hopefully they will be a good substitute.

The basil needed picking and so I made some pesto, a small jar for the fridge to be used within a couple of days and then a small tub for the freezer which can be used anytime I need some. Basil smells amazing, it’s one of the best smells I think. The older leaves and stalks I have to the rabbits who have had a good mix of willow and herbs today.

The pear crisps turned out ok, they got the thumbs up from Macca at any rate 😀 I will try them on the grandchildren and they may become a regular thing, great for snacking on.

John helped to pick the rest of the plums and I managed to get the last 4 bags of preserving sugar on the shelf when I went shopping so plum jam is on the to do list.

Sunday: Wet today! We picked around 4kg of plums yesterday taking the final amount to around 6kg from the one tree😀 so this morning I have mostly been processing plums, 3kg of plum jam a jar of plum sauce (plums, onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and star anise (take that out before bottling) purée, re heat and bottle) and cooked down some with sugar for the freezer ready for crumbles in the winter.

This afternoon we are on a whole family picnic 😝 only it’s wet but we have booked a hall (there are a lot of us) in the event of wet weather so that’s good or it would be if I hadn’t decided to take bbq food and a disposable bbq, now I’m a bit stuffed with what to do lol. I needn’t have worried there was enough food to feed an army 🤣 fabulous afternoon had by young and old alike.

Have a fabulous week people x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Runner beans, runner beans and more runner beans 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th August: Not Up so early this morning, the urgency to water everything has now gone as the drizzle keeps on coming, they say the heatwave will be back but I have my doubts about that. John did the feeding, I went out and got started with the picking, the runners have not been picked for a couple of days so there are plenty to harvest, a few courgettes, some mangetout, I also put out some Victoria plums as I still have plenty in the freezer from last years bumper crop. Egg customers come earlier and earlier in the hopes of getting eggs but what they don’t realise is that if we sell out the day before there will not be any more until around 10am as the hens only get going about 8.30/9 The ducks always lay first thing but even they are on a go slow at the minute, the only ones laying like crazy are the quail.

The book I ordered ‘ Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane arrived and I have read a couple of pages, I can see me quoting from it left, right and centre there is already so much in it that I identify with that I wish I had read it many years ago!

The grass is coming back through 😀 it’s amazing resilient stuff, the paddock was almost black with dead grass and now there is a haze of green across it which will make the geese very happy indeed and the hens will benefit too because although they eat layer pellets they do eat the tips of the blades and of course the insects will return so we should see them skipping across the area trying to catch them 😀 The ducks were put in there as a temporary measure and it doesn’t really suit them so I need to move them out, beside the geese have now taken to attacking another one so the sooner the better really. I would do it myself but the hut won’t go through the gateway into the orchard so it needs a bit of muscle to man handle it round. The ducklings are making a proper mess now it has rained so I need to sort them out too and I also need to pick some more plums, better finish this coffee and get on with it I think 😀

By lunchtime I had made a slow but sure start on the orchard area, I managed to herd the other ducks through to there and I let the ducklings out of their run into the whole area. I began planting up the fence line which will be an edible/wildlife attractant hedge so far I have planted 3 blackcurrant, which are in degradable pots, some feverfew, comfrey, lemon balm, a dog rose and a thornless blackberry, I also planted a kiwi root I found growing in the path, under the greengage tree, bonus if this takes and grows. I planted some marigold seedlings in and around various places and I have a buffalo currant in a pot which I have placed under the damson tree for now. So I have a good mix now and all they have to do is grow, easier said than done when the first thing that appears is a chicken because I have disturbed the ground and they think it’s a scratch and freeforall 😝 I have protected a few of the plants and will do the rest later. Hopefully come spring it will have all settled and be growing nicely providing shade, food and cover not just for the ducks but for all manner of things.

I moved Billy into the big tunnel to do some foraging plus it’s a bit warmer in there and as him and Voldy don’t seem to get on too well he will welcome the break I think. I did move the melons up from the floor, I don’t want him tucking into those 😋

I picked some plums and grabbed hold of a wasp in the process, luckily I didn’t get stung, they are everywhere at the moment especially on the greengage but I managed to pick a handful of those that have not been eaten just yet.

Did the afternoon feeding and picking and filled up the water buckets, then went on the search to find something to put it over the plants in the orchard, we were given some water containers like the ones in offices they make great cloches when you cut the bottoms off and I also use the bottoms to stand pot plants in when they need extra watering.

Just when you think you know what birds are around you another surprise pops up, unfortunately this one had got trapped and died some time ago but when I saw it my first thought was a baby green woodpecker, after doing a bit of googling I discovered it was in fact a goldcrest the smallest of the UKs birds, I shall keep an eye out for live ones from now on.

Tuesday: A dry day, warm enough, John did the main of the birds this morning while I did the birds in the orchard of which there are quite a lot now lol, ducklings, two lots of ducks, two lots of quail, the light Sussex chicks and the rabbits and Guineas, I think it’s full 😀 The orchard, just to give you an image, has three plum trees, greengage, damson and Victoria, a pear tree, an apple tree and a huge walnut tree, so plenty of scope to begin under planting for a forest garden.

I did quite a bit of picking and harvesting

The potatoes were from a self setter, I think I am going to give up cultivating them and just leave the self setters to spring up around the place they do far better than the cosseted lot.

Yesterday I didn’t feel as well as I had been doing and feel that some of the symptoms are creeping back slowly, especially in my feet so today I am loading up on the anti inflammatory foodstuffs to see what happens. I will take serapeptase in the mornings and today I am having turmeric tea then later I will have pineapple and see if any of that helps at all. I make the turmeric tea with almond milk, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and maple syrup if you like chai, you will like this, spicy and warming with the added bonus hopefully.

I had some Megrim sole delivered with the fish from Cornwall and we had it tonight for dinner, Sam cooked it for us which was very kind of her 😀 John had his with potatoes and peas but I had a salsa of cucumber, tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts, in a balsamic dressing, with mine, she pan fried it in butter, salt, pepper and a couple of rashers of back bacon, it was delish. Megrim is the poorer relation to Dover sole in as much as it’s not so in demand but actually the flavour is good and it’s a sustainable fish 🎣

I was thinking about making a carrot relish of some type and it seems there is a popular sandwich sold by a well known food store, Wensleydale cheese and sweet carrot chutney, (sounds amazing) so there is demand 😀 I also need to have a go at the caramelised red onion chutney that everyone seems to love although I didn’t grow red onions this year and seems pointless buying them in so I will put it on my list to grow next year. I also want to try getting a pickle as close to the country’s favourite, Branston, I wonder if it’s possible?

I absolutely adore Pinterest, I’m pinning all the time lol, anything you have an idea about can be found on there, my folders take nearly as long to get through as the site itself 🤣

Wednesday: Dry again today, temps are average, overcast. Got the usual morning jobs done and then dug out a tub of fence paint and started painting the fence near the back door, random? , not really as Mum and my niece Anna are coming over this morning to do some jobs 😀 So I thought I would set them onto sorting out the front yard space, as I said before it had always been just left because of Kai but now he has gone I can tart it up a bit. It needed an awful lot of weeding and a good bit of tidying and so painting the fence and gate will make it look a whole lot better to boot! I also made another little raised bed out of the ones I took down, at the moment I have only put pots in it but I will get round to planting it up soon. Mum found four little buddleja saplings growing and has potted them up for use somewhere else or selling on, mine is the yellow, ball type and I would like to get the more common purple one at some point, superb for the butterfly population.

