Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Summer Harvest, one week on.

I grew this lovely rose from a cutting from a neighbour in Spain, it has a lovely perfume.
                    The season is moving on far too quickly,
First two pounds of blackcurrants.
the blackcurrants are earlier than last year although it wont be so big a harvest ,  that's fine, as we  have 20lb of currants still in the freezer,
It might be raining but the fruit still gets picked.
however they will still be picked and processed into jam or blackcurrant cordial.
The rhubarb is still producing new good stems, they are also picked and then frozen for pies during the dark winter days. Strawberries we just eat as they come, only if I get a glut do I make jam with them. What is nicer than  strawberries, fresh from the garden with a good helping of cream?
First of the raspberries.
The raspberries are cropping well this year, we are now picking 1.5lb a day, some we eat on the day, the rest I freeze, lovely in the middle of winter, just the smell  brings back summer.
Crème Brulee with a difference,  strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant topping.
The broad beans are also doing very well this year, planted out as small plants in February we will have plenty to freeze, the Runner beans have started climbing and producing flower but nowhere near as many as last year, the  French beans are slower however, they really do prefer more warmth, but the garden peas are fine.
The Hubbard birds.
The table birds that we had have now gone for processing, normally we would do this ourselves, however the prospect of slaughtering and plucking twenty birds was a bit daunting and I had heard of someone who had set up a small 'on farm' enterprise where he can slaughter and process birds for other people.
'The Friendly Farmer' has a smallish Free Range enterprise where he farms chickens, ducks and turkeys, he sells his produce in Farmers markets and selected restaurants.
 Having decided what he was going to farm he found that the processing of birds for sale was likely to create a problem so he did the sensible thing, he opened up his own processing unit with the help of a grant from the Galway enterprise scheme. There are so few small processing units around so we consider ourselves lucky that there is one not too far away and who will do the whole job at a very reasonable price. We will pick up the birds tomorrow all cleaned and ready for the freezer.
Isn't he beautiful? He keeps the poultry safe.
He seems to have a very good setup, and we loved his predator protection, three huge Pyrenean Mountain dogs, they live in the field with the birds! From a distance they looked like small ponies. Apparently he has not lost a bird to foxes, nor to the dogs, so his method seems to work.
Battered Delphiniums.
We have had strong winds again in the last few days although it has been mild, but the wind did a fair bit of damage to our lovely Delphiniums even though we thought they were well staked.
Lots of buds to open on this one.
Last Christmas we were given two Orchids by friends,
Back in bloom again.
I have never been very successful with Orchids, however taking advice from another friend these two plants have now come back into bloom. So, many thanks to Richard who told me how to care for Orchids.
View from the kitchen window.

16 comments:

  1. Goodness, ive watched two programs this week about free range chicken farming in Oz and both had these beautiful watch dogs. Such a lovely site, these great big doggies looking after all those chooks and not one single death to invaders since they arrived.

    I thinking having your chooks processed is a great idea. Who wants to pluck 20 chooks - not me. Hot and stinky. Worth every cent you pay i say.

    Im using strawberries at the moment to add that red touch to green salads now that tomatoes are out of season. Nothing better than a strawberry with a little balsamic dressing.

    Garden lovely as usual.

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    1. Thanks Lynda, I do like a colourful garden. On talking to Ronan the owner of the lovely dog apparently they are used in both Australia and Canada quite extensively to control predators.

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  2. A wonderful bountiful crop. My strawberries are doing well as they are in the greenhouse, but I am guessing it's the birds that keep eating my raspberries! Lovely flowers :)

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    1. Don't think you've put up a picture of your greenhouse B.G. For the raspberries, loganberries and redcurrants we use bird netting, as we have so many blackcurrants we don't worry about the birds having a few of them. So far they have not attacked the gooseberries.

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  3. I don't think I've ever seen a more gorgeous security guard. It's a great time of year when the harvests are coming thick and fast. Strawberries are my favourites but we haven't got a very good crop this year, partly due to neglect and partly due to old plants, I need to set up a new bed ready for next year. Your orchids are beautiful. I've got three, the oldest about seven years and the youngest two and they're all still going strong. I have to confess that they're quite neglected, I never feed them, just water them once a week, cut off the flower spikes once they've finished flowering and they soon send up new spikes.

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    1. The guy has three of those dogs Jo, they really are so beautiful. Are you taking runners from the old strawberries? We are giving the orchids a hour long soak once a week and then letting them drain fully, it seems to work, I didn't know about cutting of the old spikes, these plants are flowering on the same spikes as they were at first, is that usual?

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    2. I'm not taking runners from the old strawberries, they're plants we inherited with the plot so I'd like to start from scratch again. Yes, it's important to let the orchids drain, they don't like to be sat in water. Orchids can flower again on the same flower spike, you can cut them down to a bud to encourage them to do this but I just take the whole spike off and it isn't long before they send up a new one.

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  4. Love the idea of Pyrenean Mountain Dogs as fox-deterrent. Just need a way of 'offing' three Westies without anyone noticing! :-)

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    1. Don't think you will get away with that one Matt!

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  5. Love the idea of Pyrenean Mountain Dogs as fox-deterrent. Just need a way of 'offing' three Westies without anyone noticing! :-)

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  6. All looking great and very colourful. Extremely dry here now so harvests suffering a little.

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    1. Thanks Ian, we have returned to the rainy season so everything is growing inches overnight, including the weeds!

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  7. I so envy the rhubarb and currents! We're just too hot to keep things like that happy. My raspberry plants are doing well, however, so I'm hoping for many future harvests.

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  8. I would have thought the currants would have done OK we used to grow them in Spain with no problems five months of the year the temperature's rarely dropped lower than 30c mostly around 35c but with very cold and snowy winters. The rhubarb survived but wasn't as happy as it is here.

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  9. Wow, so many berries! Those orchids are just so pretty and delicate. I love the mountain dog...as the page loaded pics first, I thought you may have bought yourself a new dog!

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  10. The raspberries are doing well and the blackcurrants, unfortunately we hadn't netted the gooseberries well enough, the wild birds have had a feast.

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