I finished making mushroom kechup with the mushrooms that weren’t eaten on toast the other day. It tastes a little too vingery really but is ok.

I VERY loosely followed a recipe for it from Food as Gifts by Jo Marcangelo which is a lovely book that I got from a LETS meeting a while ago.

Ingredients: 2 ib (1kg) large, open mushrooms, 1 oz (25g) sea salt, 1 level teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 level teaspoon whole allspice, 10 cloves, piece of root ginger, 1 pint (600ml) vinger

1. Cut off the bottom of the mushroom stalks and discard. Break them up into small pieces and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt, cover and leave to stand for about 12hours. 2. put the mushroom mixture in a saucepan and mash up. crush the spices and add to the pan along with the vinger. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 30minutes. 3. Pour the mixture into a blender and puree it. 4. Pour into hot, sterilised bottles, leaving a 1inch (2.5cm) headspace, seal while hot with screw caps. 5. Put a thick wad of newspaper in the bottom of a large deep pan and then stand the filled bottles on this. Slacken the screw caps by a quarter of a turn and slowly bring the pan of water to the boil and simmer for 30minutes. Remove the bottles from the water, tighten up the tops, then cool and label. Store in a cool, dry place.

I didn’t weigh anything, I just used all of the mushrooms that were left, a good half a basket full, add what I thought was enough salt and ended up leaving it for over 24hours in the fridge. I left out the cloves as I couldn’t find any and the all spice was already ground. I left the mixture to simmer on the Rayburn and came back in from the garden almost an hour later, it really didn’t feel like an hour, and as it wasn’t meant as a gift and I think it will get eaten soon enough I didn’t bother with steps 4 or 5 but just put it in clean jars.

Today has been a good autumny kind of day, not to windy, mostly bright with only a few bitter cold showers.

The garden, and goat pen, are starting to get very muddy again. A productive afternoon was spent in the garden sorting, the morning disappeared somewhere too but not as productively, I remember looking at the clock and finding at it was already half past one with nothing done.

A pile of sacks of manure was cleared, unfortunately not to the allotment but to some local freecyclers. Even though the allotment needs as much manure as possible on it but it is the time it takes moving it up their and in the next couple of weeks there is the muck heap garden to be taken up there to make way for the new goat housing.

A fire was lit and lots of old branches were sorted, broken up and either burned there and then or put to one side for cutting up for the Rayburn and indoor wood burners. Over the summer a lot of twigy branches have built up from the greens feed to the goats, and now that the garden is gettting muddy they are starting to get walked into everywhere.

Then this evening we went out to see some fireworks. (photo to follow when I get bluetooth working)

This morning I went fungi gathering on May Hill with some friends.

I haven’t been to May Hill for a few years but it is always something we mean to do come mushroom time, and this year we have started harvesting a crop of Parasol mushrooms from the garden which have started growing after we gathered some from May Hill, bought them home and never got round to doing anything with them and so chucked them out.

We were there a little late, and most mushrooms had started going over but there were planty of different types and it was a lovely walk.

We took my basket and a book that I found in a charity shop and, as well as the Parasols, came away with some Wood Blewitts, which are unusual because they keep their blue-ish colour after cooking.

Some of the Parasols have been eaten on toast with scambled egg and the rest I am going to try making some mushroom kechup with I think.

We have been without, or with only and “intermittent” (only working when I am out), internet service for the past week or so.

This normally happens once every few years when our phone line that runs through some trees gets rubbed through and doesn’t work, but it has happened a few times this year so maybe BT have changed the quality of the wires they use.

It’s been nice not having the internet though, it can be such a massive time waster. I have done loads of spinning and other writing, hopefully I will be able to stop my self being so sucked in now that I’ve had some time away from it. It is a useful resource but real life is just as nice.

SEED PARCEL - This is now on its way!

This morning it was dull, misty and drizzly, and it hasn’t really gotten much better all day. This photo was taken at the view-point at the top of our road, normally you can see right over the Wye Valley and across into Wales and even further on a clear day but this morning you could hardly see into the next field down.

I was up early this morning and off out in search of flaked peas to mix up the goats feed but came back empty-handed, that is three different feed merchants we have been to, two had run out and the third was charging over £11 per sack!

The garden is covered in Ash leaves and the roads are covered in fallen leaves of all colours, it is very beautiful but mixed with the drizzle it is very slippery. Autumn is here. When the leaves are coming down like this I always want to let the goats out on them but it is always to windy and I don’t incase they spook and something goes wrong.

The clocks go back tonight, after half term I will be working in the dark and getting home well after it has gotten dark. I’m looking forward to it in one way, and not in another. Next week is going to be very busy with half term, long days and extra play sessions means I have written the week off for anything else.

I have been having a big sort out of lots of things, books, videos, clothes and even a bookcase have been offered on freecycle and I am really looking forward to having more room and being better organised (yeah right!).

I have also been sorting out my seed boxes, yes I have more than one and there are odd packets dotted around my room, and have filled a chocolate box with packets that I either have more than a couple off or seeds that I have been given that I am not likely to grow, some are whole, unopened packets and some are half packets but most should grow and all are unneeded by me.

