Christmas break 2019

It's that time of year already?  I'm ready for it.  I'm going to sleep in every day for the next two weeks, until I have to get back up for school and my part time job.  Well, I might get up a little early tomorrow if the son does (he's now nine).

I'll be back here on 7 January, with food totals for December, and then following on with food totals for 2019.  Maybe I'll even have a few photos (but don't hold your breath).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

General update before Christmas break

Well, I'm not doing much out there, as my middle is growing ever bigger (I now have three months before my due date).  But here's what's happening garden-wise:

The husband has been diligently sheet mulching the allotment, section by section:  cardboard topped with a thick layer of partly composted stable bedding (horse manure and straw).  The garlic he and the son planted earlier in autumn is growing strongly there, as are the red cabbages and sprouting broccoli, though none are ready for harvest.  He says the Brussels sprouts are looking big enough to eat though--just in time for Christmas.

The chickens and ducks are all penned together in a fairly large yard next to the coop, and we have been adding a new straw bale to the yard every 2-3 weeks;  it gets muddy/pooey quickly with 15 chickens and 4 ducks.  The ducks are still the lowest in the pecking order, despite being the biggest;  they have a small bath which the chickens deny them the use of by using the edges as a perch.  Oh well.  Not a single egg laid yet between all 17 female birds out there in the month of December.  Hopefully the young hens hatched at the end of July will start laying their first eggs soon, but it might not be until the new year.

The vegetable patch is mostly bare now, with just a few celery rows and some very sparse chard left.  Though the runner bean pods left for seed are still not fully dry, I think it's time I pulled them up and let them mature under cover.  Might be a job for the husband though.  He's been talking about clearing out the chicken coop to spread on the veg patch:  now's the time to do that I think.

We've had some regular light frosts over the past few weeks, and one or two hard ones.  No snow (yet) thankfully, and though there's been some heavy rain we've also had some good sun.  I'm looking forward to the solstice this week and hopefully a bit more light during the day after a few more weeks.

Garden food for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners

We hosted some friends and their children for Thanksgiving this year, serving four adults and three children in total.  What came from the garden?

Last year I was still in the midst of the Vegetable Challenge during Thanksgiving so we petitioned our friends that we would provide the turkey and they would supply the vegetables.  We had the same bargain this year, despite not being within the Challenge.  However, we still served:

Mashed potatoes
Pumpkin pie
Braised chard and celery with garlic and shopbought leek
Homemade gravy using cockerel stock
Homebrewed cider

I was able to use our own eggs in the homegrown pumpkin pie for 2018, but our hens all stopped laying after the second week of November this year, so it was shopbought eggs.  The gravy was very tasty though, with the stock I'd made from November's fried cockerel bones, along with extra celery and garlic for flavor.

---

As for Christmas dinner, we're only feeding ourselves and fresh garden veg is looking pretty slim now.  No matter how small they are, we'll eat the Brussels sprouts at the allotment, and there is some more cockerel stock in the freezer for gravy.

My other homegrown offerings are fruitcake and stollen bread, both using my own grown dried fruits and almonds, but sadly not our own eggs.

And last Christmas I bravely put away 2018's Christmas pudding, the one (of two) which I made with our own currants, cider and eggs last year--it's been ageing in the cupboard with the help of some rum and an airtight container and I'm happy to report it's still good!  I opened it up, had a sniff and a tiny taste, and rewrapped with a bit more rum to carry it over the last few weeks to Christmas. 

I might be making another two of these:  one for 2020, and the other for 2021, though I don't have any homegrown currants left:  instead I'll use dried figs and plums. 

Food Totals, November 2019

Vegetables:

111.5 oz potatoes
144.5 oz pumpkins
5.5 oz celery
17.5 oz chard

Total: 278.5 oz, or 17 lb 6.5 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: 7 eggs from 11 hens and 2 ducks (one rescue hen died this month)
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg), 1 bag mixed corn (20 kg)

Preserves:

4 medium jars mixed berry jam from own frozen berries (blackcurrant, redcurrant, raspberry)
10 medium jars dried apple chips (from wild harvested apples)

Homebrew:

6 L cider vinegar bottled up (from wild harvested apples)
4 L cider vinegar still fermenting

Muddy

The last couple of autumns/winters here have been relatively dry.  A bit of rain, but enough clear spells to keep the ground fairly dry for the most part.  So far this has been a wet month, more like what I've been used to.  There has been some bad flooding near us, but we are thankfully on the side of a hill and not very close to any rivers.

But the lawn is very sad right now, having been scalped by our numerous fowl it looks like small individual blades of (short) grass in a sea of mud.  I'm not letting those birds back on it for the foreseeable future.  People are not allowed to walk on it either:  we put down some boards from the patio to one of the chicken yard gates (the other gate has stepping stones already).

And the chicken yard is also sad now, with about a third of it just a mud bath--and let's be honest, most of that mud isn't actual mud:  we all know what it really is.  Three weeks ago we put down 3/4 of a straw bale which kept their feet clean-ish for two weeks.  They had to go an extra week on the not-mud while we searched for a new bale (our old feed shop has closed down), but we've got one and they have enjoyed tearing the it apart and spreading it around.  One chicken in particular needs straw as mud forms clumps on her feathery toes.

The husband went to do some more sheet mulching at the allotment and says he was just sinking in.  I definitely want soft soil there, but I don't want him bringing it all home on his boots!  Our plot is on a slight downward slope, but the ones across from us are lower and face a slope going back up, which means they're prone to standing water;  at least we're not that muddy (luckily they're not either right now). 

Chicken tonight

Well, at the weekend we killed two of our young cockerels;  both are plucked,  dressed and in the fridge.  We'll do the other three this coming weekend.

It's kind of a big job for us still, though we're getting better at it.  I guess part of it is the anticipation (or is it dread)--it's an emotional job.  But it also requires at least a full hour from start to finish;  the kill generally takes less than a minute but plucking takes ages.

Regardless, I've been saying for weeks that I'm looking forward to fried chicken.  I think we all are.  We'll eat one this week and freeze the other, and probably freeze the coming three until after the Thanksgiving* leftovers are gone.

---

*Chicken for Thanksgiving?  It was suggested but rejected.  Last year's Australorp/Orpington cockerels could have passed for small turkeys;  these guys are much smaller.  We'll still make them into celebratory meals though, and will use every last bit (we buried their heads and intestines, but everything else will be cooked, including feet in the stockpot).