Thursday: Raining this morning, normally I would make rainy days, baking days, but I need to do the cleaning instead 😜 Before going outside I had cleaned the washing machine, Charlie was complaining it’s stinks, it did, so I cleaned out the drawer and put a solution through it, cleaned all the sink plug holes nearby and it smells much better now. I sprayed the bathroom ready to give it a clean later, and the back toilet, got the dinner underway (braised beef with garden veg) and a pudding, plum crumble, John will be very happy tonight 😀 put some washing on then went out and did the orchard animals before coming back in and getting on with it. Mid morning my cousin came with a bag of seaweed from his holiday, I had asked for some to make my own fertiliser. I had to put the sold out sign up because we are out of eggs until this afternoon as I don’t have time to keep going out and collecting them besides we would never catch up if I did. There has already been a steady stream of customers, we can never seem to get this balance right, too many customers, not enough eggs, too many eggs, not enough customers, I don’t know what the answer is?

My vest veg customer came twice this morning, I saw his car, but there was nothing out there mainly because I was not going to go out in the pouring rain and pick it! A quick lunchtime sit down before I carry on 😋

I had a brief look in the office/playroom/junkroom and decided that was a whole mornings work on its own so I shut the door again 😜 I think I need to employ the services of a professional de-clutterer! Besides the Sun is out again now so I may go out and do a bit of picking, I will just have a quick browse on Pinterest first 😋

Well looking on there mad me hungry cos it’s mostly food that comes up on my feed lol, luckily I had got some soup out of the freezer and ate that, then I really needed to have a bit of a rest because things are playing up a bit and I’m having to take ibrufen to get anything done ☹️ so I popped a couple of pills and had a lie down on the sofa 😀 But not for long, I think I will get a ‘do not disturb’ sign for the gate 😜

Fed the birds, picked up the eggs, picked some runner beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, I am trying to decide if the melons are ready, I think I shall have to pick one and cut it to see, I’m not sure what variety they are and it’s not totally clear if they have ripened. The rain and now the sunshine will give everything a bit of a growth spurt hopefully as it has dwindled a little bit, better be careful what I wish for because it will take me longer to pick everything lol. I think another batch of runner bean chutney is needed as the last lot went fairly quickly.

I made some Greek yoghurt in the yoghurt maker, another packet I’m afraid as I haven’t got round to reading how to do it without but I will, beside it does taste delicious 😀

Friday: Beautiful morning, fresh to begin with, no idea what the temps went down to overnight but must have been fairly low, then warm sunshine which looms as though it’s here for the day 😀

Got all the orchard animals fed and watered, I did a good bit of foraging for the rabbits so they have some diversity in their diet, I cut a melon to test for ripeness, its not quite ready but not far off so I gave it to the torts and some to the light Sussex chicks, who are now getting to a good size. Some of the runner beans are now getting older and so I made a batch of chutney with those and I am just investigating ‘shucking’ which is removing the bean from the pod and possibly then blanching the beans and taking off the outer layer leaving a lovely green bean that splits in two, can’t be much different from a pea really.

The kitchen smells amazing 😀 as well as the chutney I have tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, basil and oregano, salt, pepper all tossed in olive oil, reducing down in the oven for a sauce, delish. A bit of an indulgence really as John doesn’t like pasta so the sauce is all for me and whoever I share it with, it’s a bit of a shame because if I’m honest it is the part I love the most about harvesting it all is making lovely goodies to eat either fresh or later in the winter time.

Saturday: Dull as far as the weather goes though not cold. I spent a fair bit of the morning chatting with various customers but in between that did some picking, runner beans, courgettes and broccoli. The brassica cage is still holding up really well against the cabbage white so I am able to harvest quite a few sproutings, I also filled a trug with old leaves and bits that have ‘blown’ as I call them, there was also a cabbage in there which was supposed to be broccoli but isn’t, I gave that to the light Sussex chicks to pick over, it should keep them busy for most of the day. I need to put some kale in for overwinter and will definitely be using the cage for that. I noticed the other day that the few French beans plants I planted had got more flowers on so I thought I will leave them a few days and then pick the beans, well something has been eating them ☹️ at first I thought rabbits, but they would have eaten the whole bean and this is just the end so something that can’t quite reach all the way up, possibly a mouse which will be more difficult to protect them from.

I was walking down the garden and heard a familiar noise, oh shit, I had left the water on in the poly tunnel, for 24hrs 😜 damn, it won’t need watering for quite a few days now but hopefully it will swell the melons!

Had Josh and Florence for a few hours, mostly played with playdough that my sister had made for him, it started off four different colours now it just one 😋

Sunday: Another dull day, not that I’m complaining as it means I can get stuff done outside. John did most of the birds while I did the orchard lot. Today that meant cleaning out most of the huts and runs, putting in clean bedding and washing out the water bowls. Two of the huts needed moving as they don’t have floors they are just on the dirt ground. Meanwhile John has started repairing the movable chicken hut which will go into the side paddock to house a new batch of hens, just 30 in order to keep turning over the laying flock and meet the demand for eggs.

I went for a little wander around the farm to see what blackberries were about, not many they are still red, quite small and look dry due to the lack of rain I suspect. My cooking app,e tree continues to chuck apples all over the drive especially when it’s windy, it’s a shame as the tree showed great promise at the beginning of the year. I picked some more Victoria plums, a fair few of the last lot I picked had codling moth grub in them but the branches on the other side seem fine, it’s my own fault as I didn’t put grease bands around the trunk nor did I put up the moth traps, I definitely will do next time.

Have a great week 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

‘Timeless simplicity’, tortoises & pasta sauce.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday August 6th and the year is rolling on😜 By 9am this morning I had already done a 4hr stint in the garden! Watering the bits I didn’t get done last night and tidying away pots, I have a place where I keep them all over winter then as they get used I tend to chuck them down by the front of the greenhouse along with anything else I have been using 🤪 I figured it was time to tidy it all up, I also demolished one of the narrow raised beds in front of the greenhouse. Over the years it has had various different things growing in it, mostly flowers but the trees have got a bit big and it’s too shady, I did however shove the potatoes in there when I could finally get them in after the wet spring, they have not amounted to anything so that was waste of time, the wood at the bottom was rotting and coming away so it’s time to remove them. As always I didn’t take a before photo so this one is of the remaining bed so you get the idea of what I am talking about and the nice clear space I have now made. I contemplated doing the other one straight after but sitting here having my coffee I’m thinking that was probably enough action with the lump hammer and spade for today.

You can see that I have mounded up the soil in the background and covered it with black plastic, the soil was dead, there was hardly any life in it at all so covering will help to bring it back to life and get some composting done.

And then I finished my coffee and thought, sod it, in for a penny, in for a pound, and got on with demolishing the other one 🤪 although as fast as I was trying to rake up the chickens were in there scratching it all about! The asters that were growing on the end have been put in a tub of water, each year I kept meaning to divide them as they have been struggling for a couple of years, so now after a good drink I will pot the, up ready for selling or planting in various areas. Once the soil has broken down a bit I will be re using it on other projects I have in mind or to top up any existing raised beds, that area is going to have a small compound and house built for my new arrivals so that they are nice and close for the grandchildren to help feed and watch.

After collecting some eggs, as trade is brisk this morning, and finishing tidying stuff away it was 10.30 and time for a well earned rest and catch up with my fave tv programme at the moment 😀

Tuesday: Lay in, Up at 6am 😜 I only did a small amount of watering today I will do more tonight but the night are much cooler and full of moisture so it’s not as needed as it was. Picked a good amount of veg, 14 cucumbers lol, they have been hiding I think, beans, mangetout, tomatoes that will ripen out in the open sun and some baby corn. Then I got on with removing another raised bed that is under the trees and doesn’t get much light or rain so things struggle, actually the hens all scratch in in too so most things have died off. I moved it to the front, dug up all the soil, added some rotted manure and planted it up with the plants I bought ages ago and haven’t been able to sort yet and gave it all a good soaking. Then I made a coffee and sat down for five minutes peace, I got to about three and Sam, Mia and Alfie arrived. Sam and Mia helped to put the run up and move the ducklings outside for the day, they had great fun splashing, washing and preening themselves, the bigger ducks came to have a look and it’s got me wondering if I could get them to adopt the same way the geese did, it’s worth a try I reckon. Then we fed the rabbits a couple of the cucumbers and the light Sussex chicks some spinach and a few weeds, I collected up some eggs as customers keep on coming this morning and then it was time for Sam to go to work and Mia and I to entertain ourselves 😀

We have some roast chicken left over so I am going to make a curry with that today, John won’t eat curry so I will have to come up with something else for him.

