Come back Spring.......

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What has happened to the weather, on Tuesday I was out there digging wearing just a t shirt, yesterday and today it's back to layers and layers of clothes just to try and keep warm. The skies are full of black clouds, but' luckily' the March wind is blowing SO hard they are whizzing past before they can discharge too much of their contents over the old homestead. Also whizzing past are the plant pots and trays that I was using yesterday......oops.... and if I'm not mistaken there goes my watering can!!

Potatoes now planted in this closest bed, all the other beds are now weeded and being left to warm up slightly. The cabbages that I overwintered in the middle bed have vanished!! Some little creature no doubt used it as his larder for the winter....serves me right for not checking them.

It seems like a good day to be in the polytunnel, so I'm off out in a minute, but first another coffee I think to warm my tummy, and while I drink it, a nice little journey around Blog land.

All these photos were taken on Tuesday when it was Spring! I hope you have better weather than us, although somehow I doubt it!!

Sue xx

On a clear day......

'On a clear day, stop and look around you' .....so go the words of the song. I did. Yesterday I was so low and yet I took the time to stop and look around me, I planted potatoes, down on my hands and knees, fingers in the cool damp soil, dig a hole carefully postition the seed potato (the right way up helps) cover, and when you get to the end of the row earth up slightly and water well. Two beds full, planted and tucked up safe and secure, repetitive, yet soul nourishing work.

While I did it I thought of all the lovely messages you left yesterday in the form of comments and the many private emails I received from the lovely family of folk who read my Blog. I thought of our family all phoning each other and supporting each other with words of wisdom and offers of help.

But most of all I thought of my lovely Mum in Law, Jessie, hearing the dreadful news that she has lung cancer and having tests to see if it has already spread. We should know the results by the begining of next week. It's not like you see on television with the whole scenario being acted out in minutes or hours, results take days for doctors to examine and plan over. She's a brave, brave lady and one who has dusted herself down and is waiting patiently to hear.

I also thought of Alan, Lovely Hubby. My big strong bear of a man, being there for his Mum, trying to help his sister, being the rock in their world, when inside he's falling apart and rocked to the core. Travelling alone to be with them, worrying about me here on the farm. So much to do for one person when they're feeling torn in two. I love him so much.

But until we hear, and indeed even after we hear life should go on as normal, as normal as we can make it, for us and for her. My normal is my Blog, I chart our successes and our failures, I get feedback from the lovely fellow Bloggers and readers, advice and ideas. Without you I would have taken longer to come around from this dreadful shock, so I thank you, each and every one of you who took the time to leave me a comment, or drop me an email....... and I give you this.

When life sends me lemons I don't make lemonade (although maybe I should it's delicious), I make Lemon Curd, Lovely Hubby loves it on his toast, on his bread on his scones.....you get the picture he puts it on everything!!

The recipe is on page 186 of this delightful book, it's a shame it's not in the Favourite Food for Friends book, because that's what you are....my Blogging Friends, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, prayers and kind words.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Sue xx

Stop the world I want to get off........

Just when life seems so good the axis of your world is knocked out of kilter.

We are huddling close as a family and weathering a dreadful storm. We have had some dreadfully sad news, and like a tree in Winter we are drawing ourselves in and protecting those we love. While we can see the blue sky through the branches it seems so far away.

Stop the world I want to get off....... and hold onto what we have for as long as we can. I may be sporadic in my Blogging for a while. I apologise but I know my priorities.

Time is precious, so very precious.

Sue xx

No Spend Week

Well here we are at the start of a No Spend Week, my purse, containing this weeks £70 will stay deep in my bag, available only for dire emergencies.

Spotty Jug is on standby to recieve the full £70 at the end of the week, he's looking very pleased with himself at the moment is Spotty Jug, his little belly is bulging with £354.50 of my saved money.

That means since the Challenge began I have managed to save an average of £29.50 a week, so that means I have been spending £40.50 on our every need.

Oh, I'm sure I can get that even lower once the growing season is underway and with some forward thinking and clever planning I can extend the season by doing more successional planting and growing more stuff that we can bottle and freeze to keep the spend down even over the leaner Winter months for as long as possible. I have one more cupboard to sort through today and then the freezers to sort out so I can see exactly what is available for chomping our way through this week.

