Electronic identification of sheep comes into effect at the end of the year – we had our letter from DEFRA today. Read more about it here.

I’m not sure how much it will change things for us – our current girls can stay tagged as they are, future lambs only have to have the EID if they go over 12 months old, otherwise we can carry on using ordinary tags.  So long as we don’t use yellow ones.  Guess which colour we already have.. so , we have got to make sure we order the rights ones – the ones that are ok with our local market and abattoir – I would be a shame to pay out for the wrong ones..again..

But tagging with the electric ones doesn’t look a big deal.  Just more cost as we shall have  to buy the tags, and no doubt a new tagger..

It’s difficult to see how much it will change to the rest of industry too, other than cost.  But we shall see.

I keep trying to make freezer space – not because we have any forth coming harvest, but just so we can A) be sure to be steadily making space – after all by next summer we should have lots of freezer space for the next harvest.. right…?  B) make room to stash some things for that winter festival thingy, you know make some homemade stollen cake etc. and C) so we can turn off the inefficient freezer and save on our lecky bill.

The problem is – all of my industry so far has meant using more freezer space rather than less.  There is method in the madness – the diced mutton was turned into rogan josh – ready to be eaten, just a bigger volume. The same goes turning pork into sausages.  It will make sense in the end.  Or so I keep telling myself.

Today though, a small win.  I thawed the lambs kidneys and tonight we had devilled kidneys on toast, using this recipe, which is nice and simple. And I have to say, it was delicious. 

So one small box out of the freezer. Unfortunately, we slow cooked the cockerels killed yesterday, overnight – actually I forgot about them so they got fifteen hours swimming about in hot water in the oven.  Suffice to say they were fall off the bone cooked when they came out. Actually some of the bones were soft they had been cooked so long… And I whizzed up a vat of soup.  Eight boxes of it.

So, I’m not winning the freezer space battle yet.  Still, it is a good problem to have.

The forecast had given dire warnings of heavy rain for today, so it was with surprise that we woke up to sunshine. We rushed out to make the most of it before the rain came – and that is how the day went.

Himself finished digging  over veg bed 8  (only 8 more to go then!), and it was still not raining, so we cut some logs.  Still no rain, so we went to look at the hedges to make a start. On our way though, we noticed several large branches of tree ivy had come down in the stormy weather, so dragged these to the sheep – who were far from unhappy with the arrangement.

After lunch, it was still not raining, so we went out and made a start on hedging and laying – slow progress as always as we are working with hand tools, but several thinnings were cut and we have a starting point for hedge laying. The sheep made themselves useful by eating leaves and catkins from the branches on the ground.. and of course getting in the way, as much as possible.

Still no rain, so we despatched two more cockerels. Both leghorns, and therefore skinny, but I don’t think they were ever going to get big, so now is better than later. After they were plucked and drawn, and logs fetched in, I had enough time to pick sprouts for tea, and some to put in the freezer (to make sure we have some for Christmas), before it got dark.  Still no rain.

I suspect the forecast had changed.. but actually we got lots done, and sunshine on our faces, and I’m happily tired now.

So far…

Lots of small branches and debris around, and it seems most of the leaves are off the trees now, but we came out relatively unscathed.  The roof of the growers coup flew off sometime after the early morning check, and ripped the netting we have over the hen run, but the hens were unhurt – they were just glowering at the weather miserably from their pig ark shelter.

Bricks now hold the roof down, and himself repaired the nets fisherman style – only with pink nylon string. I’m not complaining though.

A big tree came down across the road in the village though, taking out a power cable on its way down – I don’t envy the tree surgeons working in this blustery weather. Of course, the small holder part of me enviously eyed up all that firewood…

It’s horrible out there – really windy and rainy.  There are severe weather warnings in place. The worst will be overnight into morning.

