the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Comfort food

It's really miserable here - raining steadily, windy, cold. I just can't seem to get going - nor can the fire. I decided to light it to dispel the gloom, but it's gone out with a whimper. I'll go and try it again, I think.

I have prepared some rhubarb for the freezer and I've started to make some Old Dowerhouse Chutney. It has preserved ginger in it, so I had a wee nibble to get me warmed up!

To comfort myself, I've put a rice pudding in the oven. We've loads of milk and, well, it's comfort food. It's so easy to make, too.

The recipe I use is:
Butter an oven proof dish; put in 2oz pudding rice, 1 1/2 oz soft brown sugar, a good handful of sultanas and two pints of whole milk. You can use semi-skimmed if you must. Stir. Grate some nutmeg on top and put the dish in the oven at 175C for about 2 hours or until the rice is tender.

I find I hardly use granulated sugar now; unrefined brown sugars add flavour as well as sweetness.

Who needs Ambrosia, when you can make your own.

Cass's marker

We finally got round to getting Cass's headstone in place today. It is a piece of sandstone from the garden. I think it looks rather good.

Cheeps

I think our two cheeps might be hens. That would be good. I'm pretty sure they are both the same sex and they look too fine to be cockerels. Fingers crossed.

They also look like Light Sussex; the cockerel was Light Sussex and the hen either Light Sussex or ex battery, but I suspect the former.

They're only six weeks, so will be in their run for a while yet.

Kittens

Any excuse to post some new photos.

The boys are growing and getting very adventurous. Harry is quieter and more reserved, unless he's having a mad turn; Bertie is hyper all the time he is awake. Bertie sleeps curled in a tight ball; Harry sleeps very extravagently, stretched to full length on the bed.

Their new favourite resting spot is on top of the hay bales; favourite play area is in the vegetable netting; favourite toy is a scrunched up bit of paper - they get one each and play for ages, batting it round the house.

New lambs

We brought our new Ryeland lambs home today. They are half sisters to our own three and are called Lucy and Luna. They seem to have settled in OK.

Lucy is a triplet, but she's huge, with a great back end. If I ever get round to getting them halter trained, I might show her next year.

Lilac

Dan planted my Lilac today; it was a leaving gift from a friend, when I left work. I have been dithering about where to put it, but decided that if it was beside the gate to the vegetable garden, we'd pass it a lot in Spring and get the benefit of the lovely scent.

The variety is Syringa x Josiflexa "Bellicent", which has fragrant, clear rose-pink flowers in May and June.

Autumn

It feels distinctly autumnal. The light has changed and it's cooler; the leaves on the trees have barely started to change, but it feels different.

I love autumn - it's my favourite time of year. I hope we get some good weather, since our barbeque summer didn't quite happen. It's been lovely today, especially when the breeze dropped. It was the kind of day when you just HAD to be outside, putting things in order.

Dan cut the grass in the garden, the vegetable garden and the orchard - hopefully that will do it this year, since we bring the sheep on to it in the winter. I've been weeding and brushing up - our garden looks almost respectable, for once. I might buy some bedding plants tomorrow and really go for it and fill some pots and tubs for early colour. That's the easy bit - keeping the hens off it is the challenge!

Harvesting

We lifted the garlic, onions and shallots today. The garlic was planted late but has done well; the onions are poor - "something" got under the netting and took off all the foliage quite early on; the shallots are pretty good.

We lifted the remains of the broad beans and gave them to the pigs, who loved them. We're not growing them next year - we don't like them much. We've grown French beans this year and we do like them a lot, so we'l grow more next year. We'll need to pick the last of them and freeze them in the next few days before they get too coarse. The peas are finished and need to come out. The runner beans are still in full production! I'd like to get a green manure in, if possible.

Two of the apple trees are groaning; in fact one has split its trunk so Dan's having to do some repairs. The Egremont Russet is poorer this year, but Sunset and Dumelow's Seedling have done really well.

The Victoria plums are ripening; I picked some today and plan to make Old Dowerhouse Chutney this week. Dan's dad gave us a tree from his garden, where it was fan trained on a fence; in our orchard, it's a 2-D tree. I think it will need some prudent pruning.

