About a plum

Purple at last, Aug 2018

When I was a kid, we moved to a house that had a very prolific plum tree which we all hated.  Variety unknown, it was a rather nondescript green fruit with a pinky-purple blush that littered the lawn with smelly, sticky messy, attracting wasps and bees and making it impossible to mow (one of my chores).  My mother made jam with it once, and it was the one we all avoided, until there was no jam left--that jam even moved house with us, as no one wanted it.  Not my mother's fault:  I place the blame squarely on those plums.

I also remember another house, a few blocks away from us, which had the most beautiful plum tree, a smaller specimen, with bright gold fruits like big drops of sunlight.  How I coveted those golden plums!  (It was the same with apples:  our own were small, green and wormy, whereas another neighbor's was loaded with gorgous red jewels.)

When I was picking out fruit trees for my own garden, starting several years ago, I was unsure if I wanted a plum:  my earlier experience made me hesitant.  I finally decided in favor when I found a stack of bare root fruit trees on special offer (I picked up the Williams pear and sweet Kordia cherry at the same time).  I rationalized that I could feed excess fruit to chickens.  And I could try my hand at plum cider.  If it really was a disaster, I could cut the tree down--it only cost me £4, after all.

This year I estimate we have around 100-120 plums.  Some of them have maggots, which I have never encountered in a plum before--but I'm not too bothered;  I split open the fruit and simply wash them out.  I may try grease bands over winter to try and prevent it in the future.  And have those excess plums gone to the chickens?

Actually, we like these plums.  Variety again unknown, they're deep purple with golden flesh (it was sold to me as an Opal, but the fruit doesn't match the description I've read for Opals).  I've made about a liter of jam this month, split between six small jars, and the rest have been eaten fresh.  The chickens have had a few, yes, but that's because we like to give them treats.  There's not quite enough for plum cider this year, but maybe next year.

I've said to the husband that after all these years I still covet those golden plums;  he thinks we might be at full capacity for plums--and fruit trees in general.  We'll see, I guess.

Seeds so far, 2018

Ripening nicely, Aug 2018

On my quest towards self reliance, how's the seed saving looking this year?

Achocha

This one's pretty easy;  this funny spiky little cucumber relative has hard black seeds that are quickly scooped out before cooking the fruits.  I've dried a couple dozen already, and may do a few more as I continue harvesting.  I won't need a lot, as these plants have been very vigorous this year;  I would think six plants at most would be perfect.

Mange tout peas

This variety is a tall pea with purple flowers and yellow pods.  I like them because they're easy to spot against the green foliage, making for a quick harvest.  I've got some seeds saved, plus some still drying on the vine.  Hopefully enough to get fifty or so plants next year.

Celery

Last year's celery was such a reliable winter veg that I'm determined to keep growing it.  I let the last plants go to seed and they've been slowing maturing over the summer.  I've harvested quite a lot of seed (hundreds, I should think) by cutting off the tops and letting them fully dry in a paper bag.  While I will probably need only about 20 or so plants, the seed might come in handy for culinary use too.

Leeks

This one's not completely assured, as I've tried and failed to grow from my own seed in the past (never germinated).  However, I've had a couple flower heads actually make little bulbils  which I have picked off and transplanted, both in a pot/planter and in the ground, some of which are still alive and growing.  As far as I'm concerned, the more leeks the better, and I'm still trying to establish a perennial patch or--preferrably--several patches.

Not yet...

Tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, runner beans (maybe;  harvest has been very disappointing), chard, cucumber (again, maybe). 

Low energy food preservation

Dinner, Aug 2018

I'm taking the easy route for food preservation this summer:  air drying, salting, fermenting and pickling.  I'm trying to do a little every day.

Air drying

As I've written previously, I air dry chard and a few other greens and herbs.  I string them up or lay them on trays on top of my fridge.  In this weather they take about a week and then they're stored in glass jars in the cupboard.

Salting

Every few days I pick a small handful of French beans and salt them away into a small jar.  There's not been enough at once for a meal, but I've managed to fill one jar and start another, bit by bit.  I first chop them into bite size pieces, and then layer them into the jar alternating with a layer of salt.  They'll need a half hour soak before adding to stews or curries this winter.

Too many jars? Aug 2018

Fermenting

So much sauerkraut!  Every summer cabbage I've grown, plus two I've been given, has had the dark green outer leaves cooked and eaten, the excess frozen, and the pale inner leaves made into kraut.  My fridge overfloweth.  I've made several jars of kosher dill pickles too, both with (gift) cucumber and (my own) zuccini.  There is also a small jar of fermented turnips and a large jar of cauliflower from earlier in the summer, and I'm experimenting with a jar of salsa fresca.  They all go in the fridge while it's warm;  if any are left during winter they may be able to live at room temp in our drafty house.