The shops will miss me this week, well maybe not, I've not exactly been a very good retail consumer up to now this year, spending pennies instead of pounds and turning down all offers of store cards. Browsing rails saying 'that's nice' and 'isn't that pretty' but when offered the chance to buy my only retort has been 'I don't need it, I've got all I need'. It's refreshing and clears the mind, and the best bit about a day's shopping is the getting home and taking from your bag only the things that you did NEED and putting the few items away into the spaces that await them, not fighting to get just a little bit more into already over crowded cupboards.

I begininning to feel liberated, I like this Year of Living Simply.

Sue xx

Sorting the Storecupboard..... or Upping the Ante.....

Back in January I started my Storecupboard Challenge, to live off the contents of the storecupboards, fridges and freezers buying only fresh foods, milk, bread etc and things to turn what I already had into meals.

These pictures of my bulging at the seams cupboards are what spurred me into action.

Alright they look neat enough, but what a lot of food for just two adults to have in stock, some of which seemed to just live there, never being used, just added to on a regular basis. I wanted to simplify them, having only a store of what we regularly use and only buying extras as and when we needed them in stead of 'just in case'.

The Challenge has been going quite well, but by giving myself quite a large budget (£70,although not all spent I hasten to add, I have managed to save over £300 out of this 'budget allowance') I haven't really got to the back of the cupboards or even emptied the freezers yet. In my mind I haven't been inventive enough. I know I can do SO much better.

We do tend to eat the same sort of meals over and over, I suppose that's something we all do, after a hard days work, just grab the ingredients we know and rustle up a favourite meal. Well by continuing to do this and buying stuff we ran out of, as well as the fresh stuff, and also by putting in my order to Approved Foods the contents of the cupboards don't seem to have gone down that much. Indeed briefly they went up as I managed to fit all the food left over from Christmas into them, you know all the little hampers you get off people and the boxes of sweets that temporarily live on the work tops because there's no room anywhere else for them.

So in the interests of making the Challenge harder (it is supposed to be challenging after all), I am making this coming week a 'No Spend Week'. Lovely Hubby will have his usual 'dinner money' for work, but I will empty my purse and not buy a thing. My whole £70 will go straight into Spotty Jug and will not be touched.

I have enough milk in the fridge for the week (and an emergency pack of long life milk, just in case). I will make my own bread when what we have in the bread bin and freezer runs out. Once the fresh fruit and veggies are used up we will eat veggies and fruit frozen from our harvests last year. So we will not go hungry, and hopefully when I show you the shots of the cupboards at the end of the week they will look a lot barer than they do now.

In a week or so the first of our home grown salad crops will be ready for picking and then the taste of Summer will begin, and the living and the eating will be a lot simpler. Exciting times ahead. ~

Sue xx

A Pat on the Back

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Late yesterday afternoon I went to our local Garden Centre for a talk on 'Kitchen Gardens'. It was free for all Club members and you got a free cup of coffee and a free packet of seeds, as well as (most importantly to me), a sit down for an hour, which I don't often get.

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I had hoped to pick up lots of tips, one thing us gardeners are always after are good tips and insights into other folks ways of doing things. Well guess what.......I already do all of the things that came up in the talk and then later in the question and answer session. In fact I could have elaborated on a lot of their answers to people and given more tips and more 'how to's' than they seemed to. Don't get me wrong I'm not being at all 'big-headed' it was just nice to come away feeling that for once I was doing it right, and the realisation of just how far I've come over the past few years made a warm glow. ~

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So today, just for once, I am giving myself' 'a pat on the back', I'm a clever girl, I've used my time wisely, and I've listened to all the tips and hints I've been given over the last couple of gardening and growing years, and most importantly, what I've learnt has sunk in and is being put to good use.

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Between us, me and my ladies can put the meal at the top of this post together at a moments notice. We are Clever Girls.

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What do you do well, what would you give yourself a pat on the back for, there's bound to be something, large or small. For once give yourself credit and a HUGE 'Pat on the Back'.

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Froogs are you reading this? I don't have to list what you do, your many followers have done it for you, revel in all the 'pats' you've had from other folk....you deserve EVERY one.

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Have a good weekend everyone, I'm back in the Kitchen Garden if you need me.

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Sue xx

Nipping off the Farm

Today we are having a day off the farm. The animals have all been fed and cleaned out and we are nipping into Oxford to the Bank. Just to sort out some boring paperwork, but while we're there it will be nice to have a little wander around the shops for an hour.

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Of course leaving the house in the capable hands of these two little angels is no problem. They look like they're planning something.......do you think I should be worried?

