Having been away for
a week in Turkey enjoying the sunshine we are back in Yorkshire
enjoying the smallholding. As always there is lots to do here at this
time with vegetables and grass all growing like mad. It's great
having so much veg suddenly coming through. We now have loads of
beetroot, potatoes, courgettes and runner beans. The cucumbers,
tomatoes and sweetcorn are almost ready and the Aubergines in the
polytunnel are starting to take shape. It's pretty exciting actually
growing an Aubergine, it makes the polytunnel feel like it's really
worthwhile. I am starting to exhaust my courgette recipe supply
though, so if anyone has any good ones then do let me know.
Christine and Kevin
did a stunning job looking after the smallholding while we were away
and ended up with a far more involved job than they bargained for.
Unfortunately one of our lambs got fly strike, a really nasty thing
where maggots grow inside the lambs flesh. It got lots of care,
attention and medicine but did not make it through, poor thing. Kevin
and Michael spent the week (when not nursing sick lambs) gardening.
For those of you who have followed previous blogs you may realise
this is not a simple matter of a bit of delicate weeding but trying
to tame a jungle and turn it into a garden. The weeds in undeveloped
areas are large, tangled and everywhere. They cleared a huge area and
the garden is moving further and further from being a jungle. My Mum
is visiting for a few days later this week and so with her help we
should be able to move even further on with it.
The Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA) project is really starting to take shape.
We now have a good few people wanting Pork for September and Pork for
Christmas. If you are interested at all then get in touch as I need
to know final details for both very soon. The idea (very briefly) is
that to be a member you sign up for a half or quarter pig. You sign
up at the beginning of the process when the new piglets arrive. You
get to meet the piglets and be involved, having a say in how they are
reared. At the end of it you receive very tasty, rare breed, slow
grown pork. You know how the pigs were treated and have a real
connection with where your food has come from. For more details see
our web site www.leconfieldgrange.org
This project has been an idea for a long time and is is really great
to see it now starting to become a reality.
The chicks are now
getting large and quite ugly. They have gone past the cute fluffy
chick stage. They are now at the stubby feathers, bits of fluff here
and feathers growing there stage. We can start to see which breeds we
have. I believe we have one cuckoo Marran, one Light Sussex and then
some others I have yet to identify. The key question is whether they
are cocks (one to be a cockerel and the rest as eaters) or layers.
The only way to know is either sex them at birth (a highly skilled
job we can't do here) or (as we have to do) wait until they either
cock a doodle doo, or lay an egg. They should do one or the other in
time. As a happy coincidence as they first cock a doodle doo is a
perfect time for eating them! I can't quite what I would like more,
more layers or a good few chicken roasts.