Pickling

The only pickled veg I've done so far are two small jars of beets.  I've done a bottle of thyme vinegar (good in gravy and stews), several bottles of mint sauce (minted malt vinegar) one of basil vinegar--a wonderful base for salad dressings (the mint sauce is great for dressings too).

Heat loving veg

Can you see another just behind the first? Aug 2018

We had a weekend of rain last month and then one more this month:  showers first, a full day of rain, then showers to finish.  No rain in the month between (or the month previous).  Ah well.  Weird weather.  At least I've got some good heat loving vegetables. 

Tomatoes

I'm picking a good handful of cherry tomatoes every day now, mostly from two planters, but there is a third as well as a couple small plants in the Misc bed.  Regular cordon tomatoes in my cold frame--now sans lid of course--are loaded and ripening one by one, and the five plants in the Misc bed are only a little behind (none ripe yet), though they're a bit swamped by neighboring achocha vines and some very happy squashes.

Squashes

I saved seed from last year's red squashes (themselves originally from a supermarket squash), but I don't seem to have any growing this year--there was a slight labelling mixup and I wasn't sure what I had until they started fruiting.  I do, however, have a big green variety of the same type (kuri/hokkaido, also from a supermarket squash), which is taking over the Misc bed.  I've counted six big squashes now, and it's still trying to put out a few more--possibly a little too late to fully mature, but we'll eat them as summer squash if we must.

I've got one pumpkin, small but coloring up.  There is one other squash I know of, an acorn type, but it doesn't seem to be managing--it put out a small fruit that tried to grow then went moldy, and hasn't done another.  It's a bit late now.

And of the summer squashes, the regular zuccini has given us a moderate harvest off three plants, with the patty pan type just beginning to fruit--hopefully it'll take off this month.  I've never been in a position of too much zuccini/summer squash.  I don't know how other people manage it--I always wish we had more.

Cucumbers

As I mentioned previously, my cucumbers are suffering from wilt.  Dying actually.  We got the promise of a magnificent harvest, but it was suddenly cut short, with all those little cucumbers shrivelled up.  Oh well.

Sweetcorn

It's tall.  It's got ears formed.  I don't know if they're fully pollinated (there's only five plants), but they look good at least!

Sweet or hot? Another labelling mixup, Aug 2018

Peppers

All the peppers are growing in planters on the patio.  There are little fruits formed on a couple;  I think they are a sweet variety, though I sowed seeds for chilis too which don't seem to have flowered yet.  The only time previously I successfully grew peppers they were in a flimsy little portable greenhouse, long since collapsed.  Will this be the year I harvest an outdoor (albeit still incredibly pampered) crop?

And lastly,

Melon

Melon??  Well, it's making little fruits, and the vine is big and strong, tied securely to its support in a planter.  I have my doubts we'll get anything to eat off this one, but it's the furthest I've ever got with a melon plant (in the past, the slugs have massacred them at seedling/transplant stage).  Watch this space.

Cucumber wilt, again...

We hardly knew ye, July 2018

Not that I'm an expert on cucumbers;  I think there was just one year I grew them and got a moderately good harvest--but this was ages ago, long before this blog.  Some years they simply get mowed down by slugs before they get over transplant shock, some years are just too cool/wet for their liking;  some years I don't even try growing them!  But this year, as well as last, my cucumbers have started growing like crazy, and barely after fruiting starts, so does the wilt.

See that mass of yellow, dried out stems to the front left?  Two plants behind still have some life left, but have stopped flowering, Aug 2018

It's not a water issue, despite the fact they're in planters on the patio rather than in garden soil;  they're watered regularly and I've checked the moisture in their pots:  fine.  I'm also growing in different planters this year--as well as a different variety.  However, it looks like my three sprawling vines which had so much potential, throwing out so many flowers and side shoots--have got the wilt, which is fatal.

I love cucumbers.  I hate to give them up, but space is limited, and I can't justify taking up that valuable space--indoors in spring, and in prime patio locations in summer--just to get a couple fruits off them.  I want something more reliably productive.

I don't know, will I give them one more shot next time?  Maybe planted out at the allotment next summer.

Chicken dinner

Checking out the competition, July 2018

It's time.  It's been four months since Cookie hatched her first batch of chicks.  They're bigger than every other bird in the flock and eat more too;  they're also all cockerels.

I'm not going to lie, killing an animal is hard.  It's really hard.  The first one I properly did myself, the Australorp hen with the terrible prolapse, I afterwards had to sit down for a few minutes in order to stop shaking.  And killing her wasn't optional for me--to leave her alone would cause an already dying bird additional pain and suffering.

