Hubbard table birds. Ratte Potatoes.

                                            The Hubbard chicks are now seventy days old,

today was weigh in day checking that they are gaining the correct amount of weight, last time we weighed them was at forty two days, which is half the minimum days of rearing under Organic and also Free Range standards, at the half way stage the average weight was 2lb 9oz todays weigh in gives an average of 5lb 6oz so they have more than doubled their weight in the last four weeks,

if they continue this rate of growth they will make around 6lb 10oz live weight at the eighty four day mark, about 5lb 4oz cleaned weight. When we got these birds we picked some up for two other people, we have all done totally different rearing systems, ours are contained in a paddock with over double the size required under Organic Standards, the run is moved weekly they are fed on an Organic ration plus sprouted wheat,  boiled potatoes peelings with Organic rice, plus good fresh grass.
 Our friend who had twenty chick's has them in a much smaller run, fed on conventional feed plus a daily supply of green veg, they have very little grazing, his however are growing faster and he has slaughtered the first ones which gave a oven ready bird of 5lb 5oz at sixty eight days. I suspect that restricting the ranging area gives a quicker grown bird, which although cuts down on the feed requirements is not so different from conventional rearing. We do not know how the third persons birds are growing, they are totally free ranging and I don't think a weight check has been done yet so it is hard to make a comparison as to the best way of rearing this type of bird which is a slower growing bird than is used for battery reared poultry.
I have now  finished with wine making for this year,

we have ended up with two demijohns of the elderberry, as I had no brown demijohns

I have wrapped them in brown paper so the wine does not lose it's beautiful colour. I had thought that the Peapod wine was ready to be racked off, however I noticed that it is still working slightly when  the range is lit and the kitchen  warms up so I will have to wait a while before I do that.
One thing that we are finding a little strange is the difference in the taste of our bread if it is cooked in the range as opposed to the gas oven, exactly the same recipe, method and time spent raising it, the cooking time is the same but bread tastes much better when cooked in the range. Just one of those things that does not make any sense to us.

At last we have tasted Ratte potatoes, although I had ordered some seed of this variety we somehow lost it, we were a little disappointed as we like to try out different varieties. Visiting a friend this week somehow the subject of potatoes came up, Oh, she says, I have some Ratte, I must check on how they have done. This friend had recently moved house and planted them into very large pots as they had no garden prepared, so we examined them, she had a great crop, totally disease free and totally forgotten about, she had two large pots full of them, she kindly gave us some which we had with our Sunday dinner. they are lovely, a great nutty flavour, we will defiantly be growing them next year and will probably do them in pots which is how I will try doing the Pink Fir Apple.
 It might be dark earlier at night now and there might be a slight chill in the air but next years plantings are already being planned and some seeds have been sown, more fruit trees and bushes are ordered , and the garden around the Straw Bale building has been planned . All things to look forward to and spring wont be too long in coming.

Last weekend we had a trip to Cave Town lake, it is so beautiful there, there is also a lovely woodland close by with some old trees,

we spotted a lovely old Beech tree which at some time had either been pollarded or had lost some of it's branches, maybe it had fallen and had to be cut, the result is a tree with lots of character.