Several things make a post
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♥Apr. 19th, 2020 // 03:01 pm♥
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As the garden centres are (mostly) closed, and the online suppliers are (mostly) falling over under the strain, I sent an email to the lady up the road who opens her garden under the National Garden Scheme and arranged to buy some plants from her. She had some alliums that she was going to have to plant out, so amongst other things I got a tray of 20 for £10.
We had a whole half inch of rain on Saturday. That’s all we’ve had so far this month, and we’re now back to sun and a dry wind for the foreseeable future. The garden’s getting very dry, but I’m more worried about the grass not growing; we shouldn’t be having to give the horses more hay at this time of year. We also had a frost, but fortunately it wasn’t bad enough to damage the wisteria flower buds (which are looking very promising this year).
Mike took out some of the overgrown beeches in the garden, and the tree surgeons came and took out some more (they were both more overgrown and had the phone line running through them, so it seemed safer to get the pros in). That should mean more light and less competition for the veg bed this year, which is good.
In what I doubt is an unusually occurrence right now, Mike went to do the weekly trip to the farm shop and found that the car battery was dead. Fortunately, I knew that the Up The Hills have a battery jump start thing, so we borrowed that and got the car going again. Mike has now ordered one of our own, just in case.
It’s become noteworthy to see an aircraft contrail. Starting to feel like a Pacific Island cargo cultist, next thing you know we’ll be worshipping Prince Phillip (or should that be Boris?)....
The swallows have arrived, and the early purple orchids are in bloom. The wild garlic is going over, but I did pick a bag to make experimental wild garlic jam. ( Jam-ish ) |
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I ent ded
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♥Apr. 5th, 2020 // 11:25 am♥
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I've had a couple of tellings off for the lack of updates: sorry chaps.
We're fine, life is going on much as usual for us, other than a bit more use of the farm shop and a bit less supermarket delivery. I would quite like some self-raising flour, though. We've been doing lots of gardening now that it's dried out and warmed up, and I've been inspired to stick some spuds in the mix this year: if nothing else, we're unlikely to be driving around nearby farms buying new potatoes fresh out of the ground, this year.
The horses are doing well, although Benny's a bit unfit after the horribly wet autumn and winter (and, just when the weather has improved, the BHS is advising against hacking, which makes sense). Bob had a little lump removed from his leg at the start of the year; it was cancer, but incredibly low-grade and it's not spread anywhere. Unfortunately, the wound got infected, so he's had a much slower recovery than he should have done, but he's almost back to normal now. The ducks are pottering happily, laying an egg or two a day, and I've been trying to decide if I want to get some more eggs for ZuZu to hatch, and if so what breed.
The bluebells are coming into flower and the anemones are looking lovely. There's a pair of jackdaws building a nest in our disused chimney, which we've not had for the last couple of years. The seagulls seem to be flocking inland, which is presumably a reflection on the lack of chips to steal at the seaside. The wild garlic is going over now, but I have several tubs of pesto in the freezer.
We had our drive re-done, the work was finished just in time. Hopefully this will be the end of the winter mud bath at the end of it. The delivery drivers all look pleased about it. Frequent visitors beware: there is now a step down from the drive to the garden path! |
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The sloes are early this year
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♥Aug. 25th, 2018 // 02:40 pm♥
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The swans are sewn, now I just need to wait for the backing fabric and get quilting:
(I'll also have to rearrange the living room to get enough floor space to pin the layers together, it doesn't fit in the study!)
GB has crossed some sort of watershed: he's not quite finished shedding last year's winter coat (the long, paler hairs that you can see against the black) but he's already starting to fuzz up with this year's growth (which you can see against the white):
Still, not bad for an old man. Even if he does spend half of his time with his willy hanging out a bit these days....
I had a lovely long session on Benny this morning, the weather was just right: sunny, bit of a breeze, and enough of a chill in the air that we didn't overheat. Much more satisfactory weather than lately. |
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Not sloe good
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♥Sep. 11th, 2016 // 08:20 pm♥
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This afternoon, after yesterday's failure on the common, we went up to our most reliable blackthorn spot.
We did get about 700g of sloes, but I see from my diary that we got 3kg there on the same day last year.
Looks like we're going to be rationing the sloe gin next year, even if no one beats us to the patch that Mike spotted when he was walking with his mother a couple of weeks ago. |
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Foraging fail
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♥Sep. 10th, 2016 // 04:04 pm♥
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This afternoon, we took Jo over to the common, planning on a couple of bags of blackberries, ditto of sloes and a couple of carrier bags of apples.
Of the two good patches of sloes, one had been cleared away and we didn't manage to find the other (even though we were pretty sure of where it was: possibly also been cleared). Someone else had recently been through blackberrying, so there wasn't much ripe fruit.
We did get two big bags of apples, but it wasn't as easy as it usually it: evidently, it's not been a good year for them.