While Mia was asleep I made a chicken and broccoli bake for John, the recipe suggests breadcrumb on top but I will just use potato and cheese. When Mia woke up we went outside to hang out the washing and pull some carrots to go with Johns dinner and then we fed the chickens and collected the eggs, Mia very carefully carried the quail eggs back and put them in the egg box, none broken 😀 Then we had a well earned rest and watched Wisspa 😜

Not many eggs to put out this afternoon and we had completely sold out, they have dropped in numbers by about 20 a day which is a lot!

Oooo when is it ever going to rain again, just keeping everything alive is bloody tiring, sometimes I look at how dry the ground is and think shall I just stop? The paddocks have now gone from brown to starting to blacken, I know they will come back as soon as it rains for long enough but honestly I don’t want another summer like this one!

We made a decision to put the ducklings in a hutch outside with the run around them, they are only three weeks old but they haven’t been under the lamp for the last week and the nighttime temps are not cold, in springtime I wouldn’t have taken the risk but at this time of year, with the weather as it is, it should be fine.

Wednesday: Noticeably cooler this morning though the rain forecast for the end of the week has disappeared off the radar again! Did a bit of watering and Mum arrived early to do some more hoeing, it’s great because I would never keep on top of it all otherwise, so thanks Mum 😘 I tidied up the small bed in front of the front gate, a bit of chopping and cutting back, clip the grass edges (the only bits of grass growing) planted up one of the lime trees in a pot and put that out there and pulled out no end of shasta daisies they are so thuggish and take over entirely. A quick cup of coffee and then set about sorting out the greenhouse, throwing away stuff I don’t need, taking down the staging that is in there, it will be burnt, it’s not very good as it had to be screwed to the frame to stop it falling over! Plenty of stuff to keep but I need to sort out the shed so I can get it in there lol, always a knock on job, once it’s cleared it will be ready to take down then John can put the base down and I can get it ordered, we have some very large tree branches to remove as well so that will be quite a big job. We pick up my new pets tomorrow and they will be living in there temporarily until we get sorted for them. Molly the cat has disappeared again, sometimes she does this for a few days but as she is quite ancient I know one day she won’t return.

The evening sky was totally awesome tonight, we were driving back from my brothers (another birthday 😀) and the view across the Windrush valley was fantastic, it reminded me of a Wild West sunset (not that I’ve ever seen one except in films) I did say to John that we are lucky to see things like that, people living in cities and big towns don’t get to see it very often and we see great sunsets every evening, I did try and get a photo but my phone camera just does not capture the magnificence of it at all.

Thursday: Awake early because it’s become the norm and I can’t turn it off now 😜 This morning we are off to pick up the two new members of the menagerie 😀 I will introduce them later.

On one of the smallholding pages during a discussion about meat production and all that comes with it, was a quote from a book, a book that I have now ordered and look forward to reading.

‘The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking his pipe.

“Why aren’t you fishing?” said the industrialist.

“Because I have caught enough fish for the day.”

“Why don’t you catch some more?”

“What would I do with them?”

“Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.”

“What would I do then?”

“Then you could sit back and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” ‘

from ‘Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane

The hens are looking decidedly worse for wear with this continuing lack of rain and consequently a lack of green grass! In the industry they are kept for 52 weeks from point of lay and we are nearing that point so have some decisions to make, difficult because around 60 of them are still laying and I think if we had better ground the others would probably still be but the relentless heat has taken its toll as well, do we get a new batch at a cost and retire the others but that means twice as much work, do we sell off the older birds cheap even then we would have a cross over period of waiting for the eggs to get big enough, hmmm we will ponder on it for a while I think. It will be better to get new birds later in the year so that they carry us through the summer months when demand is higher but that means keeping more birds than would be ideal through the winter months. It is not just the hens, the ducks have dropped off too, with this in mind I have ordered feed with wormer in the hopes that keeping them in the best condition possible will help bring them back into lay, then of course you have the added problem of the daylight hours getting shorter all the while, it’s not easy 😝

So we went on a road trip, not long, about an hour and look what we bought back with us, meet Billy, who we shall call Big Billy and Voldertort or Voldy for short, currently they are in the fruit cage on weed patrol. Their owner is relocating out of the country and was looking for new owners and we were chosen 😀😀😀

In the afternoon I carried on clearing out the greenhouse, goodness knows why I’ve got so much stuff in there but I do use most of it at times, I have tidied up the shed a bit so I can get some stuff, that shouldn’t be getting wet, in there, the rest is outside! Hopefully I can get John started on taking it down this weekend and then the base can go down ready for the new one.

The tortoises spent all afternoon trying to get out of the fruit cage, Billy is very astute, he knows where the door is and if I’m in the garden he comes over or follows me while I’m walking round the outside. He also likes feet lol, especially ones in flip flops and kept making a beeline for Sams toes. We just (by a whisker) got their hut sorted with dry bedding in it before the rain came down, they had taken themselves off to bed about 6, into the trug with the straw in it which wouldn’t have held off the rain, so they are now nice and cosy for the night.

I found a great list of what torts like to eat, it’s very extensive and we have plenty of most of that on and around the farm 😀

IT RAINED 😀😀 not a huge amount but enough to wet the ground and hopefully we will get a bit more before the night is over.

Friday: Still raining 😀 giving the ground a good soak, I did intend to get a fair amount done but with the rain to begin with then visitors it ended up with nothing, not outside anyhow, I made bread and used fresh tomato/basil/ garlic to make bolognese and a batch for the freezer for another day. Picked some veg and weeds for the tortoises who were slow to wake today with temps dipping so much, then picked more herbs and weeds for the rabbits.

Saturday: Dry and sunny today and after getting all the morning chores done I went off to Worcester with our next door neighbour to a sheep sale 😀 Yvonne has Oxford Down sheep and this was a special sale of that breed.

John had instructions to clean out the ducks, geese, and hens and we discussed creosoting one of the moveable huts so that we can move it to the side paddock and purchase some news hens to overlap the older ones.

By the end of the sheep sale if I never hear another sheep bleating again that will be fine 😜 it was a very interesting day mind you and the whole operation is very slick. I spent the day wandering around and watching some judging and some of the sales and people watching too, fascinating day all in all, and with a few purchases made and loaded we headed home.

Rain in the evening.

Sunday: Wet start maybe it will dry up later on, John did the birds then went off to work for a couple of hours. I made pasta sauce for the freezer, tomatoes, basil, onions and garlic all homegrown mixed with salt, pepper and olive oil then roasted in the oven, cooled blitzed and frozen. I also had some bananas to use up so I made a GF banana, chocolate (cocoa powder) and peanut butter loaf, a basic chuck in the bowl and mix along with maple syrup and some coconut oil, baking powder so it’s dairy free and low in calories as well 😀

Sam and Luke stayed overnight as they went to a function locally and we looked after Mia so we had Mia to entertain us this morning 😀

We are off out for a Sunday roast later with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence so depending on the weather we might not get much more than the routine things done today.

Molly returned.

Well as usual once it starts raining it doesn’t flipping stop, it always goes from one extreme to the other!

