New Lambs (but not from our sheep)

It seems a long time since I last updated the blog and certainly a lot has happened since then. Most exciting is the arrival of Mary the lamb. Mary is not from our sheep. Her mother had triplets and was not going to manage to look after them all, so we ended up with her. 

We got her at a week old on Saturday morning. Since then we have been bottle feeding her every two hours or so during the day. That feeds her up enough so that she lasts through the night. She stays in the house, and at night Ted (the chocolate lab) and her have their beds next to each other in the utility room. Lambs it seems are almost impossible to toilet train so we do seem to need to mop up the kitchen floor almost constantly. She is very entertaining and affectionate, trying to follow us around where ever we go. She has now started running around and jumping when she gets excited. Ted likes this and tries to play with her. We try to get her out as much as possible and she was happily exploring the garden this afternoon being followed by the dog, who being a dog wanted to keep sniffing her bum. It seems now we have the offer of a second lamb so maybe she is going to get some sheepy company.

The weekend before last we had our first go at selling at a farmers market and had a stall at the one in South Cave. We sold some of the marmalade, pickles and lemon curd I've been making as well as criossants, pain au chocolat and pain au raisin. It was a pretty slow market and I think considering the number of people who actually visited the market we did pretty well, but the place was hardly heaving. It also meant me being up at 5am getting criossants to rise and stuff like that. I have a plan for the next market so I don't have to get out of bed so early!

Last weekend we had a working weekend. It was quite a quiet one, but we were here and my parents came too. We managed to get quite a lot done and enjoyed some fantastic pork and Elderberry wine at the end of the day. It will be nice soon when it will be our own veg too; the polytunnel is doing pretty well though and we have a steady supply of salad leaves and some Swedes ready. I'll also have Corriander, carrots and beetroot ready soon, months before anything planted this year will be coming up. We got loads of planting done at the working weekend and so the polytunnel has loads of seed trays in and some of the beds outside have things coming up too. The growing side of the smallholding is starting to take shape, although the more exotic things I was hoping to grow in the greenhouse like peppers and melons seem to be struggling to germinate. Zoe worked on a sheep shelter and now the sheep have an area under cover in the field where they can go to lamb when they are ready. I think it will be about a month or so when our lambs arrive, although predicting exactly is a pretty imprecise art. Dad worked hard stripping a door in the house which I think will be great as a rustic sort of door.

I went over to Flamborough with Dad while he was over. We had a great time seeing loads of the nesting birds. But most interestingly I found a few plants ready to forage. I managed to collect a load of Gorse flowers that should make some excellent squash or sorbet. It tastes great but there is quite a technique to not being constantly stabbed while picking which I am not sure Dad managed to pick up. I also found some Alexanders which I haven't found before, but we tried some that night and it tastes brilliant. Always good when it's just growing at the side of the path.

This is Alexanders once prepared. It tastes great steamed and served with butter. This isn't my picture

I've been trying to keep up with the garden which always seems to get a raw deal and end up on the bottom of the priority list. As Michael has worked hard getting rid of loads of weeds I am trying my best not to let them grow back and take over the whole garden again. In between garden and smallholding I am also squeezing in a bit of decorating. I am supposed to be painted all day tomorrow, but as I have to take Mary into school (isn't that what happens in the nursery rhyme?) and possibly pick up another lamb I am not sure how much I will actually manage to get done.

I've been organising a bit of supply work for after Easter so I am not going to have quite so much time in the smallholding. Ideal at a time when the new lambs should be arriving but there we go. We are going to try a few different markets over the next few weeks and months and see how that goes. Hopefully we'll find a few markets that are a bit busier.

First planting of the spring

It's been amazing weather today and I've been out all day which is fantastic. I've dug over a bed and planted onions and Garlic (a little late but not too bad), finished planting in the polytunnel and then been cutting back bushes in the garden. You do have to be careful cutting them back that you don't get too carried away with how much of a trim you give the plants, a few are looking quite stumpy. We planted most seeds at the weekend ,with all of the family enjoying the polytunnel in the sunshine and planting (well Imogen was napping some of the time).

