21 December 2021

Christmas break 2021

For Christmas dinner this year we are going to celebrate with some homegrown food, and since we are only catering for ourselves (unlike Thanksgiving), alongside our festive local turkey we have planned:

Broad beans (frozen earlier in the year), fresh leeks and Brussels sprouts from the allotment and chard from the garden;

Stollen bread made with fresh almond paste; Christmas pudding made with dried apples and figs and our own hen's eggs;

Gravy made with duck stock and garlic;

Homebrewed wine

I will be back in January with food totals for December and grand food totals for 2021.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

14 December 2021

Bird flu again

After keeping our birds under cover all last winter, I was hoping that bird flu would not make an appearance this winter;  but it has and is apparently even worse.  So once again our eight chickens and four ducks are all locked up together at home, instead of working hard in the garden and allotment.

Up until now, the ducks had been free ranging at home, including in the veg patch to clean up bugs and slugs;  as they don't eat many vegetables--unlike chickens--my chard and cabbages are still intact.  Hopefully they got plenty of slugs as they probably won't get another chance at them until the summer.  As for the chickens, I had hoped they could stay all winter at the allotment, where I had begun digging up grass for them.  I won't have much motivation to dig grass now, or even to visit at all for that matter.

Thankfully none of our birds have ever contracted avian influenza, because the whole flock would need to be culled.  It's spread by wild birds and is very transmissable between them and domestic birds, though they say it's very rare that it makes the jump to humans (though very dangerous when it does).  Part of the reason they can't stay at the allotment is that we can't follow their strict biosecurity rules;  the rules are for good reason, as if any birds tested positive on the site, all birds on the site would be culled.  I don't want that to happen to mine, nor to be the cause of it for others.

07 December 2021

Food totals November 2021

Vegetables
 
23 oz chard
14 oz beets
18.5 oz yellow crookneck squash (mature) 

Total:  55.5 oz, or 3 lb 7.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my veg after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.

Fruits
 
1 oz yellow raspberries

Eggs

16 eggs from eight hens and three ducks

30 November 2021

Thanksgiving 2021

A snowy garden
First snow of the season, 28/11/21
The son, age 11, took the above photo of a surprise snow shower at the weekend;  it's the view from our sliding glass door.  At last it has become cold enough to kill the nasturtiums--they are slumped across the path at the right foreground.

We had an alteration of our normal Thanksgiving plans as our American friend had to work late on the day itself;  instead of holding the usual potluck, we had one dinner at theirs on Sunday which they catered, and a feast at ours on the day itself which we catered--and to make up for the missing friend, we invited some neighbors to join us and his family.  So we cooked for 10 people in total, four adults and six children aged between one and 13 (I say we, but the husband actually did nearly all the cooking).

And what was homegrown this year?  Sadly not a lot!  Though I was pleased that all the veg was grown locally, either by ourselves or at a local small farm.  We grew and served:

The best gravy I've ever made with garlic, duck stock and a bit of cider vinegar

Pumpkin pie with our own eggs (which I had saved specially earlier in the month, as our hens have all stopped laying now).

Homebrewed elderberry/blackberry wine and elderflower wine


It doesn't sound like a homegrown feast!  But it was a locally grown feast:  we had lots of vegetables including potatoes from the farm stand (and also the pumpkin for the pie), a big piece of ham from the local butcher, a strawberry rhubarb pie (berries we'd picked ourselves in the summer and rhubarb from a neighbor).  The only main ingredient we couldn't get from a local producer was the turkey itself.  At Christmas our butcher orders them from a nearby farm but before then, turkeys can only be got frozen from the supermarket.

23 November 2021

Inside only

I've been an armchair gardener for the past week, only venturing to the allotment once for a brief chicken visit (the husband does the majority of the chicken chores now that he works from home full time).   They're nearly all in some state of molt:  whether beginning, middle or end, and have pretty much finished laying eggs, probably till January now.

I haven't even gone in my own kitchen garden at home, not even to check on things--though I can see it all pretty much from my patio door and it hasn't changed much.

This time of year I almost always lose the will to garden any more.  Lack of light (it's dark by 4 pm), work schedules, child wrangling, rain, frost, any and all excuses will be offered.  I just need a break from it!

That said, we've had a few light frosts but nothing sharp yet--enough to need to scrape off the car in the morning (north-facing, shaded), but not enough to kill the nasturtiums out back (south-facing, sheltered).  Even the allotment nasturtiums were still alive when I visited them a few days ago, in a much more exposed spot.  

And really, nothing much is happening out there, or really needs to be done.  I'll find time for some sheet mulch, hopefully at home too where the grass and weeds are starting to encroach.  But that's really about it for this year.  Time for reviewing the past year and eating the harvest.

16 November 2021

Reimagining the strawberry beds

This year I was concerned our strawberry bed at the allotment had been choked by grass and wouldn't produce.  I did my best to sheet mulch in between plants and the husband transplanted some of the smaller plants/last year's runners to a cleared spot, and we ended up having a good enough harvest, considering.  

However, here in the middle of November, both the old bed and the new bed are all grass once again, with hardly a strawberry leaf to be seen.  I think I will be simply sheet mulching (again) on top of both beds in the hopes of starting afresh with something else.  

Last month I took four or five large containers, originally from my patio at home, and filled them up with newly made compost and strawberry runners.  For at least the next few years I plan on growing strawberries in containers, which are far easier to get grass out of!  It means I'll probably need to net them against birds, and slugs also might be more of an issue;  but hopefully I'll get at least a similar harvest to this year's, and no grass (or easily eradicated grass).

09 November 2021

Crispy duck

 

A toddler chewing on a bone
The daughter enjoying crispy duck, Nov 2021
 

The time finally came and two of our three drakes became dinner.  The flock of six had been free ranging for a few weeks beforehand;  we wanted to make sure their last days were calm and happy and I think we succeeded, judging by flavor.

The son helped me catch both drakes and hold them steady on the chopping block, but I completed the kill and processing alone.  I bought a 500 g bag of paraffin wax to dip them in to complete the plucking (after watching duck hunter videos on youtube);  this got them almost completely clean of down though I still had to pluck the outer feathers first before dunking in the hot water/melted wax.  

After plucking and cleaning, both carcasses went into the fridge to rest for four days;  then the younger drake became the tastiest crispy roast duck we have ever eaten.  I butterflied the whole carcass, salted the skin, and roasted it slowly in the oven for about two hours.  It was a one-meal bird for our family, but so amazingly good.

This roast gave us about half a cup of duck fat which was saved to make confit with the older drake (using several cups of beef fat also, which we got from the butcher and rendered ourselves);  I cut the carcass into quarters, salted it well, and let it cure for another two days before cooking it in the slow cooker.  The confit is still in the fridge but will be eaten imminently.  Bones of both are to be saved separately from our usual stock-making ingredients to make a special duck-only stock for our Thanksgiving and Christmas gravies. 

To raise our own meat is a long term goal of mine.  The son told me he didn't want to know his meat--though he agreed our crispy duck was delicious--but I'm the opposite:  I want to know our meat.  I want to know that throughout its life it was able to express its natural behavior and eat a natural diet and see sunshine! which almost all farmed poultry in this country don't get.  I know my ducks had very good lives and good deaths too--over before they knew it.

