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.