The Official End of the Vegetable Challenge

As I wrote previously, I broke the Vegetable Challenge a month early this year, only achieving six months total without buying any vegetables (the goal was seven).  Thankfully, the national state of affairs has proved my precautions as yet unneeded, although we may very well be panic buying vegetables again in January, when Brexit is now postponed to.  Still, I doubt I'll be starting next year's Challenge that early, so I won't be breaking my own rules in doing so.

That said, even though I broke the letter of the Challenge, I still followed the spirit and we did not eat any of the bought vegetables until the official end date last week:  we dried them, froze them, stashed them in the cupboard but did not eat them.  We could have followed letter of the Challenge to the official end very painlessly, and even beyond.  There are still fresh greens in the garden, and we have plenty of stored and preserved garden veg, fruit and nuts, which should in all honesty last us till the end of the month, if not the year.

I don't regret breaking the Challenge in this way, despite proving unnecessary.  I will be buying and storing extra food for the time being, as well as trying to grow and store as much as my own as possible.

Food totals, October 2019

Vegetables:

33 oz cherry tomatoes
29.5 oz chard
20.5 oz runner beans
89 oz potatoes (incomplete)
7.5 oz zuccini
4.5 oz celery
15.5. oz cabbage
10 oz achocha

Total: 209.5 oz, or 13 lb 1.5 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:

175 almonds
17 yellow raspberries

Eggs:

Total: 74 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg)

Preserves:

10 medium jars dehydrated apples (wild harvested)
2 medium jars dehydrated carrots (bought carrots)
2 medium jars dehydrated parsnips (bought parsnips)

Homebrew:

10 L apple cider vinegar begun (from wild harvested apples)
1 L apple cider vinegar still fermenting

Well into autumn

Now a full month after equinox, the clocks have changed--it feels like we've lost so much light.  Tonight sunset was before 5pm, and it's only going to get darker.

The garden is mostly asleep now, both edible and ornamental.  I've still got runner bean pods maturing on their vines and there are a few leeks, kale and chard, but I've let the ducks have the full run of the vegetable patch to tidy it (or flatten it at least).  There are still some cherry tomatoes on the patio still, though the plants are mostly brown and leafless. 

Our mature horse chestnut tree is losing leaves, and some of the fruit trees are starting to turn too.  The son has gone out with the loppers and cut down the old growth from the artichokes (plenty of new growth at the bottom though), and the husband dug up the (small) Jerusalem artichokes, though we haven't eaten any yet.  The grass is very very short now, and the chickens are only allowed about half an hour a day on it;  soon they may not be allowed on it at all.

And the chickens and ducks aren't laying much now.  Maybe one egg per week from the ducks and one per day from the chickens (though not the same color every day).  Surprisingly, the boy chicks are still being quiet--they're still growing, and I don't expect their sisters to start laying till at least January.  I expect egg production to stop any day now (and roosters to start crowing too).

Almond harvest, 2019

The husband went out last week and spent about 20 minutes filling a big bag of almonds off our tree.  It's really grown this last year, particularly since I haven't pruned it, unlike last year.  Still, this year's harvest is similar to last year's at around 160 nuts.  They fill my biggest handmade (yucca and sycamore) basket and are waiting in the kitchen for our Christmas stollen bread once again.

Because the tree hasn't been pruned (and it's too late in the year to do so, as it's susceptible to a fungal disease), it looks like quite a lot of the branches won't be within reach for harvest next year--similarly, out of reach for hand-pollination (rather more important).  I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  To be honest, while in theory I'd love to have hundreds and hundreds of almonds, in actuality they're just too hard to shell by hand.  Yes it'd be wonderful to make almond paste more than once a year, but is it worth the labor?  Time will tell.

Here's why I can't handle it (for now)

Well, the reason everything became too much for me is that I'm pregnant with child Three.  The son is nine, our middle child would have been two and a half now if he'd lived, and Three is due in March.  I've dropped pretty much everything in my life because I've been feeling so (physically) terrible--even my garden which I love.  I was hoping all the dreadful first trimester symptoms would have faded now that I'm halfway through the second, but no deal.  I've had to accept that my garden is going to be neglected for the foreseeable future, as I simply don't have the energy.

The husband and son have taken over allotment duties (weekends only now) and animal care.  At least I did hard work this spring--we had vegetables all summer long, and we still have vegetables.  (And weeds.  And spent plants.  You know.)  I normally have a few tasks for this time of year, but I won't be doing most of them.

What does that mean for this blog?  Well, I'll post once a week for now.  Gardening is still happening, even if only for 15 minutes per week.

Squash and pumpkins

Hidden squash, September 2019

I'm a little disappointed in my green kuri squash production this year:  only two fruits.  I had about ten plants altogether, but only two of them survived transplanting--slugs I suspect.  Each vine gave one squash, both around the size of a volleyball:  not bad for what it was, but not good enough for what I wanted.  There was one each at the allotment and in the garden (the garden one was actually in a planter and I trained the vine up the house wall).

Next year I'll try direct seeding into manure piles as well as transplants.  And I'll try to get around 30 or more of those transplants:  we have plenty of space for them at the allotment, and I would love to get 30 or more squashes!  I saved the seed from my own fruits from last year, which in turn were saved from a supermarket specimen.

---

Pumpkins on the other hand, survived transplant much better;  I would say most if not all grew and produced.  However, the seed was obviously cross bred, as not all of the fruits turned out to be pumpkins!  The obvious ones (different shapes and colors) we just ate as zuccini, and enjoyed them very much.  Hopefully the five pumpkin-shaped and -colored ones are also -tasting.

State of the flock, October 2019

Stuck in jail, September 2019

After the chicks finished off their last 5 kg bag of growers pellets, it was time to integrate them into the adult flock.  We let them all free range together for a few hours each evening over the course of a week, then that weekend the duck pen came away and the resulting chicken wire was used to make a large yard next to the chicken house.  The chicks and their mothers have gone in (and have escaped a few times, requiring minor adjustments to the wire) and now a week later, everyone is sleeping in the big coop, and there is a fairly peaceful pecking order in place. 

More than half of the chicks are boys and destined for the pot within a few weeks, but until then I admit it's a little crowded, particularly on the roosts at night.  Right now there are 21 chickens, nine of which are juveniles.  I think there will be 15 or 16 left for winter;  I'm still not positive about one chick:  maybe a girl, maybe not.  However, I've been watching my three oldest hens, ages five and six, and think at least one of them won't survive the winter.  We'll see;  our six year old hen really slowed down over summer and lost weight, but then she molted and is now as frisky as such an old lady can be.

The ducks are back to free ranging (they had been penned in at the pond for about two months), and the chickens get to free range an hour or so in the evenings.

We are getting around two to four eggs daily, though the ducks may have a hidden nest (we've been collecting one or two a week from them).  A couple of hens are currently in molt and I don't expect egg production to pick up again until the new year.

