Days spent in the vegetable plot

The nights are drawing in and we're seeing the veg plot slow down.  This was one of our cabbage spots this year, I hope to have more cauli and purple sprouting broccoli early next year, which is just off the picture here.

I am super proud of the cabbages I've grown this year, there's actually enough to last us until the Spring cabbages come through which I am thrilled about.

Yes, this picture is posed, but the man LOVES his home grown raspberries - these have never let us down, every year they are prolific.  I'm going to take some cuttings off them when I find out how!

Grace took this beautiful photo of one of the sweet pea colours we have.  Simply fabulous.

These are the long purple podded climbing beans that were a bit of a last minute addition.  In no time at all they have gone crazy and snapped the canes that I put in to support them.

Grace and Jack sometimes help out too.  Can you see Jack?

The scarlet kale below is prolific but I have a reservation!  The leaves are so curly that creepy crawlies hide in them easily and they're a pain to clean.  I'll see what flat leaf varieties I want to grow for next year I think.

Here's to the last few days where the veg plot looks green and lush, before the frosts nip their leaves and the ground goes to rest for the Winter.

Early Autumn Garden Planting

Throughout September, I've been looking at my plans and taking advantage of free P&P from some of the seed companies, specifically T&M in this case.  I'm super excited to receive my seeds that I'll be getting sown through September.

Whilst researching I came across a variety of spinach called Giant Winter which I can't wait to see growing.  It is expected to reach maturity in just 50 days and is specifically for growing over winter.  In fact you shouldn't sow this variety in Spring as it will bolt.  It's also an heirloom variety meaning I could keep my own seed from it.  Culinary wise it can be used for baby leaves or cooked once mature.  

We use spinach a lot, in salads, soups, smoothies, stews and stir fries so it is something I would love to grow all year round instead of getting a pack from Aldi every week.  I am also planning on growing perpetual spinach which is an old favourite and a reliable all year round variety according to the source of Google!  I'll try some in the polytunnel and see how I get on, maybe putting some in and out to compare?

Mixed salad leaves are another vegetable we use daily, combined with the spinach.  I have to be careful not to run out as we do have a lot of it, which is the case right now actually.  There's lots of varieties that you can choose from year round, however I'm going to try a few different ones and will report back!  In the photo below you can see I've multi sown radish and just off the shot are peas which I hope to overwinter.

This weekend saw me spending a good few hours in the polytunnel stripping it of the tomatoes that were in there, taking all of the tomatoes off them meaning I have zillions of green tomatoes now.  I did a little video on it here if you'd like to see.

Take care everyone, lots of things going on in the world so take care of your own little world.

Ever changing....but that's ok

I wrote this blog early September and then, you know, life happened, I'm sure you can relate?  Since I started writing it, here in England we have seen my parents been able to help a little with the school run, then see that privilege be revoked due to local lockdowns and we think it's allowed again now!  Does anyone actually know what's going on?  To be fair, we are carrying on as we are, we don't socialise much and we go to the same couple of shops.  I am working from home and Steven is still at work but they are covid secure, which leads me to the start of my ramblings earlier in the month.

I've stopped talking about things getting back to normal and I'm working on the premise that this is normal.  Otherwise I risk spending forever "waiting" for something that actually, I'm fine without.  What I mean by this is, we're adapting, to everything thrown at us.  Working from home, social distancing, sanitising and so on.  Soon enough I'm sure we will be able to hug loved ones again, or maybe even decide to accept the risk and do it anyway.   Controversial, but my kids and I miss hugging my parents.  My parents don't go to anyone else's house and we are very careful ourselves, so maybe we do accept the risk, in time.  

So yes, except for that I am quite happy with the state of affairs right now and I won't be spending weeks and months waiting for things to change back to how they were.  Time to crack on.

Earlier this month saw Jack returning to school first, after almost 6 months off.  He was so excited and nervous all at the same time.  Driving home after dropping him off, it was a hazy Autumnal morning, which had started off with a distinct nip in the air.  It turned in to one of my favourite days of the year weather wise.  Bright and beautiful but not too hot.  The animals had some sun on their backs and didn't need to take shelter from the relentless rain we had the week prior.  Everyone was at peace for the day.  