Will I try to raise more meat ducks in the future?  Yes!  We still have our dominant drake and three females, and if our reliable mother hen Cookie goes broody again in the spring I would willingly give her duck eggs once more.

02 November 2021

Food totals, October 2021

Vegetables

22 oz zucchini
68 oz green kuri squash
9 oz radicchio
78 oz chard
12.5 oz green beans
16.5 oz carrots
14.5 oz kohl rabi
1 oz celery
3.5 oz lettuce
4 oz tomatoes
2 oz kale
12.5 golden beets

Total:  243.5 oz, or 15 lb 3.5 oz
 
Note:  I weigh all my veg after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.

Fruit

44 oz flowering quinces (chaenomeles)
2 oz yellow raspberries
 
Total:  46 oz, or 2 lb 14 oz

Eggs

44 eggs from 8 hens and 3 ducks

26 October 2021

Seed saving, Oct 2021

Every year I try to save seeds from certain vegetables, and some strains I have been saving for many years now.  I've been keeping the Lord Leicester peas going for ages, though this year we ended up eating most of them fresh!  I got a few dozen only, but I do have quite a lot from last year which should still be viable next spring.

Another one which I have been growing for several years is the green Kuri squash.  We cooked the biggest one from this harvest already (it met with a little bit of damage during harvest and couldn't be stored) and the husband put the seeds to dry for next year.  It came in at around 4 lb;  while it's a good size for us, none of the others are even half as much.  So to try and get the biggest squashes in the future, we saved the seeds from the biggest one harvested.

I grew two new to me varieties of French beans this year, and have saved seed from both of them;  one is a long podded purple type and the other is a flat podded green type.  Both tasty and fairly productive.  I'm moving away from runner beans--my usual green bean in the past--to French beans as they tend to set beans more reliably in dry summers.  That's not to say I won't grow runners again, but I didn't grow any this year.

Another new to me plant was the yellow crookneck squash, which was not as productive as I would have liked but such a tasty vegetable that I allowed one squash to mature fully for seed; the rest were eaten as young courgettes.  I still plan on trying to cook this lumpy yellow squash--we'll see what it tastes like when mature, but regardless, seeds will be saved.

Not seeds per se, but still continuation of the strains:  this year I saved and have replanted garlic cloves and leek bubils.

I have also acquired some seeds of a huge cabbage (and a few more leek bubils) from a fellow allotmenter, and have a very large Cinderella style pumpkin from the local farm stand, though we'll have to taste test it first (after we attempt to carve it later in the week--it's not a traditional Halloween pumpkin and might require a hatchet to get inside);  while I'd love to grow some big carriage-like pumpkins, I only want them if they taste great too.

19 October 2021

State of the flock, October 2021

Our eight chickens have finally made the move back to the allotment after spending all summer at home;  I grew some excellent sweetcorn, squash and beans in their allotment yard while they were absent.  They are cleaning up the residue of these now, and will probably stay at the allotment all winter unless we have another enclosure order.  They are currently laying 1-3 eggs a day.

I'm hopeful we'll get the plot fully fenced sometime this winter--mainly because I want our ducks to go up and clean up the slugs.  So many slugs up there, just crying out for a duck to come slurp them up.  As of right now, our six ducks are free ranging at home, mowing the lawn and eating bugs and slugs here;  they're not on the veg patch just yet, but I'll try to move the fence to allow them access to it but not the patio--they poo too much for that.  I don't think any of the three females are laying right now, but as none of them lay in a dedicated nest I can't be certain.  I haven't found any eggs for several weeks anyway.

And Peep the duckling?  He is definitely a boy and his days are numbered, alongside one of the older drakes whom the son named Aggro (for good reason--that duck is a jerk).  We will have just the one drake by springtime, which is plenty.  I'm only waiting for it to be a bit cooler before I kill the two of them;  twice it's cooled down to around 12C during the week only for the weekends to climb back up to 19/20C.  I should have them done by November.

12 October 2021

Almonds, 2021

For the past several years I've been trying to keep the almond tree within reach by both pruning and training the branches.  I lost control of that while pregnant with the daughter, and missed my chance again while she was a tiny baby.  I don't think I'll be keeping it small any more now that two years have gone by without intervention.  

And I think I like having this somewhat overly big tree now that I'm stuck with it.  Don't get me wrong, it's not truly a large tree;  it's on semi-dwarf rootstock and for instance won't ever get as big as our mature horse chestnut tree.  But it's taller than the garage it lives next to and is just about as wide;  and this year it's really gone to town on the almonds.  I've been collecting a basketful for the past several days and still haven't quite got all the lower down ones (the ones within my reach).  And the higher up ones?  So many!  The husband has promised to climb on the garage roof and I'll drag out the ladder too.

This tree is a Robijn variety which has more of that classic almond extract flavor found in cookies or marzipan;  they are nice to eat too, but are not what most people would expect and I prefer to use them in cooking rather than eating alone.  In the past, these nuts have been saved for making almond paste to put into our yearly Christmas stollen loaves;  I anticipate needing to find more recipes to use up the rest of them this year!  

I've also been looking up youtube videos on how to crack them more efficiently by hand;  it looks like a hammer and anvil--a flat stone on the floor/ground--is the way to go.  I've had a try and it seems slightly easier than the wire cutters I have used in the past (still pretty time consuming though).

Here's to an excellent almond harvest;  long may it continue.

05 October 2021

Food totals, September 2021

Vegetables
 
2 oz salad greens (lettuce, mizuna, chard)
51.5 oz French beans
22.5 oz squash
103.5 oz chard
66.5 oz zucchini
22.5 oz radicchio
21.5 oz kohl rabi
4.5 oz lettuce
6.5 oz beets
10.5 oz carrots
2 oz kale

Total: 313.5 oz, or 19 lb 9.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include:

12.5 oz sweetcorn (untrimmed)

Fruit
 
74 oz plums
16 oz figs
2.5 oz yellow raspberries
 
Total: 92.5 oz, or 5 lb 12.5 oz
 
Also harvested but not weighed: 
 
2 Laxton Fortune apples
19 Sparta apples

Eggs
 
63 eggs from 8 hens and 3 ducks

28 September 2021

Sheet mulching again

Up at the allotment I've been sheet mulching as much as possible, despite having gone over the whole plot at least once already (and several beds more than once).  The weeds are vicious, especially the grass.  Sheet mulching in spring/summer basically gives my own transplants enough time to get a footing before the grass comes roaring back by autumn:  now.  While both beds seem just as weedy as each other here at the end of the season, as far as harvesting actual food there was a big difference; I was able to grow big plants and harvest food from sheet mulched beds this year, whereas plants in beds without the treatment were simply no match for the weeds.  