Update w/e 16th August

Well, we’ve seen the end of an era here this week. Our old Rhode Island Red hen finally fell off the perch, literally. We bought her as part of a batch of eight point of lay pullets in 2003 and she was the only one left. She did look old, but she was fine right up until the end, except she couldn’t manage to get up on the roosting perches the night she died. Dan found her in the morning, stiff as a board. We’ll miss her – although she wasn’t really tame, she knew that hanging round the kitchen door was good way to get any treats going. She was also Hector’s “enforcer” and could put all the younger hens in their place.

Dickie seems to be fine after his operation. We checked him again this week and he seems to have healed completely. Juno needed dagging – removing soiled wool from around her back end to prevent fly strike – so that was a rare treat for us all. We’ll check her again later in the week. I’ll do a worm egg count and review our worming strategy.

We’ve weaned the two male lambs. Naturally, it wasn’t without incident. We decided to put the ewes in the rented field across the road and leave the lambs on new grass in the top half of the orchard, where there are no fruit trees for them to eat, using the electric fence. The moves went smoothly but when I went out about 15 minutes later, Dickie and Jura were back in the orchard. Dickie was munching on plums, not having any of his own anymore (!)

So, we put them all back in the river field and started again, after adding a strand to the electric fence. If they can clear that, they’re going to the Hickstead! The lambs and ewes can see each other and there was some nose touching through the fence yesterday but, to be honest, the lambs don’t care – it’s the ewes doing the bleating. I thought they would be glad to see the back of them, but apparently not.

We’ve left Lyra, Jura’s ewe lamb, with the ewes – she’s the youngest and Jura the most troublesome, so we’ll let the boys and their mothers settle, then move Lyra. She needs to get her second dose of Heptavac P Plus this week anyway.

I’ve bought two more ewe lambs and will pick them up next weekend. They are half sisters to Lyra, which will make finding an unrelated tup easier, when the time comes. Both are registered – but we’ll have to choose names for them, starting with the letter “L”.

I am taking up post next month as Project Co-ordinator for Forth Valley Countryside Initiative, Working for the Royal Highland Education Trust, I will be working with schools and farmers to improve links to the countryside including organizing school visits to farms and farmer visits to schools. It’s initially for one year and I’m really looking forward to it.

It was the Central Scotland Smallholders’ Association annual barbeque on Saturday. Our Secretary and her husband hosted the event at their smallholding in Fife. It stayed dry but was very windy, especially on their hilltop site. A good afternoon was enjoyed by everyone – Graham had organized a “Show what you grow” event, including classes for best nettle, best dock and best thistle, so we all had a chance to compete, regardless of our gardening skill. Dan won the “Best Rude Vegetable” with his “bottomato”. I don’t know if he’ll be able to repeat that success next year!

Update w/e 9th August

Well, it’s been a week with a couple of new sheep experiences here – castration and ear tagging.

After some deliberation, Dickie, one of our Ryeland tup lambs, was castrated by the vet on Thursday. He’s not good enough for breeding (Dickie, not the vet) and I just couldn’t eat him, so we’re keeping him as a companion for Li’l’ Bud, who won’t be able to run with the ewes for much longer. This will be the only year such sentimentality is allowed.

On Friday, we had a foot trimming session, for both ewes and lambs. We don’t turn them over now; Dan holds their heads and they stand quietly while I trim their feet as you would a horse. Although none of them were lame, some of their feet were quite long and they will be more comfortable now. We also took the opportunity to put in the lambs’ ear tags. I did try this on a lambing course, but the lambs there were a few days old, not like our bruisers. Anyway, it went pretty smoothly and, to be honest, it didn’t seem to bother the lambs at all. We did Bud first, and his first tag is the poorest but I got better with the rest. Next week, we’re going to wean the lambs and move the ewes to a different field. I never see the lambs suckle now and the ewes’ udders were soft when I checked them yesterday. The ewes are in pretty good condition, so I don’t want them getting over fat this year.

I’ve been to see two ewe lambs that I am interested in buying. They are half sisters to Lyra, which will make finding an unrelated tup easier, when the time comes.

The broody hen laid an egg this morning, so I reckoned she was ready to be relieved of her mothering duties. The chicks are now nearly six weeks old and will be fine without her, but they will be in an enclosed run for a few weeks yet. They would still be easy prey for crows, magpies and other predators. Both chicks are developing black collars, like Light Sussex. I hope they are both pullets. The Warrens and the Leghorns are now fully integrated and are ranging far and wide. The Leghorns are quite flighty but the Warrens are docile birds and are a bit put upon by the Black Rocks. Fortunately, they have plenty of room to run away, if need be.

