The weather has remained bright dry and sunny although we have had a couple of frosts the sweet peas have not been affected but the courgettes have had it,
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| Tonight's dinner. |
but the winter veg are now coming into their own, just right for a nice warming stew.
The freezers are once again full, as the ducks have now been harvested, once again we used the Friendly Farmer to slaughter and process. It is so much better to get all the birds done at the same time instead of doing a couple each week.
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| A dozen duckling oven ready. Plus the livers for duck pate' |
Next year we will probably buy in our ducklings as day olds rather than hatching our own. This way we can guarantee the numbers that we will have . We have found this is also the best way to produce our chickens for eating. They are cheap enough to buy at day olds and takes out all the guessing as to whether we will have enough for the year.
We will still hatch the quail and laying hens, we enjoy raising the chicks and they require very little work.
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| WHY? |
On our trip down to the Friendly farmer we spotted this pile of rubbish dumped, not exactly what you want to see decorating the country side. If these mindless morons had taken the rubbish to the tip it would have cost at most a fiver. The tips are still quite cheap here and there are plenty of them around.
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| Poultry drop off point? Dog at the ready! |
It is so nice to find 'Small Farm' enterprises that are really working, the Friendly Farmer is one such farm, not only does he provide a service to other small producers in the way of poultry processing, he also farms small flocks of free range chickens that really are 'free range'
he also rears nearly a thousand bronze turkeys for the Christmas market.
None of his produce will end up in supermarkets, he sells directly to farmers markets and selected restaurants who know a good product when they see it.
Then there is Drumanilra Farm,
www.drumanilra.ie, a small mixed farm that got it's full Organic licence in May, they specialise in rare breeds such as Dexter cattle , Jacob sheep and rare breed pigs. They now have a butchers shop in Boyle and also a great little café, where they sell their award winning burgers amongst other things. We have our lunch there every week after the farmers market and the place is always busy. Their prices are very good and you can eat there knowing exactly where your food has come from and how it was produced. They have created seven full time jobs as well as networking with other local organic farmers from whom they back up their supply of meats. Most importantly, Justina has a good rapport with her customers remembering from week to week who likes what with what!
Next years veg plantings have already been decided, I have also made a start on flower seed planting. As we drive around we keep seeing gardens ablaze with Kniphofia, we do have some but they have all bloomed very early in the year and what I want is lots of colour this time of year. I had been told of a small Irish cottage industry who sell seeds.
www.Seedaholic.com they have a great range of seeds and give detailed profiles and planting instructions with all their seeds, far better information than any of the big companies. Their delivery is quick, I ordered my seeds on Monday night and they were here on Wednesday. The seeds are now planted and hopefully I will also have a blaze of colour next year.
Not that I should complain, the garden is still full of colour,
I was given trays of nasturtiums plus other plants for containers from a friend who does the Farmers Market, it was end of season for her so they would have been thrown out.
One of the nasturtiums plants has almost black flowers, I have never seen such a darkly coloured flower before, I just hope that I can save seed from this one, there is only one plant of it and it was later to bloom than the rest of the plants.
My viola and nasturtiums are still flowering, I'm freezing them hopefully they will be ok to make an ice bowl at Christmas for my daughter when she comes home so she doesn't miss them in flower
ReplyDeleteWe are covering the black nasturtium with crop cover each night, I do want to harvest the seed from it.
DeleteIt's getting very cold in the evenings down in Cornwall as well. I look forward to the change in seasonal food though, just as you are getting fed up of the summer produce something different comes along.
ReplyDeleteIt makes my blood boil when people dump their rubbish on the side of the road. I would love to find out who did it and 'return' it to them..... in their front garden preferably.
I feel the same Chickpea, is it laziness or they don't want to pay a small fee? Mind you, if they do get caught it's a big fine.
DeleteYes a definite nip in the night time air now, we have started having the range on every night.
We haven't had a frost yet, but each day is getting colder, porridge weather I think.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe people have the cheek to go and and dump their rubbish, sometimes when you see it it is perfectly re usable, it makes me mad, lazy buggers.