It’s always worst when it’s dark – as you can’t see whats going on, just hear it howling around the house.  Our roof is old… the 90ft leylandii trees from next door are swinging about, the ivy clad alder tree at the bottom of the field looks dodgy, I’m worried the hen houses will stay upright… etc….

Still, we shall have to see what if anything happens. Now, time to snuggle in front of the woodburner.

I won a little photo competition on the self sufficientish forums, and my prize came today, this lovely little woollen bowl.

Ann from Snowdrops and Daisies makes them: using wool from a local mill, she crochets the bowl, then felts it.

The theme of the competition was ‘keeping warm’, and I submitted this photo of my cat, snuggled into one of this year’s lambskins:

We’ve been sausage making again.  This time using one pork hand, one slab of pork belly, and all the bit and pieces saved from the butchery day.  Delish.

We also set aside enough sausage meat for the chestnut stuffing for that winter festival thingy, and another lot for sausage rolls.  Homemade sausage rolls are always so much better than shop bought anyway – I think they will be even better with our own pork.. not to mention a certain smug factor.

We put even more sausage meat away in the freezer, as we had only soaked one load of skins. But there are many uses.. burgers.. pork pie… etc. Amazing, turning an unappealing cut of pork (the hand) into yummy foods.

At the weekend, we killed one of the laying hens, and the first of the cockerels from our growers.  Quite a contrast in size!

The growers are sixteen weeks old, so a little young to kill for eating, but the exchequer leghorn cockerels have been mature for some time now, and the three of them hooting away and Alvin our main cockerel answering is too much, and besides they are not a meat breed, it is a waste to pile more food into them, I doubt they will actually get any fatter now.  The copper maran was massive in comparison, and fattier too. She has never been a good layer, and we have killed the two worst layers, to make room for up and coming pullets.

Other hens have had their cards marked – but will have another season to prove themselves, and the other cockerels will go soon.

The two we killed plucked very easily – I don’t know if we were just luck or its a time of year thing. And we cooked them overnight in the rayburn in my  huge roaster (which is this one.. not a bad price either…).

The meat is actually tender, even more so on the old maran.. a factor of long cooking or the breed? And plenty of meat too. So a huge vat of chicken soup in the freezer (I am never going to make space in the freezer at this rate), and breast meat set aside for chicken and leek pie.

We still have one copper headed maran left, and she lays lovely dark eggs, but I might hatch some more next year.

‘Clafoutis’ rates as one of my favourite words.    Other contenders for favourite word are ’serendipity’ and ‘nefarious’. ‘Clafoutis’ is such a lovely sounding name, and very grand for a dessert that is essentially a sweet fruity yorkshire pud.

Today I made a plum clafoutis. I looked at lots of recipes and although we still have eggs coming in, the girls are only giving me about two a day, so I did not like the idea of using lots of eggs or cream, and settled on this recipe which seemed to use a sensible array of ingredients.

The pudding was lovely – crisp and crunchy at the edges, soft and succulent in the middle, sweet and sharp with the plums. Yum.

What to do.. a miserable day, so we went to the reclamation yard.  I love it there.  I just love all those made to last old things – the  cast iron fires, aluminium watering cans, mangles, doors, gothic window frames, granite slabs, foot scrapers.. and so on.

Officially we are table shopping – our dining room is very narrow and our modest table too big for it. No joy today – but oh joy, we shall have to visit more secondhand furniture stores, and reclaim yards another rainy weekend – no hardship!

I do love old worn wooden tables, the patina of use and often they are good solid wood such as oak.  We peered in the window  a modern new furniture store.. but not only do I know like the spanking new glossy thingy.. they want at least three times the price…

Home, and rain again, so we cooked up a big vat (well stock pot) of rogan josh – from shoulder of mutton we boned out and froze earlier in the year. Nine pounds of mutton will make many meals, and required a lot of garlic onion and spices, and now it is simmering away on the rayburn, filling the house with wonderful curry aroma.. I shall be dreaming rogan josh tonight.