Trying to live the Good Life
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Slab of meat to bits to eat
Posted on Mar 04, 2010 at 04:06 PM
Just returned from Conisbees, our local artisan butcher (with whom Mrs. Gav has a very close relationship), who collected the carcases today. James Conisbee is going to do the clever bit and turn them from slabs of meat into bits to eat. Their dead weights were 51kg and 60Kg, with respectively a 14 and 15mm layer of fat. So we are talking North of 200lbs of Pork for us to get through. I bought back a bag of ‘lights’ including the liver, hearts and lungs. Liver for pate, hearts roasted and stuffed, lungs for the dog (probably), or cat (if they are really rotten). That cat does nothing in this house.
So would I do it again? Simple answer is yes. Pigs are easier and more fulfilling to keep than chickens (which are susceptible to foxes, relatives dogs, and need cleaning out a lot), and not as dangerous as the bees, which by the way made it through the winter OK. The little paddock they were in will get rotorvated, and planted with a root crop for forage over summer. We’ll then get three little pigs in the beginning of September. I wouldn’t buy them any Christmas presents. We’ll probably keep two for family and friends, and sell one to cover our costs (let me know if you are interested...you can come and pick the one you want).
Say hello and wave goodbye....
Posted on Mar 01, 2010 at 05:03 PM
Oh very melancholy day today. The two pigs head off tomorrow morning. They managed to get at least one day in the sun.
Lovely animals. Will keep another pair later in the year.
Before you ask, no you can't borrow it.
But at least the bees have made it through!
Gav
New Year, New Start........
Posted on Jan 20, 2010 at 06:07 PM
Hi all and a Happy New Year to you.
We got battered with the snow (well as much as you can in Surrey, where we pay for our weather), but thanks to the indulgent purchase of a 10 year old Land Rover in the middle of Summer we faired just fine thank you very much, and ended up picking up shopping for the old folks on the lane, and pulling the ocado van along when it got stuck.
Its obvious that the pigs hate the cold, and don't really see the fun side of it at all. They have spent most of their time staying cosy in the ark, only coming out for morning and afternoon rations. Obviously they did very well over Christmas, but everything was entirely within DEFRA remits.
I went through the T&M catalog, and refined what I was going to concentrate on this year. The RIGHT Fennel, Popcorn, Beans, Peas, Tatties...forgotton what else but I'll write about it later.
My rescue hens are doing great, and really coming out of their shells. Laying well too.
Been reading the Pig forum on here about abbatoir's. I know I'll be upset when they have to go, so I want to make it as pleasant an experience as possible. Should anyone have any reccomendations for a good, small oputfit in Sussex or Hampshire please do let me know.
The veg plot is getting tarted up this weekend, so will send some pictures in when its finished.
Oh and we had home made honey comb ice cream at Christmas, own eggs and own honeycomb! Of the 2 hives one looks OK, the other I think has probably snuffed it sadly.
Regards,
Gav
Pigs have arrived
Posted on Dec 14, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Everyone says not to give them names, but after 10 seconds of the boys arrving home from school they were called Malteser and M&M respectively. The pigs are really quite characters, with Mrs.C taking to them very quickly (considering she had been the main original objector to the idea). Even the dog loves them, and they run over to see the dog too.
I know now it'll be a tough day to send them off, but its important that we see these things through.
On the road again....
Posted on Dec 01, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Apologies for the considerable delay in recent updates. I have progressed through three laptops in as many months, which combined with my proper work project picking up pace has meant I've had little time to do anything on the Good Life front.
The bees are all quiet, with only the brave soldier occasionally going for a toilet run when it gets a bit warm. Each hive has a bar of bakers fondant to chew through, so its fingers crossed that they make it through the winter. They each have a couple of layers of builder's insulation too on top of the brood to give them a bit of warmth.
I had to bump off the chickens back in August thanks to a bad infestation of the Red Spider Mite. Their shed has been empty, with only the automatic door doing its ghostly open sesame trick in the mornings and evenings. A text from a pal informed me that a local chicken farm was replacing their year old flock, so I headed down there on Saturday and picked up 4 rather scruffy Lowan Browns (is that right?) for £2.50 each. Mrs.C wanted me to get 6, as though it was some kind of Schindlers List for chickens. Anyway they are shy little things compared to the villains I had before, and they haven't quite got used to putting themselves to bed before the automatic door shuts. Laying well, but probably still pumped with hormones and steroids.
Mrs.C's old man visited in September for the weekend and we spent 2 days building a pig pen, which has sat pigless in the corner of the garden. I went to see a couple of pals last week and checked out their pig set up, which has given me some inspiration to get back on track. The local farmer mentioned he has some curved corrugated iron so I'm off to check it out this afternoon.
The veg patch is bare at the moment, save for some rather sorry looking celery, leeks of all shapes and sizes, and the last of the carrots. Really I need to get my A in Gear and get onions and garlic in before Christmas. The crappy weather does offer a few highlights though, with the amazing Rainbow out the back last week.