We also had to sort the sheep at the weekend. One of them had gained a huge spiky branch (from my garden trimmings) in her wool. She was separating herself from the flock and clearly needed help. Unfortunately this meant she wouldn't come to a food bucket as the others did. This then lead to the usual fun and games of trying to catch a sheep who doesn't want to come near you. It's not an easy thing to do. We got them all into the small hardstanding area we have and tried. We first tried a sort of corridor of pallets leading them into a small pen. This didn't work. We had sheep jumping into the veg plot. Sheep jumping into pallets and running attached to pallets! Once they pick a direction to run in they just go in a blind panic with very little regard for what might be in the way. We then tried to set up a coral that caught them as they went out of the gate and into the main field. We failed here too. I went to get Ted and just as I returned Harriett managed to by herself guide all the sheep just where we wanted them. It was brilliant. Unfortunately she hadn't told anyone what she was doing and so no one was there to shut the gate and trap them in. This meant they all happily wandered out again. I can't quite remember in the end how we did get them. I managed to grab the sheep we wanted by the horns and then dragged it into the pen. How I got that close I really can't remember. The others wanted to be with her so much they took themselves into the pen. We just had to open the door for them. It took quite a lot of work to remove the large spiky branch from all of the wool. It had scratched and grazed her so we had to raid the first aid kit and clean her up with a few anti-septic wipes. The sheep certainly keep us on our toes.

I am busy this week preparing for South Cave Market where we are going to have a stall. It's on Saturday and I still have quite a few things to make to ensure we have a full stall of things to sell. So far we have Marmalade (5 types) and Mango Chutney (2 types). I am going to make a load of Lemon and apple curd, croissants and Pain au Chocolat. I had an inspection from the council this week and I've been awarded 5* for hygene. I am also going to take some of the felt phone cases I have been making to see if anyone is interested in those. So quite a big day for us on Saturday. I have nearly fulfilled all of the endless paperwork tasks required to sell food at a market, so I am now looking forward to it.

Spring is arriving

Since being back from holiday spring seems to clearly be arriving. In the polytunnel spring is in full flow with everything in there growing at a pace. It's usually really warm in there during the day now and it's a fantastic place to be if it's not so good outside. Some of the plants that have been in there over winter are now bolting like the Pak Choi (Zoe is very pleased as she doesn't really like it anyway), but the carrots ,coriander, beetroot and loads of greens are really taking off. That means I have salad now and  should have carrots and beetroot ready when this years crop are just seedlings. That's the plan anyway, I haven't really had any luck with carrots since we left our house in London about eight years ago so we'll see how they go.

It's fantastic having a freezer full of such good pork. We've been trying one of our hams this week. It tastes pretty good. That's the plain cure, I still have the one cured in beer and black treacle to try. I reckon that should be pretty amazing. I think I might get a side of bacon out to try this week. It looks pretty tasty. I don't have a bacon slicer though. I'm not sure how neat a job I'll manage of slicing it with a knife. Perhaps I ought to have a look on ebay and see if I can get one cheap there.
I have finally put in me seed order. A little later than planned, but not by much. Nothing is really late yet (apart from garlic). Planting will really start in earnest in March.... Oh I just checked the date and it is March! Well I know the seeds are on the way so still no hassle. There is still a lot of work to do before seedlings can be planted out. Last week I hired a turfer which removes grass into nice neat turf (that's the theory) and removed the turf from all of the new beds. If you have a lovely flat field then I am sure the turf will come out neat. However if your field is ridge and furrow and riddled with mole hills it more hacks the turf apart and a lot of manual effort is needed to get the machine to move at all. Next week I should hopefully be hiring a rotivator to dig over all of the beds and the couple of large planting areas the pigs kindly rooted over and removed all the grass from.

I am gradually making more food in order to have a well stocked market stall at a couple of the local farmers markets in a couple of weekends time. I already have 70 jars of marmalade of 5 different varieties. Last week I made 20 jars of spicy Mango chutney. I think I might make a mild version this week. I think the first market I am going to try is the one in South Cave. That gives me a couple of weeks to make a few more things to sell.

I have started decorating the room connected to the conservatory. As usual with these things what initially looks like a quick lick of paint gradually grows into a much larger and more involved tasks as more and more issues that need dealing with are found. It's not too bad but I think it will certainly extent beyond a quick afternoon with a paint brush.
Next week I have a visit from East Yorkshire council to give me a star rating on my food production. I have a load of gardening to do. Zoe's Uncle Michael was here while we were away and kindly removed vast areas of weeds from our garden. I just need to get out there quick and apply lots of mulch before it just turns back into weeds again. Luckily for us the army base seems to have been in over winter clearing bushes from their perimeter fence. They have then shredded it all and left it in our garden, perfect mulch. That will be a lot cheaper than getting it from the garden centre. I'm really looking forward to planting and the growing season starting in earnest this week.