Far Lands

The pluckers came back on Xmas Eve to finish the job. Sarah explained each stage, I demonstrated each stage and then everyone got stuck in . . . Minor hiccups included not getting physical enough with the neck and missing a kidney . . . but between us we managed. One of the results . . . If YOU fancy joining Turkey Club 2016 (learn how to pluck and gut a turkey and take it home afterwards) then please get in touch. Best wishes for 2016.

The first part of Turkey Club took place yesterday.  The five birds were plucked in under an hour, and if anything the process seemed easier than last year. The only negative was that the chickens (watching from their paddock) decided not to lay. Avian solidarity? 

Since my last blog it has not stopped raining, or at least it has felt that way. We've had a few leeks including one at the back of the house. The problem was a blocked gutter. Wearing my head torch and fiddling around at height in the dark took me back to some of my mountaineering experiences. The sensation of cold water streaming down my sleeve and under my coat and under my trousers and then re-appearing at the top of my boot was very similar too.  The leeks in the veg garden are a more positive story; we still have over a hundred in the ground. So enough for the next couple of months. I have always thought that the leek is a bombproof vegetable - able to withstand sitting snow, resistant to slugs, not attacked by birds, easy to grow from seed. A must for any self-sufficient wannabe. But . . . . . . talking to my mother last night who lives in Surrey, leeks do have an achilles heel. Leek moth. According to the RHS 'leek moth is mainly a problem in southern Engl

Coverage of the weather in Cumbria has been shocking, and in comparison we escaped very lightly. Although the wind blew here as if it was the War of the Worlds and we have had a lot of rain, we have not had an unprecedented amount, and Hayfield copes quite well. We did lose most of a shed roof, however.     Sarah and I looked at this differently. I just wanted to put it right. Sarah saw it as an opportunity to raze the shed, and the other shed, and build something far bigger and better. A super-shed. Running water, electricity. Probably even a chair. Chairs are for the house.

It's the 1st of December and the official start of Winter. So far, it's not been that cold but it has been wet. The last couple of years we have lost both our asparagus and our globe artichokes to the Winter and, I suspect, to the wet in particular. Both are perennials and should survive. So, this year, and with the adage 'if you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result' ringing in my head, I decided to try something new. I was prompted by an RHS gardener in Scotland saying that he and his team spent the whole of November bubble-wrapping plants. The photo shows my effort for the globe artichokes. After weeding and manuring the artichokes' plot, I bent the half-metre plants over and covered them in straw. Then I borrowed the shower door from our bathroom and popped it on top. Fits perfectly. We will see if it works when we get to Spring. And, until then, without a shower door, we will just have to take baths.

Snow came at the weekend and meant that I escaped from the to-do list. Most of the last couple of weeks I have spent digging out the compost heaps, weeding and then mulching. It will probably take me until the New Year. But the snow meant we were forced to go for a walk! However, Sarah still managed to prune the blackcurrants (fruit grows on the young wood so best to remove mainly old wood; about a third of the bush is usually recommended). That left me to clean out the birds, taking time out, of course, to explain to the new ones (two of the chickens and the five turkeys) what snow was and where it came from. My O level geography seemed a long time ago. That's because, I suppose, it was a long time ago.

It's that time of year for jamming and pickling. We have made various jams (they are blackberries in the pan) recently, and yesterday I did mincemeat. But with the oven on for 3 hours I wondered what else I could put in. Mincemeat needs a low heat, 120C.  I decided to try apple rings, and with one of the most fantastic inventions of mankind (an all in one corer, peeler and slicer - red thing in photo - about a tenner on Amazon, they make superb Xmas presents) I sliced up a few large Bramleys. And into the oven they went. I checked the rings after 2 hours, and I thought they needed a bit longer. 3 hours though, as you can see, was perhaps a little too long. Ideally, I think the heat should be lower. Delicious, I think. But the results have also passed the all-important other-half test. In addition, they were ready to be stored (in a paper bag) straight away. You may be keen to know the answer to last week's teaser? I will leave you with a photo answer. (I missed

Just back from a week in Majorca. Was it 1) fruity research? We were staying in an orange grove with about 40 trees. Not just oranges, but also apples, lemons, clementines, pomegranate, a sharon fruit and a strawberry tree (L photo). Apart from the apples, they were all ripe and delicious. Or 2) a week's walking? Warm weather, cold swimming and al fresco dining. You decide. Either way, three days of wind and rain since we returned have made it seem even better. I will leave you with this photo which I took on one of our mountain days (they have 1000m+ mountains). Can you explain?

