Allotment 04/07/09

Spent a very busy couple of hours up on the allotment today with Rhys and middle-youngest-sister. All the time we were up there it was threatening to rain, and did start twice, but we still get a lot done. Three beds sorted, one for MYS’s tomato plants, half of one has gone down to peas, it would be so nice to get a crop of them this year after all the sowings I have done and a whole bed to French Beans.

I filled up the end on one of the kale beds with some cabbages that had been growing at home, I put some in from the same sowing a few weeks ago and they have rocketed. They are now filling their plastic bottles so I must order some more netting to keep the butterflies off and take the bottles off. I’m going to do another sowing of these, I can get two more in before the session is over, as with kale.

I made a half hearted attempt at weeding out some of the thistles that are on the plots, maybe it is something to do with allotment sites but our last allotment that we had a few years ago was always covered in thistles. It was a losing battle. I think the plot that is next to ours is empty still and the bottom half of it is covered in them, I think we will cut them down before they flower but they are also covered in black fly so we may ended up with them as a problem on our plot when we do, still I have seem ladybirds up there so they will have a feast.

The courgettes are getting close to fruiting, I can now pick out which ones are the round fruit or the yellow fruit. Or the yellow round ones that there seem to be more than I remember sowing of. The first lot of runner beans are flowering well too, I haven’t get seem any fruit setting though. MYS has already had a few french beans off the plants that she planted out at the same time as the runner beans so they shouldn’t be that far behind. And this more I got some more dwarf runner and french beans as there is just enough time for another sowing.

New toys

Even though I am trying to de-clutter I have been tempted by a few things lately, and given in on two occasions.

My first purchase was a small set of wood carving tools, I’ve never tried wood carving of any sort, or have any idea if the tools I have bought are any good, but I like the idea of it so I will be trying something with them.

My other purchase is slightly larger, a Victorian cast iron sock knitting machine. I collected it last night. I still don’t feel any where near my goal of making my own socks from our own sheep’s wool, I still have some way to go with my spinning and I haven’t yet knitted anything, just played around with different stitches and ideas (which I need to do to learn). I can’t remember where I first saw or hear about sock knitting machines but they captured my imagination from the start.

 My is an original Victorian single-rib machine that was re-stored by a lady who worked in a museum and had a passion for them, she had eight of her own and employed a team to make Kashmir socks for Harrods. It has a homemade stand, original weights and tools.

When I first found out about sock knitting machines I was told/read that they were first produced during WW1 has there was a shortage of socks for the forces and no more were made after the war but since reading more about them I’m not sure how true this is but I liked the story.

Now I just have to clear away some of my clutter to made a work space for it

Loose ends

Well, the cows have gone and life is carrying on as it does. We are starting to think of what to get next, as we do enjoy the cows milk we will get another one, it is just a matter of what and when.

There have been other things that have happened in the last week or so that I have meant to post about but not had chance. All of the girl goat kids have been disbudded so as they don’t grow horns, they are growing well too. ‘Greedy Boy’ has not been disbudded as as he is not pure bred he is a meat kid so it will not matter so much if he has horns, where as the girls will mostly likely become milkers when they are fully grown and it is not a nice job teaching a large female goat to stand to be milked if she has horns, even if she doesn’t mean to catch you with them.

The goslings and chicks are also doing well and are big enough to move out of the brooder this weekend. I’m also trying to have a clear up and sort out inside, I have far to much ’stuff’ that I just don’t use or need and it is stopping me getting to the things that I do use or would use if I could get to it.

Last Sunday there was a special LETS meeting, it was nice to have a meeting on a weekend afternoon whenyou haven’t had to rush to get things done because you’ve been at work all day but there was a disappointing turn out. A small amount of trading went on but we ,mostly sat around chatting and drinking tea. I didn’t bother getting most of the things I had taken out of the car so I still have boxes of ’stuff’ sitting around that I’d hoped to of got rid of by now. I will take it to the meeting next week and then maybe take the rest to a carboot sale.

We lefted the first garlic on mid summer, it was some of the self sown patch so has been in the ground for at least six months or more but was very disappointing. It haven’t started to split into a bulb yet. We also harvested some potatoes last week which were also disappointing, not many at all. 

The weather is very hot, which is making getting things done during the day difficult but it’s slowly getting done. The weather is meant to break over the weekend so it’s best just to enjoy what we have now and try to arrange the day so as we are not out during the hottest parts

In Season this week #42

VEGETABLES

artichoke*, asparagus, aubergine*, beetroot*, broad beans*, broccoli*, carrots*, courgettes*, cucumber, fennel*, french beans*, garlic*, jersey royal new potatoes, kohlrabi, lettuces & salad leaves*, mangetout*, new potatoes*, onions*, peas*, potatoes (maincrop), radishes*, rhubarb, rocket*, runner beans*, samphire, spinach, spring onions*, turnips*, watercress*, wild mushrooms, wild nettles

FRUIT

apricots*^[i], blueberries*, cherries*, chillies, gooseberries*, greengages, kiwi fruit*^[i], lemons^[i], loganberries, melons*^[i],oranges^[i], peaches^[i], raspberries*, redcurrants, strawberries*, tomatoes*

HERBS, FLOWERS, FUNGHI, NUTS

basil*, chervil, chives*, coriander, dill*, mint*, mushrooms (cultivated), oregano, parsley (curly)*, parsley (flat-leaf)*, rosemary*, sage*, sorrel*, tarragon*, thyme*, wild mushrooms

MEAT

beef, chicken, lamb*, pork, rabbit*, venison, wood pigeon*

Living the dream

Tomorrow marks a very sad ending in our household, as both Primrose and Sunshine have come back as ‘re-actor’ on their annul  TB test.

