Title: Comment: A lovely sweet but mild flavoured jam. It is a yellow colour which darkens slightly when kept. It is very easy to make as it thickens for potting quickly so you dont have to make large amounts at a time. The amounts below are just from my recipe but of course you can halve it. Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>Well we have been busy up here, lambing is all done except one ewe that is going for the record with her legs crossed. We have had stonking lambs, ready for the pot as my OH says. We had one ewe with twins but mastitis that would not shift in one udder . We have been suppliment feeding the lambs and treating the mother twice a day! She is a good mother and the lambs look like singles by their size and are doing well.</p><p>In the veg department the polytunnel is doing fine but I was having a battle with the Turkeys flying into the veg plot for their sand baths in the carrot beds.Grrr. But solved now I hope with flapping tassles of feed bags tied to the fences. Brassicas out and in their enviromesh tunnel and thriving so far.</p><p>My OH got his 1964 Fergie X something , a rare one or so he says.It is in bits and supposed to be red and thats all I know about it.I think he has taken it to bed with him as he would not leave it earlier!</p><p>We keep finding goose nests on the hill and a duck has gone broody in a goose hut(that the geese wont use as after all our hard work building nesting huts on the hill they still use fish boxes and rusty barrels). Ducklings and chicks in the brooders now and more chooks and Turkeys in the incubators. We will have plenty of meat this year anyway, even 1/2 a pig is coming our way in return for a favour.</p><p>The weather has been changing everyday, sometimes red hot sometimes pouring down. Today it was foggy but warm and the tourists I was waiting for could not get here as planes were cancelled.If you come to Shetland in the warmer months ....come by boat! The sea fogs cancel more flights than storms cancel boats!</p><p>Tomorrow will be an inside day as I will be baking for my OHs Birthday! It will kill me to be inside if its nice out but it is only one day a year.</p><p>Hope everyone else is enjoying springtime as much as we do. Hermit</p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>The last fews days have been glorious up here in Shetland. I have spent the mornings on the peat bank casting the peats and listening to the first larks( they arent half loud when there is no other noise!). The first bees, Northern White Rumped, have awoken and feeding on the willows and one of my favourite flowers the Marsh Marigold are appearing around the ponds and springs.The veg garden is starting to be planted out with carrots, beetroot, parsnips, potatoes,onions and some herbs. Lots more to do tomorrow. The polytunnel is proving its worth for another year by starting off lots more veg for planting out later or placing in the indoor raised beds.</p><p>Our lambs are due in the next couple of weeks, eggs in the incubators, geese on nests etc so hopefully lots of produce this year. Our  next step is to get organised for getting a couple of weaners next spring. We have been given an old Shetland Yoal( a twelve man rowing boat) and plan to make a boat roofed shed for them, to keep in with the tradition of crofty type buildings, we also need to get a fodder crop growing as pig food is so expensive up here. I wish the years had more months in them!!</p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p><font color="#4c4b4b" style="background-color: #f2f2f2">Today has been a good day,one of the first days we have had that actually feels like things are changing. The ducks are laying,the geese have sorted themselves out into breeding groups and are eyeing up the nest boxes, the daffies are showing hints of yellow and the pussy willow is furring up nicely. </font></p><p><font color="#4c4b4b" style="background-color: #f2f2f2">I have dug all the manure that has been sitting on the veg beds all winter into the soil ready for seeds in a few weeks, moved loads of soil to where the raised beds will be and the biggest step.. started on the peat bank! It was fantastic to be up on the moor again all peaceful and quiet. But then realised it was the lull before the storm and work around the croft will be frantic from now on.  Keep you posted Hermit</font></p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>On Pigmans forum thread I mentioned we were waiting for the SSPCA  about a gannet that had been blown onto our land by gale force winds.The poor thing was obviously exhausted and we were concerned it had been blown onto the power lines or damaged in some way.We could not get near enough let alone stand in the wind with ease so we thought the experts would help. They came and said leave it as it was not injured but exhausted and it would take off in due course.</p><p>Well considering we have a naughty killer otter on the same burn (which has already taken two ducks) and gannets need to run (which there were too many obstructions for where it was) or soar from a cliff to fly we thought personally the nice SSPCA lady was wrong .Later in the day it was getting weaker with no food and too cold to try anything so we literally just could walk up to it and pick it up , we put it in the barn in an indoor chook run for a rest.The next morning we let it out and it just walked about letting us take photos, they are crap on land!After we decided the sight of the sea was not enough we took it to a beach and put it in the sea.It swam off ,had a preen and then ran on the water and took off. </p><p>The best part ...it did a fly by Tom Cruise would have been proud of, it flew towards us and then straight up in the air and off to the cliffs.Magic, one of those lifetime seconds that will never be repeated by anyone!