Surviving the hungry gap

As you know, I started the Vegetable Challenge pretty early this year, at the beginning of April and the hungry gap.  The hungry gap is when the winter veg and stores are running out but the new season crops aren't yet producing:  a problematic time to be focusing on self reliance.  We have food restrictions here in this house, and trying to achieve the Vegetable Challenge on top of that is, well, challenging.

We eat low carb, which mainly means we get our carbohydrates from vegetable/fruit sources.  It's helpful to get a good portion of our calories from them too, as they are cheaper than meat/dairy/etc.  During the last few summers/autumns it has been fairly straightforward to produce plenty of calories from the garden (though to be fair, overall it's not been the majority of our calories).  On the other hand, trying to do so during the hungry gap this spring has been difficult.

All of the recent fresh veg have been good, and very welcome, but mainly they aren't very filling.  If we had to survive off our own produce alone right now, we'd be pretty hungry.  Daily we've had enough eggs and greens for breakfast and a salad, some celery to flavor a stew, plus small harvests of purple sprouting broccoli and leeks to add interest once or twice a week.  My stores are down to the last jar of salsa and a small jar each of plum jam and apple jelly.  We still have plenty of cider though, so even if we were starving, at least we'd be happy.

I hope we are soon to ease out of the hungry gap with the start of the broad beans and peas;  I'm so looking forward to something a bit more substantial than all these leafy greens.

Every day, twice a day

Every morning before school, I get up and dressed, help the son get ready--he makes his own breakfast and packed lunch but sometimes needs encouragement/reminding--and then we walk or cycle up to the allotment.

We always take a small container of layers pellets to feed the chickens, and we'll change their water.  We also move their tractor;  it's a job that can technically be done by one person but is much easier and quicker with two.  If we have a few minutes extra we'll water any new transplants, and sometimes say hello to other allotmenters' chickens (like our own chickens, they see us and start calling, presumably for treats;  the son says "hello darlings" to them).

The son then goes off to school and I go home.  It takes him about two minutes to cycle to school, and for me about two minutes to cycle home;  if I'm walking (for instance if I brought a tray of seedlings to transplant later), it takes about eight minutes to get back home.

At home I'll sort out the rest of the chickens including feed, water and getting them onto their new patch of lawn/garden.  I change the ducks' drink and go around the patio with a watering can, doing all the pots and planters.  I'll also do any garden maintenance or harvesting--recently I've put down a couple more cauliflowers and have been gradually clearing away the spent purple broccoli (one a day, so the chickens can peck them over and not be overwhelmed);  I also do any dinner prep needed, such as putting a stew in the slow cooker, or chopping up ingredients for a salad.

Once this is done, it's time for me to go to my part-time paid job.  In the car, I will bring any tools and equipment I need for the allotment, plus a jar of soaked corn.  After work, I stop at the allotment before going home:  I give the chickens their corn, collect any eggs and check their water.  As a rule I like to put in about 15-30 minutes, whether planting, weeding, watering or just inspecting my progress.  I must bring my tools with me because I need them for home too:  I only have one set.  The only tool that lives there full time is the hoe;  I don't find much use for it in the garden as I don't generally plant in straight rows there, unlike the allotment.

When finished, I drive home and then walk back to school to collect the son;  very occasionally we'll even go back to the allotment and do a bit more work before going home--last week he helped me clear away all the random boards which had been weighing down the last remains of the sheet mulch so we could plant out some squashes.

That's my weekday allotment routine.  On weekends, the husband and son will do the morning visit, and either we'll all go together later to work for an hour, or one of us will do the afternoon chicken check if there's no specific tasks to do.

It's a lot of work--I hope it pays off, as so far the only thing we've got is about four salads' worth of radishes.  Still, this is the kind of work I find very satisfying:  it's my full-time job, and it even pays.*

*In food, for the most part, and payment is usually deferred for about 2-3 months.  But hey, I think we've earned £2 from egg sales this year!