Killing for food is even harder.  Even though we had decided these cockerels would be food even before they were hatched.  Even though we deliberately did not name them or treat them as anything other than livestock--definitely not pets.  Even though they have long since stopped being cute fluffy chicks are have become annoying, aggressive young adults and are (still) viciously fighting each other.

I did it though.  I (with the son's assistance) have killed and plucked (and eaten, with the husband's help) the first two of four. We've given them a good life, and I gave them a quick, painless death.  And believe me, it was hard.  I find it difficult to turn off my empathy (I feel sorry for stepping on bugs or pulling out weeds, even!) but I know that something dies for every meal I eat, whether animal, plant, fungus...you get the picture.

And we've eaten every bit that we can from these chickens;  after three meals off the first bird, I made stock with the remaining carcass and then carefully stripped off every little bit of meat and skin to make a chicken pie later on.  We show respect by eating every edible bit (even the feet and giblets have gone to make stock).  The intestines, gallbladders, and heads we buried in the garden, as we bury all our chickens--the grave just slightly smaller, that's all.

Taking responsibility for my own food is important, more important than my precious feelings.  Those supermarket chickens I might have bought instead didn't get a life of sunshine, grass, and bugs--they got six weeks in a barn and their first glimpse of the outdoors was from a caged ride to the slaughterhouse.

---

The husband is angling to leave one for breeding purposes;  I may concede, as they have been a fast-growing bird and could hopefully be a reliable source of meat.  To get four meals plus a big pot of stock off a four month old cockerel is pretty amazing--the last cockerel we ate gave us just one little meal, and he was six months old.  But we don't have a hen of their type/size (Australorp/Orpington), the only downside to that plan...

Starting work at the new allotment

We got the key to our new allotment during the hottest, driest part of an abnormally hot, dry summer.  It was not ideal working conditions--and no good for planting either.  We threw out a pile of broken glass (obviously from an old greenhouse) and borrowed a trimmer from a neighbor to mow down the weeds, but that was the extent of it for the first few weeks.

The husband and I collected a couple old pallets and put together a chicken tractor, and set some of our hens to work (strictly daytime only, as we feared foxes overnight).  They did a little weeding, scratching and manuring but we'd need them there longer term to do any real good;  with the tractor not fox-proof, it called for a little more manual labor on our part.

When the weather finally broke and we got a couple of cooler days with rain, the husband, son and I set out, a few chickens in tow, to do some digging.  Though our plot has been cultivated in the past, it had been abandoned for more than a year, and was covered in grass, with quite a few thistles, nettles, dock and other weeds.  After locating the remains of an old raised bed near the front of the plot, we started.

After digging that first bed, we moved the chicken tractor on top of it, to let our birds do some work too.  We'd noticed while digging there weren't any worms--too dry?  Maybe not enough organic matter in the soil, too.  That will be our first priority: to improve the soil as much as possible.  We left the weeds and grasses while digging, to let them break down in place, and set up a pallet compost bin too.  We put 4-6 hens on that bed every day for about a week, and they scratched and pecked seeds and (most importantly) added manure.

The husband had the idea to sheet mulch near the back of the plot, to kill off weeds and prepare the soil for planting later (hopefully next spring).  He took some sheets of cardboard and old paper feed sacks and just laid them on top of the mowed down weeds, weighed them down with some piping and scraps of pallets, and then covered them with the tops of the weeds and grass.  As we won't be able to plant out the entire plot this year--even if we did manage to dig it all over--sheet mulching will do the work for us and hopefully be ready for planting in six or eight months.

But we do want to be able to plant a few things this year, so we have dug the first two beds and once planted will continue to hoe them to suppress weeds. Until then, we'll keep the chickens working in their tractor.

Bonus to taking on an allotment:  free food from fellow allotmenters!  Already scored some beautiful cucumbers and zuccini ♥♥♥

July 2018 garden notes

Tiny achocha, July 2018

Roots

Celery and beets still growing near the chicken house (partially shaded plus extra manure), but not much elsewhere.  Harvested a couple beets and a little celery leaf.

A rogue chicken scratched up half the onions but to be honest they weren't worth keeping anyway.  Shallots too.  Too dry for them and onions this year.  Leeks growing little by little. 

Harvesting some good finger sized and bigger carrots all through July (all in planters).

Peas and Beans

Pulled up most of the broad beans once finished, though left about half a dozen to save for seed.

Newest sown snap peas very sparse and small in the heat.  Finished the earlier sowing this month (yum).  Finished the yellow mange tout peas and left some to save for seed.  Also finished the last of the maincrop peas.