Jack returned home after the school day with tales of their new routines and expectations.  I'm glad he is back as he needed the company of children and I have a positive feeling that this will not be as bad of a Winter as the media would like us to think (time will tell).  Grace too has now returned and is concentrating hard on being a vet which has been a dream for her since she could speak.  She has a natural ability with animals, that you can't teach, so I know she will do well.

I too am back working after a lovely time off with my little family, still from home at the moment though lots of people are returning to the office with a mix of office and home.  Given this respiratory disease I've just been diagnosed with, I won't be on the list of people next to return as it's simply not worth the risk.  I'm sure this morning Boris' team have just said people should work from home again anyway, like I said, I can't keep up and to some degree don't want to.

September is one of my favourite months with thoughts turning to next chapters of school and seasonal produce.  Whether you think Autumn is 1st Sept (meteorological calendar) or 22nd (astronomical, equinox I think?) makes no difference, the nights are drawing in, the mornings getting cooler and despite the odd random scorchers of a day, you know it's on its way.  The leaves are very slowly turning to different shades of browns, oranges and yellows and the squirrels are gathering acorns and hiding them in their stash for their own little winter pantry.

Speaking of the winter pantry, we have been harvesting some great things.  The plums are having a marvellous year! I used a fair few to make plum sauce to go with duck and it was so nice.  I am trying out freezing them whole this year so that we can use them when we need them.

The onions and garlic have been great - I think I am going to do some caramelised onions in the slow cooker and then dehydrate some to make powder - I've read good things about them!

Drum roll!! We have our own brambles/blackberries, whatever you call them where you are from (do let me know?)

This is so exciting as we used to have an abundance of wild ones in the old house and when we moved here they were dismal.  So we planted our own and this is the first year we have had a decent harvest from them which is brilliant.

The raspberries as always are looking fabulous.  In fact I think I will take some cuttings from these as we have not managed to grow any half as good.

Below are the latvian soup peas I have grown which are now safely stored in a jar to either grow from next year or use over the winter.  

Greek gigantes beans - these guys just blew me away!  Again, for the winter pantry I am thrilled that these have worked as they seem few and far between.  They will dry out on the plant and also be saved for winter use.

The runner beans were late in this year and if nothing else, we can enjoy the flowers they produce.  Fingers crossed we will get some beans from them too.

Borlotti beans are another of my favourite to look at!  We use them fresh or dried and next year I'm going to have an abundance!

I couldn't leave out a picture of Lydia wrapped up in her PJ's for the colder nights.  She's dropped a lot of weight this year, we think she is feeling her age.  The rug will help keep her warm to prevent her using energy on keeping warm and burning calories.  She's starting to look older on her body though her eyes remain youthful.

I've given the pigs extra straw as it's been down to 6 degrees centigrade here and the horses are mostly in on a night now.    

We are reducing numbers of egg laying chickens we have in stock as we approach the colder months when they generally slow down or stop laying.  It costs us too much to feed and house them through until February or March when they start laying again, so we pass them on to families who only want a few hens and will take good care of them.  

The quail we hatched a few months ago have also been sold to a lovely lady who simply lives for the pleasure of her animals.  She took 6 girls from us to keep her other girl company as she had only 1 girl and lots of boys.  We have the baby quail left which will replace the ones we've sold, they're inexpensive to keep due to being so small.

The garden hasn't started to slow down yet though, the tomatoes are not quite peaking, maybe another week, and I've still to have what I would call a glut of courgettes.  Speaking of which I have been chopping them and putting them straight in to the freezer which I didn't know you could do but I saw it on YouTube so it must be true, right? ;)  I'll report back once we use them, though it'll be in stew and soup so I think it'll be just fine.

Speaking of soup, I'm managing to use plenty of my cabbages in soup and it's been delicious.  We're having one soup night a week (with lunch time soups too).   The night is a soup and pudding night, with home made crusty bread to be frugal, cheap and cheerful.  Another good thing about Autumn, soup season!  I love it.