However, sheet mulching in autumn and winter will knock back the weeds and grass for longer--possibly until next autumn, depending on how deep I'm able to make it.  I guess spring/summer mulch might last longer if I were able to make it really deep too, but I don't have a lot of cardboard to hand--I'm bringing home small to medium sized boxes from work which will cover about 1x3 m per week (single layer).  It's not thick rigid cardboard unfortunately and each box needs to be overlapped by about 15 cm;  it's enough to exclude light and smother soft vegetation but breaks down fairly quickly.  I will try to pile the stable bedding on as high as possible, but that's the extent of it:  a thin-ish, piecemeal cardboard layer topped by straw and horse manure.

I will say though, the soil is much improved since I started back in 2018;  it's full of worms and holds moisture really well.  I've not needed to water anything at all except the newest transplants and containers this year.  And the horsetails haven't really appeared at all--they covered the place last year.  It's still just teeming with grass!

21 September 2021

Into autumn, 2021

I feel like we've been lucky with a fairly warm and sunny September so far, which has extended the harvest of zucchinis and French beans, among others.  The squashes have produced one or two new fruits this month too, though they may not have time to ripen fully;  they're good whether ripe or immature so I'm not too concerned.

The sweetcorn has all been harvested now, along with all the artichokes, apples, figs and plums.  We still have a few meals of carrots, lettuce, raddicchio, beets; and many more meals of chard!  The chard's really big this year.

Today I planted out the spring cabbages at the allotment;  there are already Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli there, transplanted out in summer.  All of these have had some caterpillar damage and none are particularly big.  I hope the spring cabbages fare a little better--at least caterpillar season is just about over till next summer, by which time these should be already harvested.

Mainly I've been trying to get some autumn sunshine while it lasts, whether at home or at the allotment, and enjoying the harvest as it comes in.  Again, I didn't grow enough to meet our storage needs over winter/spring, but we have a little and should have fresh veg anyway (chard of course).

07 September 2021

Food totals, Aug 2021

Vegetables
 
75.5 oz green and yellow zucchinis
39 oz green tomatoes
1 oz golden tomatoes
113.5 oz chard
9.5 oz kohl rabi
34.5 oz French beans (purple)
20 oz cabbage
11 oz carrots
2 oz oyster mushrooms
22.5 oz artichoke hearts
4.5 cauliflower
5 oz squash (immature)
3.5 oz kale
37 oz potatoes 

Total:  378.5 oz, or 23 lb 10.5 oz
 
Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not included:
 
18.5 oz sweetcorn (untrimmed)
 
Fruits
 
37 oz plums
57.5 oz figs
13.5 oz raspberries
4 oz Sparta apples
 
Total:  112 oz, or 7 lb

Eggs

76 eggs from 8 hens and 3 ducks

31 August 2021

In the allotment, Aug 2021

 

Squash plants growing with sweetcorn
The husband took this photo for me while I was still self-isolating, Aug 2021
We lost 10 days of allotment visiting while self isolating, and I lost a further five days after that (the husband only had the inital 10 days, unlike the children and I).  Thankfully we got some rain and overall it wasn't too hot--nothing suffered from our enforced neglect.

Most of the plot is still pretty grassy, even in some recently sheet mulched beds.  Many of the newer seedlings/seeds I've put down have disappeared--probably from pest pressure.  There are still some late beetroot transplants growing and a few little leeks from bubils (one of my own leeks at home flowered and formed tiny bulbs on its flowerhead which I managed to transplant the day before we began to isolate).  However, recent transplants of fennel and celery and sowings of swede and peas are all simply gone.

The artichokes have been producing steadily and I have a 1.4 L jar of the hearts in brine in my fridge.  The raspberries still continued fruiting till the middle of the month, and though the rhubarb has been unharvested, it's not because of unworthiness.

The best spot producing now is the old chicken yard, full up of sweetcorn, squash and beans.  It had some Roma tomatoes too, but I just pulled them all up as they were showing signs of blight--no red tomatoes present and to be honest not a lot of green ones either, though the plants were enormous.  Regardless, I collected what green fruits there were and brined a batch of spicy pickle with them:  somewhat like salsa.  I had to discard a few affected fruits;  they go brown instead of ripening when blighted so thankfully I managed to save most.

Today I picked the first batch of sweetcorn--to be served at a small dinner for friends we're having tomorrow.  After bringing them home and shucking, I parboiled them to stop them going starchy before eating.  I then made a three bean salad with the French beans I picked, and will be making a potato salad with allotment potatoes;  I'm looking forward to this meal (which will also include a plum cobbler from our tree and some salad greens from the veg patch out back)!

24 August 2021

Judgment Day (for Peep)

 

A chicken and a duck on a lawn
Mother and child, Aug 2021
Judgment Day for Peep the duckling was 31 July.  It came and went while the two adults in our household were stricken with norovirus;  it was a horrible, miserable weekend and no ducks were judged.  However, we then decided that Peep was making more girl noises and not really any boy noises (little quacks instead of croaking) and made a tentative call for female.

I'm still not 100% though!  Peep still says "peep" and doesn't really make any loud noises, like female ducks do--she's quiet, more like the males.  And her coloring is against her too:  it looks like she might be developing a green head like her dad.  She might be a boy after all...

Peep has been living with the other ducks in their spacious yard and is friends with the two Cherry Valley ducks, and recently all three of them have finally been deemed acceptable by the original three ducks (two drakes and a Campbell duck).  Up until now the two drakes have been extremely territoral and there has been a lot of chasing and panicking.  

She was recently reunited with her mother hen Cookie for a brief free range and was so happy about it;  as soon as she saw Cookie she started peeping and ducking her head and trying to get Cookie's attention.  Cookie, meanwhile, was not particularly interested but after first telling Peep off, the two of them had a graze of the lawn together.

If Peep is incontrovertibly a boy?  I may have to kill and eat him after all.  I understand that ducks are extremely difficult to pluck after 10 weeks (long past now), but that won't stop me (being tender hearted is what stops me).

17 August 2021

Eating from the garden, Aug 2021

A garden with trees against a fence
A bit weedy, July 2021

We are self isolating in our household until the end of this week, which means no shopping trips or going to the allotment.  Thankfully at this time of year there is fresh veg in the garden to supplement our food storage (currently at a good level: about a month's worth of meals).  We even have fresh fruit, and we also have some of last year's harvest still in the pantry.

 Mainly our veg out back is the multitude of chard!  It makes a nice salad green and cooks well too, whether on its own as a side dish, or in a stew or the like.  I've also started pulling up some of the carrots.  There are only two short rows;  enough for eating fresh about weekly.  There is an even shorter row of kohl rabi, one of which we have eaten so far.  And fresh herbs to liven things up;  the basil and rosemary are particularly welcome.

We have the garlic from the allotment earlier this summer;  but I'm hoping to save the broad beans in the freezer until winter.  I'd picked a couple of zucchinis and some French beans from the allotment too, which are in the fridge for today (two of the zucs are in the dehydrator for later use).

Figs growing on a branch
One by one figs ripen, July 2021

Our figs have finally started ripening and have been fantastic in smoothies with frozen strawberries, but are also good eating as is.  The rogue blackberries are also coming into their own;  I did not plant them, nor do I want them!  However, the daughter really enjoys stuffing them into her mouth;  they're a bit sour and seedy for my taste but she just loves them.  

