Happy St. Patricks Day.

Shamrock or Clover?

St Patricks day, the day we should have been planting our potatoes, unfortunately the weather is far too cold to inspire either of us to get out and get planting, so they will just have to wait. Also waiting to be planted are fifty hedging bushes, they were such good value at only 49 cents per plant that we could not resist buying them, they have been earthed into a large bucket and put into the tunnel until the weather is more congenial to planting, they are a mixture of hedge roses, for bees and birds, hawthorn for bees, and field maple for Autumn colour. This will all add to wind protection for the garden once they have established, plus food for the birds and bees.
Bees need all the help we can give them as the EU failed to ban pesticides containing neonicotinoids in a vote this week, despite good scientific evidence that this is the cause of empty hive syndrome.

The young Quail are all doing well, we now have to make up our minds to what we are going to do with them.
 Many years ago we had a quail farm and sold both the prepared birds and the eggs, there was a good market for both, but things change. We would now not be able to sell the prepared birds, but we can sell the eggs, so we have to see if we can find a market for them that makes it worth our while doing them for eggs.

We have the correct boxes and have designed a label, now all we need is the outlet. We have a couple of ideas and will go canvasing next week. Our nearest big town has a couple of health  food shops and delicatessens so they will be the first places to try. We now have a good market for our duck eggs, so they are paying for their selves, if we can get a market for the Quail eggs that would subsidise the hens way of life.

 

All the shops this week have been selling Shamrock, well what is Shamrock? This is a plant that in reality does not exist, it can be clover or trefoil amongst other plants, they all get called Shamrock. Still it's the symbol that counts, signifying the Holy Trinity.