Getting it all planted

I'm making my big spring push to get everything planted by the end of this month.  All the seeds have been sown (mainly), and lots of seedlings have been transplanted--most of them at the allotment this year.  The Misc bed is going to be pretty much only tomatoes and celery here in the garden;  the zuccinis, cucumbers, achocha, squashes and pumpkins have all gone to the allotment.

I may have mentioned already that I'm not doing dedicated beds at the allotment this year (though I still am here in the garden);  everything is being planted in rows, and I started at the top of the plot and have reached about 2/3 of the way down now.  The final third is pretty much just grass, which three chickens are faithfully tractoring for us--it'll be a lovely lawn by the time they're finished!  I plan on sheet mulching it over winter, but for now it's fine uncultivated so long as it's feeding chickens.

But back to planting:  all kinds of beans and peas have gone down, most of which growing well.  The broad beans at the allotment are flowering, but no harvest just yet.  I've got summer cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower planted out, some there and some here.  There are still Brussels sprouts and curly kale to transplant:  hopefully by this weekend.  I also have a couple trays of flower seedlings that still need a home too;  I might put a few around the edges of the veg patch, and maybe some at the front of the house (where no chickens or ducks will destroy them).

Things are looking good.  It's great having so much room to plant stuff;  I can't believe I used to squeeze all this stuff just here in the garden!  In fact, I found it quite odd planting pumpkins three feet apart:  normally I give them about 10 inches.

State of the flock, May 2019

The day's collection, Apr 2019

For about a month we've been getting around 50 eggs per week, which means we haven't needed to buy eggs (it's been about two years since the last time we were in this happy state).  However as we're getting on to summer, production is slowing back down to about 45 per week;  this isn't quite enough to meet all our needs.  Oh well.

There are still nine chickens doing the regular garden rotation, mainly mowing the lawn but I've been able to get them onto a few ornamental beds too.  I'm keeping them off the perennials section for the present, until the berries have been harvested (probably not until July) as I wouldn't put it past them to eat them all, green and hard as they are.

And we also have three chickens still tractoring away at the allotment;  we move them to a new patch of grass/weeds every day, and though they do a good job mowing and fertilizing, they can't keep up with the regrowth, despite the overall small size of their pasture.  We recently swapped the previous three chickens for a different set, as I felt sorry for keeping them in such cramped conditions for so long (about a month).  It's enough size for three, but not as long term housing.

Finally, the two new ducks are nearly all feathered out and letting out regular quacks alongside their peeps.  They're free ranging in the rest of the garden while the chickens are in their paddocks, with full access to the pond, which they have made very green and murky indeed.  They are champion slug eaters though, and are getting most of their food themselves.  Unlike the chickens who are content to hang out at the feeder all day, these two are very industrious looking for bugs and slugs, and have been enjoying greens and weeds too, and only eating a little feed each day. 

We may be picking up two more ducks from a rescue charity next week.  We'll see how that goes.

Cherry trees in spring

Cherries forming, Apr 2019

Last year our little Morello cherry tree was still recovering from being moved the previous year;  we only got about one pie's worth of fruit.  This year looks a bit better, and I've been trying to encourage some growth this spring by giving the tree a weekly dose of nitrogen via the wee bucket (yes, we pee in a bucket and use it on the garden). 

Fruit production looks much more promising this year, as does general growth.  It's a mini-dwarf tree, and I've been pruning it gently the last two years to get it more into a fan shape now that it's been moved next to the fence.  It might mean an small reduction in total fruit from this particular tree, but it means more food from the bed it's growing in (it, along with the fig and two apple trees are growing next to the fence in the main veg beds).

The larger Kordia cherry tree seems to have formed fewer fruits this year than last--and we only got about 50 cherries off it last year.  Oh well.  Maybe next year.  It's one of the few free-standing fruit trees in the garden, and I did prune it a bit hard last summer, to keep it open and not too bushy.

Twiggy cherry tree with willow wands (for making garden teepees), Apr 2019

And the newest Stella cherry tree was planted next to the south-facing garage wall this spring.  It was already naturally fan-shaped so I simply tied the branches down as they were.  It hasn't flowered, which is fine:  I'd rather it established well first, and give us plenty of sweet cherries in the future.

