three turkeys

Yesterday we went over to collect our turkey poults from Sandra of Bellecross Hens.  After a lovely chat and a look around some of her chicken pens, we brought these three home – a better trip than last year – those barked loudly all the way home, but these just whistled at each other.

They seemed pleased with their accomodation, hopped up onto their straw bale perches and commented on the decor with a series of whistles and chirps.  They even found the food and water without help.

Continuing with our alphabet naming scheme, we have given them names beginning with C – so we have Christmas, Curry and Casserole.  That way we will be able  tell people we had Curry for Christmas dinner…

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summer autumn

It feels like summer and autumn harvests have crashed together, as we are still picking the summer produce, and the typical autumnal goodies have arrived – it is still August!

We have been picking pears and plums and over this weekend, bramleys.   Lots and lots of bramley apples.  We have loaded the trolley three times so far, and still have more to come, and that’s off the one tree – it was so laden with fruit we had to prop it to keep the apples off the ground!  I guess our gradual pruning efforts have been paying off, but we might have to shorten those limbs this winter!

So the preserving begins – I am loathe to fill the freezer too much, as we still have a mutton wether, at least a dozen chickens.. ducks, hopefully turkeys to fit in (and we are not even keeping pigs this year!) but we have made use of the available freezer space short term.

Another tree with sweeter fruit, we earmark the apples for pressing.  Harvesting those was a fast job this evening, I climbed the ladder wearing a hard hat, and armed with the shepherds crook (we use if for all sorts other than shepherding), I shook the living daylights out of the tree.  The apples come crashing down, and we  collect them from the floor.  We will freeze them for a few days, then press them and bottle the juice.

Harvesting fruit has to be one of the best jobs.

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sowing, planting and harvesting w/e 26/8

harvesting:

lettuce

spring onions

celery leaf

tomatoes

peas

blueberries

cabbage

courgettes

blackberries

calabrese

rocket

greengages

victoria plums

apples – lots!

french beans  - lots!

red cabbages

pears

damsons

hazelnuts

 

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the fruits of our labour

I love it when a plan comes together.. or to fruition in this case.  One of the first fruit trees we planted, a few months after moving, is now a sturdy little bramley apple tree, and this is the fruit from that one little tree.

We have several trees in our orchard now, apples, plums, greengages, damsons and pears, each year we add one or two more.  We have a few more places, then it will be full.  We hope to squeeze a few more into the ‘garden’ bit of our land too, where we have the big old apple trees.

This time of year is half summer and half autumn.  The apples are ready early, we have been picking blackberries for weeks, and harvested the pears last week. At the same time the beans are coming in thick and fast, along with tomatoes and other veg,   and a lot of time is given to the prepping and freezing of our produce.

Feels good.

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sowing, planting and harvesting w/e 19/8

harvesting:

lettuce

spring onions

celery leaf

tomatoes

peas

blueberries

cabbage

courgettes

blackberries

physallis

calabrese

rocket

greengages

victoria plums

apples

french beans

red cabbages

pears

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fibrefest

Somehow, something has always cropped up to prevent us going to fibrefest, but this year we actually made it.

Just for one morning.. which was long enough for me to ‘accidentally’ buy some alpaca fibre for spinning.. and some pretty blue faced Leicester yarn.. himself bought a loom….  So now, with the looms we have been given by generous friends and neighbours, and the toy one I found in the charity shop… we are a four loom family.  Spose we had better do some actual weaving…

Fibrefest was great – full of people with similar mindset, and there were lots of sheep and alpacas to look at, and fibre to fondle. And we bumped into lots of folk we know from various knitting/downsizing groups. Ideal.

Home to lots of harvesting.. The beans have grown like mad with our trip away.. and we picked loads and loads.. and spent many hours slicing, blanching and freezing.  Six hours of harvesting beans.. I think I have bean slicers thumb!  (Hope it does not interfere with knitting and crochet !)

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scilly

We’ve been away for a few days.   First time for several years.  The Isles of Scilly, one of my favourite places in the world.

It has been a long eight months from planning to going for a short break, planning the animals and their care, planning hatches of chickens, making arrangements.  It’s a difficult thing, keeping animals and travel.

It looked like bad weather would happen and we packed waterproofs and games. But we were lucky and stole three days of sunshine.

We watched sunsets, and relaxed, and ate too much, and walked lots, and saw loads, and fed the tame sparrows, and admired the flora, and relaxed some more, and looked at the view, a lot. And relaxed. And it was lovely.

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dyeing with comfrey

A few weeks ago, one of my new cuckoo marans pullets started laying lovely dark brown eggs, but not in the designated area, instead she made a nest in the undergrowth. And because of my rummaging in this prickly heap, to collect these early eggs (before she got the hang of it and moved to the hen house), I was fairly aware of the plant. So, when I was idly flicking through my natural dye book, and noticed the same plant, comfrey, it seemed like a sign.  Well, perhaps more the fact the young grower cockerels were eating it now it was squashed might have been the sign..

So we hastily harvested the rest and into the dye pot it went.

Our experiments with natural dyeing with comfrey, on wool,  - on the left – a pale goldeny khaki from using alum mordant, and the next three dips, no alum but iron modifier. Very attractive tones I think.

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