The importance of food storage (I broke the Vegetable Challenge)

The wind blew these down, but I hope they still make seeds, September 2019

I broke the Vegetable Challenge a month early.  I broke it on 5th October, buying onions, carrots, swede, and two bags of frozen veg.  Instead of lasting seven months as planned, it lasted six months, the same as 2018.

I didn't break it because we're desperate for vegetables.  We still have plenty of chard, potatoes, several pumpkins, some tomatoes and runner beans...the list goes on.  However.  For several months I have been considering breaking the challenge early because the end date coincides with the date for Brexit, by which time we are not assured that there will be vegetables (or even anything else) in the shops.  We have been slowly building up a stockpile of canned and jarred foods for the last year:  mainly meat and fish, but other staples we use like tomatoes and beans.  I have been filling up a shelf with dehydrated foods too, catalogued here on the blog.

For the next few weeks I'll be buying the cheapest in-season veg and storing them for winter.  I think most will be dehydrated (or stored in a cool cupboard), but we'll stash a few more bags in the freezer too.  I don't plan on serving any of this veg until we reach the official Challenge end date:  2nd November.  We'll also continue adding to our general food stockpile.

I really do hope that these precautions are not needed, and that the beginning of November will go on with no interruption to national food supply.  Regardless, I know from past experience the value of having food storage:  when I was a child we sometimes had to rely on food my parents had stored.  And in my adult life, we have had bad snow which prevented us as well as delivery trucks from driving--the longest period was around two weeks without access to any shops (any shops with food in them, that is).

In the allotment, October 2019

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've actually been to the allotment.  All I know of it is secondhand information, from the husband and son.  Still, here's what's been up:

Five pumpkins have been harvested, four of which are almost fully orange;  the littlest is likely the newest and I doubt it'll ripen much now that it's been picked.  They had to be harvested though, as the weather is turning colder--a neighbor told me her husband had to scrape ice off his car early in the morning the other day (no ice witnessed by me yet).  One green kuri squash also came home on the same day.  Two pumpkins are big, one pumpkin and squash are medium, and the other two pumpkins are small.

The husband has also been digging up potato plants at a rate of about one per week for more than a month.  It's time to get them all up now, before the tops completely wither away, obscuring their locations.  He's promised to get them up this weekend, and we'll store them here at home.

The remaining brassicas--Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, red cabbage--are all growing strongly, though it looks like we won't be harvesting very soon.  Certainly the broccoli won't be ready till spring, and the others might need a month or more.

Everything else is done;  hopefully the weeds are done too.  I'm collecting as many cardboard boxes as possible, and sheet mulch will be happening over the autumn and winter, probably with used stable bedding (from the horse stables at the allotment site).  Maybe next spring the weeds will be more subdued and we'll get more of a harvest.  Still, I'm happy with the amount we managed to grow, and look forward to next year.

Food Totals September 2019

The view from the kitchen sink, September 2019

Vegetables:

156 oz potatoes
15.5 oz cabbage
78.5 oz runner beans
93.5 oz cherry tomatoes
33 oz spring onions
8 oz Aztec broccoli
74 oz tomatoes
5.5 oz French beans
13.5 oz chard
2 oz celery
0.5 oz chili pepper
14.5 oz zuccini

Total: 494.5 oz or 30 lb 14.5 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:

21 oz figs
17 yellow raspberries
182 plums

Eggs:

Total: 106 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg), 3 bags growers pellets (15 kg)

Preserves:

1/2 medium jar dehydrated cherry tomatoes
3/4 medium jar dehydrated figs
2 medium jars dehydrated plums

Homebrew:

1 L apple cider vinegar begun (from wild harvested apples)

Artichokes in flower

Lucky shot, September 2019

No doubt I missed out on the last fifteen or so artichokes left on the plants, but my loss was the bees' gain:  they have loved the fluffy purple flowers.  

We think we might take several divisions off the original plants and move them to the allotment early next spring.  I understand the plants only produce for about five years before they decline, but taking divisions is one way to keep up a supply of "new" plants.  This summer, the third year, was the first time we got a worthwhile harvest, and the plants have grown about 2.5 m tall (maybe even closer to 3 m)--and the artichokes are right at the top!  Taking up that much space, they really would do better at the allotment.

In a few years when the original plants finish here in my Perennials section, I'll dig them out for good;  if we continue to enjoy the artichokes at the allotment, I'll divide my newest plants from there.

Cherry tomato salsa fresca

Not all of this went into the salsa, Sep 2019

I'm getting my batches of salsa fresca done, but I've been eating them too...I've got about 1.5 L currently, but the overall total is maybe 2.5 L so far:  it's just so tasty.  I love it on my scrambled eggs along with some melted cheese. 

To make a batch I chop up:

• 1 kg tomatoes (mainly cherry toms)
• 0.25 kg spring onions
• several cloves of garlic
• one chili pepper
• a handful of cilantro leaf

This goes in a brine of 1.5 Tb salt per 500 mL water, and is fermented about 4-5 days on the counter before being refrigerated--or eaten.  I like it a lot spicier than just the one chili (and my own ones aren't very spicy to begin with), but the son can't quite handle it, so I add chili paste to taste after serving--I made the paste last with last year's chilis.

A pot of chilis, Sep 2019

Plums 2019

Czar plums, Sep 2019

We've picked over a hundred plums from our tree by now.  Some have been dehydrated, though a good proportion have been given away too.  The first flush of them were mostly full of worms, but these latest ones aren't, luckily.  The chickens and chicks had the wormy ones, and are still enjoying any bird-damaged.  The husband got up the ladder the other day to pick the highest ones, and there are probably about 60-80 left on the tree;  I'll be dehydrating and/or gifting them, and eating some too.  The house smells of plum jam as they dry.

To be honest, I don't mind the worms that much!  If I were at full capacity (which I'm not yet), I might have been willing to bottle those wormy plums, sans wormy bits of course, or make jam as I did last year (yum).  I'm even willing to cut the wormy bits out and eat the rest, but for now, the most I can manage is halving and pitting them, and placing them on dehydrator trays.

Chicks growing up

Rainbow and the kids, Sep 2019

Here's a photo of the chicks;  they're growing up fast and going through about 5 kg of growers pellets a week.  I imagine once they're done with their current 12 kg, we'll start the integration process with the main flock.  We've been letting them free range for a few hours in the evenings (so funny to watch them all spook and "take flight" together).  The boys have been too rowdy and though their mothers are still pretty indulgent. will no doubt get some discipline from the adults when they finally meet.