Posted in Friesland Farm

Grazing tables, runner bean chutney & and soup mix.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday night again: As I usually start the blog on a Monday morning I sometimes miss out something relevant or interesting, tonight while John was watching the F1 highlights I was reading a book I ordered last week.

Pretty interesting stuff and quite a lot of plants I had no idea you could eat, some of them are obvious and well known but a lot of them are long forgotten for instance we all know what Quinoa is these days, but the victorians were eating it long before we ‘discovered’ it and then it fell out of favour for many, many years. I have got quinoa seed that I was going to grow this year but when I got ill I couldn’t sow it, I will defiantly give it a go next year, along with some other grains, amaranth, millet, and wheat.

The sky, for a very brief period tonight (about 3 minutes) was amazing, it looked like someone had lit up the whole place with orange floodlights, I have seen some amazing sunsets in the years we have been here but that is a first, it was quite eerie, it was quickly followed by rain and dark foreboding skies.

Monday 30th July: It’s my birthday 😀 and as is custom I will be providing the food for any visitors today, I have decided to lay on a grazing table, look them up, they are amazing, I’m not saying mine is going to look anything like the artistic offerings on Pinterest but I will give it my best shot. My present is not arriving until mid August, I know what it (they) are and they will be increasing the menagerie by 2 but I will leave you guessing until then 😜

First thing I turned the water on in the poly tunnel then indulged myself with a coffee and a catch up with The Handmaids Tale, difficult to watch at times but a fascinating series.

We sold out of eggs yesterday and nearly every day before that and by the time John went to work the hens hadn’t laid so after a quick shower and another coffee 😝 I went to collect so that we will have some for sale today!

Top up Jacks water in the field, give the burning bin a kick so that it keeps smouldering away, lay out some cardboard on the garden, we have another heatwave ahead apparently, hard boil some quail eggs ready for later, FaceTime with Shelley! Josh and Flo, then with Sam and Mia, sit down with coffee 😜 I actually feel rather to tired today so I’m not going over do it although there are many jobs to get done, it’s my day, they can wait 🤪

Had a wonderful evening with some amazing presents, my family know me very well, I did the grazing platters for food and I was really pleased with how they turned out

Tuesday: Family funeral today and so it was just get the necessary jobs done first thing, I then watched a short tutorial on forest gardening, then out for a large part of the day, come back to get the necessary jobs done then out for dinner in the evening with Dad and Sue who came up for the funeral. Very tired by the end of the day!

Wednesday: Lammas 😀 Up fairly early not for any other reason than the dogs barking to go out, they don’t normally but they were in for a good few hours yesterday and so it was only fair to let them out, mind you they were barking at 3.30am however I ignored that and they then waited until 5.

John did the feeding as normal (it’s fallen into normal anyway) and I did some watering in the tunnels, fed the rabbits some forage and hay, took the sheets off the bed to wash, still feel pretty tired this morning.

I potted on the honey berries, red currants and cranberry, the cranberry I actually potted into an old recycle bin, which I lined and filled with ericaceous compost, it likes to stay wet apparently so I need to remember to keep it watered. Sue and Dad called in for coffee before departing for Wales and after that I did a bit of housework and had a little rest.

By 2.30 we had sold out of eggs and when I was ill it had to stay like that until John came home but as I am on the mend I went round and collected them up, feeding the birds thief scratch corn in the process, a bit early in the day but I would never get anywhere near the hut without tripping over them or standing on them if I didn’t do it😝 While I am there I turn out the persistent broodies, we are down to about 4 now as apposed to 11 at one point!

Did a bit of watering in the evening just to keep on top of the bit of good the rain did.

Thursday: Had a bit of a lie in this morning, the dogs barked at 5 so I let them out but went back to bed till 6.30 and I feel better for it, I feel like I have some energy to get on. I turned the sprinkler on at the bottom of the veg garden and the pressure was down so I went round the farm and checked that all the outside taps were off, they were so it wasn’t that, I went back and took the sprinkler head off one hose and attached it to another, nothing wrong with the pressure there so I went back to the other hose and found a piece of wood chip lodged inside, problem solved 😀 Then onto foraging for the rabbits, this morning they had a selection of weeds and herbs, I have also got into the habit of giving some to the light Sussex chicks who love picking over it. There seems a huge difference between the hybrids and the pure breeds as far as forage goes, the hybrids would certainly eat chickweed and brassicas but they wouldn’t pick over the plantain or the herbs as I have tried it before so I am really pleased that the pure breeds are going to be able to forage, and therefore sustain themselves. much more widely than the hybrids.

I dug up a few bits that I want to bring on for the hedge lines, lemon balm being one plant as well as a couple of dog roses that have self set, there are hazel trees and elderflower that sprout up all over the place which I will also be using, the ground is still too hard yet though.

I am still looking for something to create another small pond with and trying to decide where to put it, it will have to be covered with wire in the winter or the ducks will just demolish it when they are free ranging. I intend to let the Welsh Harlequins roam over the vegetable garden at the end of Autumn, they will help to control the slug/snail population and the light Sussex will also have free range to control any pests both above and below the ground, all the while they will be fertilising the area, win, win.

I went for a gentle wander around the farm, I was in the hunt for butterflies because we haven’t seen very many this year, plenty of cabbage whites but not many others. I did encounter a few common blues, my dream one day would be to spot large blues 😀 I have seen a few over the last couple of weeks, a speckled wood butterfly, red admiral, tortoiseshell peacock but not very many, I’m guessing the weather is making it difficult for them. I need to print off a little chart I can carry so that if I see any I don’t recognise I can look it up there and then, mind you it’s quite difficult to get a good look when they are fluttering about.

I did find a good amount of blackberries that I will be able to pick when they are ready , we haven’t had many for a few years as John cleared them all out of the hedgerows when he was tidying up 😝 plus the horses used to eat them before I could get to them and as there is just Jack now hopefully he won’t get round to scoffing the lot!

I thought I ought to stop chasing butterflies and do a bit of housework 🤪 besides it was getting a bit hot out there for me!

I picked up the post and in there was an invitation for a health screening which always gets me thinking. The questions are pretty generic especially on exercise, I don’t go to the gym or go for long/brisk walks, I don’t swim (anymore) BUT I spend most of my time (when possible) outside in fairly clean air, put it this way, I can smell the fumes when I go into town, and most of that time is spent on the move so that can be about 6/8 hrs a day, some of that time is spent doing hard physical work. Scraping dried chicken poo off the floor is pretty physical even though it doesn’t sound it, I hump 20kg feed sacks up and down, straw bales, barrowfuls of horse muck and occasionally there is some hard digging to be done, at times I have shovelled 14 tons of shingle, mixed up tons of concrete and barrowed it to where it’s needed, carried heavy blocks/pieces of wood and pushed heavy chicken houses/horse boxes/trailers, who needs a gym membership? Then there is the food question, do you eat healthily? Well this one always gets me, depends on what you consider to be healthy, I do not consider fresh vegetables/salad/fruit to be healthy unless it hasn’t been sprayed with either pesticide/insecticide/herbicide ( and lettuce the most heavily sprayed crop there is) or treated with artificial fertiliser and growth hormones. I don’t consider animals that have been routinely pumped full of medication of any sort to be healthy either, I don’t really consider farmed fish to be the best option and I am beginning to wonder because of the state of our oceans if fish is actually a good option or not (and I rarely eat prawns because of their preferred abode shall we say 😩) I cook from scratch so I know what is in the dish I am eating and most of it is home grown, not every ingredient, that’s impossible, but those that are not, are on the whole responsibly sourced. Yes we eat pies, puddings and cakes but they are not shop bought (except if I am catering for lots of people a couple of times a year) have you looked at the ingredient list on a shop bought cake ?? 😩 there is barely a recognisable ingredient in them. I drink decaf coffee (haven’t quite made the leap to tea yet) I drink less alcohol than a nun who has taken her vows, mostly because alcohol does not mix very well with the meds I have to take, if I do, I have have two G & Ts (I prefer an artisan gin, should you ever need to know that 🤣) max so my unit measurement is a grand total of around 2 a month pushing the boat out if it gets to 4! Sometimes it can be 0 for months on end ( That does not include holidays away when it could be considered as binge drinking in context 🤪) So I think I do eat healthily, and sometimes heartily 😋 but always mindfully, PLUS I take very good care of my gut bacteria, a subject that the medical profession, in this country, on the whole has not woken up to yet. Now, back to the subject, where do you think I will find the tick box for that lot 🤔

The grains I ordered arrived today, amaranth, wheat and millet, oooo now I’ve been looking them up and milling at home is a possibility I am full of enthusiasm for growing it 😀 originally I bought them to grow for the chickens but we may as well benefit too.

