We're Going To Need A Bigger Basket

26th July 2016
I woke up two hours after the alarm went off! I could hear reverse warning beeps and thought they might have started harvesting the field next door, which could scupper my plans for a second coat of paint on the garage (dust).
I checked my phone only to see that I was already 15 minutes into a one hour time slot for a parcel delivery - to be more precise, 100kg of wild bird food. There have been 6 tree sparrows recently. This much food will do me for about a year and is well worth the investment. I get many hours of quiet satisfaction watching the birds visit the feeders.

No, it's not a new ride-on mower.

As it happens they did turn up to harvest the field too. It is rape this year so we shouldn't get the invasion of vermin that happens when they grow wheat. We normally have a lot of wild birds when they grow rape. In the past it has hosted sedge warblers, yellow wagtails, whitethroats and blackbirds. I don't know what is different this year, but these birds have been absent from the crop. I would guess they have managed to spray just about all insect life out of the crop.
We're going to need a bigger basket!
With the kibosh on plans for painting, I instead turned my attention to my own harvest. The redcurrant bushes are dripping with fruits and it took me quite a while to harvest them. The first bush alone filled a basket.


Next came the cherries. The trees are still very young so I only got a handful, but they are a real treat. Then it was on to the raspberries. They need picking every other day and I get a good few punnets worth. These are my favourite fruit.
On to the vegetables. A couple of courgettes, a few handfuls of peas and enough broad beans for dinner and a batch for the freezer.

Today's pickings

I also may have discovered the culprits for plundering the last of the gooseberries. There were some dodgy characters hanging around there today.

27th July 2016
A Welcome Return
Sue has been away on a well deserved break away in Amsterdam with friends - her first time away from the smallholding since our honeymoon almost two years ago. She is due back tonight, so I spent the day tidying! I cleaned out the chickens too, a level 2 clean today.
With time left, I moved the sheep to the next strip of grazing. I always like the moment they realise they can access the lush green meadow alongside which they have been feeding. It reminds me of the The Billy Goats Gruff. I like the fact that they eat as much and as fast as they can for about half an hour, then all sit down to digest.

28th July 2016
You're going to need a better net, Abbey!
Two ignored emails, being left on hold to an empty extension and an 18 minute phone call obviously was not quite enough effort on my part to get hold of two spare belts for the rotavator and a spare blade for the mower, despite the fact that I had bought both these machines from the very same company, Abbey Garden Sales. Six days after that last phone call and two more emails, still no response, so I made yet another phone call. Apparently my query had 'slipped through the net', even after I had politely pointed out all the company's faults last time! I think the net may need fixing. Anyway, we have moved another step and the parts are now ordered.

With that 'sorted' I gave the end of the garage a second coat of paint. Literally five minutes later it started raining. Fortunately it was just a shower and the main rain held off just long enough for the paint to dry properly. Then it bucketed down, which was most welcome.

Steam Juicing
Inside, I blew the dust off the steam juicer and set about juicing a pan of redcurrants and raspberries.
The steam juicer is basically a large metal steamer with the addition of a central section to collect the juice. This section has a pipe attached so the juice can be siphoned off. As the steam rises up through the fruits, it breaks down the cell walls and releases all the juices.
Tomorrow I plan to turn the juice I collect into cordial. The pulp that is left I hope to be able to turn into a fruit leather using the dehydrator.

Aldi Price Comparison
I then left the farm for the first time in five days for a trip into Wisbech with Sue. I had booked us to go see The BFG. It was a bit of a risk, not the usual thing we would go to see at the cinema, but it proved to be an inspired choice, a truly delightful and magical story which every child, (even the 50 year old ones) should go to see.

On the way we stopped off at Aldi and I couldn't help but price up my harvests. At Aldi price, I reckon to have harvested about £40 worth of redcurrants! The cucumbers, though, are only up to £1.11, but there are plenty more to come and they are home grown and picked fresh off the plant.


29th July 2016
I ended up with about 2 1/2 litres of pure redcurrant and raspberry juice.

