Just now there was a knock at the window and I jumped. I had
been engrossed in settling my chilli plants on a window sill, they are all more
than 2ft tall and heavy with long Ferrari-red fruits. I hadn't heard our farmer
neighbour park as he arrived, bearing gifts.
He was proudly delivering a bowl of creamy field mushrooms,
just picked from a 6 acre, south facing slope opposite our land.
'The whole field is white with them,' he said.
So the 9yo and I are set for dinner, although the other two
family members are not so keen. She and I will share the feast and I may make a
garlic and mushroom tart for my book club guests tonight when we discuss Mr
Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt.
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| Fresh Picked Field Mushrooms |
The rest of the garden also continues to inspire for dinner;
the leeks are good and the celeriac a decent size, the parsnips obscene.
Spinach continues to thrive.
Planning ahead, the broad beans are emerging from their seed
trays and will go in the ground next week. The kale and other spring brassica
are almost ready for planting out.
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| Broad Beans |
In the greenhouse I'm ahead for spring colour and scent, my
sweet peas bullied daily as I pinch out growing tips to ensure bushy plants for
next year. I'll do the same with the Cosmos babies, a find (and a financial
saving) as they'd all self-seeded in the flower beds. I decided to dig some of
them up in order to try and protect a few plants from the worst of the weather.
The Lupins are doing well too.
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| Sweet Pea |
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| Cosmos |
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| Lupin |
Fortunately the weather hasn't turned here yet, as the
mushrooms will testify, so I've still got time to insulate my greenhouse this
weekend. I'm determined to experiment this winter, to see how many seedlings
survive out in the greenhouse and in hand-made cold frames, I need to see how they
do without constant heat. Mind you, if temperatures dip dramatically I may use
my paraffin heater, but at approximately £6 per 5 litres, this really isn't
viable for very long periods.
I've managed to plant two long beds of 160 strawberry plants
in the allotment in the field, these plants were runners from my original 12
plants that I received as a gift from our neighbours in 2009. Having planted
these 160 plants I still had another 400 plants to rehouse in order to free up
three of my seven raised beds. These runners had virtually taken over the
walled garden.
I've potted up most of them in well rotted manure, thus
ensuring another crop for next year. Being rather more portable, these pots can
be dotted around the allotment or I might even sell some to friends and family.
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| Next season strawberries |
This weekend in the allotment I spied a new red strawberry -
extraordinary weather we're having for November.
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| Archie's chicks (Roosters centre stage?) |
Archie's chicks are enormous and I still strongly suspect
that 5 of the 8 are boys. Having experienced the financial disaster of the Poultry
Auction when selling roosters, I am determined to lean how to
humanely dispatch (polite word) and dress my own birds. After all, I regularly
buy free range birds for the family to eat, at a cost of £8+.
Bearing in mind these birds roam or grounds, are fed on corn
and quality pellets as well as selected scraps, I know they will be quality
meat, so I'm afraid their days are numbered. I just cannot afford to keep them
and, believe me, no one wants to take in additional roosters.
To that end, another farmer has promised to teach me how to
to responsibly kill. It's not a decision I came to lightly, after all I know
these birds personally, however, it is interesting to note that we, [and I mean
all family members,] have only named one of Archie's chicks, that being the
little white one; Moon. Maybe we are seeing them less as pets and more as egg
producers or livestock.
Are we becoming more countrified I wonder?