We even had a couple of slightly underripe Sparta apples which fell off as I was inspecting a branch.  Sparta is a red apple but these were in shade and completely green.  I staked up the branch and the remaining green apples now have a red blush on them, just a few days later.  However, I don't anticipate eating the remainder till the end of this month at the earliest;  we still have some applesauce and a jar or two of apple halves in the cupboard from last year so we're not completely bereft of apples.

10 August 2021

Taking it easy in August

 

Plastic garden chairs on a lawn near a washing line and a purple clematis
A nice place to relax (and hang laundry), July 2021
A good portion of the back property is not dedicated to our food producing engine:  the washing line gets a lot of use, for instance.  Some parts are simply ornamental, and for us humans to enjoy and share with the resident wildlife.  The blackbirds have been very friendly this year, and we like to see the many other birds such as wrens, goldfinches and dunnets.

As for our lawn;  it feeds chickens and ducks in cooler weather but in summer we prefer to use it ourselves without worrying about poo--those birds seem to produce a lot!  After mowing the son gives them the grass clippings to peck over as a consolation.

It's been nice these past few weeks to sit out in the garden and just relax*.  I do a little maintenance here and there, and I'm steadily working on the weeds at the allotment for half an hour most days (though it's hard to tell by looking!) but mostly it's no work and all play.

*Or chase the daughter around, who is 17 months and loves playing in the garden, rain or shine.  There's a lot of places to explore out there.

03 August 2021

Food totals, July 2021

 

An almond tree with a grape vine growing through it
Almonds and grapes growing together, July 2021

Vegetables
 
66 oz cabbage
6 oz snap peas (in pods)
64.5 oz chard
85 oz peas (shelled)
2.5 oz lettuce
70.5 oz broad beans (shelled)
7.5 oz rhubarb
23 oz artichoke hearts
1.5 oz cauliflower
1.5 oz purple French beans (in pods)
1.5 oz carrots

Total: 329.5 oz, or 20 lb 9.5 oz
 
Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.

Fruit
 
15 oz strawberries
152.5 oz raspberries
16.5 oz blackcurrants 

Total: 184 oz, or 11 lb 8 oz

Eggs

109 eggs from 8 hens and 3 ducks

27 July 2021

Harvesting, preserving, eating July 2021

A garden bed full of chard and weeds
Mainly chard (and weeds), but also some carrots in the left foreground, July 2021
I've been using my wall calendar to tally up daily totals of garden food and this month, July 2021, has seen every day filled up--for those days with other appointments my writing has become very small to fit everything.  We've done a daily trek to the allotment for berries, first strawberries and now rasps; first broad beans and now peas.  I think the raspberries and peas are finally both slowing down a little.
A freezer shelf with plastic bags of berries
Cherries, raspberries, redcurrants (and strawberries below) July 2021
So many berries this month!  We have eaten some fresh and made plenty of jam, but many have gone in the freezer as we simply can't keep up.  I even started a jug of redcurrant wine;  I anticipate it will be brewing all over winter.  It's the first time I've attempted it.

Also on the menu is plenty of leafy greens: we're daily alternating between cabbage and chard this month.  The globe artichokes at the allotment have suddenly taken off and I've been trying to keep on top of them too;  I brine the hearts after cooking and they go great in a salad.  Other allotment winners:  garlic and rhubarb.  We even got a little bit of tasty lettuce before the pigeons found it.  And those peas have just kept coming and coming:  we've been eating them daily and thankfully no one's sick of them yet.

And I've scored some free food from other allotmenters again this summer, though perhaps not as much as in the past;  maybe they think I've been there long enough to be growing enough myself!  But a couple of cucumbers were made into dill pickle relish (with our own garlic and dill), gooseberries became jam, and redcurrants joined my own in the wine jug.

20 July 2021

State of the flock, July 2021

 

Chickens behind a crooked wire gate
The inmates, July 2021
We currently have eight hens and six ducks (three females, two males, one undecided) spread around the property.  

First up are seven hens in their old yard and coop, mostly stuck behind bars.  They have had short free range sessions, but not very regularly.  My bad, really.  I haven't wanted to go out and supervise because of my hayfever;  the husband and son have their own excuses for neglecting them too.  My hayfever is thankfully abating (and was not quite as severe this year) so I really should get them out once a day.

Next are Cookie and the duckling whom we call Peep.  They get to free range on the lawn, to the chagrin of all the other birds.  We are still not sure if Peep is a boy or girl, but are tending towards boy;  the son says girl, but that may be wishful thinking, as he doesn't want us to kill Peep.  But if Peep really is a boy, he's going to be dinner as we just cannot have another drake;  even two is too many and three would be way too hard on the females.  I have promised to do the actual kill though to be honest, I'm hoping Peep is a girl myself.  July 31st is Judgment Day--less than two weeks away.

Two white ducks drinking from plastic buckets
In better accommodation, July 2021
Our last flock are the above mentioned ducks.  Up until about two weeks ago, the new Cherry Valley ducks were still being mercilessly harassed and even attacked by our two drakes, but since the drakes have begun molting, they seem to have calmed down, and the white ducks have even been allowed to approach and even enter the pond, and come within a few meters of the other three.  Our older female, the Campbell, has been much less aggressive towards them and would no doubt accept them into the flock if the boys weren't around.  All of the adult ducks are in a large yard encompassing the Perennials section, pond, and Robot Club (the small section next to our garage).

Eggs?  Around 3 or 4 daily from the hens, and maybe one a week from the ducks--who don't lay in a dedicated nest, so could be laying more.

If Peep survives Judgment Day, she'll go in with the other ducks;  and either way, Cookie will be rejoining the chickens at that time, and all chickens will be returning to the allotment in the autumn, once the main harvest in their old yard there is finished (the growth is simply amazing!).

13 July 2021

Weedy, July 2021

A lush, weedy garden bed
Should be veggies, but is mostly weeds, July 2021

Not only is my allotment a weedy haven, even my own vegetable garden at home is a bit overwhelmed.  The main difference between the two is the type of weeds.  At the allotment it's those difficult biennial and perennial weeds like grass, nettles and dock (among others).  At home it's the softer annual and biennial weeds, many of which are actually self seeded vegetables and flowers:  chard, poppies and celery to name a few.  But they have the same thing in common:  they are growing instead of the vegetables I planted/sowed.

A small kohl rabi plant growing among weeds
At least something I sowed is growing! Kohl rabi, July 2021
 

I have a plan for both places, though I'm not in a position to implement it just yet.  However, here it is.  

For the allotment:

I will be sheet mulching all beds as they become vacant.  This means putting down cardboard and paper and topping with a thick layer of straw and manure from the onsite stables.  Even if I don't plan on replanting straight away, I will be sheet mulching.  I just finished harvesting the last sugar snap peas and gave that bed the sheet mulch treatment;  soon the broad beans will get it too.  When planting, whether this year or in spring, all beds will stay heavily mulched to keep the weeds from germinating again.

For the vegetable garden:

At the end of the season, chickens and/or ducks will be allowed to tidy up for an extended period.  When replanting in the spring, rows will be spaced further apart and a regime of hoeing will be introduced (unfortunately it's too late for effective hoeing this season).  For the present, hand weeding will continue as time permits.