I'll leave it here for now, take care of yourselves and please leave a comment and let me know how you're doing and if you enjoy these posts.  Bye for now, Tracy x

 

Eggs, eggs...ohhhh and cabbages

Happy Monday evening blogging peeps.

I've been mulling over....I think those of us that grow our own (and in many walks in life really) can sometimes be a little hard on ourselves, always looking for improvement or thinking about our "failures".  One thing I've learnt is that every year there will be something that doesn't go right, which is why it is all the more important to concentrate on those things that go right.  

For example I am loving that I have a years worth of cabbages right now!  I just wasn't prepared for them haha.

We have some exciting news here on the smallholding, my Mother's day hens have started laying!  We think we have 6 females and 1 male which is great luck.  My lovely little family bought them for me bac in March as they lay blue/green eggs and I have always wanted hens that lay those colour eggs.  Soon enough, breakfast will be 2 dippy (soft boiled) eggs with soldiers a few times a week, if not daily ;) Right now the eggs are still small until they are used to laying.  The hens are probably still wondering what's happened to them at the moment.

I have to tell you, we have a huge influx of eggs right now as it seems many of those who bought from us during the lockdown period have stopped buying.  That's ok though as we have decided to reduce our brown laying hens for over wintering, so are selling those on.  We will still be able to supply our regulars who were pre lockdown and still have plenty for ourselves which I must admit, is a bit of a novelty for me as we never had any eggs for the house at one point.  Make hay whilst the sun shines.

We have duck, quail (above) and chicken eggs coming in thick and fast.  I actually have more than I expected or knew what to do with (given they were supposed to be sold).  So this week is egg and cabbage week as I have both in abundance.  The lovely Tricia from Tarragon and Thyme has sent me some preserving information on cabbages which I am looking forward to reading either tonight or tomorrow night.  

Grace found this nest of eggs when we were doing tea time chores earlier, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry!  You can see one or 2 have been eaten or stood on.

Did you know you can freeze eggs?  I am going to get that done tonight which will see a dozen processed.   I've also made up a few freezer bags of a quiche custard base (4 large eggs, 1 cup whole milk or half and half cream and milk and 1 cup of grated cheese) which I can then just defrost and pop in to a pastry lined quiche dish with some left over ham and tomatoes etc.  Nice and easy, so I hope it works.

Now I have to put this photo in to show you the mammoth task I have with these cabbages!  I have 30 or so of these which is fantastic but also a task in itself.  I'm undecided as to whether having them all come at once is a good thing to get it out of the way or a bad thing in that it'll take half a day to get them done.

I've a couple of different varieties, all of which we managed to mature before the cabbage white butterfly struck.  Very grateful for that as I've seen people losing whole crops to them.  If you grow a lot it can be too costly to buy netting to cover everything properly, which should help prevent attacks.

My kale have been amazing and I hope they don't die off too quickly, these have just been struck by the cabbage white and subsequent caterpillars which is inevitable.  Every year I am amazed at how many caterpillars there are on any given plant.

Again, celebrating the successes here's a basket of veg that I am getting on a weekend right now.  I am so thrilled and once I get my head in to gear we should be "shopping" from our own garden all year round.  Maybe next year is the year we rely solely on ourselves for veg? Who knows.

It's going to be a strange week here, Jack (age 10) is back to school and I am back on to work, but still working from home.  Grace goes back next week and they both have set times for drop off and collection, which of course are right over working hours so I sense a bit of a juggling act for a few days until we settle in to things.  I hope you are all well and enjoying life to whatever degree you can.  I'll be back in a few days with another update.  Take care, Tracy.

Announcement!

Hi everyone :)

I have some exciting news to share with you all and I need your support pretty please!

I have started a blog dedicated to meal planning and my kitchen tasks, you know all the things you do "round the kitchen table" including grocery budgets, shopping lists, savings and so on.

I would love for you to join me over on the other blog for meal plans, recipes and more household related posts.  I 100% will still cover some items on this blog, I just didn't want it turning in to a food/household only blog instead of a smallholding blog.  I am passionate about both!

Here it is in all of it's glory.

I also have a Facebook page, a facebook group which is more chatty and an Instagram account which I would also love your support on if you are in to social media.

