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

This And That Plus A Trip Out.

Hi!

We have had a few bits out of the garden over the last couple of days which is fantastic. Spring onions were lovely, strawbs are coming regularly but not tonnes, I wish, plus a few VERY tasty new spuds - Charlottes and Arran Pilots. Won't be buying any more of these from now on I don't think but I also am leaving them in the ground for a little longer yet so they end up slightly bigger.

What we have had a bit of trouble with are the hens; for some reason we were daily only getting between three and six eggs for a few days but thankfully today they seem to be back to laying as we had eight.

I found this when I was looking at some photos and just wanted to include it because I just love it.

On Thursday I put these baby toms in the dehydrator; we'll see what result we get and over how long; bit of an experiment as not the same as an electric one.

Yesterday I had a really lovely time over at Being Self Sufficient In Wales visiting Dawn and Martin; we had a great chat as usual. We had a proper look round all of the poly tunnels and beds and I picked up a few hints and tips as I always do. I  petted lovely Tess and Sol and tried some goats milk - tastes just like cows milk, really. We had a lovely lunch of quiche with lettuce leaves and radishes picked fresh from the garden.

I came home in time for the boys being back from school, along with a pile of seed trays which will be very useful next year.

                                       

Thanks for a lovely time Dawn and I'll get the biscuit recipe to you soon. 

Back home I had a look round everything. My salad blues I was given by the lovely Tracy from Our Smallholding Adventure are flowering - so pretty a colour -  but I have taken these off so the energy goes to the spuds; as they are a maincrop variety they will be in the ground for a bit longer.

                                                      

I potted on the last of my peppers so that is everything in pots done; anything else will be direct sowing I think but who knows! I was looking around the Poly House when putting the pots to dry and it's funny to see the shelves full of pots again as these won't be used a lot for some time.

On Thursday Jon started work on the kindling and coal stores alongside the main wood store. With the coal this means it can be poured in the top and there will be a board on an angle inside so we can always shovel it out easily. We don't use lots of coal as wood is our main source of fuel for the Rayburn and the woodburner but sometimes it just helps. This project should be finished today.

The small gap to the left may be made into a store the straw for the chicken bedding which would be great as it really doesn't have a dry place to be kept at the moment.

Harry is going to Cardiff with school on Monday morning until tea time on Wednesday so we have decided to get out jobs done this morning and then spend some time in Aber this afternoon. We will miss him and I know Alfie will; even though they have their spats he always says he is bored when Harry isn't here. Bless.

Right, those chooks won't clean out themselves.

Look forward, as always, to seeing what you all get up to over the weekend whilst we are going to be having this wonderful weather. 

*********

I used to keep a Journal of Gratitude but have decided to incorporate it into my blog instead,
so here goes.

I'm grateful we are able to just go to the beach on the hoof. On Wednesday I made bacon butties and we left for Aber when Jon got home from work. He and the boys ate them with chips and a fizzy drink in the sunshine; the boys went in the water and Jon and I just chatted - bliss and just then  I could not have thought of a better place to be.

BBQ, Brakes and Boy What a View!

Friday afternoon saw a change to the meal plan as the weather was soooo nice we threw together a few things for a bbq and outdoor eating just had to be done. Yum!

On Saturday we were around the house with Jon starting on the job of changing the brakes on his car and we need to pop to Aber for a certain tool he needed.

I did some jobs in the garden including planting out some of the sugar snap peas in the sweetcorn patch and sowed more, too. I also added a few rocket seeds to fill in the gaps in my salad leaf drainpipe in the Poly House. And talking of lettuces I am so pleased with my efforts this year as last year they were very poor. Almost ready to use and I have a good more growing in the sink so we should be able to have them regularly soon. Eeeek!

On Sunday we had a quick lunch and then went into Aber as it was such a glorious day. We had decided to climb Constitutional Hill from where you can look down on the beach. Personally I wasn't looking forward to the climb very much but in the end it was fab, with the reward of an ice cream for all at the top. What a view!

We walked down, too, instead of taking the cable car.

On the way back to the car the boys tried to find their way through a maze!

Today we are blessed with yet another glorious day. Jon fixed up the hosepipe to the garage inside tap for me as I had to fill the water butts and all my bottles and water cans. 

So pleased to report that FINALLY my sweet corn is making progress and the few carrots I sowed in the Poy House are also doing very well; hope the ones outside do as well.