Lots of flowers on the runner beans but only tiny beans just starting to set at the end of July--too dry?  Still flowering but none harvested.  French beans flowering and making beans, but only a few at a time--most of these have been salted for later use.

Brassicas

Began harvesting the mature Savoy cabbages in July.  Both eating and freezing outer leaves, and inner leaves made into sauerkraut.  Several more still growing.  New season seedlings still in pots under insect mesh.  Also took a couple cuttings but not sure if they've rooted.

Kale, Brussels sprouts, and newly planted out cauliflowers all growing well under insect mesh in the ground.  None harvested yet.

Still have purple sprouting broccoli seedlings and cuttings in pots under insect mesh, to be planted out.

Harvested three more mature cauliflowers in July, with one more plant yet to form a head.

Miscellaneous

Been harvesting chard leaves to dry all through July (stems cooked or frozen for later).  Picking plenty of red leaf lettuce this month too;  first batch nearly finished now and second batch in full stride.  Harvesting good sized spring onions this month.

Sweetcorn forming ears by the end of July (not many though);  plants blown down in wind and then staked up again.  Little fruits forming on regular tomatoes and peppers but none harvested yet.  Picked first couple of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.  Cucumbers suddenly began wilting at the very end of July--happened last summer too, just after harvest began...

Lots of growth on squash, with lots of fruits forming;  began nipping off growing tips once vines reached the fence.  One pumpkin formed--about cantaloupe sized by the end of the month and just starting to go yellow.  Picked a few zuccini mid way through July, but none since.  Picked a couple immature achocha (cute spiny things) to taste: a bit like raw green beans;  will let them mature and try cooking them.

Melon vine growing up its support, very leafy, but no fruits formed yet;  volunteer squash too.  Both tomatillos and Aztec broccoli just beginning to form flower heads at the end of July.  None harvested.

Harvested several volunteer potato plants in July, good sized and flavor but not great texture--a bit soft/soggy like a zuccini.  Ate them anyway.

Fruit

Finished the raspberries (plenty), gooseberries, blueberries, and sweet Kordia cherries this month.  Birds got the whitecurrants--two dozen at most.  Looks like my blackcurrant and redcurrant cuttings may have died--way too hot and dry this summer;  will try again in winter.

Pruned both cherries:  Kordia quite hard but only lightly for Morello.

Picked a few figs this month, which had grown last summer and overwintered--small but wonderful!  Many new season figs growing, and tiny ones forming for next summer.

Two fruits still growing on nectarine, a couple on Williams pear, plenty of plums (turning purple at the end of the month) and almonds, and apples beginning to color up this month.

Some new growth (finally) on Kumoi pear, though the tree's still smaller than me.

Autumn raspberry flowered and formed a few tiny fruits by the end of July.

Perennials and herbs

Dried a bit of savory for winter use, harvested dill heads to make pickled cucumbers and zuccinis, and picked small amounts of parsley, basil and chives for use fresh.  Mint regrowing and flowering.

Harvested small heads from artichokes a few times in July--none bigger than walnuts.  Let the chickens free range at the end of the month and they tidied up weeds around it, the rhubarb and the asparagus, but not sure if asparagus and rhubarb are still there. 

July 2018 Food Totals

Still green, July 2018

Vegetables:

77 oz potatoes
74.5 oz cauliflower and leaves
3 oz artichokes
87.5 oz Savoy cabbage
4.5 oz peas
4.5 oz Sutherland kale
19.5 oz turnips
7.5 oz snap peas
31.5 oz lettuce
37 oz chard
2 oz mange tout peas
21 oz carrots
6.5 oz French beans
6.5 oz beetroot
0.5 oz celery leaves
1 oz parsley leaves
3.5 oz spring onion
20 oz zuccini
1.5 oz basil leaves
7.5 oz cucumber
7 oz curly kale
1 oz cherry tomatoes

Total: 423.5 oz, or 26 lb 7.5 oz

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

Fruit:

18 blueberries
109 raspberries
47 sweet cherries
5 figs
30 gooseberries (incomplete)

Eggs:

Total: 106 eggs from 8 hens
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg)

Preserves:

2 small jars pickled beetroot
1 small jar fermented turnips
1 large jar fermented cauliflower
1 medium jar garlic salt
2 large jar sauerkraut (1 from own cabbage, 1 from gift cabbage)
2 large jars fermented cucumber pickles(gift cucumbers, own dill and garlic)
3 small jars fermented zuccini pickles
1 small jar dried savory
1/2 large jar dried chard leaves
1/2 small jar salted French beans
1 medium bottle basil vinegar

Homebrew:  

Cider still fermenting

No new homebrew begun