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Sue xx

Ready Meals

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Sometimes when you've been working outdoors for most of the day the last thing you want to do is come in a cook a meal from scratch. That's when my handy stash of Ready Meals in the freezer comes in really useful.

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Almost every time I make a pan of soup, stew, curry or one of my veggie delights I now purposely over cater for the two of us, and we either use the remainder the next day or pop it in the freezer carefully labelled ready for a non-cooking day.

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The only thing you have to do is to remember to package things so that you can thaw them easily. I usually use our stash of ice cream tubs as they hold just enough for two portions and the contents can be popped out as soon as the edges have thawed to finish defrosting in the pan sat next to the Aga.

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Of course you also have to remember to take them out of the freezer a couple of hours before you want them. This is why I am always thinking one meal ahead at the moment, while I'm here typing this I am eating breakfast, a lovely bowl of Oatbran Porridge with Flax seeds but I know I will be having an Egg Bun for my lunch so before I go out to feed the animals I will take two eggs out of the fridge to warm up over the course of the morning. While my eggs are cooking I will be trawling the cupboards and freezer for what we are having for tea.

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It took me a while to get this organised and to be honest some days it all goes to pot, that's the days when it's Pasta for tea with homemade sauce, guess what we had for tea last night....mmmm. the spaghetti was delicious!! Of course a couple of slices of Homemade Bread turned into Garlic Bread make it into a meal that looks very planned.

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Sue xx

Over the years.....

In the beginning - March 2009 ~

Over the years this little farm has changed considerably. When we first moved here there were no raised beds, no Chicken World and definitely no accommodation or fences for animals. No where to plant veggies....in fact all we had was rough land, grass and piles and piles of stones and overgrown areas. The back of the house was stone and shingle and the side was cracked paving stones.

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March 2010 - with the first raised beds in place and the site of the Kitchen Garden flooded

We have worked our way around adding things as we have needed them, removing a few things we didn't (although some we tried to use....remember the swing and climbing frame bean support, it worked well but was then donated to our landlords visiting children).

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March 2011

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Now all our raised beds are in place and we are making full use of them to keep ourselves and the animals supplied with fresh veggies. I only have a couple more to weed and rake through then they are ready for planting. The first round of seeds are in and growing away in the polytunnel ready for transplating into the beds once the soil has warmed through enough.

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Of course it helps that there are so many willing helpers around when they see you armed with a spade. A lot of worms bit the dust when Lovely Hubby turned that bed over on Sunday!!

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Sue xx

Computer Stuff

Potatoes chitting on the kitchen windowsill.

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Sometimes you just have to get stuck into the 'computer stuff' and over the last few days I've somehow managed to update our website to include pictures of some of this years arrivals. Now it's all done I can at last return to my first love - the planting.

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I feel a real urge now to get the kitchen garden up and running, I'm still holding back a little as there could still be some overnight frosts, but at least now almost all the beds are weeded, covered and prepared for the things that are growing in the polytunnel ready to fill them. I need to get back in there this afternoon and plant as many cabbages as I can find, I know a few pigs that are partial to the odd cabbage!!

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If you would like to take a look at a my endeavours follow this link to take you to our website -

Hallshaw Limited, Farming the Friendly Way

and let me know what you think!!

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Now I'm off planting, have a good day.

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Sue xx

The Promise

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It's here, I can feel it for sure.

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The last few days have lightened and softened, and Spring has thrown off her cape. She gives us the promise of warmer days, the promise of lighter nights. With the Spring Equinox comes the meeting of equal length of darkness and light and it can only get better.

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As the days stretch out before us we can achieve so much, the soil lightens and relaxes and becomes the hospitable place for so much. Us gardeners, smallholders, growers and flower lovers are springing into action, making good use of the light, warmth, and the drying out of the heavy winter ground. Nurturing our seedlings ready to give them the best possible start.

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It really is a promise, a promise of things to come and I for one love it.

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Sue xx

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(By the way the seedling at the top is a Cauliflower!)

"Fancy a paddle..."

"Fancy a paddle.....

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...nah......let's go and pester Mum, she's busy in the Polytunnel."

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Sue xx

A Day Off Our Farm

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Today we had a day off our farm.

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Straight after feeding this morning we set off for a Farm Sale, so although we were off our farm we were on somebody elses.