The spinach that was very small on April 21 is big enough for me to have picked a little - that will be for my tea tonight, probably just a garnish!

Lastly to report, my first attempt at growing basil is great and my summer cabbages are doing better than I could imagine. I am keeping a close eye on slugs on these and the broccoli but all well so far.

 

There, I think I am all caught up. A few jobs to do now before the boys are home from school no doubt in need of a cold drink and a snack.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Homestead Ways and Sunny Days.

This week I tried something a bit different with my bread making. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds with pine nuts, mmmm yummy when toasted in the heat slightly.

On Thursday morning I baked this yummy blueberry breakfast cake, mainly for Alfie, the recipe for which I saw on Pinterest - here is the link; easy to bake and very tasty.

Just to being me back down to earth I cleaned out the chickens later on before any rain looked like it was starting - a great job as I love seeing it all cosy for them - call me daft! 

On Friday morning I planted out most of the beetroot, still a bit to go, then after lunch baked a lemon cake to use up some eggs and changed beds. We decided to go to Aber in the late afternoon as the weather was just glorious. We also thought we would get a Chinese takeaway to have with the boys as they would be going away to the Gramps at the weekend for a week. They had been so good tidying up inside whist me and Jon were busy and even made us a cafetier of coffee! 

We drove to the seafront and instead of going second class we turned left and headed to the harbour for a change, walking up as far as we could. Check out my photos and the fab, bluer than blue sky.

I think this is where the river Ystwyth meets the sea.

 Looking back toward the sea front.

Alfie has had the lucky sea gull poo drop on this a couple of times and this one seemed to be circling him!

There were a few people on the beach and the lifeguards were on duty.

Today, Sunday, and this was the collection of goodies first thing in the morning from the hen house, Poly House and outside - our first tomato! Courgettes and sugar snap peas are still steadily growing, too, and there was another egg later on.

The boys are going off shortly when Grandad has done helping Jon with a project I will share at a later date. Their little backpacks are packed and they will hopefully be back next Saturday in time for us to go to a vintage show being held in Aberaeron.

Jon is back to work tomorrow so I will be keeping myself busy with various things, but also watching some of the Olympics depending on the times which are a little crazy here and there because of the time difference.

Right I'm just rambling now so hope to have some stuff to share with you later in the week.

By for now.

Lou.xx

Not The Best Of Weekends, But At Least The Sun Shone!

We had been looking forward to Jon's cousin and her chap visiting this past weekend. On Friday about lunch time I began with a headache. (I should say at this point that Alfie was off school on both Wednesday and Thursday with a cough and not feeling well in general.)

I improved enough for us to go to Aber to do the food shopping when they boys were home from school, but on our return I could hardly get out of the car. I didn't get any better and woke up Saturday morning feeling like death. I rallied by the time our guests arrived and we popped to Aber and Sophie's  which will be our new cafe now instead of going to Costa or Starbucks. It has mis-matched furniture and serves a wonderful hot chocolate and toasted tea cakes which I found very restorative at the time, plus they have a loyalty scheme where you buy six drinks and your next one is free. I have meant to go into Sophie's for ages because it is on the opposite corner to Charlie's where we go a lot. I feel much better about having decided to support a local business instead of a low tax-paying American corporation. (Here endeth the lesson.)I had a sleep when I came home but was not feeling like going out to eat with the others later so stayed home.

In the morning I was again unwell so stayed home whilst the others went to Llanafan with Jake for a paddle in the river; they had great fun. 

Again I felt a bit better and we decided we'd go to Aber as it was a gloriously sunny day and so warm at 21 degrees! We had a lovely walk along the sea front and I sat down whilst the other went up the hill on the cable car. I sat looking at the sea with the sun shining down on it from around 3 - 3.40pm which was calm and gently lapping on the pebbles; it was beautiful sight.

This morning I got the kids off to school and then went back to bed for a couple of hours. I feel a bit better now and have this morning enjoyed looking at the wonderful things all of you in blog land have been doing this past weekend. I don't have the energy to comment on everything individually but Sadie I love your gold bunny, The Croods are doing amazingly as a family with their smallholding, Dawn, I saw gorgeous Alpacas on Country File last night - about Aber which was very exciting - and hope you are feeling better after the dentist trip! Well done on your mammoth reading session, Sue.

Well, that is about all from me. I hope my next post will be a little more cherry.

Lou.xx