Naughty Pussycat!!

We have just harvested all the early potatoes....I know, slightly late!! Overnight Archie must have decided the smell of the great outdoors was just what he wanted to sleep with, and we came down this morning to find him fast asleep with the potatoes on the kitchen table.

Very cute....but very naughty!

~~~~~

Only a short post today, as I am in the middle of some research. The internet is proving invaluable, I have been communicating with a lovely lady in America, getting some pictures and looking on the experts websites for more information. We have had a very unusual development here on the farm. All will be revealed tomorrow. I need to get you an up to date photo of someone..........!

Sue xx

Lavender Pekin Bantams and Eggs

We picked up our Lavender Pekin Bantams when they were just seven weeks old. Little bundles of timid fluff. How things have changed in the last few weeks. Now they are twenty three weeks old.

Alice was the first to start to lay the sweet little eggs and now all the girls have joined in.

Perfectly formed eggs in miniature. With the strongest of shells and the yellowest of yolks.

Over the weekend we decided the time had come to sample the eggs. We had a total of thirteen, lucky for us! They made a lovely plate of scrambled eggs, just enough for the two of us with a couple of rounds of buttered toast.

As the girls have come on to lay they have got gradually friendlier. Little Lucy still does not like to be picked up but all the others tolerate a cuddle. Caldwell has his wicked way with all the ladies each and every morning, and once they have fluffed out their feathers in indignation and told him exactly what they think of him, peace resumes and the day is usually one of Caldwell finding titbits and treating his ladies to all the best he can offer. He is a good husband and is the first to react to danger and anything unusual.

~

When fresh food is delivered he makes sure all his ladies have a piece and even feeds them directly before he has any himself. If large leaves are thrown in he bites off small pieces for the ladies to help themselves to, making sure they all get a fair share. Lovely to watch.

~

As dusk falls he herds them up the ramp into the house and they all cuddle together in the nesting boxes to sleep. One very happy little family.

Sue xx

Meet Jack....... Jack Black

Yesterday we tootled up the motorway to Kidderminster to pick up Jack.....Jack Black, our new Large Black Boar, official name Constable Attempt 319. Born on 6th February, exactly a week before Lulu and Lottie.

~

From loading to unloading, he was the perfect traveller. Standing up halfway through the journey to show us he was fit and well, and snoozing his way through the rest of it.

~

Down the ramp and straight into his pen to sample the food.

~

After a snack he noticed the ladies through the fence and wandered over to say his hello's.

~

Three VERY interested young ladies eyed up their new beau.

~

Kisses were exchanged.

~

But for now, food won the day, and he trotted over to finish what he had started.

~

Then what's a chap to do but explore his new domain, and check he has the right accomodation to welcome the ladies to his place at the end of the week.

~

Everything seemed to fit the bill, and when we went back later as dusk fell, to check on the new arrival, some very contented snores were coming from ark number 3 - Jack's Place.

~

Sue xx

Aww....poor Sophie!!

We've just got back from the vets, the dogs were both getting their boosters, and then yesterday Sophie suddenly developed a limp and couldn't put any weight on her back left foot. Not that it stopped her running around the orchard like a dog possessed all the time I was feeding the pigs, something that has replaced running round and round the chicken enclosure, while I feed the chickens. Once she gets an obsession it sticks until another one comes along.

Anyway it turns out she has a broken toe......poor thing. So there's no walkies for her tonight and she is being kept in the house as much as we can while it starts healing a bit. She is on anti-inflamatories for a month, which should also help the arthritis in her front paws.

And still she keeps that lovely grin on her face.

~

Have a lovely weekend.

Back on Monday with news of of the latest addition to the farm.

~

Sue xx

Brilliant Products

Yesterdays harvest waiting to be processed.

A while ago I was asked by a new to me, company called CSN to review a couple of their products. The choice of product was to be mine. Of course just as this lovely offer was made my salad spinner spun it’s last, so number one on my list would be a new posher, stronger, salad spinner. The offer came a day after I had been blanching cabbage for what seemed like an eternity, now picking out blanched cabbage with a slotted spoon for over an hour is not my idea of time well spent, so number two on the list would be a blanching basket.

