Far Lands

I should define my terms. When I say cheap , I mean free, and not simply going to Aldi rather than Tesco or M&S. When I say peppers I mean bell peppers, and not one of my addictions, chili peppers. Achocha . It is a member of the Curcubit family which includes squash and cucumbers; tastes something like a cucumber crossed with a bell pepper. Grown, apparently, by the Incas in South America. You can use them as a substitute for bell peppers eg slice them up and use in stir fries etc. The great thing is that they grow prolifically - see photos - and I can say we are self-sufficient in peppers (well, kind of). And we are collecting seeds from our crop, so if anyone wants any . . . (NB That's a pear in photo bottom right.)

It is still very early days for our orchard - this year our harvest will consist of 3 pears and a handful of hazelnuts. But the hazelnuts are good ones - cobs and filberts, from a Webb's Prize Cob and a White Filbert respectively. And, what's more, we have beaten the squirrels to them. The squirrels seem to have concentrated on the plum tree (original, not in our new orchard) and many of the surrounding sycamores have bits of plum sitting on their more horizontal branches.  Of course, as John Seymour memorably wrote, it is OK to lose crops to marauders such as squirrels and pheasants . . . as long as you eat them . The freezer now has a fair bit of (plum-fattened) squirrel-meat in it. 

. . . the turkeys are here! I collected the poults (4) at the weekend. All girls aged 12 weeks, and all have Christmas Day appointments in the local area (one with the vicar). The fun and games - entertaining the neighbours and passing walkers - is about to start as no doubt I will be chasing them around their paddock with a broom at bedtime. Why they don't roost like the chickens, I am not sure. Meanwhile the chickens are developing fast, and eating a lot. I am a bit concerned about the male / female ratio as I think we have 7 boys. The freezer is going to be full!

The chicks are now 8 weeks, and we decided to introduce the bantams to them and back into the main chicken house. We hoped to time it just right when they are all about the same size, but we now wonder whether we left it a bit late. Lots of squabbling and pecking as the pecking order gets established. Watching the bantams look after each other (the black one putting her wing over the white one who was being badly pecked, and later patrolling the nesting box while the white one laid an egg) it is easy to anthromorphise them. We now have external nesting boxes – not a casual DIY operation, so I hope they appreciate it.