First Frosts.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.
    

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.