To most people (including me until I joined the Northern Fruit Group) apples are mainly quite similar. Different to pears, and very different to bananas. Two types, eaters and cookers. Then as I became interested, and the hundreds of different varieties began revealing themselves, growing different cultivars grabbed my attention. Grafting, rootstocks and scions etc. My latest focus is identification. Place an apple in front of me, and I will . . . be very unlikely to be able to identify it. But I am learning the basics. Shape (flat, round, conical, oblong), and what to look for:- shape and length of the stalk, depth and width of the cavity, whether the eye is closed or open or semi-open, whether there are ribs, bloom, a hairline, hammering, russetting, mottling . . . the list goes on and on. The more I know (or think I know) the more confused I am.  To give an example. Our cooker. The tree was here when we arrived and the previous owner said it was a Bramley ( Braml

Winter's coming and although there's Xmas I like to have a back up to get me through to the Spring. The answer ( my answer) is sloe vodka. So now is the time to get in the hedgerows, especially down South. I hope one day to be able to harvest bucket loads from our own foraging hedge (planted 2 years ago with plenty of blackthorn - but no sloes yet). So I turned to the local hedgerows. After 2 hours I had a motley selection weighing 400g. But at least that was something. Then last week I went to Whitstable and did a local hedgerow walk towards Canterbury. In about 20 minutes four of us collected over 3 kilos!   Recipe 1 litre bottle 400g sloes (if collected before first frost put in freezer for a few days before you make it) 100g sugar (that's quite dry and how I like it; 200g of sugar makes it far sweeter) fill with vodka (or gin if you prefer) Then leave for 6 months (occasionally turn upside down). Decant and drink. Easter is looking good!

Tragedy struck in the turkey paddock this week. When we first arrived at Farlands our neighbour grazed a few sheep and lambs in the paddock and a legacy of that use is a large circular drinking trough. Over the years I have occasionally emptied it as it gets quite stagnant but it always fills again, naturally with rainfall. At the end of last week I let the turkeys out in the morning as usual. But when I went to check on them at lunchtime, I could only find four. That is very unusual as normally they waddle around in a tight group. I could not find the fifth turkey and I decided to put them back in their house while I looked. As I did so I walked past the drinking trough. There was the fifth turkey. Floating. Turkeys can't swim. Jam sarnies for Xmas.

A while ago (post 230) I wrote about finding a deer on our lawn. Well, it or a relation (at least a distant one) has been back. Several times. My step-overs and cordon line have been attacked. In response I am raising the fence at the far side of the lawn but also I am considering lion dung. Apparently this is the thing to put off deer, and of course, like anything, it is available on Amazon. Any other ideas are welcome.

Our turkey poults are still quite cute, but eating so much that they soon won't be. Turkey Club, if you didn't know, is for the owners of the birds; at least, the owners on 25 December. The first rule of Turkey Club is to name your bird; so far this year we have a Fairy Baubles although I am not sure I would want to eat it. Ours is simply called Gobble . Other names when I get them.

Not for me. Instead, on Saturday evening we did a 3 bird cook up. First, a pheasant that I'd shot a few months back. (With an apple and herb sauce.) Second, a chicken carcass that remained from when we cut the main joints from one of our surplus roosters. And, third, a rabbit. I could tell you where I got it from on the blog, but it may be better in person. We decided to eat pheasant for our evening meal (and managed not to find the pellet). On the side we had runner beans, the last of our broad beans and a sweetcorn (grown in the greenhouse; half was perfect golden-yellow and sweet as could be but the top had not developed and was still white (this is the result of poor pollination; next year I will try hand-pollinating). Most of the meat was subsequently portioned up and went back in the freezer for some hearty (meaty) Winter warming.

. . . if I was a god, anyway. You may remember in March last year when I planted some rooted blackberry cuttings that I had obtained from Tyn Dwr, an old Welsh arboretum (see Blogs 154 and 158). Well, here is their progress in just 18 months. Fantastic growth, and huge great blackberries. Not quite enough for my needs, however, and I have also been out picking in the local hedgerows. They are perfect on cereal, make fabulous jam and can easily be frozen. So, get out there . . . just not in Hayfield!

