Limetree Blog

Rainy Day In

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:27:36 +0100

This was the view confronting me from our kitchen window this morning - a really damp August Saturday. To be honest I was glad - I feel bad spending a day inside during summer when the weather is nice. But today I had the perfect excuse to spend the whole day in the kitchen just doing jobs and drinking tea with people who popped in.

I had planned to go on a picnic with some friends from the Selfsufficientish forum at www.selfsufficientish.com/forum but it was rained off - we polished off the spinach and cheese quiche I had made for lunch instead.

I also spent the afternoon finishing off a winter skirt I had started weeks ago.

Oli took avantage of not being able to do anything outside and spent the whole day on the Xbox - a rare treat in our house. I can't moan though, he did make a lovely loaf which had plenty of rises so it was a really lovely texture. How nice to spend a day just pottering.

Gratuitous Flower Picture

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:32:06 +0100

This is how I like my garden - some kind folk might call it 'Cottage Garden' - but it is reallyjust a mess of brightly coloured plants competing for space!

Gobble Gobble...the turkey trials

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:49:08 +0100

We went to pick up our turkeys today!

We bought five from our local organic farmer - one for us, two as gifts and we will sell the other two to try and cover our costs. They are Large Whites, 4 weeks old, £6 each and only 6 inches high at the moment. To avoid the dreaded blackhead disease (which Chickens carry without problems but which is fatal to turkeys) we are avoiding keeping them anywhere that we have kept chickens during the last year. This meant the garage was out - so like any right thinking farmer we decided to put them in the study (!).

We set up the broody ring and ensured they had plenty of straw. Five minutes later they had jumped out and were running around the room, one getting stuck behind a bookcase. So, we reinforced the perimiter with chicken wire to above waist height. Five minutes later one had jumped out and was running around the room, with the others not far behind. They were also very noisy - we think it was because they felt claustrophobic in the broody ring.

_{Turkey Borstal was totally ineffective.}

So, this morning we moved them to the porch area that we use as a greenhouse. They seem much happer as there is a lot more space to move about and there is no risk of escape - now - but one did manage to get through the broken catflap before we had time to block it up!

_{Probably plotting the next escape route.}

Hard to believe that these little things will be Christmas dinner for six on December 25th :-(

And seeing as this blog is becomming more of a food diary than anything else, tonights offering:

Gorgeous lamb chump chop from Hinton Organic at our local Slow Food Market. The beans are not overcooked honest, they start off dark purple and cook to this murky shade of green. To do something different with potatoes and spinach from the patch we made Saag Aloo - really easy, using this quick recipe : http://www.worldfoodieguide.com/index.php/how-to-make-indian-saag-aloo-recipe/

It would have been nice to chop some coriander and lime into some whipped goats cheese to serve with the lamb, but until we get the goat....

Eat More Chips!

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:27:16 +0100

Our maincrop potatoes are cropping really well. We got a bit carried away at the seed potato fair back in February, with the result that we now have more potatoes than we know what to do with.

We will soon be making an old-fashioned potato clamp (an underground storage system) to try and keep us in pots for cooking over the winter. In the meantime we are frantically making chips out of the Pentland Javelin and Golden Wonder to freeze. I highly recommend one of these potato chipping machines:

It was under £10 and means that the chips come out an even size so will hopefully cook evenly too. The sliced chips are then par-boiled for about 5 mintes, rinsed with cold water and covered in oil and herbs. We froze them flat before bagging so that they don't stick together (some still did):

And reader I couldn't post this account of our chipmaking process without doing some quality control...

We tried some of yesterdays batch this evening for a quick supper - bunged them straight in the oven and they were crispy and perfect within 30 minutes. Lovely with some homegrown salad, a chive and parsley omlette courtesy of the Limetree Chooks, and some beetroot and carrot coleslaw to use up the glut of both in the veg patch. Nice!

Quick Summer Soup

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:53:54 +0100

We don't get home from work until 6.30pm, and never feel much like cooking. Today, I went out to the garden and picked a few handfuls of veg - runner beans, courgettes, carrots, onions and flat leaf parsley. These were all sliced up and went into a large saucepan with a handful of organic bacon lardons (not from our pigs yet!) and were gently fried off. I added water and seasoning and went off to watch Neighbours. Half an hour later we whizzed the lot into some very tasty soup. I love summer soup, it is so much fresher as you don't need the lentils, potatoes or barley which add comfort to winter soup, when there are less fresh vegetables around to add.

Once upon a time I would have bunged a couple of ready meals in the microwave instead. I don't know why - this meal cost about £3 (the bacon) and took me about ten minutes to prepare.

Queen of the Jungle

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:32:17 +0100

The first six months of the year when we were setting up our smallholding were so intense, that by June we were a bit overwhelmed by all of the work needed to keep it going. In July we had a couple of weddings to go to and weekends away, with the result that our enthusiasm is renewed, but the vegetable patch is a jungle!