Cabbage planning

Big but not big enough, Apr 2019

We're still looking forward to eating the spring cabbage;  last year we began eating it in April, but maybe I'd planted it out earlier then.  These ones are heading up nicely but still aren't ready yet;  I want some big dense heads to make coleslaw with, plus plenty of outer leaves for cooking. 

I put some summer cabbage seedlings in at the allotment and had to cover them with mesh to try and protect them from pigeons (I suspect--haven't caught them in the act).  They're growing strongly but not enough to overcome the damage they were receiving.  I would have to cover them anyway, as it's nearly cabbage white butterfly season.  All the spring cabbages are at home, and I won't bother covering them unless they're still around in June.

I also just sowed a tray of winter cabbage seed too:  none sprouted yet.  There's one lone winter cabbage still hanging on at the allotment;  all the others just went to seed without forming heads, but this one is still trying to grow a (small) head--probably for July, if it can hang on that long.

Only six months left!

Dodgy pea supports, Apr 2019

I'm a month into the Vegetable Challenge, and still managing fairly well.  We have a couple of storebought onions left in the cupboard, as well as two half bags of frozen veg, but are regularly eating celery and chard from the garden, with the occasional leek, purple broccoli (nearly done now), and even a couple new season radishes from the allotment:  our first allotment harvest!

The only regular "salad" fruit we're buying is cucumber which the son has in his lunches;  it also goes on our salads with  finely chopped chard leaves, radishes and spring onion, homemade sauerkraut (made at Christmas with super cheap bought cabbage) and homemade zuccini relish (made last summer from gift zuccini).  I said to the husband we don't need to bother growing lettuce anymore, since chard is so much easier/more prolific.  I don't think he was entirely convinced though.

Newcomers

Spot the newcomers?  Apr 2019

After talking about it for several years, I finally did something about it:  I got ducks!  A coworker's family keeps geese, pigoens, hens and ducks and mentioned that they'd recently gotten rid of a few ducks.  I said if she had any extra in the future I'd be happy to have them--well, she did and I was.

They are about seven weeks old and half Indian Runner, and half unspecified (the coworker says her son knows but she couldn't remember what he told her--possibly Campbell).  The three of us went to their allotment to pick them up and were very impressed by their set up;  her husband gave us three goose eggs (massive! had to cook them one at a time, as they filled the frying pan), and we met the other poultry;  and seeing their geese gave me ideas...I guess they're a bit noisy for the garden, though. 

These two ducks have settled in pretty well, and it's obvious they've been hand-raised: they follow us around and are quite happy to eat from our hands.  In fact, they call us when they see us:  "peep peep!"  Actually their voices are just starting to break;  I hope they don't quack as loudly as they peep!  We kept them in the chicken tractor for the first several days but have since let them free range over the whole (non-vegetable) garden, including into our pond which they love.  We don't know if they're male or female yet, but even if both are male we'll still be happy to keep them as slug control.

They've met the chickens through the fence, but won't be properly introduced for a few weeks yet I think.  Nine hardened chickens versus two coddled ducklings?  Not until they're more evenly matched;  although size-wise, the ducks are about as tall as the smaller hens now (but not fully feathered yet, and also not equipped with sharp beaks and claws).

We eat grass!  Apr 2019

Food Totals April 2019

Chard (leaves and stems) salad, Apr 2019

Vegetables:

124.5 oz chard
7 oz Savoy cabbage
16 oz salad greens (baby chard, miners lettuce, mizuna, spring onion)
61.5 oz celery
34.5 oz purple sprouting broccoli
17 oz kohlrabi (stem and leaves)
7 oz leeks
0.5 oz radish

Total: 265 oz, or 16 lb 9 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

No fruit harvested this month

Eggs:

Total: 204 eggs from 12 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bag layers pellets (40 kg), 1 bag mixed seed (12 kg)

Preserves:

2 medium jars dehydrated celery (stems and leaves)
1 small jar dried thyme

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Cider still fermenting