They're  just about eight weeks old now.  I anticipate having to eat the boys when they are around 12 weeks (when they start to crow), and the girls will probably start laying at around 20-25 weeks.

Runner beans

Leaving the biggest pods for seed, Sep 2019

For a few years in a row, my runner beans have been a little disappointing.  The son doesn't like them much, so I guess having an overabundance isn't necessary.  Still, I like them and the husband likes them, and to have fresh runner beans with our Sunday roast dinner is a delicious treat, particularly since they've been so rare.

I've been saving seeds from this strain for many years now:  certainly longer than I've been blogging here.  The variety is Scarlet Emperor, and as I'm the only one in the immediate vicinity who grows a vegetable patch, I'm pretty sure they've not crossed with any other variety (it would be a different story at the allotment).  Since they've not been performing well, I had made up my mind to buy a new variety for next year--one that can set beans in drier/hotter conditions, which I believe has been the problem for Scarlet Emperor;  a (normal) wet summer used to give me beans upon beans, but the last few have been too dry.

Well, this summer was wetter and though we've had some dry, hot spells, they haven't lasted long and now the runner beans (all seven or so plants) are going for it with all their might, despite their late beginning (they only started producing in August, when for years I've been used to beans in July).  I still plan on getting a new variety, but I'll be saving seeds again too.

The big harvest

Now's the time to get the bulk of the harvest in, preferrably to store and preserve for the winter.  However, the bulk of the harvest in my case is about two rows of potatoes and five pumpkins and squashes.  Oh well...  We don't have adequate cool storage for a lot of potatoes, so have been digging them up when needed--when the tops die back fully we'll have dig them all up (at least another week or two).  I anticipate them lasting us for another six or eight weeks, which should bring us to the end of the Vegetable Challenge.

Luckily the pumpkins and squashes are easier to store, though by weight they might actually be about equal with the potatoes.  I will save them till the fresh veg runs low--and of course one is destined for Halloween (we'll carve it on the day and cook it the next).  I hope to have our own potatoes and squash for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I've got a smaller "bulk" harvest of tomatoes coming in now.  Though none are very big, many are turning red despite it being a typical cooler/rainier summer (and don't normally get many red tomatoes from).  Twice last week I picked around a pound of tomatoes;  we've eaten some fresh and I'm trying to get in a few liters of salsa fresca too (once brined and fermented, it lasts a few months in the fridge).

The only other bulk harvest to come in is the plums, but again, it's not a big one--I was hoping to make a jug of plum cider this year but it doesn't look like there's enough.  And most of the fruits seem to have plum maggots (not a problem for cider, but not so nice for eating);  the chickens have had the majority of them so far.

State of the flock, September 2019

Well, egg production has slowed down.  Three hens are definitely not laying:  the two mother hens still hanging out with their chicks (now about six weeks old), and last year's cheep has gone broody.  Cheep is not going to get her chance at motherhood this year--maybe next year, if she goes broody again.  Conventional wisdom says to put her in a wire bottomed cage for a few days to break her broodiness (we had to do this to another hen last year), but I'll let her go a bit longer before I take drastic measures:  maybe she'll give up on her own. 

The other hens are mostly cooped up in their yard;  the ducks have also been penned in next to the pond for about two weeks.  I'll let the ducks go back to free ranging when we combine the chicks with the chickens, probably in another two or three weeks. 

The chicks are pretty well feathered now, and it looks like there are three girls, five boys and one undecided (though I'm tending toward boy).  Three new hens is a good number for us, as we have plenty of poultry in the garden for now--12 adult hens with two ducks and two drakes.  I told the husband I'm really looking forward to some fried chicken in another six weeks. 

Food Totals August 2019

Three runner bean plants up a cane (it blew down a week ago) Aug 2019

Vegetables:

19.5 oz French beans
8 oz spring onion
128 oz potatoes
70.5 oz zuccini
14.5 oz beets
24.5 oz cherry tomatoes
4 oz regular tomatoes
22 oz runner beans
40 oz chard

Total: 331 oz, or 20 lb 11 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:

26 oz figs
43 yellow raspberries

Eggs:

Total: 147 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg), 1 bag growers pellets (5 kg)

Preserves:

1 medium jar dehydrated beets (from gift beetroot)
1/2 medium jar dehydrated cherry tomatoes
1/4 medium jar dehydrated figs

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine bottled up (4 L)
Cider bottled up (16 L)

Resilience in the months ahead

Gladiola, Aug 2019

Though the Vegetable Challenge ends at the beginning of November, there is some uncertainty about national food security for the coming autumn/winter here in this country.  I'm trying to grow and preserve what I can to help assuage that uncertainty for my own family;  depending on the national situation, we may not have much choice of fruit and vegetables at the store when the Challenge runs out.  If we want to keep eating vegetables, it's entirely possible they'll have to come from our own garden or allotment.

I mentioned before that the whole food growing engine I caretake has overwhelmed me this summer.  However, now the houseguests have left, and I'm feeling a bit better (though still not fully), I luckily can now do some light gardening, and have even been to the allotment once or twice.  I'm trying to put by a little of the harvest every day, using as little effort as possible:  dehydrating, freezing, salting.

It's true the freezer is pretty full now, and I don't actually freeze many vegetables;  but this summer I've added a bag of mixed berries, along with half a bag of cherries and a bag of chard stems (leaves were dehydrated or eaten as salads).

I've finally got the first jar of salted runner beans going.  It's not a big jar.  I didn't get many runner or French beans last summer (too hot and dry), but I've had better luck this year;  I just need to remember to keep skimming a few off the top for salting and not eat them all.

And dehydrating some cherry tomatoes and figs.  Small batches.  I was given a sack of beets and considered pickling them, but decided to go the easy route and dry them--they filled up a small jar once dehydrated.  The dry peas are all threshed now; we'll probably get only a couple meals off them, but they represent the future:  this year I had two rows of peas, next year I want four rows at least, and the year after maybe eight rows.

Reaping (someone else's) harvest at the allotment

Well, I admit I've been pretty shameless in scroungeing up free food at the allotment.  My own plot has given me a modest harvest this year--but the weeds really are getting the better of me.  I've not been visiting regularly over the past few weeks, but a few days ago I said to the son that we'd go and have a little look, and maybe take the insect mesh off the purple sprouting broccoli (which we did, and brought home the dried mange tout vines in order to collect their seed).

But my real reason for going was in hopes that someone would generously offload some of their excess vegetables, and I did not go home disappointed!  We were given sacks by not one but two fellow allotmenters, one full of magnificent beets and the other with tomatoes and sweetcorn. 

