Oh my goodness, what a last couple of days. I've gotten more done than I dared hope for. First of all, the goose is 100% back to normal. Wound looks great and the bird is stomping around like nobody's business. The garden: wow. I am SO happy with how much work has gotten done out there. Even more has been accomplished since these pictures were taken because my tot was happy to dig a hole in the dirt out there for two hours this morning while I worked. He would dig it, than fill it back in and dig it out again. TWO HOURS. It was like that Paul Newman movie where he's in jail and has to dig a hole and fill it back up again and again, what was that movie? It was the one with the scene where he wins a bet by eating like 30 hard boiled eggs? Ugh.
Anyway. After that morning of work we came inside and had cookies.
I can't lift all of the dahlias and cannas for storage until we get a hard frost. So we get to enjoy them a bit longer.
The dehydrator is running drying herbs: parsley, rosemary and sage along with some extra mushrooms I bought the other night.
I butchered a couple of young roosters and we had "chicken paprika " from The Joy of Cooking. It was delicious. The roosters were TINY but if you look at the old recipes birds were back then (before the invention of the Cornish Cross). The recipe I used called for a 2 & 1/2 lb. bird for example. I had some misgivings about getting rid of those roos that little but we are awash in young roosters right now.
Still to do: pull and preserve the leeks, move the perennial herbs to the other side of the garden. Trim asparagus bed. Cover crop. Butcher more birds. Maybe make and freeze pasta with all of the quail eggs piling up.
Whew.
Read, relax, enjoy my family and friends. Maybe do some sewing. Anyone else looking forward to winter? Just a little?
Just having a blog catch up, most overdue I may add! Lol, I do know what you mean re winter! I think the jobs will just change to something else rather than become less here. interesting about the old recipes calling for the smaller bird - that around a kilo I think? I did mushrooms in the dehydrator and the smell knocked me, what's all that about?
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness YES mushrooms stink! Why is that?! And they taste so good?
DeleteTried slicing mushrooms and threading slices to dry in the kitchen one year: not a success (humidity too high) and quite stinky. Phew-iff. Ros
DeleteOh, they totally stink. No idea why. It seems so unfair.
DeleteGroan. Love Autumn, but so much to do. Harvest fennel seeds for use with pork. Harvest last of cucumbers and courgettes. Tomatoes got end rot or blight (not sure which). Four peppers (which is not bad for the UK without a greenhouse) *punches air*. Some potatoes to lift and many Winter brassicas and salads to plant tomorrow (late). Runner beans still delivering. Some haws and hips to pick for Hedgerow brandy. Ros
ReplyDeleteWow! Everything you're doing sounds amazing! Great job, it sounds like a ton of food you're growing!
DeleteMy veg plot is tiny, 60m2 max, but I try to grow a bit of everything. Not square-foot gardening, but not far off it. This year artichoke (1) courgettes (1 highly productive plant), cucumbers (3), corn (12), potatoes (5 seed potatoes of 5 varieties, so 25 plants) (early, 2nd early, main crop), peppers, leeks (30?), raspberries, runner beans, various lettuces / salad leaf and silverbeet all did well (survived my tender mercies). Some heroic failures though: planted a load of peas, all but 2 plants munched off at ground level. No broad (fava) beans made it at all. Got *one* gooseberry. A whopping 7 plums, 6 apples and 7 pears. They are new dwarf fruit trees and trained hard against a fence, in my defence. Only 6 of 18 dwarf beans survived. My giant pumpkin (Autumn King) plant died, putting a crimp in my Halloween pumpkin plans ��, gutted about that one. Epic onion and garlic fail, there was a wet, warm spell and they rotted. Least saidoif the tomatoes the better, will only be growing blight-resistant varieties next year. Strawberries, redcurrants, whitecurrants all picked off or munched before I got to them!! Going to put in some more "permanent" plants for next year (rhubarb, asparagus, more strawberries and raspberries). Always too much of something or not enough of something here. I don't know how you and TC (smallholding adventures) manage to get everything done in a day with bigger gardens and more beasts to tend. On growing with children, multicoloured carrots and radishes go over really, really well, in 3x3 ft garden with 12 types of veg. Still haven't finished planting brassica starts, if nothing else, the chickens will appreciate them. Lucky with foraging here, lots of blackberries, wild damsons / bullaces, hips and haws, apples / crab apples, walnut and hazelnut trees. Annoying that the day job gets in the way of this. Onwards! Ros
ReplyDeleteJust remembered, the movie is Papillon. Ros.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the 1967 film 'Cool Hand Luke". Had to give "Papillon" a Google - wow, that seems like a crazy dark film. The Newman movie is a lighter one, sort of. You know, for a prison movie anyway.
DeleteRos you should start blogging. Seriously. I would love to read about everything you have going on and it's a wonderful way of keeping records for yourself. "Always too much of something and not enough of something" about sums up this life, doesn't it? We all do the best that we can. I've always been intrigued with square foot gardening, the book is wonderful and makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteNot the first time I have confused Paul Newman with Steve McQueen, doh! I'm a bit nervous about blogging TBH, putting my slightly odd and often chaotic life out there. Feel like Sisyphus most evenings, as I watch the boulder of the day's tasks roll down the hill again. Blogging would stop me hogging your comments section though! ;-) Really enjoy reading your blog, you write so well with a very distinctive "voice": calm, kind and full of wry humour. It's lovely to see the snippets of your day. Ros
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