A beautiful weekend - hanging garlic, sowing seeds and stores

Saturday and Sunday, 19th and 20th August 

Saturday morning saw Rodney and I spend some time in the shed, getting some winter seeds sown in the hope to add plenty to the Winter Pantry.  I'll sow more than needed and any that come good are a bonus!  

 

I got an order from Real Seeds who I love.  I'm going to sow some things direct and some in trays.

Saturday afternoon was spent running around.  We had a trip to Durham Hens and talked to the chap about new stock, ideally Rhode Island Red dual purpose birds.  He's going to call us on his next hatch.  

Then we headed over to pick up some scaffolding boards from the chap who get them from and collected 10.  This meant Steven could get on with Stores.  He really amazes me at how quickly he gets these things done.

Whist he was busy doing things that he didn't need me for, I got round to plaiting and hanging the garlic.  It's looking beautiful.  I'm already thinking about where to plant next year's crop, which will be planted this year.  I'm not sure how long the garlic here will last us, hopefully until the Wild Garlic appears in the Spring.

 

Checking in on Stores progress and being a pair of hands when needed, I grabbed a photo showing the first board being laid.  Steven sanded them down and was a covered in dust.  Thankfully he was sensible enough to wear a mask!

 

 

It's all coming together beautifully.  Next up will be the shelves.

First whole weekend outdoors

What a beautiful weekend we had here in North East England.  It was glorious for a Winter's day in February.  It's due to turn cold by the end of the week again, so I'll be sure not to get caught out.

After the usual daily/weekend jobs I started as I meant to go on and got the peas moved to the poltyunnel as they are looking nice and strong and rather big in their modules.  I know we risk losing them, but I am sowing every couple of weeks so that I can mark off which sowing date was best for me. 

I moved the strawberries that were in little pots, taken from runners, to the polytunnel too, for an extra early lot.

I also got a bin of carrots sown.  I have another bin I will put some more in but I want to add sand to that one to compare.  On the below photo, I put the bubble wrap over the top to help germination.

Strawberries planted from 2016 finished plant runners

 Once I'd finished with the polytunnel, I took a stroll into the veg plot.  The garlic is growing very well, but something has had the first few cloves away.  This line went all the way down to the bottom of the bed before.

 

I then dug a bean trench and filled it with the compost bin's contents.  I intend to dig another bean trench to the right of this one, leaving a gap, and filling that one with rotted muck.  That one will be for French climbing beans.  I'm using muck as I've no more compost from the veg peeling composter.

It was a day of pondering as I worked.  I have the area where the rescue hens lived in 2016 before the lockdown.  I think I would like to bring this area back to life as a flower garden/mini orchard.  There's already lots of things in there at the back of the grassed area.  Last year, I was adamant that anything that didn't provide food was to go.  However I've since learnt the importance of flowers, bees and pollination plus beneficial insects (not to mention the decline of the bee population).

 This is the area I was thinking about putting a few fruit trees, maybe an apple off Kev, a pear (already got) and almond?  I need to find out more about the fruit trees.  The space is quite big so I was thinking maybe I could make a bed for my berries and bushes that like ericaceous soil if I don't put fruit trees in.  We do have 3 apple trees already, would 4 be too many?  Should I get another pear (the one I have is conference, self pollinating).  Decisions....

Whilst pondering this, I remembered I needed to cover another area of the plot that was all weeds last year with membrane, to hopefully eradicate them.  This is it:

Looking up and over the fence, I then started pondering something else...so I walked out to the front of the house and took a photo of what's there.  I could tidy up around the bridle path sign and plant some wild hedging here, like Tricia suggested.

I have a wall that runs along the front of the house which is very long and south facing.  Now I don't want anything high, as it'd stop the view from the rooms, but maybe I could grow peas, mini sunflowers or such like along the wall?

Whilst I was pondering, Ste was actually working.  He made a new feeder for the growers.  Their normal feeder is insider this bucket and they have to put their heads in the holes to get to it.  It stops them wasting it all as this bunch are terrible for that.  These guys will be back out soon hopefully.  The ban for my postcode is being lifted shortly.

He also lined the last bed with membrane and we set about filling it with muck, so that's now done.  I just need topsoil for them all now, which I am ordering at the end of the month.

I saw my first dandelion emerging on Sunday which is telling me things are starting to grow and I need to start the weekly weed if I have any chance of survival this year.

 There wasn't just me having fun in the veg plot.  Grace knows how to dig up the leeks.

Jack helped out too with the last of the sprouts.

 Steven did the man thing and had a fire!  Incidentally the weed bed I mentioned is behind this fire bin, pre cover up.