Still, its been a busy and fruitful year all things considered, with a lot of learning. Roll on 2010.
For Mrs.B
Posted on Sep 24, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Terrible pictures taken off my phone. She loved it. Hard work but if you like cooking its a dream of a day.
Gav
RCHQ Pilgrammage and picture of its Turbine for Jim!
Posted on Aug 20, 2009 at 04:57 PM
Mrs.C did the bread making course on Monday, a present from her current husband! She loved it and it comes well recommended. While there I checked out the much discussed turbine, and include a picture for Jim and Georgee to disect at length
Thats an adult goat at the bottom of it. The design of this thing means the blades are always pointing away from the wind. Its 1/4 mile from the RC buildings on the upper part of the valley (RCHQ is down near the bottom). The nature of the site means that no one can see this thing, apart from those visiting RCHQ. It wasn't particularly windy on Monday but it was whirring away quite happily.
Arrrrghhhh! Red poxy spider mite.
Posted on Aug 13, 2009 at 05:35 PM
Yesterday I thought I'd take a look at the chicken shed to see what needed doing to it prior to the next batch of chickens arriving. When I pulled my hand from the side door my hand was covered in red spider mites. The whole shed was crawling with them.
I dropped a note to Forum Guru Georgee to see what his olde worlde remedy would be, and he suggested creosote. Sadly this isn't available over the counter anymore (although the farm supply shop in Dorking said it was available to Smallholder license holders. Whats all that about?). So instead I thought I'd stick in a sulphur candle and leave it to work its smelly magic. Then I looked at the back of the tin and saw that it was deadly to bees, and didn't say anything about killing spider mite anyway. I'll give it a miss then.
So I picked up a big canister of butane for my weed wand and spent the next hour torching each nook and cranny of the shed.
The learning point here is that my shed is a crap design. Its just full of nooks and crannys where mites can hang about. Really I should have made it of sheet plywood instead of the tounge and groove. Bet you those trendy Eglus never get RSM.
So now the shed has this attractive 'distressed' look, and is still probably crawling with bloody mites. Next I'm going to spray it with Parafin (perhaps souped up with a bit of engine oil) and let it seep in that. Then, finally I'm going to paint it inside and out with some kind of exterior paint.
And now I'm going to wash my hair as I know I ran my hand through it when I had all of those mites on.....
End of season report - River Cottage Forum Special Edition
Posted on Aug 06, 2009 at 12:02 PM
River Cottage readers,
This is my end of season report to my local pals who have been following my self sufficiency project. You lot know all this but I wanted to keep them up to date too. For your info one of my neighbours said the honey had a 'clinical' taste. No Christmas card for you!
Gav
Dear Friends, Neighbours, Colleagues,
In the enclosed bottle is a sample of honey made by the bees which live at the end of the garden. I didn't expect to get any honey this year, and I didn't decide to keep bees for their honey either, so it's a bit of a bonus. I hope you enjoy it.
I started out with one nucleus (that's a family of bees with a queen), and after a particularly eventful Sunday in May, ended up with two. The bees hadn't been reading the text book I'd been learning from. The larger hive, from where this honey came, is now at its peak population of about 60,000 bees, most all female. There are a small number of males in each hive (around 500), which do nothing other than go on ‘cruising' flights looking to mate with virgin queens. It all ends in tears when the weather changes in September, as the worker bees, all females, kick them out and let them die in front of the hive. There is a subtle moral there I think.
Bees can travel up to 3 miles to collect nectar. Nectar is around 40% water and contains complex carbohydrates (long chain sugar) along with traces of the source plant's essential oils. The bees evaporate the water and split the carbohydrates into easier to digest simple sugars (Glucose mainly). Honey is around 16 - 17% water. Any more and it would ferment.
Although they can travel up to three miles, I doubt that mine did. I suspect they mostly raided your gardens, and ploughed through the local hedgerows, fields and meadows. Some local fields were planted with Linseed this year, and you might be able to trace it in the honey. It has a minty flavour I think. Next year it will be Oil Seed Rape, which the bees love, but which is a pain to extract.
At the end of summer the bees will be treated to kill off the varroa destructor mite. This saps the bee's blood, weakening them until they die. It's the mite, and a series of bad summers that has mainly been responsible for the loss of so many honey bees. And I suppose keeping bees isn't seen as a particularly exciting thing to do any more, so it has been something of a dying art. After their treatment, they are given sugar syrup to top up their winter reserves, and then they are left to their own devices until spring. They will use their honey stores, supplemented by the syrup, to keep the temperature in the hive around 35C, no matter what the temperature is outside. If they make it through the winter, there is a chance you might get a little more honey next year.
The vegetable plot experiment, all things considered, worked pretty well. The planting list was to cover off as much ‘bulk' veg as possible, so we put in carrots, potatoes (2 types), peas, broad beans, broccoli, sprouts, lettuce (3 types), onions (normal and red), garlic, fennel, leeks, rhubarb (all the way from Timperley), borlotti beans, french beans, celery, sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins, globe artichokes, raspberries and strawberries (3 types). Quite a lot really, and I made a conscious decision to stay away from cabbages, parsnips and swedes just because I didn't really have the room this year.