The runner beans are coming in thick and fast, I think chutney is on the cards, the butternut squash are growing well I’m really pleased with them, last year they were very small and not very many of them either. The melons in the poly tunnel are also doing much better than any other year, and the tomatoes are looking like a good crop too. I grew three types of tomato, money maker, your average size tomato, beefsteak, giant ones, though they haven’t got that big yet and then plum tomato which will be for making sauces or cooking with, great because the basil is also doing exceptionally well, yum.

My dual pear tree, although it’s growing very well, has got scab, just on the one variety, the other must be more resistant, so I spent the evening reading up about it, how to control it and also how I need to prune it, there are lots of pears on it, it’s a shame that about 50% are no good 😏

Friday: I set to pruning the pear tree first thing, I need to make sure every leaf and fruit is picked up in autumn and burnt to try to prevent it happening again next year.

Going round the garden I discovered that something, either chicken or blackbird, has been pecking away at my spaghetti squash 😏 they are growing under the asparagus which has now gone to fern, so I had to cut the fern down low enough to be able to put environmesh over the whole lots to stop any more losses, if it’s not one thing it’s another, I thought they were well hidden away under there. Mum came over early and got started with the hoeing, it always looks so much nicer when it’s done but I hardly get time to do it so I’m very grateful 😀

We have had Samantha’s dog Alfie all week while she was away on holiday and he can be a real pain in the butt, he chases chickens (doesn’t hurt them it’s just a game) he chases the cats, same again, he will torment Jack in the field by trying to round him up, he jumps the gate when egg customers come and has even jumped into their cars when they open the door this week, he tears around from the back when he hears the back door open and barges through the gate nearly knocking you flying if you haven’t remembered he is there, he constantly carries the longest stick he can find in the hopes that you will throw it for him and you have to have your wits about you when he has that in his mouth, but he does have one use that the other dogs don’t have and that is that he barks at anything unusual. So when he started barking at lunchtime and it wasn’t in the direction of the front gate I went out to investigate. I found him down the strip between the duck pen and the veg garden barking away, I couldn’t see anything so I stood for a couple of minutes, then I heard someone whistling from the direction in the next field from us, up popped a familiar face, guess who has lost his hawk again 😂

Later on in the day I did some watering and harvested some of the potatoes that were growing in pots because it’s really hard to keep them going, there wasn’t much on them but a few boilings which will do us. I dug up some lemon balm and mint with roots and potted them up, I will be using some of it to plant in the hedgelines for the hens to forage on and of course the insects love them. They have both flowered and gone over now so I harvested the mint in big bunches and hung them to dry in the greenhouse, some of it will be crushed up and used for adding to the horse feed in winter and the rest will be dried for the rabbits. I will probably do the same with the lemon balm and both of them will put on some new growth before the end of summer, some mint that I already cut for feeding fresh to the rabbits has grown back and I have cut that to make mint sauce. I also harvested sage, again I cut it back after flowering and this is all new growth, that will be dried for winter use, I will probably give it a hard cut back in a couple of weeks which will then be dried for the rabbits in winter. I will also dry some mint for culinary use, I’ve not done this before I don’t know why it’s just not something I have thought about using dry, first time for everything 😀

Saturday: Got straight on with making runner bean chutney this morning and also some mint sauce both are pretty easy to do, if you have never had runner bean chutney give it a try it’s well worth it, very tasty 😋 I picked a few more runners and some mangetout, but that was about all I did outside. We went out for an impromptu lunch then of course the afternoon nap 😜 and out again this evening for a surprise party. Not achieved very much today!

Sunday: John got on with the feeding and letting out while I started the watering, had a bit of a lie in until 6.30 this morning 😀 It has been so hot again that the ground dries up fast, luckily overnight there is still moisture but not enough to keep everything going on it’s own. I did some picking, runner beans 😝 courgettes, baby corn and broccoli, although the brassica cage has kept the butterflies out it hasn’t kept out the flea beetle which arrived in hordes when the field next door was harvested. They make thousands of little holes in the leaves but eventually they will die off and the plants will recover with new shoots. The second lot of broccoli I planted, you will remember, kept going to seed and I had to keep taking the tops off, well they never produced anything, except seeds 😀) so I will let them go to seed and hopefully some self set plants will grown next year. The general rule is not to grow brassicas in the same place twice because of club root but I’m willing to chance it and see what happens.

Once it started to get too hot out there I came inside to prep what I had picked, firstly blanch the broccoli for open freezing, I soaked in in cold water after for a good while so that any beetles float to the top of the water and can be taken out. I finally got round to making my ‘Souper mix’ this is basically any veg and herbs you want to put in and blitz in a processor, in the photo everything except the celery Is from the garden and will make an excellent vegetable stock for soups or casseroles/stews, I can sneak things in there that John wouldn’t normally eat 😝 The original recipe suggests adding an enormous amount of salt and putting it in jars for storage however I decided to freeze it and the only thing I could find that would be about the right portion size was cake tins, so I used cake cases and filled them to the top packing down tightly and open froze them, when they are done I will discard the cases and pop them all in one labelled bag for use as and when.

I wanted to get some passata made as well but I haven’t quite got enough ripe tomatoes yet, I grew the large plum variety this year especially for this reason and as the garlic and basil have done really well I’m hoping it will taste divine. 😋

We had tickets for countryfile live today but as the temps are set to go above 31c and there is never enough shade at these kinds of shows we gave the tickets to Charlie and Macca, she reported that it was very hot and they were melting so I’m glad we didn’t go.

There is a very good reason why, when I but plants in, that I do not plant them up straight away, and today I am really glad that I don’t because the peach tree I bought has sprouted horsetail or marestail in the base 😩 an invasive weed that is difficult to eradicate, at the moment it’s one piece that I will break off and burn until such time I can take the tree out of the pot and clean the roots thoroughly. I could inform the place I got it from but as it spreads by spores it could have come from anywhere but I have never had it before and it is not growing anywhere else, yet!

An evening of watering, with the temps as they are it really doesn’t take long befor everything is dry as a crisp again! Rain forecast for the end of the week and I hope we get a bit more than last time, it’s getting a real struggle to keep everything going with the days shortening as well. A bit of tidying up in the fruit cage, the rabbits and Guinea pigs love raspberry leaves and so they had a bucket full of cuttings, and I’m done for the day 😀

Have a good week 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Ducklings, a Blood Moon Lunar eclipse & finally some rain ☔️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday night: I’m officially exhausted tonight, it’s close looks like it should rain but I don’t think it’s going to. There were a few other things I should have written on the blog but the technology was playing up and I was too tired to bother! Firstly that I picked around 2kg of blackcurrants as well this morning, plenty that are going over went to the chickens and quail, when they have stripped them the branches will go to the rabbits to chew on and I need to get up early to process them before the heat sees them off. Secondly the sheep two fields away have obviously been separated from their lambs for weaning as they have been bleating for nearly 72 hrs straight poor things, not that the noise bothers us, it doesn’t but they do sound distressed 😩 I keep looking at the forecast for the next two weeks, it keeps changing, firstly it looked like thunder storms, now they have disappeared and the rain forecast on the one day is next Monday which happens to be my birthday, cheers for that 🤪 still it will probably change again before that.