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Still it's always nice to be able to compare someone elses place with yours and to come back with some of their unwanted items. We got a few bargains for our new place, they're still in the back of the truck at the moment as the minute we got back lots of little hungry faces were shouting for tea. So it was on with wellies and food and fresh water for everyone and a good walk for the dogs.

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We'll unload tomorrow and no doubt wonder why we actually bought some of the goodies. I did get a brilliant bargain though of two Belfast Sinks for £12 so definitely pleased with that particular purchase.

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Now I think an evening of chilling in front of the television is called for and maybe a nice cold glass of cider and a slice or two of pizza.

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Sue xx

Spreading the load......

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On the days when Lovely Hubby is away at his 'desk job' I sometimes have to move heavy loads and I have found many ways of doing this. Of course the wheelbarrow is a favourite means of transportation for those heavy and cumbersome jobs. Sometimes though it's full of stuff and I have to just use 'girl power'.

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I can lift around 20kg, I know this because the Layers Pellets come in 20kg bags and I can get them in and out of the car reasonably well. If I have to take them any distance (more than 6ft!!) I use the wheel barrow. But the pig feed comes in 25kg bags and I just cannot move them, so when the pig feed bins run dry I have found my only way of getting them from 'Cowavan' to feeding shed.

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'Cowavan' our pig feed store

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I drag the bag of feed to the Cowavan door, let it fall on its side and then open it and let half the bag pour into big bucket stood on the ground below, as long as the angles are right it works. Half and half the weight is managable and the job is done.

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Ways and means.

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Of course when LH is here he does all the heavy stuff and I can just do the 'girly' things like carrying huge baskets of logs and knocking in fence posts..........!!

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Sue xx

3 ingredients and 30 minutes

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I like recipes that have few ingredients and I like recipes that tell you what do in a couple of steps, but most of all I like recipes that give you quick and tasty results.

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I don't eat many biscuits, I'm not a dunker, except of maybe the odd Custard Cream, I hate the 'sludge' you get at the bottom and I always seem to drink it by accident...yuk! But when I fancy a biscuit it's usually Shortbread, the richer and butterier the better.

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Yesterday I had a pack of butter almost at its Best Before date, and as we use spreadable from a tub on our bread this pack of butter was just calling to be made into Shortbread biscuits.

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200g Plain Flour

200g Softened Butter

50g Golden Caster Sugar

(I didn't have this so I used 30g ordinary Caster and 20g Vanilla Sugar) ~

Whizz flour and butter in your food processor add the sugar and whizz a bit more.

Press into lined 22cm tart tin with the back of a spoon (takes a bit of doing, it's a sticky mix, but persevere)

Bake for 25- 30 mins until golden brown.

While still warm cut into wedges, prick with a fork and dust with more sugar.

Leave to cool completely in the tin.

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(Recipe taken from Olive magazine March edition)

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~ The most important step........put the lid on the tin and step away from the biscuits.

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In the interests of quality control I had one this morning with my coffee before I fed the animals, just so I could let you know if they keep well.....they do. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to let you know if they keep for more than two days as Lovely Hubby has discovered the tin and it's contents......!

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Have a good day and you know what to do if you have half an hour to spare.

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Sue xx

Eggs is Eggs.......

Yesterdays Eggs

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They say 'Eggs is eggs...', but when you have your own laying hens, especially if they are a mix of breeds, eggs are as individual as the ladies that lay them.

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Everyday when we go to collect the eggs we are never sure of what we will find, if someones been a bit greedy with their food we find huge ones...

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...if a new girl has come into lay we will find a tiny one.

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~ We occasionally find one that has gone all wrong on it's way out, maybe the hen was disturbed mid lay or her calcium levels are slightly skew whiff. ~ ~ We usually find at least one Welsummer egg, gorgeously brown and speckled. ~ ~ All are brought in and treated with the same respect and consideration. ~ ~ The saleable ones all neatly boxed and dated ready for sale to our regular customer list or at the Farmers Market. ~ ~ Labeled with love. ~

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Stored carefully in the fridge to keep them at a controlled temperature. The one thing an egg doesn't like is fluctuating temperatures. Keep them in your fridge or keep them at room temperature, whichever suits you best, just don't switch between one and the other.

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And the unsaleable ones, the ones of wrinkly shell or extreme of size.......they're the best ones. We eat them....scrambled, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, used in cakes turned into lovely frugal meals, high in protein and delicious of taste. I love the unsaleable ones!