Ohhh and look what I grew :D

Look at these big birds

Some time ago, maybe 20 weeks now (I'm thinking in chicken dates here), we were given some eggs.  The guy giving them too us wasn't sure if they were fertile or even if they were, may be too old to hatch.  He said if they hatched they'd do us well.

Fast forward 20 or so weeks and we have a bunch of happy, healthy & huge young Brahma hens and 2 cockerels.  

We gave one cockerel back to the guy who gave us them as typically he didn't get a cockerel in his hatch.  That suited us well though, as we didn't want 2 cockerels in the same place and he would be too big for our other birds!

They really are pretty birds and a feature of the smallholding that we didn't plan, I'm really pleased.  They make my veg plot come alive.  The area they are in has turned to just hard ground now, so we need to feed them additional greens.  

Their coop will be too small soon! We will move them to an area bigger and with grass again and then the area they have been in will be great growing ground after they have been manuring it for me.  In the mean time, they are more than happy where they are :)

Have a lovely weekend everyone, we have a busy one planned here.  Lots of work in the veg plot but also continuing with the renovation of part of the farmhouse.  We will have a new bedroom and en-suite soon enough!! (Said with fingers and toes crossed!)

Weekly Meal Plan - August 3rd, 2020

How exciting! My first actual meal planning post.  Pull up a chair 😊

I've been meal planning on and off for years.  I have found certain things either drive you to meal plan or allow you to "ease off the accelerator" and wing it a little more.  When I've had my winging it times, I know from personal experience that we suffer the consequences.  Our costs go up, meals become less healthy and Steven and I become more grumpy!  

Therefore I hope that this blog, along with it's Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages will ensure our winging it days become less and less, helping you along the way too.  

Having said that (!!!) I am only human and on the days when the inevitable happens, I'll share the outcomes of that too.

There's so many fantastic YouTube channels out there, many of which I use for inspiration.  As I create content for this social media channel I will share my own videos too, though it will most likely be via our smallholding channel. 

Ok friends, I'll stop wittering on now.  August 3rd week's meal plan on my new frugal whiteboard that I LOVE looks like this:  

Monday - Meatloaf with Potatoes, roasted courgette and tomatoes

Tuesday – Left over chicken salad with dressing & crusty bread (ended up as chicken korma as it was a cold day and we needed something hot to warm us up)

Wednesday – Taco bar - slow cooker taco meat

Thursday – Steak fajita bowls

Friday - Chicken korma, boiled rice, naan and mint yoghurt - (After swapping with Tuesday, it will be the humble jacket potatoes with choice of filling instead).

Saturday - BBQ - Ste cooks on a Saturday and ironically never knows what he will do until the day!

Sunday –   Roast chicken dinner with Yorkshire puddings and home grown veg 

Every week we have a soup of the week (SOTW) and this week is traditional pea and ham using a smoked gammon joint in the Slow Cooker Crockpot.  The recipe is here.

As I can, I'll come back and update with recipe details and photos of how the meals turned out so keep checking back on these "older" posts.

Here we can see I am perfectly relaxed whilst Steven gets on with the BBQ.  Mum's need a day off too ;)

Slow Cooker / Crockpot BBQ Meatloaf

My recipe for BBQ Meatloaf is adapted from largefamilytable.com and I have to be honest with you, this was the first time I have ever eaten, let alone cooked meatloaf.  As a 39 year old woman, don't be shocked and give up on me just yet at this revelation.

Ingredients

• 1 lb minced (ground) beef
• 1 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup chopped veggies (I used onions, courgette, and bell peppers)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano
• BBQ sauce

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together by hand. Take your time with this and be sure everything is combined well.
Form into a loaf shape.
If preparing ahead for the freezer, place in a freezer bag and freeze until the night before you are ready to use them. Thaw in fridge overnight.
Place meatloaf in slow cooker and spread barbecue sauce over the top.
Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for up to 8 hours. Careful not to burn. It'll still taste nice if you do...I'm not telling you how I know that ;)
I served ours with buttered potatoes and roasted courgette and tomatoes.  Delish!

Enjoy!