06 July 2021

Food totals, June 2021

Big green cabbages growing against a white wall
Spring cabbages next to the house, June 2021
 
Vegetables
 
9.5 oz salad greens (lettuce, miners lettuce, chard, mizuna, escarole)
58.5 oz chard
4 oz lettuce
7.5 oz leeks
8 oz cabbage greens
16 oz garlic bulb and scapes
10.5 oz snap peas
5 oz rhubarb

Total: 119 oz, or 7 lb 7 oz

Fruit
 
27.5 oz strawberries

Eggs

98 eggs from 11 adult birds

29 June 2021

Growing trees from seed

Hazel seedlings in small pots
I've got five hazel seedlings altogether, June 2021

I wasn't sure if I would get any hazels left alive, as something was nipping off the tops as they emerged in their pots.  Probably a slug, despite the fact I had the tray of them on my patio table.  I also found one seed pulled out of its pot, root broken off--maybe a rodent, though it didn't actually eat the seed, so perhaps a bird tugged it out.  Despite all that, from a good double handful of nuts stratifying over winter, I now have five hazels with strong growth on them, and I have high hopes for their future.  I collected the nuts myself last fall, and they were all good tasty big ones, so maybe in a few more years I'll be collecting them off my own bushes.

Quince seedling in a planter
One year old quince, June 2021
I also have three quince seedlings, all sown from shop bought quinces (I didn't even properly sow them, just scattered them on top of some patio planters in the middle of winter).  One is a full year old, and two are newly emerged, though all were sown the same year:  2019.  The year old one is big enough that I will transplant it into the garden this autumn, and I will try to keep the other two alive (a predecessor dried up in a too-small pot).  I'll also try to keep the hazels alive!

Incidently, I still have a little peach tree in a planter, barely hanging on.  It too was sown from the seed of a shop bought peach, but has been badly affected by leaf curl every year.  I don't think it'll last to be honest, although it is several years old.  It flowered last year for the first time, but has not yet fruited.  You can see its little trunk in the photo above, just behind the quince.

22 June 2021

Elderflower wine, 2021

A basket of elderflowers on a small table outdoors
Just harvested, June 2021

The elders are flowering, including those in my garden.  I have several small ones, all seeded by birds and frankly unwelcome;  I call them weed trees.  However, I also lack the time and motivation to cut them all down (again) and so I will make use of the flowers instead.  And I will probably make use of the berries later too, whether as chicken feed or home brew.  And then maybe in winter I or the husband will get around to chopping them down (again).

To make elderflower wine I picked about 32 flowerheads and gently rubbed the flowers off the stems into a container;  my recipe calls for 500 mL of flowers to 4 L water, and I'd decided to make 8 L--despite not quite having 1 L of flowers.  I also have run out of wine making yeast, so just used regular bread yeast.  I'm sure it'll be fine.  

The brew (including flowers, water, sugar, yeast, lemon juice and a mug of strong tea) is fermenting nicely in my stock pot, there to remain for two weeks before straining into demijohns to continue for another few months before we start drinking--it's best cracked into straight away, and makes a light, refreshing drink.

On a side note, we checked 2020's elderberry/blackberry wine just two weeks ago, to see if it was ready for bottling, but it's still showing signs of fermentation.  Hope to start drinking that by autumn.

And for your viewing pleasure, a gratuitous photo of Cookie and the Peep, who are both now the same height;  Peep is just about 3 weeks old.  We're hoping she's a girl, and will continue referring to her as such (right up to the time we eat him).

A duckling and a chicken together
Cookie and Peep, June 2021

15 June 2021

Life and death

 

Two ducklings in a box
The Peeps (with Cookie's tail in the foreground) June 2021
We are down to just one duckling (aka The Peep), after a predator attack.  The duckling shown above with the white spot on its wings was killed by a hedgehog last week, after it managed to climb into their little yard after dark.  I heard Cookie their mother hen making a terrible racket and dashed outside, as did the son, but we were too late to save it.  

Cookie was very brave and fought it off so that it turned against her instead, but it was heavier than her and too spiky;  she couldn't win that fight.  The son managed to get some garden gloves on and grab the hedgehog off of her;  it had a mouthful of her feathers as he took it away.  I have no doubt that Cookie would have fought to the death if we hadn't intervened.

Cookie and her remaining duckling were very subdued for several days afterward, and didn't come out of their house until yesterday.  I have no doubt that she has mourned her lost child and is wary of losing the other.  

I have adjusted the fencing around their yard;  I don't think a hedgehog can get in again.  I never thought they would be vulnerable to one--cats, rats and hawks yes, but it never crossed my mind a hedgehog would go for a duckling, or that one could even get into their little yard.  I guess we have been lucky all these years never to have lost any others this way and I will have to make sure it never happens again.

08 June 2021

Ducklings!

 Just a few days ago we were commiserating with poor little broody hen Cookie who had dedicated so much time and effort to sitting on a clutch of duck eggs which just hadn't hatched.  Duck eggs take a full week longer than chicken eggs to hatch, and she'd been trying to brood for a few weeks before we actually gave her any to sit on, so she's been extremely patient.  But to our surprise, about three days after their due date, two little peeps were spotted in the chick house!

Mother Cookie is very experienced in hatching and raising a family, but we do wonder what she thinks of these funny little "chicks."  She's treating them just like she has all her other children--and they know she's their mother--so everything is working out just fine.  

I'm not totally sure, but it's possible that these two little ducklings are even cuter than chicks.  Here's hoping they get ugly soon so I don't feel too bad about eating one or both of them;  maybe they're both girls and get a free pass?  We kind of think one might be, but it's hard to tell at this age.

The two new Cherry Valley ducks are enclosed with the other three in their large yard in the Perennials section, but are still very wary of both us and the old ducks, who were spotted trying to drown one in the half-filled pond.  We've let the pond empty and will keep it that way until we're sure everyone is friendly--or at least neutral.  The new ones are mostly keeping under cover in the very back corner.

01 June 2021

Food totals, May 2021

Vegetables
 
21.5 oz purple sprouting broccoli
17.5 oz salad greens (chard, miners lettuce, lettuce, arugula, mizuna)
3.5 oz turnips
46 oz chard
8 oz leeks
20.5 oz iceberg lettuce
0.5 oz oyster mushrooms 

Total: 117.5 oz, or 7 lb 5 oz

Fruit
 
No fruit harvested

Eggs
 
123 eggs from 10 adult birds


26 May 2021

Two more ducks

We had a last minute offer to pick up a couple more rescue ducks this week, so we took a box and off we went on an adventure.  We could have got more than just two but our broody hen Cookie is sitting on four of our own duck eggs, due to hatch on the 31st which is less than a week away.  We don't know if they will hatch, but we don't want to be overrun with ducks just in case they do!

However we are very clear with ourselves (and especially the son) that we are eating any boy ducks.  We already have two, and that's too many.  Our older female (her sister died last year) is overmated as it is, and it's not fair on her.  Hence the need for a few more females.  Thankfully the males give up on mating over the winter, so at least she gets a break then.  