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~ I have a little collection of egg cups just waiting to cuddle them! ~ Sue xx

Luxury on a budget.......

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Just because you're on a budget should never mean that a little bit of luxury goes out the window!

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While at Mum and Dad's last week celebrating my Lovely Mum's birthday we went touring the garden centres. Lots of chat over coffee, and catch up of news over lunch, and then a bit more chat over another coffee......I know I lead a hard life...lol. While there we had to do a spot of bargain shopping and boy oh boy were we in luck this time, the lovely lady was busy filling up the bargain shelves and we were oohing and aahing and unfilling them for her....the more room we made, the more goodies she put out, so we were helping other folks to get bargains too!!

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So we have some Peaches in Brandy, Mandarins in Rum, Creamy Stilton Dip for Lovely Hubby to dip his celery into, Sticky Toffee Cake to have with custard and lots of lovely Relishes, Sauces Jams etc to add to other dishes and make our storecupboard items go even further.

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Most of the things I bought to be honest and frank I didn't need, but when you are being a good girl most of the time it keeps you going to find the odd treat, and the little Jute bags that some of my purchases came in were just too gorgeous to resist.

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~ I redeemed myself completely by bartering with Mum and Dad, they got four dozen eggs freshly laid by my Lovely Ladies and I got four pounds of seed potatoes, a big jar of pickles and a jar of Mum's own Damson Brandy Jam. ~ The Challenge

So by the end of the week my total spend was £42.81, not bad considering this included my little splurge at the garden centre, normal bread and milk purchases and a few little treats for Lovely Hubby to enjoy while I was away from the farm. So Spotty Jug had a £27.19 donation from me and a surprise £20 donation from LH who un-beknown to me has been doing a little lunch money saving of his own.

I couldn't resist having a count of the pennies contained in Spotty Jug and was very pleasantly surprised to find she contains £295.06, not a bad save since the start of the year.

As the sun struggles to come through the heavy mist of earlier, I am staying tucked up in the house this morning, thank you for all the warm wishes and yes, I am feeling much better today. The animals all behaved impeccably first thing, no pushing and shoving of the invalid that was feeding them. Maud's babies looked at me most reproachfully, first taking away their little sisters and then vanishing from sight, no cuddles were allowed and I will have to win back their trust, expecially little Miss Piggy, my favorite (I know, I know you shouldn't have favourites........).

I hope the sun shines on your day too.

Sue xx

Comings and Goings......

Or should that be Goings and Comings.....

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On Saturday at the Smallholders Sale we sold two of Lotties little boy piglets, they went to really good homes and for more than our reserve price so we were really happy, we also sold our four little Lavender Pekin Cockerels.

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We came home with five new Laying Hens, big beautiful hybrid girls who have fitted in with our current flock wonderfully, just a few minor tussles and now harmony has resumed. So now we are up to fifty layers, Norman the Cockerel, and Caldwell and his seven wives. A total of 59 chickens, quite an expansion on this time last year.

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Then yesterday we sold direct from the farm, four of Mauds little girl piglets, lots of squealing and running around went on for that one, but they are off to a good home to be fattened over the Summer.

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So with chicken numbers up and piggy numbers down we are getting on with business as normal. Although I've been poorly since Saturday night my mind is buzzing with plans for the Kitchen Garden. The photo at the top is of my last remaining Spinach plant from last year, I had three that had survived the Winter but the chickens got to the other two before I could cover them up.

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This year I need to be more organised and methodical with my planting, and keep us fed from fresh stuff for longer throught the year, with less gaps and gluts.

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Sue xx

One Day of Spring

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Yesterday the farm was bathed in sunshine for most of the day. The sky was blue and cloudless and you could almost imagine Spring was really here.

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~ Today unlike this picture, the sky is grey, there is rain in the air and the place looks dismal. ~ ~ I'm off on my travels again today to visit my Lovely Mum and Dad in Manchester, leaving the farm in the extremely capable hands of Lovely Hubby. He has piglets to inject and the Smallholders Sale on Saturday to prepare for so there's lots to keep him busy. ~ ~ ~ I'll be back and meeting up with LH at the Sale on Saturday to see if our pedigree weaners and Lavender Pekins sell, and see if we can keep our hands in our pockets and not bid for any more animals to share our little patch of Oxfordshire with. Until then I leave you with these images of Spring, let's hope the sun comes back soon. ~ Maud's babies having breakfast in the sunshine. ~ Sue xx