We have known that TB was a risk ever since we first got cows, Gloucestershire is a ‘hot spot’ for TB, but have always, naively it would seem now, thought that it wouldn’t happen to us. They may very well not even have TB, the test that is used is only 68% reliable, but we cannot have a retest. The ‘rules are the rules’.

We could fight it, but then it is likely that the cows would just get taken in the night, or certainly without warning. So we would be living on the edge all the time, knowing that it was going to happen but not when. It could be in a months time or maybe not for a year or more but it would happen and waiting for it would just be too much.

The lady from DEFRA has been very nice and understanding. She is coming out herself tomorrow to put the ‘death tags’ in, it has not been done before as it would just upset them. They are going in a lorry on their own, not with other cows from all over the area, and to the local slaughterhouse about four miles away, not all the way in the Midlands somewhere.

 

It is a big knock, and something that a lot of people wouldn’t understand, Primrose’s calf was sold for meat after all, why is it so different for Primrose and Sunshine. We still cared for the calf, and enjoyed watching him grow and lean about all the new things in the world… It’s not something that I can explain right now through.

In the brooder

Ok, I didn’t manage to keep up with my intention to keep a recorded of what eggs went into the incubator but things have been moving pretty fast. I didn’t even really manage to keep track of the dates that different eggs were put in there either so every so often there has been a nice surprise of finding a chick of some sort or a pipping egg when checking on the incubators, in spite of that though we had done pretty well on the hatching front.

There is a Muscovy duckling/chick (?) who is the oldest, as it is the first one we have hatched out I’m guessing it is a boy. There is two Silver Dorking chicks, Silver Dorkings are ’sex linked’ chicks so they have different markings when they hatch, from the pictures that I’ve seem on the internet they are both cockerels. There is a little white chick that was hatched under an Indian Game hen, they seem to sit ok but aren’t very good with there chicks afterwards we took the chick away as she was pecking at it.

And lastly there are the goslings, who are all doing well.

Left in the incubator there is the last of the goose eggs, that I don’t think are going to do anything but I wanted to given them a chance, some other eggs that were under the Indian Game, which I also don’t think are going to do anything but again want to give them a chance. Two Call Duck eggs that are due to hatch in a week or so, and some more Silver Dorking eggs that went in yesterday.

In season this week #41

VEGETABLES

artichoke*, asparagus*, aubergine*, beetroot, broad beans*, broccoli*, carrots*, courgettes*, cucumber, fennel*, french beans, garlic, jersey royal new potatoes, kohlrabi, lettuces & salad leaves*, mangetout*, new potatoes*, onions, peas*, potatoes (maincrop), radishes*, rhubarb, rocket*, runner beans*, samphire, spinach, spring onions*, turnips*, watercress*, wild mushrooms, wild nettles

FRUIT

apricots*^[i], blueberries*, cherries*, chillies, elderflowers*, gooseberries*, greengages, kiwi fruit*^[i], lemons^[i], loganberries, melons*^[i],oranges^[i], peaches^[i], raspberries*, redcurrants, strawberries*, tomatoes*

HERBS, FLOWERS, FUNGHI, NUTS

basil*, chervil, chives*, coriander, dill*, elderflowers*, mint*, mushrooms (cultivated), oregano, parsley (curly)*, parsley (flat-leaf)*, rosemary*, sage, sorrel*, tarragon*, thyme*, wild mushrooms

MEAT

beef, chicken, lamb*, pork, rabbit, venison, wood pigeon*

Allotment 21/06/09

Well, yesterday and today I have been feeling a little bit down about the allotment as we still aren’t eating anything from it yet, the rabbits have had a good feed from it though! But then I thought about it with a more reasonable head on and we’ve only had them for just over two months, so really we’re not doing badly at all, and it’s not like I have been planting ‘quick crops’ on it either.

I don’t have any photo’s for this post but since last time I have planted out a whole bed of courgettes and some tomato plants that we were given (thank you Mrs Green at MyZeroWaste) and a few cabbages. It is very almost full up there now, at home I have lots of dwarf french beans, some more runner beans plus some more to be sown, sweetcorn and squashes still to be planted out up there. I also have a whole try of broccoli and another of purple sprouting that are getting desperate for potting on, there is also a small tray of brussle sprouts to be potted on and kale as well so I guess a fair few evenings this week are going to be spent doing just that.

In print

I am in the months Country Smallholdingmagazine! I wrote a piece for their ‘Real Lives’ section a while ago and can’t believe it has been used so quickly, I thought magazines like that worked six months a head for things like that.

It is only 300 words long, which isn’t much to tell people about yourself, but it is there and I am very pleased with it.

Cracking time

We had thunder in the area last week, we didn’t have a storm here but we did have a huge crack of lighting over the house that cracked some of the eggs my dad had under a broody. One egg has hatched and the others have been put into the incubator just in case as she started sitting on half a dozen and has ended up with ten under her.

Some of the goose eggs hatched, three. They are our first ever goslings and very sweet. The brooder is starting to look nicely filled, as well as the three goslings there is the Silver Dorking chick and a Muscovy chick. From the markings when it first hatched I think it is a cockeral, but now that it’s feathers are coming through I’m not so sure. It would be nice if it was a hen but then I would need to get another cockeral if I kept it. Oh well, we’ll will just have to wait and see.