Far Lands

No, not our first frost (which hopefully is making some headway into our slug population, but I doubt it). The first eggs from our chicks! Hurrah. They are now 20 weeks old so it is not before time. They laid 2 on Sunday and 2 more yesterday. Not to be outdone the white bantam is also now laying. And, surprisingly, in terms of size she is matching the Sussex hens. All the eggs are very small, but hopefully the hens are just trying things out . . . without wanting to get any more graphic. Meanwhile, and possibly fearing that they are not the centre of attention, the 3 remaining roosters are fighting. One was bloody this morning, so it looks like that my plucking fingers will see action later this week.

The extended Summer and the mild Autumn this year is blinding us to the fact that Winter is approaching. I was reminded of this in the garden yesterday. I was chopping up a few logs when I began to hear a tremendous squawking.  I immediately thought that Flash, our now giant-sized rooster was impressing himself yet again on one of the hens (our poor bantams!) But no, it was not one of our hens. The racket grew far louder, and I realised it was overhead. I looked up, and there it was. Two or three arrows of what I think were Canada Geese. Chattering away as they flew to their Winter lodgings. Winter is coming. But that's a good thing. Seasons are part of us, at least part of living in the UK. The natural world needs them, and I would argue we need them too. Every day is different, even if only slightly - the sun sets slightly earlier, the wind blows from a different direction, the air temperature is colder. Every day is fresh. Every day has possibility.

Our chicks to chickens experiment is not going so well. We started with 12 chicks, and they are now 18 weeks old. We have still not had a single egg, and we have only got 5 hens when they do eventually start laying. They are BIG and they eat a lot! 2 of the males are in the freezer and 2 more will join them today. But just in terms of food, the chickens are now worth over £10 each. The plan is to keep one rooster - the biggest one who we have called Flash (NB this morning he woke Sarah at 3.30am so time might even be called on him) - and for the other roosters (3 more after today) to climb into the freezer over the next few weeks. Flash will then give us the possibility of hatching our own chicks; if we do that we might try and sex them as one-day-olds - even if we are not that successful, it will be better than each egg becoming more valuable than a Faberge one.

(ie more than just potentially being a global blog.) Two examples if you need convincing:- I have just harvested our scorzonera. It's a Russian root vegetable also known as black salsify, black oyster plant, serpent root, or viper's herb. I expected it to be really spicy and requiring a really long boil. Not suitable for Sarah's more refined palate. But no; a quick boil turns the root into an interesting supplement to potatoes; it has the texture of a parsnip but a more interesting taste; very slightly spicy. (It's meant to be long and thin like a parsnip, not the tangle of witch hair that mine is.) And, secondly . . . . . . if you checkout my blog 188 (The postwoman delivers the mail) you will find a comment from shivabizconn who runs a cultural retreat in Hyderabad, India (see w ww.incrediblelands.com/index.html . ) Shiva, thanks for reading!

Just had a week's walking holiday in Majorca. We were in the mountainous North West; the main crop  - it seemed like 99% - were olives. We saw very few vegetable plots, but one we did see belonged to Michael Douglas (see photo). He wasn't hoeing his beans, however, when we we walked past. There were also plenty of lemon and orange trees but few on common ground, and there were few opportunities for foraging. However, (and more than making up for the lack of foraging) we did come across a dragon's lair . . .

(NB My loyal reader(s) know(s) that the turkey house is made from 2 recycled front doors, and includes a working letter box.) The turkeys are growing up - getting bigger (fatter) and older. Old enough it seems to have pen friends, or maybe they are simply cutting out coupons in the back of the Radio Times? Maybe even trying to lobby the Queen to issue some sort of Royal Pardon and a stay of execution. We will never know for sure - after checking their post, they ate it!

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.)