Monday 23rd July: Up with the larks to get on, Ive decided I will keep all the curtains closed today to try and keep the house a bit cooler than outside but first thing in the morning it’s already warm in here though cool outside! I got on with extracting the juice from the blackcurrants and fruit I picked yesterday, not sure what I will do with the juice yet probably a few different things but there is plenty of time to decide while it’s straining. Another duckling had hatched and there are more pipping so hopefully I will be able to move them this afternoon, always a tricky thing to decide because a hatchling can go 24hrs without food and water as it has absorbed the egg yolk which will feed it for that amount of time, however the others are still hatching and it’s best not to open the incubator at all, instinct is all you can go on really.

I made a very stupid schoolboy error this morning, I wanted to clean the bathroom and have limescale remover which I thought was already diluted, when I was halfway round the bathroom I realised it wasn’t and the smell was overpowering, so much so that I had to get out. I went back in with a wetted towel over my face, seriously it was that strong! The other thing that happened was intense pain in the two fingers that still have not quite recovered, it’s like neuralgia, oh my days on a scale of one to ten it was right up there I didn’t know what to do with myself 😩 I can only assume it’s nerve endings responding to the undiluted limescale remover, what an absolute twonk, I won’t be doing that again I can assure you.

6 ducklings by mid evening and some more have pipped.

Watering begins as soon as there is a bit of shade covering and goes on until dark 😜 along with picking, I also planted up two things that arrived today, the saffron crocus bulbs and the tea plant 😀 I tasted one of the mulberries, not ready yet, too sharp but I need to keep an eye on them or the birds will have them before me. The tree itself has got a bit out of control and I need to give it a prune to get it back in order but it obviously likes it’s situation which is great, I bought it about 10 years ago and it was in our old garden but there was no way I was going to leave it behind so we dug it up and moved it hoping it would take and it did 😀 Mine is the King James cultivar and only started producing fruit about 3 years ago but they are very succulent and delicious 😋

John cleaned out the hens in the front paddock, normally he does it on a Sunday but was a bit tired so did it today instead, he has to wait until it’s cool enough to be able to get out there otherwise it’s like being in an oven, I can’t wait to be able to plant some trees in the front there but we will have to wait until autumn for the best results.

At 9pm I started making jam! It is just not cool enough to do it before that so inbetween moving the hose, washing up, tidying up I’m carefully watching for the sugar to dissolve then onto a rolling boil, then of course there is all that washing up to do as well because you don’t want to leave it till morning or you will regret it 😝

The late news is all about the heatwave and the impact it is having or will have especially on the farmers and of course we all rely on them for our food, it is severe, the fields are parched so no grass for the animals. I’m guessing the grain harvest was ok but the straw length will be short having a knock on effect for winter bedding, it all has an effect in food prices in the end 😏

As you will have worked out all my work is either done at one end of he day or the other so I’m off to bed for another early start tomorrow.

Tuesday: The air temp was deliciously fresh this morning at 5am 😀 so I cracked on with a bit of watering and some picking, the moisture in the air over night is still pretty good so what I had watered last night was still damp. At 7am Mum arrived to help with some hoeing and weeding and she dug up a fair few self seeded blackcurrant plants. I potted these up in bio degradable pots ready for planting later on in the year along with some Verbena Bonariensis which had also self set, this verbena is one of my favourite plants, tall, graceful and just keeps going, easy to cultivate and look after, what’s not to like, oh and the bees love it.

I moved the last duckling to the brooder, 7 hatched in all, they are sex linked and it’s looking like I only have two females, pants, never mind I’m happy with the hatch overall, I cleaned the incubator and put it away as that’s the last hatching for this year, then I made coffee and Mum asked what time it was, about 11 I said but I will check, 9.30 🤣🤣🤣 it’s only 9.30.

I have been surveying the veg that is lurking underneath thick growth, namely the squash, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, pumpkins and the other squash who’s name escapes me but tastes like sweet potato, and they are all doing really well, plenty of tiny fruits beginning to swell, the spaghetti squash already has two or three large fruits, looks like a good year 😀

I gave myself the night off of watering tonight, I may regret it but hopefully one night won’t hurt.

Wednesday: It’s very much cooler this morning, I felt a bit chilly in my shorts and t-shirt 😂 I did a bit of watering, not so much as of late because the ground seems to be holding it better for now at least, still no sign of rain though ☹️

The melons in the poly tunnel are finally getting bigger, they were peanut sized and for a while I thought they were not going to produce anything much at all.

Going round every night and every morning I can definitely see the changes that I need to make in order to improve yields and for the garden to be more sustainable, it is pretty sustainable as it is but there are a few areas that need looking at and rectifying. I need more height in the form of trees, not huge ones and they need to produce something either for us or for wildlife. Then I need a layer underneath them in the form of shrubs, again they must have a use one way or another which is why I think currant bushes are the ideal option, the layers below that are easier I have plenty of options from what I already have growing. The fence line needs addressing, it is just that, a fence, nothing growing on it, around it or up it, in fact I have a fair few fences like that which will also be getting some planting to produce two things, food and habitation for whatever decides to take up residence 😀 however none of this can be done at the moment, I tried digging into the ground, nope, not a hope, too hard so I wait and watch and plan. I think by far the biggest thing and the most difficult to achieve in terms of hard graft is the use of rain water, not from the roof into tanks, that’s easy but the surface water and run off, slowing it down so that a) it’s not causing erosion and b) it’s being held back long enough to permeate more slowly, on a small scale in the veg plot that’s not too bad, on a bigger scale over the farm it’s a whole different thing 😝

I have Josh and Florence this morning for a few hours so I won’t be getting much (anything) else done apart from entertaining and feeding them lol, if I manage to get a coffee or a wee I will be lucky 🤪 Then I had Mia in the afternoon, exhausted today.

Watering in the evening and while I was out there I thought I would take some photos of the flower bed I planted up, it is a delightful mash up of cultivated/wild/herbs/veg the bees love it and I have let it do it’s thing, I haven’t kept it in check at all because I want to collect the seed from it all this year so that I can plant up other areas like it next year. The tiny water pond I put in at the beginning of the year is also there though it’s totally hidden by vegetation, I haven’t seen anything in it yet but I’m sure in time there will be life 😀 I want to put another one in somewhere but haven’t decided quite where just yet.

I have been looking at IBC tanks for water storage they seem the cheapest option and they can be more easily moved should we need to, if I could collect another 4000lt from the roof that would help in times like this and even when we don’t have a heatwave it will be better to use rainwater.

Thursday: The alarm goes off, I don’t really want to get up but needs must 🤪 it’s cool again this morning either that or we have got used to the temperatures! I did lots of picking, runner beans, cucumbers, baby corn, mangetout, carrots and broccoli, some has gone out for sale and the rest I will process for the freezer. Then foraging for the rabbits and guinea pigs, it’s easy at the moment as there are plenty of sow thistles, plantain, dandelion some chard and half a bed of rocket that has been decimated by the flea beetle coming in off the harvested field next door. Their squeals of delight are pure pleasure to listen to when I start unloading the goodies in their pen 😀 I have also been feeding some to the light Sussex chicks, they too now look forward to what is coming and all wait at the gate lol.

I was reading a post on one of the Facebook pages I am on about raw diets for dogs, we used to feed ours a raw diet, we had 5 dogs at the time and a friendly butcher who lived over the road so the meat/bones were plentiful and free, he died, we moved and the dogs have been on kibble since then, they do get raw meat from time to time, but it got me thinking about putting them back on a fully natural, raw diet. It would be so much better for them, as it is we have to avoid one particular flavour of the brand we use because it dyes Mia’s underbelly brown!