We haven't reached the porridge stage yet but are using lots of oats in our cooking, crumple with oats, cookies made with oats. I just don't understand the mentality of people that dump rubbish especially in a beautiful area.
DeleteDumping is a real problem here too, and I don´t know why - we´ve taken loads of stuff dug up around the place to the tip and it was free.
ReplyDeleteI´m trying to find places for summer bulbs. The problem is they should go into semi-permanent spots that won´t get ripped up, and those are hard to find.
Good to know the tips are still free Coco, it's amazing what you can find on tips especially in Spain, we once got a huge pair of carved doors, ten ft wide seven ft high, we used them as a room divider when we lived in Catalonia.
DeletePlant your bulbs in containers, those cheap rubber buckets make good planters, then you can move the around and when you have decided where the flower beds will be you can just plant you bulbs where you want them.
The nights are getting cold here now but we still haven't had a frost, I doubt it's too far away though. Why on earth do people have to tip their rubbish like that? They really can't care for the world in which they live, very sad. I've never tried duck, I think Mick had it when eating out once and he said it was ok but wasn't overly impressed. The black nasturtium is a beauty. I love kniphofia too, they never do very well in my garden for some reason though.
ReplyDeleteDuck is our favourite meat but it can be disappointing if it's not cooked properly, dumping rubbish is just selfish. We have got some kniphofia in the garden but they bloomed very early, May if I remember correctly, I want ones that will flower now! Mind you we have other weird happening in the garden, it is only now that our pampas grass has decided to bloom, three months later than it should .I doubt it will come to much this late in the year.
DeleteThanks for the seedaholic link, Anne.
ReplyDeleteGreat little site Matt and full of information.
DeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeleteAlso sending thanks for the Seedaholic link, and hoping that you are both well.
We love duck, people think that it is too fatty but it is a meat that is good for you.
No frost here yet but we did get some in France a couple of weeks ago. Still getting a few courgettes and now clearing the last of the toms. looking forward to all the roasted root veg, yes and the farty chokes.
Use lots and lots of oats. Don't like porridge but use them in all kinds of things, savoury as well as sweet, including of course, making granola.
I will not rant about the rubbish...................Blood pressure!
It is wonderful to have what seems to be an increase in the number of small producers of good quality food. I do believe that more people are beginning to take note of what they are eating and feeding to their families.
Love that Nasturtium. Do you ever eat Nasturtiums? Very peppery.
Hi Irene, yes we are both well apart from old age aches and pains, plus I have sciatica which wont shift. Yes, we love duck only people who don't know how to cook duck would find it greasy. Oats are very versatile, use them a lot. Um, rubbish, we had to go back that way today and stopped at the same place, I then spotted a stool, just the right height for gardening, so we have re-homed it, one mans poison and all that!
DeleteYes, I think that slowly people are waking up to what they are eating, I'm just on the last week of a open university course Global Food Security, it has been a very interesting course but some people still don't get it, and that includes some of our tutors.
Yes we like Nasturtium in salads, flowers and leafs, and I have a jar of pickled seeds that I use in place of capers, they taste just the same. Hope you are both well.
Id have nightmares if i saw that many turkeys in one go. They might taste good but they certainly got hit with the ugly stick.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Spain we bought two turkey poults, the intention was to have one for Xmas and one for Easter, within a few days we were totally enchanted by them, they made wonderful pets, they would come and sit on our feet by the fish pond when we had our lunch outside and would purr at us, they loved getting titbits and showed their pleasure by blushing, so cute. We would never keep them again, we know they would end up as pets and not food for us, and we already have enough pets.
DeleteWow, look at all that duck. I think it's one of my favourite meats, delicious. I love the 'dog at the ready!' snap. It's nice hearing about the small enterprises and I hope they continue to flourish. Less nice to see that rubbish pile though, grrrr! x
ReplyDeleteI don't think we had duck last time you were here, will have to make sure we do on your next visit.
ReplyDelete