Christmas break, December 2023

I do need a break, but with a three year old it's not likely!  Regardless I'll be taking a blogging break for the rest of the month, to return in January with my yearly garden food totals (I've been keeping tally on my calendar in the kitchen).

I've got a few more garden vegetables for Christmas dinner, waiting to be harvested:  a very small Savoy cabbage (I mean, how much cabbage can we eat at once anyway?), a couple of parsnips and daikon radishes (sizes unknown, but probably comparable with the cabbage).  I also have some of last year's almonds for some festive stollen bread, a lovely fresh duck egg went into gingerbread for a house and cookies (made the gingerbread dough yesterday, will bake it tomorrow);  and I have a Christmas pudding made with our dried figs and dried apples.

I'll see you back here in 2024, and until then, a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Growing and eating in December 2023

The son and daughter came with me to do a little sheet mulching at the allotment this weekend, for the first time in about two weeks but we didn't stay long.  Too rainy and muddy (and whiney).  I was hoping the final savoy cabbage might have grown a little in my absence, but it's just as tiny as ever.  Nice and firm head though--we'll eat it at Christmas regardless.  There's one leek bigger than a spring onion, so that is also earmarked.  Other than that, it's slim pickings.  

There's more to eat at the kitchen garden, though that too is mostly past it.  I've picked a few more fennel bulbs which don't look so nice after multiple frosts;  once they're all gone I'll start on the radishes--I can't see them getting any bigger at this point.  I've got both Spanish black and white daikon growing and while the fennel has been ok sized--around 4 or 5 oz each--the radishes look more like 1 oz each. 

We are gradually working our way through the pile of squashes, though to be honest, I think they are going to last us till next autumn when we starting picking them again!  The husband chopped open another big one weighing more than 16.5 pounds, and I made most of it into puree for the freezer, though we ate it every day for a week too (either as a side veg or stirred into whatever slow cooker meal I made each day);  the last of it went into yesterday's chicken and vegetable curry.  It makes an acceptable substitute for tomato in a curry or stew:  a bit of squash puree stirred in and a tablespoon of vinegar for acidity, and it's hard to tell it isn't tomato.  I put a couple dozen of its seeds to dry for next year's planting.  I may save seed from a few others as we eat them (the seeds themselves have thick husks and aren't so good for eating).

Smarter than I thought

I had a surprising encounter with the two ducks last week, when I brought some cabbage leaves home for the chickens.  I gave most to the chickens in their yard, but Girl Duck was quacking at me so I tossed a few down for her, which she set to eating at once.  But then as I walked back to the house, she followed me, quacking more.  Unsure of what she wanted, I waited for her as she walked past me to the water butts and the empty drinking tub there.  She stopped at the tub and quacked again;  so I went over and filled it up.  She backed away quickly, so as not to let me too close to her, but when I stopped she came right over, squeaking this time (the "happy" noise) and got her head right under the water, not even caring about where I was.  That's the first time I've ever had a duck show me what she wanted, like a dog or cat might--certainly I've not had a chicken do so.  I never gave ducks much credit for brains, but maybe they are smarter than I thought.

After months of being locked in their yard, the chickens finally got their first hour of free range yesterday, as our back door has been replaced (it both opens and closes! unlike the old one).  It was too much trouble to walk all the way around from the front door so I didn't bother, but I will let them have an hour a day now as long as no avian flu restrictions come into place.  The ducks themselves have been mostly free ranging all autumn, though I did lock them in before the workmen came with the door--although to be honest, they would probably just hide;  while they are shy of us, they won't even come out if strangers are in the garden.