My tactics?  I always greet people and ask them how they're doing.  I compliment them on something I can see or that they've shown/given me in the past, or I ask questions.  Sometimes just the greeting is enough:  I've been asked if I want so and so just on the strength of a hello;  the sack of beets was one such victory.  However, a bit of conversation and praise will generally do the trick, I've found.

Actually, I've even come home with free food without actually seeing the giver:  some people will leave extras just outside their plot, at the edge of the path, and I gratefully collect these whenever I see them. 

I hope that next summer it will be me pressing an overabundance onto other people but for now, I'm very happy to accept anything I can get.

Only a few tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes at last, August 2019

Last summer was excellent for tomatoes here.  This one is cooler and rainy: more like a typical English summer--but still my tomatoes are ripening, or at least the ones on my patio are. 

I have about six plants out in the further reaches of my vegetable beds, but they don't look very promising;  I'm not sure I'll even get worthwhile green fruits from them.  And to be honest, the four or so regular tomato plants on my patio all have fruit but none much bigger than the cherry tomatoes.  These, like the cherry tomatoes, are now ripening one or two at a time.  I don't think I'll be making salsa this year, green or red.  If I get enough fruits to fill two trays of my (small) dehydrator I'll dry some, but even that looks unlikely.

It's a bit disappointing, but I can't complain too much:  this is not a tomato growing climate, and to get enough for salads two months of the year is good enough.

Figs, 2019

One at a time, Aug 2019

I do love my little fig tree.  I got it as a cutting;  I think I bought it off ebay.  For the first year it lived in a pot on the patio, then the husband dug a big hole in the most choice location (right next to the house and patio, facing south), lined the sides of the hole with concrete pavers and the bottom with bricks and rubble, then planted it. 

For several years it's been growing well, though slowly.  I got the first fig harvest in 2015, though I had to share it with nibblers (I told the husband at the time it was probably birds, but I think it was actually rats--we washed them off and ate them anyway).  It's only been a few figs a year since then--last year was the first time the harvest made double figures.  We haven't got to double figures yet this year, but I'm hopeful!

Though there are a lot of figs on the tree, about half of them are too small to ripen fully I think.  I'm looking forward to having too many to eat: maybe next year?

Pea harvest, 2019

One third of the pea harvest, Aug 2019

I was thinking that maybe I'd get a medium sized jarful of dry peas this year, but it turns out I've got a whole sackful.  The mother helped me pull up all the plants at the allotment once the pods were all dry (in late July), we loaded them all up in the wheelbarrow and got them home.  I let them dry another two weeks on the vines in the garage, then the son and I have been threshing them a batch at a time.

We'd really like to be able to just thresh them straight off the vines, but don't have a sack big enough, so have been pulling off the pods and chucking them into a canvas bag;  once the bag's full, we hang it up and the son starts thwacking it with a big stick, pinata style.  The empty pods rise up to the top and the heavy peas sink to the bottom, making them easy to winnow.  I've been throwing the empty pods and vines into the chicken yard as straw (they're still mostly confined there, much to their misery).

I planted around 500 pea seeds in February, and though I don't have a final total, I would estimate I've harvested a few pounds of dry peas.  I hope to double the amount next year:  1000 seeds.  I've definitely got room for them at the allotment.  And we'll look forward to some lovely mushy peas later in the year.

An arbor

My new arbor, Aug 2019

The husband and father built me a grape arbor in the corner of our patio.  In the photo you can see the grape vine climbing the fence (and the fig tree).  For the rest of this season I'll let the vine run, but once dormant I'll cut back and start training it next spring.  This vine has one grape cluster which ought to ripen, given its prime location--it's the first time it formed fruit.  There is one other vine on the other side of the garage, climbing up my almond tree;  it has several small grape bunches, but I'm not as confident about their prospects. 

It'll be the first time we get grapes from the garden if they do ripen;  and they're green/white grapes, so hopefully the birds won't bother with them.

It's getting away from me

At last, a photo of the chicks, Aug 2019

Well, in the spirit of Telling It Like It Is, I guess I might as well mention the garden, allotment and poultry are all too much right now.  I'm not keeping up.  We had houseguests for two weeks, I've not been well, and though my hayfever is gone now, it drove me indoors for more than a month.  All this combined means that my personal food growing operation is only just limping along. 

The allotment is more weeds than vegetables and the slugs are nipping off most of the seedlings that are just coming up in the sheet mulched areas.  I've only been there about three or four times in the last two weeks--the husband has been up once, I think.

And then in my kitchen garden nearly every brassica has cabbage caterpillars, the Misc bed (the furthest from the house) is mainly weeds, and though they're flowering, the runner beans aren't forming pods (maybe this last one isn't my fault).  I haven't been picking chard regularly.  I haven't been watering the containers regularly, though only one has actually died.

And the poultry.  The son is in charge of feeding and watering;  he's off school for the rest of this month so luckily they won't starve.  But I've not been putting the chickens into their tractor daily--they've mostly been stuck in their yard.  The new chicks are so cute--now just over a week old--but I've not been out socializing with them to get them used to me.  And the ducks are just getting on my nerves.  We know they're still laying eggs, but we can't find their secret nests!  And both the son and I have had to give some stern discipline to one of the young males who thinks he's allowed to jump on people's shoes--luckily ducks are much less agile (and sharp) than roosters.  He might be duck soup if he keeps it up though.

So there's my whole sorry story.  It's all gone to pot.  I'm still not 100%, and I can't see the situation improving until then--plus we're having more houseguests this weekend...

Food Totals July 2019

A few pears but not ready yet, July 2019

Vegetables:

4.5 oz beetroot
43 oz mange tout peas
30 oz broad beans
33 oz spring cabbage
20 oz chard
7 oz kale
5 oz snap peas
77 oz cauliflower (heads and leaves)
65 oz artichokes
0.5 oz radishes
8 oz spring onions
60 oz zuccini
3 oz French beans

Total: 356 oz, or 22 lb 4 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:

48 oz mixed berries (redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, blueberries, sweet cherries)

Eggs:

Total: 174 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 1 bag each layers pellets, mixed corn and mixed seed (20 kg each), 1 bag chick crumb (5 kg)

Preserves:

3 medium jars dehydrated strawberry chips (picked at a local farm)
1 large jar sauerkraut (from a gift cabbage)
1 small jar pickled snap peas

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Cider still fermenting

New chicks in 2019

A food totals post is due, but I'll get it in for the next one because we have new chickies! 

We have nine new chickies as of today--hatched three days ago.  Cookie sat on eight eggs and hatched six;  Rainbow sat on four and hatched three.  Both mothers have their own little house with a shared bit of the lawn, though as far as we know the chicks haven't mingled yet. 