~

Cauliflowers in the blanching basket.

~

Transferred to the salad spinner to drain off excess water.

~

Oooh....I love spinning!!

~

And for the third thing, I decided a thing of useful beauty would be my choice. I chose a magnificent trug like garden basket in which to gather my daily produce. I LOVE IT!!

~

It’s big, it’s handy, it’s comfortable to hold either in my free hand or in the crook of my elbow, and the bugs and caterpillars fall through the mesh, saving a few lives from drowning in salted water!

~

Yes, I know I’m a softy…I’m the girl who apologised to a caterpillar last week when it had been boiled with the cabbage. (Lobsters being thrown into boiling water are my idea of a horror movie, so to subject a poor innocent caterpillar to such a fate was unthinkable, even if it had been eating my cabbage!!)

~

Its other use was tested out on Sunday at the Farmers Market, I filled it with lavender and lavender bags and its rustic appearance added a certain something to a corner of my stall. Truly a thing of useful beauty.

~

I picture myself drifting in a very ladylike manner, wearing a Laura Ashley long skirt, snipping the flowers in my cottage garden, filling my wirework trug with blossoms and branches to artfully arrange in my suitably twee vase. Shakes her head and re-jigs the picture…….mucky jeans, muddy wellies and a trug full of cabbages….ahhhh…now that’s more like it!!

~

Cauliflower about to be open frozen.

~

Bagged up after a couple of hours and returned to the freezer.

~

Jars of pickled Beetroot, and jars of Tomato, Garlic and Courgette Sauce with Chilli. All picked and processed within a couple of hours.....now there's fresh for you!

~

For lunch yesterday I had some of the sauce (well, I had half a jar left over) with brown rice......yummy. And then for tea we had the broccolli and some of the cauliflower in a cheese sauce with some breaded chicken.....equally yummy!

~

The three items that sped up the process and made things a little more fun rather than a tedious drawn out job. Highly recommended. I've highlighted the individual items with links if you would like to get them for yourselves. Be sure of one thing, I wouldn't recommend something that did not fulfill it's purpose and look the part in my kitchen.

~

Today I'm harvesting the last of the Spinach and getting that into the freezer. I'm starting to feel like a squirrel!!

~

Sue xx

Who's the Daddy?

Caldwell shelters with his wives under the umbrella.

Well we're off and running. Yesterday for the first time all four Lavender Pekin Bantams laid an egg, that's the fourth little egg for Alice and the first for the others.

Alice checking her egg.

Who's the Daddy? Why Caldwell of course. Fertilised eggs will be soon be for sale, I'm waiting until they are laying on a regular basis before jumping onto the sales bandwagon, in the meantime I was hoping for a broody hen to man (chicken?) the maternity ward......fingers crossed.

Prudence and Isabel deciding whether to brave the rain.

We have the sunshine back today.....shhh.....don't scare it away, yesterday was dire, it rained all day, the hens and dogs were lost and miserable, they just didn't know what to do with themselves. The pigs enclosure quickly turned into a mud pool and I went through three changes of clothes before bedtime.

~

Let's hope for a better day today.

~

Sue xx

Meet........

....Elizabeth Taylor. (Liz for short).

From back to front Lulu, Lottie and Liz.

She was born at the beginning of April so she is just four months old, almost two months younger than Lulu and Lottie, but size wise not that far behind.

She is not used to being handled as she has been brought up running with her family in a high sided pen away from human contact (except at feeding) so we will have to be a bit hands on for a while to get her as friendly as our other girls.

Sorry there's no view of her face but with ears like those we rarely get to see our Large Blacks faces ourselves. I always pick up Lulu and Lotties ears when I'm speaking to them and they sometimes look slightly shocked to get an ear-free glimse of the world!

There has been a bit of friction as they get used to each other, but nothing a bit of time won't sort out. Next week we pick up Jack, our first Large Black Boar, now THAT should cause some excitement amongst the ladies!

It's an indoor day today, thanks to the weather. I'll be sorting out our harvested potatoes and then some card making for the next Farmers Market.

Have a good day.

Sue xx