When we got home, we checked the blackthorn in our hedge and, after much searching, found two sloes, one of them manky. We already knew from looking in other spots that it wasn't a great year for them, but I'm now a little worried about the sloe gin supply! We're going to visit another good spot (which we checked on a few weeks ago) tomorrow, before anyone else gets in there.
There are blackberries on the lane near us, where very few other people go to pick them, so I'd better get up there with a bag and get some into the freezer! |
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Adventures in foraging
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♥Dec. 28th, 2015 // 06:53 pm♥
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This year, I picked a whole lot more wild garlic than last year, because it seemed a shame to waste it. Some of it I blanched and froze (ok results. Nothing amazing, but that may be partly because the only thing you can then do with it is stick it in a stew-ish thing with lots of other stuff), most of it I made into wild garlic pesto, which was fabulous even after being frozen, and will be repeated.
I didn’t pick as many blackberries as last year, I’m not sure quite why. Sadly, this means there isn’t a stash in the freezer for making crumble with. I did pick enough to make blackberry and apple jelly, though, along with the apple and lavender jelly and the apple butter.
On the booze front, we’ve had
- elderflower vodka (tasty, but it did seem to make people poorly. Note to self: check if elderflowers are slightly poisonous in the same way that the berries are)
- vin de pêches (not strictly foraged, but very, very tasty: I’ll be making more of that in the spring when the new peach leaves come through. Might also try cherry leaves)
- chestnut liqueur (still in the bottle. I have no idea if it’s going to work or not: Mike is doubtful that any flavour will come through)
- wild strawberries in vodka (also not strictly foraged, although they're wild plants on our land, and also still in the jar. Really must do something with those, it looks lovely...)
- sloe gin (of course!)
(We’ve not had hop vodka, sadly. The hop had a bad early summer, which we think was not enough water: it was dry, and there were tomato plants near it this year. Next year.)
On the non-booze drinks front, the usual apple juice with apples from the common, some strawberry juice (panda-bowl man while he’s packing up counts as foraging, right?), and spiced elderberry cordial (must make some more of that, the berries are in the freezer). |
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[yawn]
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♥Sep. 18th, 2015 // 08:51 pm♥
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We had a weather-induced power cut last night, which kept me awake rather: I'm not sure if the battery is dead in my clock and I woke up when the power went out (which seems more likely) or if I just happened to wake and look at my clock the second the battery did die, but either way it was 2:30am and I spent the rest of the night being woken up by the weather and vaguely worried about freezers and suchlike.
Today, though, I have made apple butter: no idea if it's going to have worked, but the spoon tasted pretty good. Something of a faff peeling and coring any quantity of wild apples, even if I did pick the biggest of the batch, so if it is good I might use shop apples in future. Of course, then it probably won't taste the same.
I'm starting to think that the boys have got it in for me. Given that they've stopped coming up to the gate at coming in time, Mike and I have been taking it in turns to go and get one of them (usually Bugs, as he's more likely to wander over in search of treats), after which the other will follow up the hill to the gate and stand to be caught by the other of us. For about the last ten days (not that I'm counting), they've been within about twenty yards of the gate on Mike's days and right at the other side of the field on mine....
Currently on the dining room table: a box of invitations for the House of Lords thing, which need to be in the post on Monday. The curses of having Nice Handwriting. I just hope my wrists are up to it. I've even got my fountain pen out! |
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Busy busy
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♥Sep. 6th, 2015 // 05:05 pm♥
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I've been a busy bee today (sorry, have apparently been infected by an edition of Poetry Please about bees that I had on in the background: anything's better than Football Sports Hour...).
This morning, spurred on by there being a frost last night, (you may wish to look away now) I started on Christmas shopping. My, but it's amazing the stuff you can get for £1 on eBay from random Chinese sellers if you're prepared to wade through all the random stuff in their stores. I think I have my colour scheme worked out, and a Plan for cards.
This afternoon, we took Jo up to the common and acquired four big bags of apples (looks as though last year the abnormally bad for apples, rather than the year before being particularly good), as well as a bag of blackberries and one of elderberries. Those last two are now washed and in the freezer, a quarter of the apples are in the steamer, a quarter dripping quietly away in a jelly bag, and the remainder Awaiting Developments.
"I think," Mike just announced dolefully, "I may need new slippers before Christmas...." Conveniently, I'd come to the same conclusion a good six months ago, so I just had to go upstairs and get him the pair in the cupboard.
GB's been a bit twitchy coming down from the field lately, when it's been gloomy, and the last few days he's got to the edge of the sunny bit of the field and refused to go forward into the shade of the trees until Bugs did so (despite beatings). I remembered last night that I'd had his eyes checked, a few years ago, and the vet concluded that he had cataracts but that (she phrased it more delicately) he'd be dead before they caused him a problem. I'm now wondering how long she thought he had in him, and if I should get them looked at again. |
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Algorithms and instructions
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♥Sep. 9th, 2014 // 01:41 pm♥
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I have to wonder how sophisticated Tesco's algorithm is: will it have decided we've suddenly become alcoholics, or will it put together 'house in the country', 'buy mostly Finest stuff' and 'suddenly buying lots of bottles of Tesco Value gin in the autumn' to conclude that we're making sloe gin?
