You know it's nearly Spring when.....

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You know it's nearly Spring when......there seems to be more of the Border Collie in the Dyson and on the carpet than she's wearing herself!!

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Yesterday after we got back from our farm viewing and fed all the animals, we gave Sophie her biggest grooming session of the year, and got enough excess fur to stuff a cushion (but we didn't...not that frugal...not yet!!) and then she had a luxurious doggy bath, she didn't think so, she HATES baths. Today she will have another session with the brush, as we have come down to the floor strewn once again with doggy fur!

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She does look lovely though with all her straggly bits trimmed and all the tangles and brambles sorted out. It won't last though, this is one dog, who for all her angelic looks, loves rolling in mud.

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The Challenge didn't go too well this week. Yes we lived out of the cupboards and freezers all week, well until Friday anyway. I hadn't spent a penny till then, and then we hit the road for our first viewing, stopped at the services and bought a much needed caffeine boost in the form of a Skinny Latte on the way there and then hunger struck on the way back, and we stopped for a pub lunch, amazing value actually, two meals and two drinks for £11.80, so not the end of the world.

But then I went to the 'Bad Place' on Saturday as we had ruin out of sparkling water (the 2 litre bottles are only 16p each and we re-cycle the plastic bottles for our 'Worm Tea' so even better value), and somehow managed to spend £29.13, admittedly all on fresh fruit and veg and bread, so within the remit of the Challenge, but it felt as though the pennies were slipping through my fingers.

I counted what was left and was almost happy to find I still had £25.78, not the end of the world then. But then we stopped off on the way to our viewing yesterday to visit a lovely little Farm Shop by the side of the road and suddenly I was handing over £15.22 for necessities. Oh well, £10.56 went in Spotty Jug, as Lovely Hubby said 'every penny counts' just as he tucked into his very necessary Venison Steak!!

Sue xx

Foodie Blogging

Cheats Banoffee Pie

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How do you know when you're turning into a Foodie Blogger........when you get the urge to photograph everything you make.

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How do you know when your husband is SO used to you Blogging about things you do and eat he actually asks..... "Is it okay to cut a slice or do you need a photograph?"'

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Cheats Banoffee Pie

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1 Ready made Pastry Case

1 tin of Nestle Caramel Sauce, to spread over pastry

2 Ripe Bananas, sliced

1/2 Carton of Cream, whipped

Flaked chocolate or sprinkles

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Assemble in that order, refrigerate for a couple of hours. Photograph, slice, eat!!

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Tastes even better the next day as the flavours merge delightfully.

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Sue xx

Exciting Day

The Kune Kunes tucking into their tea in the barn yesterday, there are three in the shot, one is stood in front of the back one..... in the trough!!

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As the evening draws in we are sat here warm and cosy in the farmhouse discussing our exciting day. We went to view another potential home for us and our animals today and it has much potential.

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We have another to view on Sunday, so there will be much discussion over the next few weeks, as we tweek and adjust our plans to suit the places we have seen.

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In the meantime I think it's time for a nice bit of pasta and maybe a piece or two of garlic bread in front of a roaring fire.

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Have a lovely weekend.

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Sue xx

Happy Families

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The piglets are all growing up fast, getting their own identities and learning to live independently of their Mums. They all eat pig nuts now as well as suckling from their Mums. They come out of the arks and play on their own even if Mum is sleeping, a lovely sign of confidence.

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The Middle White/Large Black crosses, Maud's babies, are now 4 weeks old and bigger than the Large Black piglets who are 2 weeks older than them. It's proving to be a good cross, although one we have to admit that we didn't choose to do. Jack our Large Black boar proved himself very capable of jumping stock fencing to get to his lady of choice!!

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It's something we have decided to carry on with and currently Martha is living with Jack in the hope that there will be the pitter, patter of little trotters 4 months from now. The piglets seem to carry the most characteristics of their Mum, with squashed faces and prick ears although they all have a bit of their Dad's colouring, in the form of black bottoms and black triangular markings where their eyebrows would be

~ Lottie and her babies this week. ~ If all goes according to plan we may be weaning Lottie's piglets from her this weekend, she is showing all the signs of being fed up with them pinching vast amounts of her food, and as she and her sister Lulu were weaned from their Mum, Cilla Black, at 6 weeks it must be hereditary for them (piglets are usually weaned at 8 weeks). Although a bit smaller than their half-brothers and sisters they are more confident and 'grown up', and much more likely to run to us if they see us coming in the hope of getting to the food first. ~ Today is (unfortunately), a housework catch-up day, never have I lived somewhere that gets SO messy SO quickly, although I suppose with 2 cats and 2 dogs and tons of mud that's pretty inevitable!! ~ I hope you're getting up to something much more exciting. ~ Sue xx

Inspiration from a Brilliant Book - The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

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Sometimes you pick up a book and from the very first paragraph it has you hooked. Recently this has been happening to me with a few of my cookery books, but this week while I was up in Scotland I started reading this book and it has been the best and most inspirational of reads I have had for a long time. I struggled to put it down, and picked it back up at every opportunity.