Our two new ducks are Cherry Valley ducks (our other female is a Campbell and the males are of unknown heritage:  mutt ducks).  They are very wary of us, just as the to Campbells were when we got them, but it's understandable;  they've been locked up in a barn their whole lives and not been handled at all.  It took several months for the Campbells to get accustomed to us without running away in a panic--the remaining one isn't friendly, but at least she's not particularly scared any more.

The original three are currently free ranging while the two new ones are quarantined in the chicken yard;  the chickens are at the allotment.  I actually am planning on bringing the chickens back home this weekend so we might play musical yards and switch everyone around:  all the ducks in their own yard and the chickens in theirs.  Luckily ducks aren't sharp like chickens so hopefully integration won't be too painful for them.

17 May 2021

Gardening in May

 I had a really good look at the trays holding the hazel seedlings and found one tiny slug hiding--is it responsible for the lack of hazel sprouts?  After dispatching said slug I also moved the pots to a different location.  Hope some of them can manage to emerge now.  And one batch of French beans really were moldy--they just went soft;  the other batch got planted out at the allotment at the weekend, and I put some very prickly gorse trimmings on top of the rows in an effort to deter mice digging them up again.  I hope to get the runner beans in within the week too:  I've cut up another pile of gorse trimmings.

I've been trying to hand weed the beets and other root veg I sowed in the kitchen garden.  I really should have put down a string between two sticks to mark the rows, so I could hoe them!  As it is, I'm pulling by hand very carefully and I can only identify beets and turnips (or possibly kohlrabi).  The weeds are mainly self sown mizuna, chard and poppies and they come up pretty easily.  I have a little more unsown space left, which I have hoed a few times, trying to clear away enough so that not quite as many unwanted seedlings pop up later.  Maybe I'll mark these rows clearly.

My summer veg seedlings on the kitchen windowsill are all up, and a few trays have gone outside for acclimatization:  two kinds of climbing beans and some sweetcorn.  All the rest are still a little small and the temps are still a little cool (around 15C during the day).  

I think the main gardening effort has now been made;  it's time to mop up those last little jobs (transplanting mainly), and then move on to maintenance until harvest time.

10 May 2021

French beans and hazel seeds

 After a largely dry April, we're back into some rain.  The rain barrels are finally full again, and the soil is damp.  Only last week I could let the daughter loose at the allotment and only have to worry about dusting her off at the end;  but two days ago she found herself a big puddle to sit in (and try drinking from! eek) and there was no dusting that off.  She's walking independently at last and we now have to keep an eye on her there--while she still enjoys sitting and digging, she also wants to explore.

I think it's also finally turned warm enough to start getting the French and runner beans in.  We also had a lot of frost in April, and though we had a mid-May frost last year (unheard of!) I'm pretty confident that was just a freak and won't be a regular thing.  I've been gardening here for 16 years now and that's been the first May frost I've seen;  I'm happy to start transplanting.  

However, some of the French beans I put on to sprout just look like they're going moldy.  I hope they do something--a little bit of mold shouldn't hurt, but obviously not if they aren't germinating.  I've got two trays of them now sprouting in paper tubes though, so all is not lost.  I didn't get any French beans last year:  I think the slugs ate all the seedlings after I transplanted them at the allotment. 

The runner bean seeds aren't yet germinating either, but don't look very moldy either, thankfully.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  The slugs also ate the first batch of runner beans I'd transplanted, but I started a late second batch, and also had a small batch at home--not quite so many slugs here, thanks to the ducks.

Incidently, some of the hazel seeds I'd stratified over winter did start to sprout;  I  potted them up in March but they're still not doing much.  One finally sent up a shoot, only for something to nip off its newly emerging leaves.  A slug?  I don't know.  I can see some roots growing out of the bottom of a couple pots, but no other shoots. 

03 May 2021

Food totals, April 2021

Vegetables
 
10.5 oz salad greens (lettuce, miners lettuce, chard, mizuna, radicchio)
5.5 oz iceberg lettuce
27.5 oz leeks
1 oz oyster mushrooms
14 oz purple sprouting broccoli
4.5 oz kale
57 oz squash (last of the 2020 harvest)
25 oz chard
1.5 oz red cabbage

Total: 146.5 oz, or 9 lb 2.5 oz
 
Fruit
 
No fruit harvested this month
 
Eggs
 
144 eggs from 10 adult birds
 

26 April 2021

Getting the allotment into shape

All the action is at the allotment right now:  the most exciting thing happening at home is the kitchen window filled up with seed trays--most of which will be planted out at the allotment!  Some seedlings in the kitchen garden are sprouting (pretty much all root veg this year) but it's mainly a waiting game here;  the allotment's where it's at.  Warning:  allotment photos to follow!

An allotment mulched with straw, a person in the background
The view from the allotment track, Apr 2021
And yet, I'm still only getting work done at the weekends.  The son, daughter and I manage to walk up in the mornings before school for chicken chores:  feed, water, collect eggs.  I try to dig a few clumps of grass for them before we leave and the son might water a few things, but there's no time to tarry;  he's got school and I've got to get Joy to childcare and myself to work.  The husband generally does the evening chicken check after work, and he will dig a few more grass clumps and/or water as well.  That's it for weekdays.

However, we try to get a good couple hours in at the weekends.  This past weekend I cleared the remains of the leek bed of grass/weeds and spread compost over the top.  I also sheet mulched another (small) grassy bed further down with cardboard, paper feed sacks and straw on top.  I also put down a few dozen sticks for the peas to climb up;  they're just emerging now, both snap peas and regular ones.  

Raspberry canes and a partial tool shed at the allotment, Apr 2021

And the husband put together a ramshackle tool shed out of odds and ends we'd scavenged from the allotment rubbish heap and our own garage.  He also dug out a wheelbarrow of compost and topped up the newest bin with fresh horse manure from the stables on site.

We are still eating the last small leeks, a few lettuces, and the somewhat scanty purple sprouting broccoli.  The garlic and broad beans are looking sturdy and some of the strawberries are beginning to flower.  Next month I'll hopefully be planting out the summer veg:  pumpkins, sweetcorn, French and runner beans, and more;  and a little later on I should be transplanting the autumn and winter brassicas.  It's shaping up to be a good season. 

Two rows of leeks growing
A few leeks left, Apr 2021

19 April 2021

Cheeky

We have a nesting pair of blackbirds in the ivy that grows up our garage wall.  The female is the boldest little bird on the block, who has come to expect a daily offering of uneaten scraps from the daughter's high chair.  We call her Cheeky bird. 

When I work in the garden, Cheeky is constantly at my elbow, waiting for me to dig up worms.  She gets close enough for me to reach out and grab--lucky for her I don't want to!  She follows me around, or investigates the garage, or tries her luck in the newly sown seed beds.  

The daughter loves watching Cheeky, who last week came to the doorstep as we were coming home from childcare, as if asking to come in.  The daughter laughed:  "Cheeky!"  Later that day she even sat on the windowsill as I was in the living room, watching me and looking for a way in.  I hadn't thrown out the scraps yet, and she obviously needed to remind me of my duty.