As I left the plot for the afternoon, I couldn't help but look back and get that giddy feeling that all gardeners so as the season starts. 

As always, comments, questions and advice are welcome.  We're very much learning as we go, jumping in both feet first.

Christmas preparations and home raised meat for the table

I'm still chasing my tail but my head is just above water and I'm happy as Larry.  Whoever he is.


So this weekend started off with a frost on Saturday morning.  It always makes me want to stop and get a photo as frost makes everything look so pretty.

The frost mean the sheep had a bucket of hay between them which they happily munched on. 

My Mum came over and had some of my homemade jam (the few that didn't turn mouldy!) with a wholemeal breadbun.  She sadly has a, let's say condition for ease, where she is restricted on what she can eat.  So homemade jam is one she can have, which makes us both happy.  It is her 67th birthday today (20th), Happy Birthday Mum xxx. (I am a day late with actually publishing this post!)

I noticed my garlic and onions are starting to come through, you can just spy them in this bed poking through the soil.  The Purple Sprouting Broccoli is also in the same bed which I planted as an experiment to tell me if it's worth doing on a bigger scale for this year.

I finally got round to making some fudge.  I've never made it before and followed a recipe from bbcgoodfood for white chocolate fudge.  Now I don't like fudge myself, but Jack loves this one.  I am going to try and get another flavour made and hand them out as Christmas gifts to people when they visit or as they leave after Christmas dinner.

Yesterday I put a ham in the slow cooker and we had some for tea with pasta and a garlic sauce.  It was really nice and different to what we've been having, so a refreshing change.  Now I confess, I always say to myself I must do something with the stock that's left.  Then I don't and I wash it away, so last night, I sent Dawn a message and she told me to freeze it on ice cube trays for use another time, so I have done just that.  Why I haven't done that before, I don't know.  Thanks Dawn.  We got loads of lovely shredded ham off it.

I've been wrapping gifts as often as I can.  I'm using brown paper and decorating with my own items.  I love this look.

Here is a rare photo of me and the 2 girls.  I don't often post about the horses specifically but they offer the smallholding bountiful amounts of super manure (I was going to use a double S there but I restrained) which in turn feeds the land, which feeds us.  So they have earned the right to a photo ;)  They can be my sanity at times when I feel like I could scream.

Finally to the Christmas meat, please do not scroll down if you're offended by the sight of birds being prepared for the table.  As you will know by now, this is our lifestyle that we're aiming towards, so I make no apologies for it, but will always give you fair warning if there are photos as I understand that we're not all the same.
On Sunday we dispatched a goose and a duck ready for Christmas Day.  We did 2 chickens in the summer and they were a pain to pluck, so we hung them up after dispatch, covered their heads to keep things tidy and plucked them hanging from the small barn roof.  It made the job a lot easier, though it still took a long time.  I can totally understand why hand plucked birds cost so much and doing it makes you realise even more about respecting the process and the end result.  We're doing both birds for Christmas lunch.  The goose will be done in the Aga as per Mary Berry's instructions and I need to look up how long to cook the duck for - I have an alternate oven which I may use for that, as I will need space in the roasting over for the veggies.

Both kids helped with plucking of the goose, they soon got bored to be fair, but I am pleased they were involved.  I do try my hardest to ensure they respect the animals and are not squeamish about being able to provide for themselves. I am really pleased with the end result.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!  How about for you?

Onions and garlic and the weekend

Where's the weekend gone? I know people say that every weekend but this one has left me feeling like I really need another day to get my stuff together.  We have got lots done so it's not wasted of course.
We planted onions and garlic, I just make a note of their names. We tidied up some of the veg plot, still lots more to tidy and dig over.  I'm hoping to get my hands on a tiller to reduce the physical burden of turning all of the beds over.
I've sectioned off part of the field to put the horses in. We're calling it the sacrifice paddock as we're sacrificing it to the mud bath that it'll become. The horses are living in their stables now and just having the odd hour out in the field but we're riding them 4 times a week to keep them entertained.
I did ask the farmer next door if he'd rent or sell us a bit of his hundreds of acres but in what seems to be true farmer style, he said no. Of course the seed is planted  now and time will hopefully work in our favour but I'm not complaining if it doesn't.  I wouldn't swap what we have for   the world.
It's been a strange weekend weather wise, we've had lots of rain which has kept the temperature up. It's not as cold as I expected it to be. The wood burner has been on though.
We've had the eggs from the chickens that have just started laying. They were rather small ha but the kids enjoyed them.
Here's the view from my stairs window. The trees are all changing colour. Lovely to see. Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. Back to work for us tomorrow. Looks like a very early start for us. Up at 4.45 but I'm just not tired yet (despite getting up early).