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Nigel's style of writing and cooking are just so right for me. His ethos of buying locally, seasonally and fresh, and picking from his own veggie patch are so in tune with what I am trying to do this year. He admits when he just has cravings for fish fingers and has a mad dash to the corner shop to buy them (and gets spotted and tut, tutted at). It has been lovely to sit each day and dip into this book, to mark the pages so I can find recipes I want to try out and just to slip into his culinary world a little and lose myself in the wonderful pictures.

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It's not often that I use my Blog to recommend a book, in fact I don't think I've done it to this extent before, but this is definitely a book worth having if you're even slightly food minded. I got mine from Amazon, at a very reasonable price! I'm going to dip into some more of his books now to see if they can match up to this. ~

Sue xx

Merged Blog - Catch Up

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From this week my two current Blogs are merged - The Vegetarian Farmer and Our New Life in the Country - together.

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So there will be a mix of foody talk and farm news all in one place. I hope you enjoy this mix, and as the growing season gets under way it should all make more and more sense as the foods grown on the farm will be turned into thrifty and (hopefully) tasty foods to nourish us and our animals, and help us continue our 'Year of Living Simply'.

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The Challenge* went SO well last week with only milk being purchased, but this week I seem to have gone 'wild in the aisles' in comparison. I spent a total of £53.13 with only £16.87 being carried over in Spotty Jug.

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My only excuse is that as we were travelling I didn't want to line the pockets of the motorway service giants too much, so I purchased us some snacky items, and as my lovely Mum in law had no idea what Quorn was I bought some fillets for us all to have for our tea....she loved it by the way!!

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~ I also managed to nab myself a bargain at the charity shop, this book for only £4. I had been on the verge of buying it for a lot more from Amazon so I was really pleased and to celebrate went slightly wild again in the Health food shop buying Tahini and Yeast Flakes, something I had just read about in another Cranks book. No more excuses... this week I must do better, if we are to downsize the contents of the kitchen cupboards ready for our big move we have to eat the food that's already there not buy more!! ~ A good discovery from last week are the pies in the picture at the top. We call them Leftover Pies, and they are SO yummy. Simply a mix of all the left over bits and pieces from the fridge, inside these particular ones is a mix of spring onions, sweet red chilli pepper, potato, carrot and peas, all mixed with half a tin of baked beans and popped into some flaky pastry. You could do them as pies as I did here or simply fold the pastry over and make a pastie. We ate one each fresh from the oven, one each the following night simply reheated for twenty minutes in the Aga, and we have popped two into the freezer for when we may be in need of a speedy supper. A brilliant way of using up all sorts of bits and pieces (and very economical too). ~ Today we went to look at the first farm property we've been offered and we had a very interesting day. Lots of potential and lots to think about. We have two more viewings of other properties before we can begin to make up our minds, and some other lovely folk to contact who have been in touch. ~ Very exciting times at the moment here on the farm at the moment and if you're wondering what was in the Giveaway parcel for helping me decide what to do with my Blogs you can skip on over to Gems' Blog where she has done a lovely post about it.

~ ~ * The Challenge, for those of you who have never read The Vegetarian Farmer (now merged with this Blog), is for me to have a budget of £70 per week to buy foodstuffs, but to see how little of it I can spend each week by living off the contents of our store cupboards and freezers. Any money left over each week is going into 'Spotty Jug' to be saved for a treat at the end of the Challenge. ~ Wherever possible I will buy only fresh, seasonal produce and things that are needed to turn ingredients we already have into meals. I am also trying to support local small businesses and Farmers Markets and use supermarkets only as a last resort. The Challenge will be over when there are no more meals to be had from our stores. Hopefully by then our own veggies will be well on the way to supplying most of our culinary needs and we will re-think our budget for buying only basic storecupboard items. ~

Sue xx

Home from Home......

This isn't a photo of home.....but it could be!!

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We're off to Scotland to visit my lovely Mum in Law this weekend, and then when we get back on Sunday we will be sorting ourselves out ready for Monday, when we are visiting an area of the country not a million miles from here that just could turn out to be our new home.

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The farm is being left in VERY capable hands for which we are extremely grateful.

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Hope you like the look of the 'tweaked' Blog. More changes could be in the making, blog-wise and life-wise....it's all very exciting.

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Hope your weekend is nice and relaxing.

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Sue xx