Rainbow doesn't seem quite as assured about the whole business as Cookie, but so far she's managed to keep her three alive.  Rainbow "helped" Cookie last summer by deciding to go broody during Cookie's last week of sitting and shared the nest with her.  Those three chicks all attached themselves to Cookie and Rainbow didn't get much parenting action.  As I've mentioned previously, Rainbow is a rescue hen from an egg laying farm:  she's five years old and her breed is known for not ever going broody.  Well, she's proved us all wrong, including me;  I thought she couldn't do it but she has.

We won't know for about six weeks who's a boy or girl, but I'm hoping for an even split.  If they're all girls we'll have way too many chickens over winter...

Preserves yet?

There has been a serious lack of preserves happening here.  I'm not sure what's going on, but I really haven't done as much as I should have.  Last year my preserved vegetables are what got us to the end of the Challenge. 

So far I have: 

• A bag and a half of frozen purple broccoli
• A bag of frozen chard stems
• Not quite a full bag of each frozen mixed berries and frozen Morello cherries
• Several medium jars of dried chard, dried celery and strawberry chips (strawberries picked at a farm)
• One large jar of sauerkraut (from a gift cabbage)
• A small jar of pickled snap peas

I don't think this is going to last us all the way from September to November.  I need to up my game, and fast.  Last year I was pickling all sorts, salting beans and drying herbs and kale. 

Too much...

Last year I took on my allotment, in addition to my own home kitchen garden.  At the time I wondered if it was a bit too ambitious.  Well, I'm still wondering...

Most of the seeds I put down have been swamped by weeds--the exception being the tall peas which went down very early (in February), which had enough of a headstart to outgrow them.  The dwarf peas and broad beans didn't have that advantage, but their weeds grew after they'd reached their full height, so didn't hamper their potential either. 

However, nearly everything else is just pathetic.  There are small carrots and beets, but probably not worth having now.  The husband and I sheet mulched a large section which had spring onion and lettuce seed--there were a few in there, but after three months and still the size of seedlings, I was willing to admit defeat.

The whole patch isn't a complete write off just yet--the pumpkins and potatoes seem to be doing well, and there are some climbing beans forming.  The Brussels sprouts seem to be all right too.  All of these except the beans were planted directly into holes cut in the cardboard sheet mulch;  the beans have been hand weeded carefully.

When it comes to weeds, I "chop and drop;" though I do try to pull them up by the roots if possible, I'm not too bothered if I can't get them.  At this time of year in particular (hot and dry-ish) I'll chop and drop at home in my kitchen garden too--though there are much fewer weeds and they are more likely to come up by the roots (soft soil).  If it's cool and wet though, this kind of mulch is prime slug habitat so it's not something I swear by. 

Lovely berries

It's been a good year for my berry bushes.  We've finished the red raspberries, blueberries and redcurrants, and are nearly done with blackcurrants.  The gooseberries are just ripening now, and the yellow raspberries and grapes(!) are forming. 

We actually had a small handful of yellow rasps already--they are a primocane variety which are supposed to bear in autumn, but there was one uncut cane from last year which fruited at the same time as the red rasps.  I might treat it as a floricane in the future, as it never seems to have enough time to ripen in autumn.

Most of the berries have been frozen (the son has been promised jam), though many raspberries and all blueberries were eaten fresh:  yum.

As an aside, it was an exceptional year for berberis berries too.  We don't really eat these;  they taste nice but are very seedy so we leave them for the birds.  This summer, after a few years of careful pruning, there were many branches low enough for our chickens to self harvest too.  At one point it was extremely overgrown, and my plan is to have a spreading but low growing shrub which the chickens can eat directly from.  Nearly there!

In the allotment, July 2019

I really need to get my camera to the allotment!  I'm up there almost every day, even though we don't have chickens there currently, but I still have no photos of it.

Tthe husband, son and I got the final uncultivated section of the allotment all sheet mulched, and looks so much tidier.  I suspect we will have to sheet mulch again once it has fully broken down, but the wood chips should help prevent new weed seedlings from germinating, which is half the battle.

After finishing the sheet mulch (and much carting back and forth with wheelbarrow and wood chips--we pretty much depleted the whole pile from the communal waste), I planted out some cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli next to the strawberry plants, also newly transplanted.  I covered the seedlings with a bit of insect mesh and an old net curtain;  I just draped them over loosely and secured the edges with bricks.  The mesh/curtain is mainly to stop the pigeons eating them, but will also keep the cabbage white butterflies off for now.  And I've been gradually sowing rows of root vegetables:  I push aside the wood chips, put down an inch or two of potting compost on top of the cardboard, sow seed, and then gently push back the wood chips.  If it stays dry they may not come to much, but I thought I'd take a chance at least.

---

The broad beans finished at last, and I pulled up the plants and laid cardboard over them.  I haven't replanted just yet, or even covered the cardboard with mulch (though the wood chips are finished, there's still some partly composted horse bedding at the other end of the allotments).

The yellow mange tout peas are still producing, though they're slowing down, and I've left several pods to develop for seed.  The regular peas are maturing and some of the pods are starting to dry, which is my intention for this crop.  I want lots and lots of pea soup over winter, and even more rows of peas next year.

---

As far as everything else goes, it's all drowning in weeds!  Well, the potatoes and pumpkins are less weedy comparatively, and both seem to have good growth;  there are several small pumpkins forming now, but I'm not planning on digging up potatoes for a little while longer.  There are some little beans forming though the plants are sparse;  cucumbers too:  small plants but a few fruits starting.  There are a couple beets of moderate size, and I think the row of shallots is about ready to come up.

From now, I'll be trying to get a few more winter/spring brassicas transplanted, and a few more rows of roots sown.

Brassicas, Peas and poppies

Nearly big enough, July 2019

 The Peas and Beans bed also doubles as the Brassicas bed;  once the early peas are gone, the winter brassicas can transplant into their places.  Well, the snap peas and mange tout peas are about finished, but I still managed to get some brassicas into the gaps this spring too, such as the above cauliflower.  I planted several, but most of them stayed pretty small--this one is about 8 inches diameter in the photo. 

I've got some kale and purple sprouting broccoli seedlings to put in once I take out the mange tout--the snap peas are already interplanted with the cauliflowers, but there will be a good sized gap once the mange tout are gone.

I'll also plant out some winter cabbages at the allotment, in the newly sheet mulched area to the front--maybe some kale there too.

Color in the Peas and Beans bed, July 2019

I didn't have the heart to pull up all the poppies that sprang up amongst the peas--I just like them too much (it's hard to tell, but I did pull up some).  I'll probably get them out when I do the mange tout, and there are some others in the Roots bed too, not causing too much mayhem.