I could offer them on freecycle but what I would like to do is arrange a ’seed swap parcel’, there have been some organised on forums I have belonged to but there has always been a massive list of people waiting for the parcel to be passed to them so I would like to arrange my own with the seeds that I have sorted to start it off.

So what I need now is people to pass the parcel to; and for them to pass the parcel to next.   

The rules of the swap are simple, when you receive the parcel take out what seeds you like the look of and think you will grow, add any seeds you have that you no longer need or want and pass the parcel on. If you would like to be involved then leave a comment saying so and leave an email address (but please do not leave postal addresses), when you receive the parcel contact the person who has commented after you and send that parcel on to them. At the end send it back to me!

I thought it might be nice to include a letter of what the weather is like or anything garden or nature related that you have spotted, and maybe what you have taken out of the parcel but it would all just be for something nice and interesting so I don’t mind if no-one else likes the idea of this.

Well, that is another weeks work done. Next week it will be half term, so soon after the summer holidays, I feel like time is flying by. The clocks will change this weekend, and I will be home in the dark after work. Time for indoor, winter crafts but it still feels like there is a lot of outdoor work to do.

I have read another book! And it was well worth the two month wait for the library to get it in.

I’m been interested in the subject of permaculture for a while and the more I found out about it the more interested and the more of a good idea, or right way of doing things, it seems to be. But it is a massive subject, and it is very hard to work out where to start with it but this book is excellent starting place, easy to read and, possibly most importantly, it makes it easier to see how permaculture can be made use of.

After reading the book I have decided on two smallish projects that will make a real difference, with very little work and with mean less of a work load in the long run.

Firstly; water butts near to the chickens and goat housing. We did have water butts by the goat house, isn’t that far from where the chickens and rabbits are kept, but the main one fell over twice (the garden isn’t very level in places and it wasn’t the best made or placed stand for it) and then the tap broke and it hasn’t been used since, meaning that water has to be carried all the way from the top of the garden by the house to the bottom of the garden where all the animals are. It also comes off the mains, which is not ideal.  We have a few water butts that could be used, they just need taps and putting in place. And now is the prefect time of year to do this seeing as we should be getting all the winter rain soon.

The input for this will be small maybe a few hours work, and minimum cost, the out come and productivity of it will be less carrying of water by people, less use of mains water, rain water is probably better for the animals, making use of a resource that would have otherwise gone to waste and the guttering on the goat housing (which is already up until the new housing is finished) will help stop some of the run off into the goat pen which makes is wet and bogging in wet weather.

Secondly; I am going to use a ‘no-dig’ method to bring the new allotment ground into use. The beds will be 1.2 meters wide, and the length of the allotment long, and the paths will all be 1 meter wide. After the beds have been pegged out (which has already started being done) they are ‘lined’ with cardboard boxes, which our local supermarket are more than grateful to give us, so as all of the ground and any weeds are covered and then this is covered in manure. This can be planted straight into, so long as the manure isn’t to fresh, and a layer of grass cuttings or straw (hay is not a good idea as it probably has lots of grass seeds in amongst it) to keep the moisture and warmth in.

The input for this will be a lot less than if I dug over each bed by hand, and added manure and then dug this in. It will mean weeds are less of a problem as the cardboard will block off the light to them. It will also mean that the ‘eco-system’ that builds up in soil to break things down and turn them into usable materials for the plants will not be disturbed and so can carrying on building up as the field was turned from grazing to allotment plots in April. Hopefully resulting in better soil and better crops.

Some other interesting bits from the book:

• The first LETS was started in Canada in the 1930s in a small mining town, when the mining company pulled out of the area people were left with skills, and a need for other skills, but no way of earning a living and so the first LETS was born.
• Growing vegetables in the tradition rows of beds is not the most productive way of growing them but where they are grown in this way than beds should be 1.2 meters way meaning the middle can be reached from either side, and paths should be 1 meter wide.
• If you are already doing any of the following then you have already started practising permaculture: Enjoying the beauty of nature, growing some of your own food, walking, cycling or taking public transport instead of taking the car, making decisions about what you buy on the basis of how it affects the earth, reusing and recycling materials, supporting nature conservation

I have been on a basket making course today, and this is what I made.

It has been a really nice day and I now can’t wait for the leaves to finish falling off the trees. I have a long ideas list of what I can make… a different basket for everything I own to live in, boarders for the vegetable beds and paths, apple collecting baskets, mushroom collecting baskets, the list goes one. 

I am so pleased with myself, and by the end of basket making season, handly just as lambing and kidding session starts, I will have the strongest, toughest thumbs for miles.

I spent the evening spinning yesterday. I have only really spent one other evening spinning so far so it was a very welcome chance to sit down and practices.

I think I have worked out why my tension keeps going wrong, I am leaving nobbly bits in the wool instead of pick them out so it then doesn’t thread through the flyer as it is should. Now that I know this is should make it much easier to sit down and do odd little bits and pieces