And the results are......
Crop | Comment |
Carrots | Great. I planted a second crop but this little rabbit came in and ate them. |
Potatoes | Didn't do as well as I expected, with the later crop of Lady Balfours (founder of the Soil Association, effectively the start of the Organic movement) being half eaten by mice. |
Peas | Good. Should have planted loads more. Second crop in now. |
Broad beans | Fantastic, big pebble sized beans almost like new potatoes size. |
Broccoli | Wasn't great. The flowers are pretty though. |
Sprouts | Will hopefully get through the caterpillar onslaught and make it to Christmas. |
Lettuce | Fantastic when you can go and pick it instead of getting it out of bags (or worse still throwing bags of brown rotting lettuce unopened into the bin). Lollo rosso, Tom Thumb and another one I've forgotten the name of. Lnted lambs tongue as well. |
Onions | Generally very good. The red ones we roast whole in olive oil. |
Garlic | Small but lethal. There is no way could I take it into work. It would cause an incident on the Bakerloo line. |
Fennel | The jury is out on the fennel until later in the year. I suspect I've planted the wrong type. Deird's fault. |
Leeks | Looking good so far. I've loads of them all at different stages. |
Rhubarb | Needs more muck. They don't do well in this sandy soil we have round here. |
Borlotti beans | The ones I planted are rubbish, the ones a friend gave me are magical (magical beans....would make a good story). To be made into a thick Italian soup in winter. |
French beans | Forgot to plant these until late May but they came on really well and are a real fave gently fried and lightly salted. |
Celery | Forgot to plant these too, but they are looking good now |
Sweetcorn | Planted these early, was lucky they didn't get frozen by a late mid May frost. The cobs are just forming now. |
Courgettes | Bomb proof. If you only plant one thing, plant courgettes. |
Pumpkins | For the kids really, planted into pure muck from Mr.Nicholsons farm. Doing very, very well. |
Globe artichokes | Bought them as plants from Thompson and Morgan but could have grown them from seed in the time they took to arrive. Supposed to be spectacular when they actually get going. One for next year. |
Raspberries | Two year project. They look OK at this stage. |
Strawberries | Should have planted loads more and prepared the soil better. Disappointed, although there was enough for Mrs.C to have a bowlful in bed on Mothers Day. Next year I'll put them in a planter instead. |
Tomatoes | I'm not a fan of tomatoes and the plants have worked this out. Need a polytunnel really. |
At ‘back end' I'll tear down the rather industrial fencing I put up around the veg beds (to keep kids, dog and chickens out), extend it by half again, then go on the lookout for more muck.
While on the subject of chickens we are now down to two out of five, from our second batch. This batch are no where near as nice as the first lot (which we gave away prior to our summer 08 holiday). These are lazy, aggressive, scroungers. One was eaten by a fox. One I had to dispatch as it wasn't well and kind of looked at me in a funny way. They now only lay one egg a day between them.
The autumn might see the arrival of a couple of pigs (what could possibly go wrong?), but definitely will see the start of my home brew cider project. If you happen to have apple trees and don't use the apples (or the windfalls), do let me know and I'll count you in. Should be ready by Christmas, and it might even be drinkable.
Take care, and thanks for your interest and support over the past year.
Gavin
Peaslake, August 2009.
So all of that Fennel....is the wrong Fennel?
Posted on Jul 27, 2009 at 01:53 PM
Not blogged in ages mainly due to work getting in the way. Shocking I know. The veg patch looks a right mess, but the good news is that its all very productive.
Some rodent has been nibbling at my spuds. Half of them have teeth marks in that I guess are from mice. Now if I had pigs I could sling them over the fence, but as it is they'll go into the compost. Courgettes are jus bomb proof aren't they? I've never eaten so many courgettes or given so many away. They will have a return next year, definitely.
Big regret of this week has been the discovery that the Fennel Mrs.C bought for me to plant, was in fact the wrong Fennel. We wanted Florence Fennel, which makes a bulb, instead we've got just normal Fennel, which looks very impressive, but other than garnishing I suspect is pretty useless. More for the non existant pigs.
Oh and the Garlic is ready too. My God is does it stink! Fantastic. Carrots are really good, but the succession crop I planted was eaten by bloody rabbits.
Latest on the chickens. Now down to 3 birds, and only 1 egg per day in total. I had to snuff one as it had an open sore on its foot, and to be honest the future isn't bright for the other 3. The chicken house was infested with mites, and really it needs a good clean and a lick of paint to see it through the winter. If you live in Surrey and are looking for 3 really very lazy chickens let me know.
The bees are not impresed with the English summer. Saying that the Linseed down the lane has flowered again and it was covered with bees when I walked the dog down there. Linseed honey doesn't have a great reputation so I'll have to see how it tastes. Extraction day is this coming Saturday and I'll let you know how I get on.
Catch up soon!
Gav
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