A new strawberry bed

I've been faithfully collecting a few boxes a day from my work and sheet mulching the last uncultivated section of my allotment with them.  Unlike last winter, where I didn't have enough organic matter to put on top and had to leave the cardboard bare, weighted down by bricks and bits of pallet wood--I've got these all covered tidily with wood chips, scavenged from the communal waste.

I got hold of my neighbor who previously promised me some extra strawberry plants from her big bed, and we made a date for me to collect them.  In exchange I brought her some homemade oatmeal cookies--and a box of partly composted chicken bedding (manure and straw) to put on her strawberry bed after we pillaged it.

So the husband and I brought them to the allotment and transplanted around 30 in the sheet mulch.  The weeds underneath won't be dead yet, so we just put some of that chicken bedding mixed with sand and planted in that, and tucked the wood chips around to keep the moisture in.  They'll need watering regularly for a while I think.  And hopefully next year we'll have lots of plants and berries of our own.

(We've already been twice to the pick your own farm and brought home 15+ kilos of strawberries for freezing, drying, and gorging on fresh;  we might go back one more time too.)

Strawberry chips, July 2019

State of the flock, July 2019

We had several weeks again without buying eggs, but have had to go back to the market this weekend.  The hens have slowed down production, though we have been getting a couple duck eggs a week from the newly adopted Campbells.  We've found them variously on the lawn, near the pond and under the hydrangea--there might be other we haven't found.  We have a lot of hiding places out back, and they've been free ranging.

The ducklings both seem to be growing male plumage:  oh well.  At least we have two females, and if the males get too aggressive next spring, we may eat one--or both.

Handsome fellas, July 2019

Cookie, our Pekin bantam, has finally stopped laying and gone broody.  Her friend Rainbow, an ex factory farm hen has once more decided to join her.  I've managed to get some eggs from the same work colleague who gave me the Leghorn eggs last summer.  This time we'll separate the two broody hens from the rest of the flock;  we didn't last year, and only three of six eggs hatched.  I don't know if Rainbow can really hatch eggs, but there are enough for them both, so we'll try her;  she and Cookie are sitting together in the same nest box anyway.

All chickens are back together in the garden now--none at the allotment.  We want to put up a bigger house and run for them there, but it's not an urgent project.

Staying in

Instead of going out and enjoying my garden, I'm hiding inside because of hayfever.  Last summer was so hot and dry that the grass flowered quickly (thankfully it's only grass pollen so I'm not suffering all year like some people)--I wasn't affected for too long.  It's been bothering me for about a month this year--hope it finishes soon.

So some things are being put off:  I have way too many snap peas and mange tout peas because I haven't been out picking them.  The broad beans got kind of overwhelming at one point too, but I think they're just about over now.  I might try brining/fermenting the snap peas if I can get out there long enough to hunt them all out.  The son helped me pick a bowl of mange tout for our dinner yesterday but we gave up after we filled the bowl--there are still too many out there.

I've also not been spending time with the chickens and ducks--I like to sit out with them a couple times a week at least;  I'm not sure they still remember me!  The son has been doing most of their care recently, but no one's been socializing with them, poor things.

I tried drinking nettle leaf tea in previous years but have given that up as it seemed to have no effect.  I read a suggestion to sting myself with nettles instead;  preliminary testing seems to give temporary relief, but I'm not sure if it's truly the nettles or simply a coincidence.  If it was a choice between nettle stings and hayfever, the nettle wins hands down--but I really can't be running out to the nettle patch at all hours, particularly after bedtime. 

Thankfully most of the hard work is now done, both at home and at the allotment.  I've been muscling through when I have no choice, and staying indoors looking wistfully out the window otherwise.

Food totals June 2019

View from the back door, June 2019

Vegetables:

126.5 oz spring cabbage
104 oz chard
1 oz mint leaves
42 oz broad beans
34 oz mange tout (yellow and green)
4.5 oz spring onion
0.5 oz baby carrots
4.5 oz turnip
8 oz artichokes
5.5 oz lettuce
4 oz kale

84 garlic bulbs (unweighed)

Total: 334.5 oz, or 20 lb 14.5 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:

3 oz redcurrants (incomplete)
24 oz Morello cherries
18 raspberries
3 strawberries

Eggs:

Total: 206 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg)

Preserves:

1 small jar dried mint
2.5 medium jars dehydrated strawberry chips (picked at a local farm)

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Cider still fermenting

Flowers out front and back

The front garden, June 2019

My front garden is currently all ornamentals, with nothing edible.  Unless you count the roses (we don't eat them).  There was a small crabapple tree which has now died--despite being there about four years, it never flowered (or even grew taller than me) and last summer's heat and drought finally killed it. 

It has a lot of weeds too...the son and I pulled up a few buckets full of goosegrass earlier this spring, and now the brambles are staking their claim.  I guess they both count as edible...we do eat a few blackberries from the front garden now and again in summer (though I do my best to pull them out every year too).

It's nice to pick some flowers for the house though.  I have flowers out back too, mostly in the perennials section, but a few self seeded in the veg beds;  there's a dozen sunfowers coming up just beyond the boundary of the chicken yard which I'm very pleased about.  And some random foxgloves which surprised me--we had some years ago, then didn't have any for ages and now we've got them again.  It's all good food for bees, and good food for the soul.

Two kinds of artichokes

New season artichokes, June 2019

My artichokes are massive this year--even bigger than last year, both height and width.  The divisions the husband replanted for me earlier this year are also growing strongly, though they'll need another year to catch up.  But the heads are still tiny.  I'm sure they variety I bought was supposed to be a regular globe artichoke, and I'm sure they're meant to be bigger than golf ball size.  Oh well.   

Newly growing Jerusalem artichokes (and lots of weeds) June 2019

I took home some Jerusalem artichokes from the communal waste at the allotment last autumn and replanted them at the back of the perennials section;  they're now growing tall and I look forward to trying them at the end of the season.  I understand this is a plant that's hard to get rid of, so I hope we like them;  I've eaten them before, but the husband and son haven't.

In the allotment, June 2019

We have been collecting boxes and paper feed sacks here for a couple months now, and the son and I decided we had enough to sheet mulch one bed at the allotment.  A friend has promised me as many strawberry runners as I can carry, as soon as they finish fruiting--probably in July.  She has a very small garden but grows a big strawberry patch;  I have terrible luck with strawberries in my garden:  the chickens have scratched up nearly every one I've put down over the years.

