Friday 23 June 2017

Food - Growing, Eating and Drying.

Hello!

This is a a bit of a round-up of where we are on our little homestead just now.

Jon had begun building the new kindling and coal stores and I have finally got round to taking a photo of the finished article; I love it. As with the main woodpile it is close to the conservatory door so really easy for bringing supplies into the house.



On Wednesday we went to Aber for some outdoor eating on the beach and had tea. I roasted a joint of pork and sliced it when cool, I boiled some of our spuds which I took up yesterday - eeek! and I made some quick chocolate cakes so all made for a yummy picnic along with a portion of chips and my sun dried tomatoes of course!






It was a little celebration of Harry coming home from his 3-day school trip to Cardiff.

Now we have a little look around the Poly House. These are Marketmore cucumbers which took a little while to germinate but are now coming along. I have one planted outside as they are billed as an outdoor variety so I'll be able to compare as they are the same size.


Here are my sweet potato growing bags. They have spread about two feet so I think I will nip those in the bud so to speak so the energy will go to growing the 'spuds'.


These are two gherkin plants which are alongside the cucumbers in the raised bed. These have flowers so fruit may appear soon.


Piquant peppers are growing well and I hope there to be fruit soon; thanks again to Dawn for the seeds.

I can't resist showing a couple of photos from the raised bed outside the Poly House. These are my Golden Acre cabbages. I chose this variety as they develop small heads which are great for growing in small spaces. 


This is not such a success. My broccoli has either failed or is just growing really slowly! I did spot the beginnings of a head here yesterday but the others seem to be doing nothing to be honest. We shall see, maybe the rain we have today will help.


I have been keeping the straw bales for the chickens between my compost bins but it was not ideal as they could get wet or the straw could fly away. So I have used a spare water butt and it is filled with the loose straw....


and the second bale will hopefully stay dry underneath the dehydrator until it can go in the butt.

The dehydrator has produced some more lovely tomatoes.


Jon has nearly eaten all of them so need to find a wholesaler and buy a tray full until our toms are ready....


Well, I hope you enjoyed my little round up. The weekend is upon us, yay, so as usual I look forward to seeing what you will all be getting up to.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx


9 comments:

  1. love your picnic on the beach, I hope Harry had a fab time on his school trip,

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    1. Thanks Dawn. It is just the sort of thing Jon and I signed up for when we moved here and it is one of our VERY favourite things to do. Harry had a great time but was knackered for the rest of the week as were all the kids!

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  2. We take picnics when we go out especially when the grandchildren are with us as they are eating machines! I'm really excited because I thought I'd thrown the butternut squash away having mixed it up with the cucumber. I have a teeny tiny butternut squash forming.

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    1. Well done with your squash Tania. I so hope mine work out for me this year. I'm going to sow a few more today, too.

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  3. We love picnics too! In fact if the weather allows, we're having one on Friday. Lovely to see. Interested to see what happens with the cucumbers indoors and out. The cabbage looks great and those toms look divine! Love a bit of anti pasti :) xx

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    1. Oh where will you go for the picnic? Both seem to be doing ok but not in flower just yet. Oh funny you should say that anti pasti is just about Jon and the boys' fav thing to eat. I often do it on a weekend as they can all just dig in for what they want and I can stick to plan, go SW!!xx

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  4. Replies
    1. Oh it was yummy but the setting was almost as lovely as the food. We feel very lucky to be able to visit the beach so easily.

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  5. Hi Louise those sweet potatoes look interesting. I have never grown them but they are a favourite here especially roasted until they go soft and caramelised or as sweet potato chips. Are they in separate pots for a reason and can you plant them in the ground. Like the look of your solar drier. I have small tomatoes that I have done this week I cheated though and popped them in the oven first to caramelise them. they are not far being done and then will be plonked into oil for OH.

    There is nothing like a nicpic in the summer months.

    Take care.

    Pattypan

    x

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Thank you so much for finding the time to comment. I really appreciate it and will always try to reply.xx