Cheeky's mate is much shyer;  we call him Mr Cheeky or Cheeky Daddy.  He's just as industrious as his mate, but won't stick around if the humans are in sight.  We watch him out the window as we sit in the kitchen:  "Cheeky!" calls the daughter.

There are some other regulars to our garden including Puny the robin, a pair of collared doves and the little dunnet family, but none are so friendly and fearless as our little Cheeky.

12 April 2021

Flowering

Just this weekend I used up the frozen Morello cherries from last year;  I made a big cherry crumble which was a hit with the family.  Last year's harvest amounted to about half a large freezer bag.  Admittedly, not a huge harvest.  It's a small tree, but I'm hopeful that its two friends the Kordia and new addition Stella will add to the bounty this summer.  All three are just opening their lovely white buds.

The Czar plum tree is also flowering, along with the Robijn almond (it's a beautiful pink).  Last year we didn't get many plums, but there are many more of its white blossoms this spring (though it's not as profuse as the almond).  I've seen and heard the bees working their magic in both.

However, I'm a little concerned about the frosts we've been getting recently.  It seems as though the blossoms are still ok, but I'm not sure what to expect if they get too frosted:  do they fall off immediately, or will I have to wait to find out until the fruit forms (or not)?  There have been several sharp frosts this week, and though all of my trees are in somewhat sheltered positions I'm not extremely confident about them.

The two apple trees and various soft fruits are not yet flowering, though the bright orange berberis is.  I hope it's covered in its tiny purple berries this summer;  though we don't really eat them ourselves, we love to watch the birds enjoying them.  And the chickens love them too.

05 April 2021

Food totals, Jan-Mar 2021

Vegetables

33 oz leeks
1.5 oz broccoli
15 oz cauliflower and greens
156.5 oz pumpkin (harvested 2020)
16 oz squash (harvested 2020)
65.5 oz Brussels sprouts
8 oz salad greens (miners lettuce, lambs lettuce, chard, mizuna, iceberg lettuce)
2 oz oyster mushrooms
2.5 oz kale
3.5 oz cabbage
Total: 303.5 oz, or 18 lb 15.5 oz

Fruit
No fruit harvested

Eggs
124 eggs from nine hens and one duck

29 March 2021

General update, March 2021

Photos?  Who needs photos!  It's been so long since I took a photo that I'm just completely out of the habit of it.  I don't use a smart phone so I take pictures on an old digital camera.  When I take pictures, that is.  The husband sometimes sends me photos he's taken, but unfortunately they're rarely of the garden or allotment.  

But anyway, back to the subject at hand.  Tomorrow (31 March) poultry all over the country are allowed out of confinement again.  At last!  Our chickens will be making their way back to the allotment, while our ducks will have their usual free range on the non-veg portion of our small property.  We'll have to sort out their pond (again). 

Our family all has this and next week off work and school and we are doing some work around the place.  Seed sowing, weeding and hoeing, pruning, planting.  And some other non garden jobs around the house.  We have a long list of things to get done, and gardening is right at the top of the list.  Time to get stuff done.

This month I've direct sown some root veg seeds, and sown several trays of brassicas and salad greens.  I've also got a few sowings of snap peas and broad beans up at the allotment (the first broad beans are now poking up) and a couple of trays each of leeks and onions just about to transplant out.  I've also been spreading some great compost which has been maturing over winter:  dark brown and crumbly goodness.

And we've been digging out grass and weeds at the allotment, and supervising the chickens and ducks while they do the same in the veg patch.  I've collected a pile of cardboard for another small round of sheet mulch--possibly in and around the allotment's strawberry plants in the hopes it smothers grass long enough for the plants to flower and fruit this summer.

23 March 2021

Not enough time?

I have gone back to work after taking a year off to look after the daughter (who has just turned one).  I've also (perhaps rashly) agreed to double my old hours.  I still work part time but am closer to full time hours, at least till the end of July.  When I pick up the daughter from childcare she needs a nap immediately--I can do a little bit of gardening out back during this time, but must constantly check inside in case she wakes up (she sleeps on a bed and I don't need her waking up and roaming around!).  

I have other household chores to do during naptime too, which are much easier/safer when she is not around, like cooking and some cleaning.  And I also really need time to just sit down and catch my breath--I'm on my feet constantly at work, and it's tiring!  So gardening has not been a top priority.

And I find myself in a strange position where I cannot visit the allotment during the week.  I have been doing the weekend only;  the son and I went for an hour on Sunday for digging weeds and planting caulflowers.  That will be it until next weekend.

It's the busiest--and most critical--part of the whole year, and I don't have enough time!  Last year I had a tiny baby as my excuse;  I was hoping for better this spring.

16 March 2021

State of the flock, March 2021

I had hoped the AI (avian influenza) enclosure order for poultry would be lifted by now, but our flock of nine hens and three ducks are still locked away and hating it.  They're hating it so bad they've not been laying for pretty much the whole time--we've been getting somewhere between one and four eggs a week from ten adult birds.  Nobody's happy--them or us.

I have let them take short supervised breaks into a small adjacent run (on the veg patch), but it's only for about an hour at a time, and not every day either.  They have done some excellent work in such a small amount of time on it, tidying up weeds and spent Brussels sprouts plants, and eating bugs and scratching up the soil.  It'll be ready for planting up very soon, then I'll move the run onto the lawn.

I'm not sure if we'll be raising any chicks this year;  we didn't last year as our flock was too big (12).  Unless we lose a few more chickens, I think our flock size is still big enough.  We've been talking about trying to raise some ducklings instead, but it would mean killing and eating excess males--and ducks are a lot cuter than chickens.  But then, drakes are as agressive as cockerels--just a lot less sharp--so maybe it wouldn't be so hard to kill them after all.  And duck is so tasty... 

But yeah.  If our duck starts laying eggs ever again, and our little hen goes broody at some point, we might try her with them for some ducklings.  If not, I don't think we'll be adding any more to the flock any time soon.  And hopefully I'll be letting them out for some proper free range very soon.

09 March 2021

At the allotment, March 2021

 First off, ours is still not quite the weediest plot on the allotment site, but only just.  A combination of digging over the last summer (to give to chickens) and sheet mulch over winter has reduced the weeds by about a third.  A third-ish.  Maybe closer to a fourth.  But anyway, there are fewer weeds than last year, which had fewer than the year before.  

Actually our weeds are mostly just grass.  Really coarse, tenacious grass--the kind that throws out lots of long fragile runners.  I don't think digging it out is a viable solution, unless the diggers are chickens who spend a month in the same spot.  Even then, the chicken yard is now starting to regrow some grass;  despite it being about three inches deep in manure, there is still some determined blades showing through.  Of course if they were still there it would be taken care of immediately;  they've been off it since November.

Sheet mulch seems to be a better solution, as the spots which were deeply sheet mulched last winter (as opposed to a few places where the mulch was kind of shallow) seem less grassy.  The grass there looks newly grown from seed rather than established clumps.  Also, the sheet mulched sections are much softer, richer soil with lots of worms--easier to dig.  It's not a perfect solution however:  grass is not eradicated here, just set back.  Sheet mulch is a lot less work than digging, another reason I prefer it.