The kittens are an absolute joy. We can mostly tell which is which, but it’s easier if they are both there. They’ve been allowed outside this week, while we’re around, and have had great fun. Bertie was on top of the shed, and Harry has scaled the garage roof successfully. The ranch fencing is very popular, too, since they are small enough to get between the two layers of rails. They fascinate Tess, one of our collies, – as all young things apart from children do – and she follows them around, tail wagging. The relationship got a little strained when one of the kittens tried to muscle in on Tess’s breakfast, but no harm was done. We had some torrential rain today, after a week of dry weather, and the kittens were running back and forth through the scullery door, in and out of the rain.

We picked the biggest of the “Forono" beetroot today and pickled it in red wine vinegar. I like the cylindrical beets for pickling, but also grow globe ones for roasting. The sheep loved the beetroot tops – even Jura!

We ate the last of our homegrown chickens tonight, with roast “Mayan Gold” potatoes, runner beans and peas. We’ve got another eight Hubbards about ten weeks old now, so they will be ready for slaughter in a couple of weeks. Previous batches have been all white and very uniform in size, but this batch is a variety of colours and various sizes, so they will be ready at different times.

The “Mayan Gold” potatoes are delicious steamed but they are hopeless for boiling – one second they are fine, the next you’ve got a pot of potato soup. Roast, they were delicious too, but a bit strange – the skin was crispy, but the inside seemed to have evaporated. That’s the last of them now, so it’s on to the “ordinary” spuds now. We planted “Desiree” and “Druid” – the former is a favourite of ours, the latter is new to us. We lifted some “Druid” a couple of weeks ago and roasted them – we were well impressed. I never thought potatoes could be so fascinating!

Update w/e 2nd August

I have to confess that it hasn’t been the most productive week here. It’s all the kittens’ fault – they are just so cute and such terrible timewasters. We can now tell the difference between them with reasonable certainty. Bertie is blacker and has a shorter, thicker coat than Harry, and is much bolder than his brother. Bertie blanks the dogs but Harry goes past them like a hairpin, tail like a lavvy brush and spitting. The dogs simply look bemused. They have been outside for the first time this weekend and are exhausted. Our garden is like a jungle (see below) so they have been very busy exploring.

Our garden is a bit of a jungle (see above). With more time now, I am resolved to make it into something I am less ashamed of. In my previous life, the Council’s Land Services Manager would ask me every year if I was entering the Garden Competition – was she having a laugh, or what? I don’t aspire to winning prizes but being sure that there are no families of pygmies living in it without our knowledge would be a start. Alas, the wildflower meadow is therefore doomed. It’s just in the wrong place and wildflowers grow all around our property. This year’s growth has been cut down and will be regularly (?) mown next year. Actually, the sheep will give it a good trim over the winter and they do an awfully good job round the clothes poles.

With my new found time and enthusiasm, I have spent a couple of days weeding, so have an array of scratches and stings. I’ve tidied up our east patio, removing the net from the new strawberry bed and the enormous thistle (circa 5 foot tall) from the honeysuckle. The strawberry plants are producing loads of runners, so I’ll be allowing these to root.

The patio is fenced to protect it from the hens; it faces south east and is quite sheltered, so that’s where the herbs, outdoor tomatoes and cucumber go. I also have two blueberry bushes in pots there – so far we’ve had five berries off one and three off the other. Muffins seem a forlorn hope. We used to have a table on the patio, but there’s no room now.

The little courtyard at the west end of the house has been swept up following the cutting of the hedge. Actually, it’s less weedy than normal – the debris formed a mulch, of sorts. The plants I put in a few years ago aren’t really suitable; some are too big and some aren’t thriving at all – so much success!, I hate throwing anything out, though, so I’ll need to identify somewhere for them to go before I remove them.

We are planning to increase the height of the fence round the vegetable garden to exclude the hens. They are so destructive in their foraging. You can see how they have decimated the comfrey. We usually net it but didn’t get round to it this year.

The new hens are now settled in and integrated with the rest of the flock. Hector, the cockerel, seems to consider them his “girls” now, if the flurry of feathers this morning was anything to go by. Some of the older hens are starting to moult – the hen house is full of white feathers, so it looks like the Light Sussex are leading the way. The Legbars look a bit tatty as well – their crests have all but disappeared.

The kittens are awake now, so must go and feed them.