I figured the allotment will be altogther a safer place, plus there will be plenty more space and sun there.  After laying down the cardboard and paper, the son and I brought back boxfuls of woodchips from the communal waste area to cover it all up.  It looks much tidier than my usual sheet mulch--in fact, the potatoes, pumpkins and squashes are all growing through holes in bare cardboard from last winter's sheet mulch;  I ran out of organic material to put on top.  Yes that looks disreputable, but it's not weedy (unlike the rest of the plot).

I'm now collecting boxes from my work and will continue to add to the sheet mulch--hopefully no one else takes all the wood chips before I'm finished.

---

We've been eating the yellow mange tout and the broad beans;  some of the broad beans have been affected by blackfly:  a problem I don't really have in my own garden as the sparrows take care of them.  I'll be waiting for the regular peas to fully mature on the vines before I pick them:  they're tall and lush and flowering all over.

I also picked three finger sized carrots for a salad last week, and a lovely big purple turnip for last Sunday's roast dinner;  the carrots are sparse and nearly smothered with weeds, and that was the one and only turnip--it grew in the hot bed and I think the slugs ate its compatriots.

---

Everything else is in various states of growth:  climbing beans (we put up supports from an abandoned swingset), dwarf beans; cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale; pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, zuccini, achocha;  shallots, leeks, spring onions;  (a few) carrots and beets, lettuce. 

And of course the thistles, nettles, grass, and other weeds are very vigorous and happy.  I've been hoeing and hand weeding a little every day, but don't seem to have made much of a dent.  The three chickens in their tractor are also doing their part, but also not making much of a dent.

Free leeks

Not grass, honest!  June 2019

I've been trying to save seed from my leeks for several years but without success.  I leave the plants to flower, but the seed has never germinated for me, until this spring:  a flowerhead dropped onto a bed last autumn and I left it there to compost, only to discover a fast growing patch of leeks this April.  Way too close together, but I'm not complaining;  I'll thin them out (and retransplant the thinnings):  free leeks!

Every year the leeks start to sprout new divisions from the base, like garlic, so I never pull my leeks up fully:  they get cut off at the base with the roots left intact.  I get free leeks this way too.

Now eating peas

Snap peas soon, June 2019

We've had our first peas, picked at the allotment:  the yellow mange tout peas (not pictured) are just podding up, and we've snacked on them happily.  So crispy.  I only had about 20 seeds of these, all saved from the previous year's plants;  this just isn't enough!  While I'd love to save seed again, I don't know if we'll have the willpower to let enough pods mature!  I might have to order a new pack of seeds for next spring.  They've also been good cooked with Sunday roast dinner and raw on a salad.

The rest of the peas are all flowering and making pods too, both at the allotment and back here at home.  At home they're all snap peas and mange tout, and we're just eating the mange tout;  at the allotment, except for those 20 mange tout, all are regular peas which I plan to dry for winter.  I actually am hoping to get enough peas to double my plants next year;  this spring I put down about 500 seeds, but I would love to have 1000 next spring--plus enough for mushy peas and pea soup all winter, of course.

Unexpected self seeding

Mostly tomatoes and chilis, June 2019

Everything's planted, at last!  Well, technically I have some seed trays sown with winter brassicas but not sprouting yet, to be planted out later.  But everything else is done!  It was a big push to get it all out there, both at home in the kitchen garden and at the allotment.  To be honest, I didn't do a lot of direct seeding this year, but mostly focused on raising transplants from seed.  That said, I have had quite a few self seeded plants come up in unexpected places:  a pleasant surprise.

One of them is achocha.  I mean, I knew I missed some of the fruits last year, but I never expected them to self seed.  We'd already put down some transplants at the allotment, and now I'm pulling up most of the new seedlings popping up here, as I already know how much they grow:  enough to smother everything else.  Which will be a good thing at the allotment, but I've already reserved that space here for other things, which happen to need a bit of sunlight.

I'm also drastically thinning out the Aztec broccoli seedlings (not a true broccoli, but related to the weed Fat Hen);  like the achocha I want about five plants only;  it's also a big plant, though not as vigorous as the achocha.  I knew in advance it would self seed readily, so I allowed last year's plants to remain standing, saving me the work of sowing.  It's coming up all over.

I cleared away some massive mizuna plants gone to seed, before the seed pods had matured;  I needed the space for my tomatoes and celery.  I put the whole plants in strategic positions in the perennials section, to hopefully spread the love.  I expect some of the seed will ripen enough on the uprooted plants to germinate later on.  Mizuna is under-utilized here, but I do like the flavor and its reliability.  It's all over the veg beds anyway, in various states of growth/maturity.

And of course speaking of reliable, the chard is both coming up everywhere, and going to flower everywhere.  I'm pulling up the ones that are in the way, and letting a few stay, to make fresh seed.  I'm dehydrating the leaves from all those old ones, keeping the dehydrator going every day.  And then the chickens get the leftover stems with the smallest leaves, which they love.  The ducks like chard too, but weren't impressed with what I offered:  "We only like chard that we pick ourselves."

Now there are four

Two more, June 2019

Two more ducks have joined us, adopted from a local rescue charity.  We know almost nothing about them, other than they are two years old and are female Khaki Campbells.  We can tell from their behavior that they've never been handled--for the first week they ran into their shelter quacking in a panic if we opened the garden gate.  They've acclimatized a bit now and will tolerate us in the garden, but still hide if we approach their fence.  I've managed to hang out laundry on the line, and sit down on a garden chair within about five feet of them.  We want them to be comfortable with us, though we understand it's scary and stressful to go to a new place, completely unfamiliar;  we doubt they'd ever even been outside before--they certainly aren't waterproof like our two ducklings:  hopefully they are now oiling themselves properly.

Separated by a fence, June 2019

The ducklings, meanwhile are even bigger than these two adult ducks!  Comparing them, I'm think perhaps one of them is half Campbell, but maybe neither of them are.  I do think they are half runner duck though, as they are certainly more upright than the Campbells.  We've kept the Campbells in the little chicken tractor while the ducklings have been free ranging (the chickens have been rotating over the bit of lawn and ornamental bed nearest their yard, as I don't have enough chicken wire to accomodate everyone).  When the Campbells are more confident we'll let them join the ducklings to free range and put the chickens back on their full rotation.

Food Totals May 2019

Pretty crowded! June 2019

Vegetables:

40.5 oz celery
14 oz leeks
34 oz purple sprouting broccoli
159.5 oz chard
3.5 oz radishes
35 oz spring cabbage
6 oz spring onions

Total: 292.5 oz or 18 lb 4.5 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 (20 kg)

Jars of dehydrated celery and chard, June 2019

Preserves:

1 medium jar dehydrated celery (stems and leaves)
2 medium jars dehydrated chard leaves (stems frozen)

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Cider still fermenting