As for digging, I've been doing a little in order to sow some rows of broad beans and snap peas.  I got a couple rows of the broad beans down already, and will hopefully get a couple more by the end of the week.  

The son has also been digging!  I've struck a deal with him:  I will pay him £1 for every bucket of grass--with roots, not just the tops--he digs out of the strawberry bed.  It's the one bed where the grass has taken over completely and I almost think it might be unsalvageable.  I wanted to transplant to a different spot, a sheet mulched spot, but I think it's the wrong time of year now.  But then again, if the strawberries are swamped in grass they might not fruit anyway this year, so will I actually lose anything if I transplant?  He has earned £3 so far.

02 March 2021

Getting back to work

 It's been a long, cold, lonely winter.  I guess it's still winter technically, but March is the first month of spring isn't it?  The days are much longer now than two months ago though we are still getting some frosty nights.  Regardless, I've been itching to get out there and do some stuff.  And I have!

A few weeks ago the son and I pruned the fruit bushes and took some cuttings from the redcurrant trimmings.  I took some last winter too but it seems they all disappeared over the year.  Hope a few of these take (I had several take the year before which were given to friends).  

We also pruned the tiny Asian pear of its longest branch dragging on the ground.  I took five scions off of it and attempted grafting them to the stump of the (non) flowering pear tree which the husband cut down earlier.  While inspecting them yesterday it seems that two look dead, two look mostly dead, and one looks not dead yet.  I guess if none of them take it's not a huge deal.  I no longer have any expectations from that Asian pear;  it's older than this blog but is still pretty much the same size as when it was planted.  The other pear was getting out of hand, far too tall and spiky, and had never flowered.  It was meant to be a pollinator for other pears in the garden, but was just not working out (especially the spikyness).  And those other pears are all dead anyway.

Just this weekend I raked and weeded one of the veg beds and sowed it with a variety of root veg seeds.  Just a few short rows, I sprinkled crushed eggshells over them as a slug deterrent, then covered the bed with crisscrossed sticks as a bird deterrent (mainly against escaped chickens).  Last year the veg patch was mainly planted up with brassicas with a few other things here and there;  I think I'll do mostly roots this year.  All the other veg can go to the allotment. 

23 February 2021

Garden therapy

In some ways I look forward to winter as a break from the hard work out in the garden.  It gives me a chance to pick up some of my indoor pursuits, like knitting and other crafting and making.  However, I do find too much of the indoors isn't so good for my mental wellbeing, and this time of year--not quite spring but warming up, getting lighter--I start to miss my garden.  I suppose gardening in the tropics must be hard work--no season of rest like the temperate regions.  I do some very occasional garden tasks in winter:  maybe for 10-20 minutes one day a week (or every other week);  some things still grow here in winter.  For instance, I potted on some overwintered cauliflowers this past week.  It was nice to be out there doing something, no matter how small.

But it's been windy and not very sunny out there, despite a rise in temperature.  Not good for most garden tasks:  I keep putting off the weeding because of the weather!  Also not good for just hanging out there.  On sunny, calm days I like to just step outside and inspect the grounds.  Maybe sit down on the patio bench for a little while.  It feels good.  I haven't sat on that bench since last year and I miss it.  It's not even a very comfy seat!  But being outside in the calm and feeling the sun makes it much comfier.

Having my garden and this blog has helped me through some hard times.  I don't mention much of my non-garden life here, but we all have our own tragedies anyway, talked about or not.  And the past year has been a hard year for everyone, we can all agree.  I'm thankful for the small peace my garden gives me.

16 February 2021

The end of an era (of garlic)

 We ran out of garlic last week.  I don't know how many years it's been since we *stopped buying garlic--both for cooking and planting--maybe even before the start of this blog.  But last year's harvest up at the allotment (my first time growing it there) just wasn't sufficient and we've used up the last (small) head.

Actually pretty much all of the heads were small.  Maybe the soil wasn't good enough, or maybe it was too hot and dry in the month before it ripened, but last year's harvest was thin at best.  I saved the biggest heads for planting out  (again at the allotment--I hope I don't regret it) and the rest was meant to last us a full year.  Will we go without garlic until harvest?  That would mean waiting till June at the earliest, or likely July.  We like garlic, and we've already been going easy on it to make it last;  instead of two or three cloves in a recipe, we were using just the one.

*We did actually buy garlic last year:  extras for planting out.  Since the harvest was so bad I wanted some fresh stock to make sure this year's harvest would be more numerous.  I hope it is!  I really dropped the ball with this one.

09 February 2021

Seeds in winter

 I gathered some hazelnuts last autumn and have been trying to stratify them over winter.  I put them in a bag with a few handfuls of damp sand and hung it from a rafter in my unheated garage (to be out of reach of mice and rats).  I had a check on them last week but they don't look very promising:  they are supposed to sprout sometime this month, but it doesn't look like any are yet.  Well, I guess I'll have to wait;  at least they were free, so no loss if none germinate.  I would like to plant some out back by the chicken yard.

I have a tray sown half and half with leek and onion seeds, hanging out on the kitchen windowsill.  I hope they at least do something!  I broadcast them directly onto the tray and will prick them out when they've sprouting and grown a bit.  Hoping to have at least fifty each, or more;  these are for the allotment, but probably not to plant out until March.

And I also put a packet of 50 broad bean seeds to sprout, treated in a similar way to the hazelnuts above.  They, however, should only take a couple weeks to sprout, rather than all winter.  I have some tiny broad bean plants at the allotment from last autumn's sowing, although there seem to be some gaps in the rows.  I have one more packet of seeds in reserve, probably for starting in a few more weeks.  Once these sprout I'll plant them next to their more advanced friends at the allotment.  Provided it's not completely frozen or flooded (had both recently).

02 February 2021

Seasonal fruit in winter

Well, winter isn't fruit season, is it?  Sure, it's available in the shops, but it's shipped in from across the globe, most likely.  Or it's been held in a low oxygen refrigerated warehouse since it was picked months ago. It's available yes, but not seasonal.

For a few years now we haven't really bought much if any fruit out of season.  Fruit in summer, certainly.  Autumn, no problem.  But winter to early spring, not really.  We get our vitamins and minerals from vegetables instead.  However, things are slightly different this winter:  I had such a good year for fruit in 2020 that I have many preserved still in the freezer and cupboard.  As a result, our family has been enjoying homegrown and own picked fruits long after the season is over.

What are they? 

  • Bottled halves of apples, pears
  • Bottled applesauce, apple butter
  • Dried slices of figs, strawberries, apples
  • Jars of raspberry jam
  • Frozen whole strawberries, blackberries, pitted cherries, raspberries
  • Frozen applesauce, plum puree

Seriously, we have had some excellent fruit dishes with the above so far this winter, including Christmas pudding and mince pies (dried fruits), ice cream and fool (berries and plum puree), trifle (berries), fruit and custard (bottled apples), linzertorte (raspberry jam).  There's plenty left too--I've got all of the above in my near future, and maybe a few more like fruit pies and crumbles.  And don't forget a nice bowl of warm applesauce and cream--or the son's favorite, frozen strawberries and cream.