Suns out so I’m in, I should be doing housework or something but instead I am researching, learning, absorbing, back to the permaculture and what we need to do, I have realised there is no definitive answer because every one has a different aspect/soil condition/ climate etc etc so it’s really down to the individual to observe, learn and implement. I have not used a mind map for very many years and there are a lot revolving around permaculture but for me to get my head around what I need to do I think I am going to have to use one 😝

My fig tree has produce a few fruits this year, about 11 or so, the first one is very nearly ready to pick, I shall savour the moment my teeth sink into it 😀 The grapes are also doing well this year I might get a few bunches. I potted on my citrus trees, I did deliberate as to when I should do this but with a full moon tomorrow I figured now was as good a time as any, I didn’t want to wait until they were dormant as they need a bit of careful treatment over winter and watering them to establish root growth wouldn’t be ideal then, besides they have outgrown their pots!

Very beautiful sunset tonight and I tried to get a photo but in all honesty it didn’t do it justice.

Friday: Up early, got Jack in ready for the farrier, even at 5 this morning the flies are awful so hopefully he will enjoy being in for a few hours. Watering begins, there were a few drops of rain last night, about 4 to be precise, and I thought this is it, great but nope nothing more than that, I think when I finally comes I am going to stand outside in it!

Some plants arrived this morning, redcurrant, cranberry and honeyberry, some of the red currant I will be using in the fence lines for the hens to forage on along with blackcurrants, the honeyberries will go in the fruit cage as will the cranberry. I cut some willow whips this morning and have put them in a bucket of water, hopefully they will sprout roots, if they do they will be for the formation of a ‘fedge’ along the duck pen, a living fence, the beginnings of my permaculture plan for the ducks.

The cat, Diesel, frightened the life out of me this morning when he leapt over the fence with his breakfast in his mouth (baby bunny today) at least he is helping to keep the rabbit population down.

Had a chat over the gate to a neighbour who had come to find out where his son had got to with the eggs, he was playing with our dogs, the carrier arrived an hour early and a workman who is with a bunch that are digging up the road in front of our drive came to ask to use the loo, lol all or nothing here that’s the way it goes. When I went back inside I realised I was hungry and that I had forgotten to have breakfast this morning, yesterday I had a hankering for some pancakes but didn’t make them so I made them this morning. As a general rule we don’t eat pancakes except on Shrove Tuesday so it felt like a nice little treat with a cup of coffee 😀

Well tonight I was hoping to write about the amazing Blood Moon Lunar eclipse but for the first time in weeks we had thick cloud and couldn’t see a darn thing 😏

Saturday: I got woken up by the wind, hoping it was rain I shot out of bed to look, barely a wetting, still the day is not over and showers are forecast I just hope we get at least one of them! After breakfast (I remembered this morning 🤪) I went out and picked a few kgs of runner beans, they are selling well as always, I picked a small amount of other things, courgette, cucumber, mangetout and baby corn and put them out for sale. I sell them for two reasons mainly, 1. to cover the costs of seeds and therefore what we eat and 2. we couldn’t possibly eat all that is produced even though it is not huge quantities, but mostly it is to give people a taste of what real veg should be, sometimes wonky in terms of shape and size but ALWAYS the best tasting veg you can get no exceptions 😀 Nearly everything you buy in the supermarkets is severely lacking in the true flavour, if you have never grown your own before make next year the year you try, it doesn’t have to be much, a small pot of French beans is probably one of the easiest to do or a raspberry cane in a pot and you would be surprised about how much you can get into a tiny area if that’s all you have, or plant in amongst your flowers and shrubs.

Had to pop to Witney to pick up my new reading glasses and some bits, on the way home the sky was black and foreboding, the rain fell freely and fast, but it appeared not in Shilton! Just another wetting, nothing substantial as yet, it keeps trying and thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow, I hope we get a decent soaking soon, there are now more apples on the ground with this wind and lack of water, than are on the tree ☹️

When we got home John got on with cleaning out the front hens as it’s much cooler today and not raining it’s the ideal opportunity, he also had to repair the duck house pop hole ramp as it broke yesterday evening and we had to barricade them in. Some small brown envelopes had arrived in the post and I started collecting seed to put in them, I want to collect as much seed as possible (close the loop, at least as far as plants and veg are concerned) from almost anything I can this year and I found it oddly satisfying, more than I thought I would, some seed will be for me to propagate and some seed will be for sale should anyone want any. So far I have collected, white foxglove, white delphinium, salvia, love in a mist, viola, aquilegia and calendula, plenty more to come I just need to keep a close eye on them 😀

FINALLY a bloody good downpour and the sweet smell of petrichor 😀 That will fill up the water tanks nicely and give a much needed boost to the vegetation because although mains water keeps it alive, rain water brings oxygen, nitrates and carbon dioxide and when it comes into contact with the soil it helps to release minerals, win, win 😀

Sunday: More rain 😀 that means a bit of a lie in until 6.45 lol, I’ve got too used to waking up early me thinks. John did the feeding and watering while I did a few household bits then we went out and tidied up the stable block and the back area, they have needed doing for ages so now was a good time while I wasn’t preoccupied with the garden. The winds have been quite strong, blowing everything about, leaves, buckets and most of the apples off of the cooking Apple tree ☹️

Tomorrow is my birthday so apart from the stuff that has to be done and preparing food for the family then not a lot else will get done 😀

Have a great week 😀😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Endless watering, plenty of picking and Cornish mackerel for dinner.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 16th July: The dry, hot spell looks set to continue with no sign of rain 😏 although as I have said there is moisture in the air overnight so there is some respite for the plants. We were discussing the last summer we had like this which was 2006, very hot and dry though not as prolonged as this one, the other that I remember well was 1976. A childhood memory of a long hot idyllic summer holiday, I would have been 12 and we lived in a village then, going off all day with a sarnie and a drink to play in the local park or abandoned railway line all day long, catching crayfish, minnows or bullheads, making dens on the edge of a crop field (naughty) water fights and paddling pools, a time gone by and lost forever for most children I fear 😩

I did a bit of watering in the morning and harvested some courgettes, everything is starting to ramp up a gear at long last, I can see the cucumbers beginning to grow bigger and the beans are getting longer so it’s all finally going in the right direction. While I am out there I am constantly planning for times ahead, I can’t do anything at the minute not least because the ground is so hard and anyway best time will be autumn to move things around, I really need to start a list so I don’t forget anything. The peach tree I ordered arrived yesterday so I have repotted it and stood it out the front which is south facing, it has one peach on it, hopefully many more next year, I also moved the orange and lemon tree out there and the fig, with all this sunshine I may as well make the most of it. The grapevine has loads of grapes on it, I’m very excited about that lol and I’m thinking the olive tree would probably do better out there to. I have ordered some big pots with handles so that they can all be moved back inside for overwintering as they won’t survive otherwise and I ordered some seaweed fertiliser as a bit of a boost for the plants, it’s full of minerals, shame I don’t live closer to the sea, I could harvest my own.

Dad and Sue popped in, they are en route to Suffolk and made an overnight stop here so we chatted for the afternoon and drank tea then went out for dinner in the evening, they will be back again on Friday. I obviously didn’t water as I was out so an early start in the morning.

Tuesday: Up early to get the watering done, at this point I realise I have left the polytunnel water on all day and all night 😝 uh oh, it won’t need watering for at least a week I should think, still at least I know it got enough!

I picked the first of the runner beans, not the traditional ones but the dwarf ‘yin yang’ ones, I grew them last year and kept them for the black and white seeds but this year I’m harvesting them in their young form, they are exceptionally sweet and juicy for a bean.

