Off I go again......

The very handsome Caldwell, a Lavender Pekin Bantam Cockerel.

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Off I go again up the motorway to take Jason back to Preston after his stint looking after the farm. He has just finished his Masters Degree in Document Analysis, so fingers crossed for a good result. He needed the break, even if half of it was spent looking after animals for us. Sometimes a bit of physical work is just what you need after an intensive studying period.

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Now he is officially one of the great unemployed of this country. So let's hope he can find a job soon. He already has a good degree in Forensic Science, so hopefully that will stand him in good stead. ~

Prudence.

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I'm leaving you with a few pictures of my 'babies' now all grown up and a proper little family unit.

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All five together....as a family should be.

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I'll be back Blogging soon, but after dropping Jason off I'm heading to Manchester to meet up with my Mum (and diet buddy) to compare notes and have a good old family chin wag (Dad's invited too, if he's good). Back to the farm on Friday night hopefully.

In the meantime....if you're reading this Lovely Hubby....you're in charge of my babies (and all the other animals)!!

Sue xx

Did you guess......?

I asked you yesterday if you could guess what I was up to later on, well in this case it was Pickling Beetroot. Sorry if you thought I would use my Spurtle, but it would have dyed it a rather unfetching shade of red as it hasn't finished seasoning yet! As it was by the time I had finished I had lovely red hands, nails, chopping board and wooden spoons. Luckily by this morning the kitchen has scrubbed up quite well, and I have the above jars as reward for my efforts.

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I've been a bit of a busy girl over the last few days. This time of year it seems everything is crying out to be stored, cooked, frozen or bottled all at once. I've been freezing and bottling away for all I'm worth. Our new big chest freezer if getting fuller by the day, the list of contents of the homegrown/produced stock is in the sidebar. I have now run out of recycled jars (and space in the cupboard), so today I am going to squeeze some more batches of sauces and some more veg into the freezer.It will be interesting to compare the quality of the food from the two preserving methods as we eat them.

This I made the other day from a glut of red peppers and tomatoes. I just love the bright colour of it, it's almost jewel-like, so much so I held off from putting labels on for a while so I could admire the jars whenever I went in the kitchen.

But of course I had to label in the end, or I would be guaranteed to forget the contents sooner or later.

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There are fat juicy blackberries appearing on all the Bramble bushes around the farm, and although on the lanes and roads in the village there are people busy picking away, I am lucky enough to have acres of hedgerows far from the maddening crowd that are mine and mine only. So later today I will walk the dogs and start gathering them in, and then popping them straight in the freezer to be dealt with en masse when I have spare time. Likewise with the Damsons that are just about ready on the trees around the henhouses.

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Luckily I have a new stash of jam jars that I treated myself to from Lakeland, an extravagance I know, but nice jam deserves nice jars!!

Sue xx

My Spurtle.......

A couple of you asked 'what is a spurtle'......so especially for you, here is a picture of my Spurtle.

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They originated in the fifteenth century in Scotland, originally more of a spatula shape but that modified over many years to become a more wooden spoon handle shape. They are designed for stirring porridge or oatmeal. They can be plain and simple, as mine is, or decorated and carved very ornately, especially at the top with the Scots thistle being a very popular topper.

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I asked Ben to make me one so I could see my very own utensil being made, it was wonderful to watch a rough piece of wood, Cherry in the case, being turned into a useful item of kitchenalia.  This is him actually making it for me.

~ A nice and useful, souvenir of a wonderful day out.

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(Can you guess by what's stood behind it in the picture what I'm up to today?)

~

Sue xx

A Brilliant Weekend

We had a brilliant weekend down in Dorset, luckily the weather was with us and the sun shone for most of the day.

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I met and chatted to Mark Diacono, the Head Gardener at River Cottage and owner of Otter Farm, the UK's only climate change based farm. He is a fellow Blogger, so you can guess what we talked about!

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Lovely Hubby had his annual chat with Hugh and got our farm diary for next year signed by the man himself.

We watched as Ben Orford made me a Spurtle.

~ And then at the end of a lovely day we trekked up the hill, using the excuse of needing a photo for the Blog as a way of getting our breath back.

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We gave the seaside a miss on Sunday as the rain was coming down, and after a yummy home-cooked breakfast at our gorgeous hotel we set off instead on a leisurely drive home.

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The diet kicks off today over at Sue and Joans' Diet Diary....wish us luck!

~

Sue xx

Now you know why.......

Now you know why Large Black pigs have such large black ears.....it's to hide their ugly little faces.

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We tried many ways to get a photo of Jacks face but he refused to look the camera in the eye.

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So all you get to see really are the worried furrows on his brow, he's most likely wondering why he can suddenly see what he's doing and where he's going.

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We're off in a few minutes for a farm break. Guess where we're going......yep to a farm!!

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We're going to River Cottage for the day tomorrow for the Autumn Fair to see our guru and master the lovely Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, while we're there we are going to take in the delights of the Axminster Store and Canteen, and then it's a day at the seaside on Sunday (if the weather holds out).

Back to Blogging on Monday when the big Health Kick starts with a vengeance.

Sue xx

A Second Wind

The polytunnel is having a second wind. The tomatoes have burst forth with new leaves and huge bunches of fresh tomatoes. The courgette plants that I thought had just about given up the ghost have sprung back into life giving me a whole crop of new fruits.

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And the lovely Aubergine plants have laid down some more fruits to replace the ones we ate last week.

~ More yummyness to come then.

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I left a part of me behind when I left the polytunnel this morning.

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No..... haha.....I am not getting all poetic about leaving my heart in the polytunnel.

I accidently backed into a flypaper as I watered the tomatoes and left a rather large tuft of hair attached to it in my panic to get away......YUK!

~

Sue xx

Pigs and children......

Grace showing another Middle White Pig.

There's something about a pig, that a lot of folk think is scary. That hulking great mass of pork bearing down on you at 20 miles an hour can look terrifying. But the one thing that will make you realise how gentle a pig can be is to see them with children.

Children have no fear of pigs, the youngsters that visited our farm recently were in with the pigs before we could stop them. Straight over to them to stroke them, and look into their eyes. The pigs responded by being extra careful where they trod, by walking slower and standing stiller, and our pigs then had never been with children before.

You see a pig through new eyes when you see them through the eyes of a child. They are big warm hairy bodies with curly tails, cheeky grins and grunts of pleasure. To have a pig that has been raised and handled by a child is a delight as we have been lucky enough to find out with Monty.

Grace having a final cuddle with Monty (then known as Harry) before we brought him home to stay with us on the farm.

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I can honestly say that Monty is the most peaceful and content pig I have ever owned. Not for him the bellowing for food, or the pushing and shoving of the other pigs. He is just happy to stand and eat, not dash from trough to trough to try to get more than his fair share. If you go into the Orchard he slowly walks over to the fence to get his share of the tickles or pats on offer.

He looks up at you with those intelligent eyes and just melts your heart.

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Thank you Grace for raising Monty so well, it was time well spent.

Sue xx