It's time for Summer pruning - plums, damson and also apples and pears grown in restricted form such as espaliers, step-overs and cordons. This is our cordon line before pruning (grafted in March 2014, and planted into the cordon line in March this year). And this is the cordon after pruning; Summer pruning is knows as the Modified Lorette System and involves pruning laterals to 3 leaves above the basal cluster. The idea is to stimulate fruit buds close to the main leader (trunk) and to restrict growth.

I picked up the turkey poults yesterday from Burnley; five of them. Not much conversation in the car on the way back except for the following:- 'Don't you think, Mr Ellson, Sir, that a goose might be a nice change this year?'         'Or a duck? A pair of ducks?' said a second poult.         A third poult joined in. 'Even a goose and a pair of ducks?'         'Mmm,' I replied. 'I'll think about it.' I was lying.

But not if you grow them in the greenhouse - at least that's our thinking. The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society for those readers under 40) recommends planting a vine outside the greenhouse, but then training it into the greenhouse through some kind of hole. That way its feet stay nicely watered and in plenty of soil, and its fruit get enhanced heat. So, having planted a rooted cutting a few months back, we trained it into the greenhouse over the weekend . Sun-kissed grapes, and maybe our own wine ( Farlands Rouge ) now beckon . . .

Well, almost. At the weekend we found a young kestrel, dead, lying on top of one of the compost heaps and just next to our owl barrel. After taking a couple of pictures I contacted the Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group  https://pdrmg.wordpress.com/  who said they would come and collect it. Cause of death? It had no obvious injury, no obvious disease; Sarah suggested that it might have flown into a tree . 'Yeah, yeah,' I scoffed. When the PDRPG chap (Mike) turned up he posited two theories. 1/ the kestrel had been chasing another bird and had flown into some glass, possibly the greenhouse, and 2/ the young kestrel had still been learning to fly and had, indeed, flown into a tree. The bird will now be sent to a government laboratory for testing; it takes about 9 months for a reply (I'll let you know.) As for me, well, I'm now washing up for a month.

We got back from holiday pleased to be in time (just) for our goosberry crops. We have several green-fruit bushes on the lawn and several red-fruit bushes in the fruit cage. The first night someone ate half the fruit on one bush on the lawn. The next day I hastily picked the rest of the bush and half the second bush. The second night that someone, or a new someone picked / ate / stole the rest of the fruit on that bush. The following night the red GBs in the cage disappeared. Well, not all of them. Carcasses were left on the ground.   My Wanted posters are of badgers for the bushes on the lawn and squirrels for the bushes in the cage. Or has anyone any other thoughts to add to the crime-fighting of modern-day smallholding?

Just back from 2 weeks in Canada; we were in the middle of nowhere (Alberta) but even so it was surprising how little sign of self-sufficiency there was. Ironic too because not long ago the places near where we were staying were frontier towns and that's almost all there would have been. In two weeks I did not see a single chicken and only one vegetable plot. It may be something to do with the size and competence of their marauders. Especially deer and bears, the latter of which can swim, run and climb better than Olympic decathletes. Given a little training they could probably speak a second language and knock up a mean souffle too. However, despite bears' all-round capability, Sarah has her man and was not keen for a replacement . . . Sarah demonstrating correct pepper spray posture (she is also shouting 'Get Back, you nasty bear') Mozzie attack

For the last few years we have had very few strawberries, beaten by weather, slugs and mice. But this year looks like being our best year since we moved here. The weather has helped as has the change to growing the plants in raised beds surrounded by chipping. But the weather was OK last year, and we had raised beds then too. Last year, however, the strawbs were stolen. Not by our neighbours, but by mice. This year, we have fought back with traps. And so far, we have caught 9 of the greedy devils. So, we're winning that war. But losing others - our egg count is down, right down. Only one yesterday. I had a few theories, and this morning I hung around after opening up the chicken house. One chicken went straight up to the top of the paddock and disappeared. I found her sitting on 2 eggs. I have a feeling that due to the upset caused by the 2 chicks and the bantam sleeping in the nest boxes that the older chickens would prefer somewhere nice and quiet to sit and lay. I