(Also, as it happens, hop vodka: a chance comment on TKC last week, combined with the hops being just ready to pick: I've done two experimental bottles, one with fresh and one with dried, and expect to present them to beer-drinkers of my acquaintance to see how revolted / pleased they look when they taste it.)
This afternoon, we took Jo for a run on the beach and, when we got back, I attempted mozzarella. I seem to have actually produced rather elaborate, smooth cottage cheese, but I'm not sure where I went wrong. Certainly, now that I look at other sets of instructions with actual photos, the liquid that I had left after the curds separated was too cloudy. I did think that that was the case and leave it a little longer to see if it separated more, though, and it didn't. I guess I'll have to find some other instructions and try again.
Edit: Ok, turns out the HFW misses out a couple of steps in the process there. Sigh. On the plus side, I've just done one of the missing steps, and it is now much *more* like mozzarella than it was! |
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And now we wait
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♥Sep. 1st, 2014 // 03:16 pm♥
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The sloes have been en-ginned:
(I particularly like the two that can't decide whether to sink or float, and so are just... hovering....)
So now we just need to wait a few months.
(And, yes, we could have done with that extra bottle of gin that I forgot to ask Mike to get: there's half a kilo left in the freezer. Suggestions welcome, as long as they don't involve de-stoning the buggers.)
Whilst walking the pooch, I listened to last week's TKC and learnt that they're in Canterbury this week: must see if we can go. I'm just amazed I'm sufficiently caught up on my podcasts that I found out in advance!
Currently waiting for the vet to call me back about worming the ducks. I suspect that the delay is because he's realised that there isn't a licenced duck wormer in the UK, and he's trying to decide if it's ok to tell me to use chicken wormer (which is what everyone who worms does: the internet is pretty much equally split between "essential" and "no point". Then again, the internet is also pretty much split between saying that if you want year-round eggs then you need to get chickens (because ducks stop laying in winter) and that you need to get ducks (because chickens stop laying)...). |
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More foraging
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♥Aug. 30th, 2014 // 09:46 pm♥
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Hops drying:
Today, we had another try at the Minnis, and were more successful: a quarter kilo of blackberries (Mike is crap at blackberrying. He gets bored too quickly), half a kilo of elderberries (gone in the freezer, to make another batch of the cordial when it's cold enough to want a nice hot spiced drink after walking the dog), and apples:
There are not nearly so many apples this year as last, but we got two big bags. The tiny ones will go for juice, the pink ones will probably be preped for crumble and frozen. The big green ones are pretty much the entirety of the remaining crop from our two, elderly trees (less a few damaged ones that have gone to the horses). I got about half that amount a week or so ago, and now there are just a few manky ones that I'll leave for the birds and insects.
We're certainly not going to be able to do what we did last year when we went to the Minnis and filled three or four bags-for-life in fifteen minutes.
(I am currently basically obsessed with my birthday present, Ni No Kuni, hence haven't been about much. Nearly at the final boss, though, so normal service soon.) |
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Yum
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♥Aug. 29th, 2014 // 07:57 pm♥
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Fizz and home made peach juice: yum!
(Yesterday, I made edlerberry and blackberry cordial, with cinnamon and cloves. Also tasty, but I think more of a drink to have with hot water than with fizz.) |
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Foraging
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♥Aug. 27th, 2014 // 05:39 pm♥
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Today, I have:
- picked 2.2kg of sloes, mostly from our field but a few from the bush at the end of the road, currently in the freezer (because, really, why would you faff about pricking each one with a pin when you can just do that instead?) awaiting combination with four bottles of gin to give six bottles of sloe gin;
- picked just over a kilo of blackberries, mostly from the woods (have also noted the bushes with lots of nearly-ripe ones!), which are in the freezer in four different bags;
- set two bowls of peaches (picked up by Mike in town for £1.50, and really needing to be sold that cheaply) to juicing;
- harvested most of the hop flowers, taken off the leaves, made a few stems into a little wreath and put the lot on the airer to dry;
- checked that our existing hop plant, which we found in the bee garden this year, didn't have any flowers: must be a male;
- planted the Canterbury Bells that the woman from the top of the hill left by the gate for me (she'd promised me some as they started to die back; as I came back from blackberrying, she said "I hope that the ducks won't have eaten them" but I was able to reassure her that they're not all that into plants); and
- got generally scratched, stung and pricked all over my arms and hands: short sleeves not the best idea when picking sloes....
I made the first batch of juice from out apples a few days ago: it's a wee bit sour for me, and the apples took forever to cook down so it's also a bit watery, but later ones should be better. The apples are noticably bigger than last year, from having been thinned out a few months ago. We did go up to the Minnis a few days ago, but the wilder apples there weren't ready for picking.
Oh, and ridden, mucked out and poo picked. We had a bedding delivery today: the pallet is currently by the gate, and Mike's just said "How about if we go and move the bedding into the tack room now?" |
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