I may be getting carried away with the possibilities that this weather could bring but I have ordered a couple of random plants to try out, the first is kumquat which, according to most places, is pretty easy to grow here, the next is saffron crocus, can’t hurt to give it a try and thirdly but by no means a runner up is Camellia sinensis, tea! I thought, let’s just see how it does, the plant I ordered is small and so about £5 plus postage, worth a go, you never know Shilton might be just the place for a tea plantation 😂 or saffron fields, you never know until you try and I am always trying 😀

One of the benefits of feeding the birds through the winter is they drop seed and it grows, we have sunflowers randomly popping up and also flax (linseed) I used to have some flax growing at our old house and when I saw it I wondered why I hadn’t thought of growing it here, when you see fields of blue, that’s flax, it’s such a beautiful little flower and of course the seeds are hugely useful, and now we will hopefully have a bird seed mix growing of it’s own accord, bonus 😀

Wednesday: Up early to do some gardening bits, watering, picking and then sort out the brooder unit for the ducklings which will hopefully hatch on Friday. I had supper out with my girlfriends last night and even though it was a gentle evening it has taken its toll on me today, by 9am I was already tired and trying to get some extra bits done but eventually I decided to lay on the sofa 😜 That was pretty much it for the day until early evening when after resting I get a second wind and can do a bit more. Shopping was on the agenda, I have been sending John for bits and pieces while I was ill but you know you get to a stage when you need to replenish a few things and you know full well that what you put on the list will not be what he comes home with, a bit like the replacement items in an online shop! The reduced basket had pots of extra thick double cream reduced to 90p so I bought a couple of pots and I will make butter with them, I will have some buttermilk leftover from make it so it’s a win, win for me.

Watering again this evening, I can’t believe how much it dries out good job the hosepipe ban is not in force as yet though I don’t think it will be long before we get notification and goodness knows what we will do then, abandon ship I reckon 🤪

Last week or the week before, I can’t remember when, I said I was making an effort try eliminating plastics wherever possible and I had bought loofahs to use for washing up etc, well they are working out really well, I’m so pleased much better than the artificial sponge thingys. I did try growing them but they didn’t germinate, given how great I find them I will give them another go next year.

Just found Jack wandering around the yard, Sam had put him out on a bit of grass outside his field and he decided he would go on tour 😝 I have now put him in the little paddock where there is plenty of grass both dead and alive for him to munch on overnight.

Thursday: Usual routine of early morning watering, a bit of picking and then off for some more blood tests.

Mostly spent the rest of he day resting, though I did watch ‘An inconvenient Truth’ and apparently there is another film out which I will look up and watch that too. I briefly mentioned before about my thoughts on global warming and climate change, undoubtably we are contributing massively towards this and accelerating it at a colossal speed but I do believe there are natural cycles at force as well, after all Mother Nature is ALL about cycles, those cycles we can’t stop or slow down but the choices we make can have an impact good or bad on climate change. If you don’t know anything about it, learn, if you do know, learn a bit more and make the changes that you can, and make a conscious effort to work towards those that are a little bit more elusive. We only have one life, live it, but we only have one planet, look after it while you are here.

Friday: Up at the crack of sparrows 😀 there was a good bit to pick this morning, runners, beetroot, courgettes, a few apricots I missed, some mangetout but one thing I really needed to pick was a few remaining gooseberries. Dad and Sue are back this evening and we had arranged to go out to eat but I thought with all the amazing produce I have here I might as well cook. We are having the mackerel from Cornwall along with a medley of seasonal veg and new potatoes, I wanted to make a gooseberry sauce to compliment the fish so that’s what the gooseberries were for, good job there were some left. The sauce calls for horseradish sauce which I don’t have to hand but I do have horseradish growing, it was a measly woody bit but it will do the job so I made a tiny amount of horseradish sauce to go in the gooseberry sauce 😋 we we have Madagascan vanilla ice cream with homemade mixed berry sauce for dessert washed down with a Sauvignon blanc 😀

Oh my days it finally rained, thank you Mother Nature, it means I can have an extra couple of hours in bed in the morning 😝

My blood tests came back normal and the first of the duck eggs in the incubator has pipped, happy Friday 😀

Saturday: Well it was only a small amount of the rain that was needed but it was enough to mean I could have a lie in 😀 Having got so used to being up early I was still up by 6.30 😝 but the damp ground d meant I could get on with other things instead of watering. The first on the agenda was a proper clean out of both the rabbit cages, they actually were not as bad as I had feared they would be but now they are nice and clean. Then on to clearing up debris from the orchard pen and making a mini compost heap next to the light Sussex chicks so that when they are let out into the bigger pen they can scratch about in it to their hearts contents and hopefully that will lead to great tasting chicken. John also fixed a little hut up for the ducks so they don’t have to go in with the rabbits anymore and put a catch on the inside of the chicks hut so that when I go in the door doesn’t swing open and they all escape. He put a top on the water barrel that is connected to the gutter on the rabbit run so that the leaves don’t all fall in, the water we managed to catch yesterday was no good at all because it was full of debris.

As it is predicted that the temps will go up as high as 33c next week I really needed to get a handle on the garden so firstly we moved anything that is in a pot onto spaces on the veg beds so that they get watered at the same time, cutting down on having to water the pots by hand thus saving time. Then I got a bale of straw from the stable and mulched the potatoes, they were hastily planted into some raised beds that were previously used for flowers ( I dug them up last autumn and divided them, potting them up for future use, most have been put into the flower bed area now) The potatoes are struggling but there are some there, firstly they struggle because they are under a huge tree and secondly because they need watering separately to the rest of the garden and I often just run out of time, so they were mulched and soaked and hopefully we will get something from them later in the year. The rest of the bale I used to mulch anything in a pot, they will dry out pretty quickly and hopefully this will help, it includes the raspberry bushes that I potted up early in the year, I need to mulch as much as possible to make life a lot easier but by then it was lunchtime and then time for a rest. I am finding I need about and hour and a half sleep in the daytime and then I am good to go again. My blood results came back as ‘no action required’ which means the inflammation has gone down which is great and I no longer have any pain, also great but I guess this is a convalescent period where I need to build my strength back up, each day I can work a bit longer without feeling ill or tired so I am on the upward road touch wood.

Still waiting for the first duckling to hatch 🐣

The Large Fowl Light Sussex in their new run, I will be adding pots of foliage when the weather changes, at the moment I have lovage and a hazel tree ready but would like to get a currant bush in there as well so that they can forage for themselves, I have also been putting a barrowful of rotted manure in for them which they love scratching around in. We need to put in a roosting tree for them so that they can sleep outside if they choose to. In the Autumn, Winter and early Spring they will free range in the orchard and veg garden to help with pests, hopefully they will have as near to natural diet/life as possible.

Did a bit of picking in the evening as everything I put out today has gone! I picked 1kg of runner beans and that’s just the first picking once they get going there will be many more, the first veg I ever sold were runners and they continue to be the best selling item closely followed by the rhubarb. I picked a large punnet of berries, blue, raspberry, blackcurrant and Logan berries I might make a mixed jam with those, I found a cucumber that I had missed and it’s very fat lol, the tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and for the first time of trying I may even have some aubergines this year 😀

Sunday: Guess what I did this morning? Yep, watering I think I’m officially sick of doing it now, a ‘surprise’ shower would be just wonderful 😝

Apart from watering I also picked the baby corn, the stalks are around 8ft high and I thought there were no cobs but they suddenly shot through yesterday, I got John to take a short video of me harvesting them, which I will have to post separately as it won’t upload here, anyone who gets this emailed can try looking on Facebook under Friesland Farm 😀 hopefully it will be on there.

The first duckling hatched this afternoon, there are others pipping so fingers crossed for a good hatch 🐣