So this weekend I spent ten hours trying to reclaim it. One thing that we have learned is that grass paths in between beds which seemed like a good idea at the time, are infact a real pain, particularly as each group of beds is edged with wood, making it almost impossible to get a lawnmower over the boarder without breaking them.

So I began digging up the paths in the Legume bed, and pulled out the thickets of weeds which had grown on the beds themselves. I made sure that I chopped down the dead broad bean stalks, rather than pulling them up as the roots contain valuable nitrogen nodules, which left in the ground, will make the brassicas I plant in it next year nice and strong. I intend to cover this with a 5 inch layer of well rotted horse manure, cover it and forget about it until next year, a bit like the 'no-dig' method.

Then I turned my attention to the strawberry patch. The strawbs haven't been massively productive this year as it was their first year, but we had enough to slice over muesli and have with cream a few times. There were masses of runners, which no doubt have been causing the plants to put their energy into reproduction rather than fruit. I cut these off and have put them on Freecycle as they were quite developed, healthy plants. I then weeded thoroughly, hoed in some Blood Fish & Bone and gave them a good drink, which should encourage a last growth spurt so that next year they will be well established and produce lots of fruit. As you can see I had a little help from one of our ex-battery hens, who had escaped from the run and hoovered up the grubs as I was digging!

It looked much better afterwards...

I sowed some sweede in the roots bed, a little late (the packet says sow in July at the latest) but I hate huge woody swede and hope that by sowing late they will be smaller but more tender (OK, and because I forgot). I thinned the parsnips, salsify and scorzonera and gave the beetroot seedlings a little drink. All of our onions are now pulled and drying in the garage - although I am certain we don't have enough to last us past November, we never do.

Also sowed some winter/spring cabbage - again, late but hopefully not too late if we have a good autumn.

Harvesting this week:

Squash/courgette

Tomatoes (finallly!) Tigerella and sungold

black beans, runner beans and flat beans

Onions (red/white) and shallots

Carrots

Beetroot

Potatoes (maincrop and some salad potatoes like Anya)

Kale

Leuttice

Cucumber

Baby spinach for salads and perpetual spinach for cooking

Blueberries (just a few this year as the plants were new)

Gooseberries

Get some perspective...

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:07:18 +0100

As if the 2hr daily commute, the hierachical BS, the office politics and being stuck inside all day wasn't enough of a reason to give it up and live off the land - there is now a programme which allows you to watch yourself selling your soul second by second and penny for penny in depressing real-time! If you work in an office, check this out:

http://www.mrceri.co.uk/projects/salarytimer/

Once you have entered your salary and working hours, this little desktop programme sits in the corner of your screen and tells you how much you have earned (in real terms) during the day so far. It even allows you to work out how much your toilet or coffee break has cost your employer!

A bit of fun, but also a pertinent reminder of why I shouldn't be spending a whole day of my young life staring at a PC monitor: £44.96!

Chicks set Free!

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:00:28 +0100

...Or atleast given access to the outside enclosure. The chicks are just 5 weeks old and are now large enough to be let loose.. One of the cobbs (a genetic super-grower breed) has been suffering from weak legs and bent feet but has improved dramatically. I think this sort of issue is common in this breed - I really will try to get a better breed next time. The Cobbs are the industries work-chick and they can grow to 2kg in 42 days! However I got them from Blackacre Farm (which is basically OK) as day olds and have been feeding them on organic chick crumb and will be giving them tons more space than the typical cobb destined for the supermarket shelves.

They loved the outside and began scratching and exploring their new surroundings immediately. they did however need a helping hand at night time to discover their coop. 2nd night was fine - I found all 8 huddled together in the coop - now all I have to do to make my life easier is fix a automatic door opener to the coop (a VSB door opener) so that I can still have those lie ins!

I will continue to feed them on the chick crumb until they finish the sack and then move them onto grower. No idea how much they are eating daily - I'll have to work it out - so far they have gone through 1 20kg bag and they are half way through the 2nd... that means they have cost just £18 so far to feed so the economics are looking quite sound for raising table birds if you consider an organic chicken being roughly £10 in the shops.

Everyone is talking about how hard it is going to be to dispatch them - I'm employing the typical male stance of escapism until the day of reckoning, I think this is a good tactic.

Pigs 'n' Chicks

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:17:50 +0100

Been a long time since I last posted so thought I had better make an effort! The weather has firmly improved which has caused a watering problem but does move us firmly into the BBQ domain.

Now, growing veg and fruit is one thing but I want to eat good quality meat too so I decided on a few table birds and a few pigs.

The Pigs

Welcome to pigs - 241,242 and 243 (No names here - lets not make it difficult!). Still can't believe we have a pig numbered 241!

We have had the pigs now for just over 2 months which means they are now 17 weeks old. Check out the picture below - managed to just about fit 3 eight week old Gloucester Old Spots into a large dog cage!