</p><p>I love gannets they are one of my favourite birds and can watch them dive for hours, but I never realised how small they were.I thought they were gigantic but are smaller than my geese.Also the colours,this one has not got the yellow head but look at the legs and feet , those stripes are flourescent! must be something to do with underwater imaging.</p><p>Anyway it has gone now but its cheeky, extremely friendly memory will be with us forever.  Hermit</p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>Isnt it funny how some people (myself included) look on xmas day as a barrier to overcome so they can' get on' with  the next years planning.I have been thinking about jobs to do, seeds to plant etc for a while now, but now the dreaded day has gone I feel a sense of relief and can get on with my plans with nothing  to stop me.My OH must feel like this aswell as he has planned a day outside today sorting out  for next year! I know he has an alternative agenda though as he loves pigs and has fallen under their spell again cause we are looking after a neighbours small herd over the holidays. We already have  an old water board pump house in one of our fields( a concrete bunker type building) that we bought off them for 50 quid a couple of years back with pigs in mind.Pigs are so expensive to feed up here though and the merchants do rely on boats and weather, sheep can cope for a few days in the bad weather if the feed does not get here but pigs cant. We have different problems to solve about animal husbandry!</p><p> The seed catalogues should be here soon and really looking froward to trying new things.Brocolane(sp) is on the agenda, a tough and grows anywhere type of curly thing, looks interesting!</p><p>The house garden is to be extended and planted out with more flowering shrubs and trees, after the dog run is completed and a concrete floor put down in a new barn . New veg plots to supply the farmers markets and make some money, oh and new choooks to get the egg business going .Try to find an Indian Game Cock after ours died unexpected and get some more good meat birds on the go  as the Rhodey cock does not produce as good a bird, paint the house outside  etc etc    Oh dear ...wonder if we will get done before next Xmas!!!!!   Hermit</p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: Today I have taken the plunge and registered myself as a business producing home grown veg and eggs etc. I have proved now I can keep ourselves in produce all year and now I plan to expand and grow enough to sell to local shops and businesses. Wont make a million I know but the place has to earn its keep now and  that little farm shop dream is one step closer. N ow I have to plan more plots, more fencing and another polytunnel...mmm. So much to do..Hermit Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p><font color="#4c4b4b" style="background-color: #f2f2f2">After days of gales I dared venture into the poly tunnel. I cannot even look in that direction after force nine extending over three days for fear of an empty space, but venture I must . The tomatoes which I expected to be dead were still going strong, another harvest there me thinks. The herbs had produced another fine growth ready for drying, the winter cabbage thriving and a new crop of broccolli on the way! All the shrub cuttings doing well for the spring farmers markets.Even the chillies that I am crap at growing well!... Todays jobs.. A  bulk polytunnel tomato and chille soup for the freezer, chille  and mustard seed oils. Also a venture up to the veg garden expecting a dried up salt wind ridden black mess produced  a  productive sight of kale, brussels ,cabbage, carrots, turnips, leeks and an assortment of perrenial  herbs still going strong. WE DONT HALF UNDERESTIMATE NATURE.... A very happy Hermit and no zaps from the leccy fence!</font></p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>Now would you believe this... This evening at my local hall they were holding a Chinese night featuring a restaurant from Lerwick. </p><p><font color="#4c4b4b" style="background-color: #f2f2f2">I went to give my goat a taste of some new food I thought she might like and saw her door to the lane had been left open. I could not imagine myself doing this as I have many saplings on my lane(which is a private one) When I tried to open the door I couldnt so I gave it a good hard push thinking a bale of hay had fallen behind it. Guess what I found ... A  man with a butchers apron on ,SAT on one of my female breeding turkeys with his hands round her throat!!!!     He was obviously from the night at the hall, when I asked (very politely in a chosen language of my own) what he was doing he said he was just looking and wanted to buy eggs and chickens, he would not leave till  still repeating his answer.After  a bit I got him to leave and continued what I was doing then the real rage started. I marched up to the hall and he must have thought Hiroshima was happening all over again, I went ballistic. His mates were saying he did not know it was private even though he had to walk through a gate down the lane a bit and open a bolt I have to open with the aid of a rope and enter a building!I threatened the police but I think a raving Yorkshire mad woman with green wellies was enough to make sure it was not done on an Island with big cliffs and even bigger blokes and our own way of sorting things out..We got offered a free meal but we declined, they might have put extra ingredients in it!</font></p><p><font color="#4c4b4b" style="background-color: #f2f2f2"> Where was my OH you may ask, he was standing gobsmacked at my temper  thinking I was doing fine on my own..... Hermit</font> </p> Submit > < Back

Title: Comment: <p>Yeah .. Cause I do</p><p>Onions 1st...me</p><p>Broad Beans 1st... me</p><p>Cucumber 1st...me</p><p>Marrow 1st ...me</p><p>Collection of veg 1st...me</p><p>Collection of herbs 1st...me</p><p>Cabbage 2nd...   courgettes 2nd...Fruit 2nd...Carrots 3rd</p><p>Trophy for most points in show ...ME</p><p>Oh and by the way   Vegetable creation  1st .me      </p><p>Only a local show but really enjoyed myself. Hermit</p> Submit > < Back