Far Lands

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 . . .