Now the setup was not cheap - Pig Ark £150 - 50m Stock fencing £45 - electric fence energiser and car battery £150. But we were lucky and managed to use a perfect piece of copse area that was unused and already fenced and gated! And, of course, I won't have this cost next year!

I would struggle to get one pig in the cage now since they have grown rather a lot and that means they also eat a lot more! Currently on 6 x 25kg bags for the month - thats 1.6kg per pig per day plus the garden scraps! I have to say I never thought I would be in my work suit dodging dirty snouts feeding 3 pigs before work! I have learnt my lesson now and wear shorts to do this!

24 weeks is the dispatching deadline - Marshfield Organic will come around to see them and tell me when they are ready to meet their maker. Marshfield have also helped me with a supply of soil association organic pig feed as well (The feed is £10 per 25kg bag) - being only 6 miles away the pigs won't have far to travel either when they are destined for sausages, pork and bacon!

The Chicks

I like my bacon but I can't live without chicken and before I became conscious about what I was eating from an animal welfare and health perspective I absolutely loved KFC. Good organic chicken is expensive, but, to be fair, is good value - everyone has become too spoilt being able to buy 2 for £5 in the supermarkets.

A broody Sussex bantam started the Chicken project off - I thought - if she isn't going to lay she may as well hatch! I promptly bought 12 mail-order fertile organic sasso chicken eggs and duly shoved them under her in a seperate coop.

This was the first time I had tried anything like this and it was pretty disappointing when only one chick hatched out of 12 eggs! However, I found myself at the 2010 Bath and West show and bought 7 day old chicks from Blackacre Farm to boost the numbers. So I now have 7 cobb chicks and 1 sasso chick, this does look funny as the sasso is a brown hen and the cobbs are white - they seem to get on fine though!

At 4 weeks I seperated the bantam and put her back with the general (laying) population and introduced the chicks into our garage (which had housed the pigs until the enclosure was completed!) with an infra-red lamp and a bit of straw. several bags of chick crumb later and they have quadrupled in size from the chicks you can see in this picture.

The cobbs have a ridiculous 'time to table' of 45-55 days and the sasso matures in approx. 85 days. I will probably dispatch a few at about 65 days dependant on weight. Not really looking forward to it but, hey, I'm a carnivore.

The chicks are easy to manage and you don't have to follow all the rules and tips that you often find on the internet - it honestly isn't rocket science as these little chicks manage in the natural world without human interference. I check and feed them before I go to work and top up their water every few days - and I often check on them in the evening too. They will go into the field at 8 weeks old (or when I think they are big enough to look after themselves!) which is, roughly, the end of July.

Roots, Stones and Backache

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:52:39 +0000

The Allotment project is well and truly underway. For someone who is a complete city boy this has been a baptism of fire! I have been transported far away from the wine bars and restaurants of Clifton, Bristol and found myself nearly knee deep in a field picking grubs, roots and large boulders out of a field.

This is not my idea, far from it! I have latched on to my partner's passion for pottering around in the garden and I have to admit I'm warming to the idea of having an allotment to spend the summer evenings on and like the idea of never going to a supermarket ever again.

The last time I went to Morrisons I was abused in a completely empty car park by a mother with two little followers for parking in a parents and children bay, she queried "Where are the children!" I wish I had wittily replied "Oh gosh I left them at the last shop!". Anyway enough of that, this is about the allotment.

We have embarked on this self sufficiency project on an absolute shoe-string. We were incredibly lucky to be allowed access to the field directly behind our house and garden, we have free well-rotted manure from the landlady's equestrian centre next door and we have a collection of spades, forks and tools from unfortunate family house clearances. The rotivator has been the biggest expense so far (about £60) followed by our 70 seed potatoes covered in 'Oh Chit! It's that time already'.

Here is the allotment plan.

The allotment (growing area) is approx. 35m x 7m.

We aren't really approaching this project expecting to save money at all, we have decided that a little hard work will eventually pay off and the pleasure of eating food which we have grown will more than cover the initial costs. I for one can't wait to have bonfire night on the allotment eating my home grown chunky vegetable soup!

Today I dug my first trench... my goodness. Hopefully things will get easier, I'm always the optimist - I think I have to be! Bonnie showed me how to double dig and I launched into the task with aplomb. The first spade's depth was easy enough but then I hit what can only be described as a sandstone wall running along the exact line of my trench. This had the effect of slowing my progress remarkably but I was determined to do a good job - this bed is for potatoes and I like my chips! Finally the end of stone hell and onto trench 2. The going got a lot smoother until I entered root hell! 3-4 hours later the bed is pretty much finished I need to aerate it and add manure but that will be nothing compared with the work completed today!

So all in all a satisfying day full of roots, stones and I'm sure backache tonight! We are 1/5 of the way to completing the double digging of the entire allotment - so a long way to go but, dare I say it, we seem to have broken the back of it!