I added 1.5kg of sugar to 2 litres and heated it up to boiling. I added in the juice of 1 1/2 lemons (carefully leaving the juice of the other 1 1/2 lemons on the side, forgetting to put it in). Then it was all decanted into sterilised wine bottles with screw caps.
I've no idea how well this will work, what it will taste like, how much to dilute it, whether it will last. There were no definitive recipes to be found anywhere so I just amalgamated all the recipes I'd read.
I plan to try one bottle in a week's time, one in about 3 weeks and one in a couple of months to see how it fares.

With the last half a litre I added just a quarter cup of sugar to drink as juice. This is rather an extravagant use of a precious harvest, but that's the delight of growing your own.
Finally I put the pulp from the juicer through a mouli to experiment using it to make a fruit leather. Waste not, want not.

The afternoon was spent general weeding and hoeing in the veg patch, though there were many interruptions today - plasterer, conservatory man, deliveries...

Ragwort Removal

Ragwort - pretty and a food source for Cinnabar moths,

but needs removing as it is poisonous to livestock

Come 6 o'clock I decided to do a spot of ragwort removal. I headed off to the far end of our land, the final area of very long meadow which the sheep will feed on next. The ragwort is in full flower now, so very easy to spot. This makes it a very good time to uproot it, for the plant has just put a lot of energy into making those flowers. I use a special ragwort fork which gets most of the roots out, otherwise the plants just regenerate and come back stronger. I had waited for rain so that the root did not simply snap off in the dry soil. The trouble with pulling ragwort is that you just keep spotting more plants. Some three hours later and I was finally finished. What looked like a quick and easy job had turned into a rather strenuous task!

I had narrowly avoided a thorough soaking as a storm skirted round, but was regretting my choice to wear shorts. The long grass and sow thistles can get rather itchy and scratchy. It is good to spend so much time in the long grass and the young woodland. I observe things I wouldn't otherwise notice, the insect life, the variety of plants, the young hawthorns colonising and the growth of the woodland trees which I planted just over four years ago.

A day in the meadow

Saturday 21st July 2012
The first day of the summer holidays

Devil Birds
A barn owl briefly floated over the meadow at first light this morning as a party of eight swifts shot through at amazing speed. One of my favourite birds, these all dark, screaming aerial scythes are also known as Devil Birds. One of the last migrants to reach our shores in late Spring, swifts are always in a hurry. They don't even stop and land for sex, preferring to do it mid-air (an amazing sight that I have only witnessed a couple of times). Amazingly, this morning's party of eight may well have been on their way back South after their brief breeding season foray into Britain's insect laden summer skies.
And this year, who would blame them for heading back to warmer climes early? They really can't have enjoyed their usual insect feast this year. In fact, I heard today that 11 of the 12 cuckoos satellite tagged by the BTO are already on their way back to Africa, most lining up on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, their departure dates on average almost two weeks early than last year.

The Heat Is On
But of course, we Brits know never to give up on the weather. And just in time for the beginning of the summer holidays it looks as if we may finally be getting some appropriate seasonal weather. If you've already hunkered down for winter, and who could blame you for prematurely hibernating, wake up, get outside and feel the heat!
I'm sure every gardening and veggie blog that's been bemoaning the weather just about all year will by now be celebrating the sun, the light and the heat, as will the limited selection of plants that have bravely soldiered on for weeks with little promise of reaching maturity.

Down In The Meadow
As people headed for the beaches or their allotments, I had other plans. Sue's holidays had started and I was going to make the most of it, so into the meadow we headed. It seemed the perfect day to enjoy a sip of our delicious cider ...
after a long, hot day pulling ragwort, that is!!

With the ground still sodden and the ragwort's yellow diskettes of flowers shouting out from the tall grasses, there was no time like the present. We headed in, waste deep, trowels in hand, wheelbarrow at the ready. Armed with reinforcements for the day, I decided to tackle some of the sow thistles too. Their roots give easier than the ragwort, but when I decided to grapple with a monster of a plant there was only ever going to be one winner. Well, that's what I thought until I felt that big muscle at the base of my back give a sudden twinge as something gave way to the strain. Maybe I really did get a year older yesterday!

At this point, I decided to concentrate on the ragwort, suspecting that I had a day at most to get the job done before my back refused to allow me to easily reach the ground.

When we reached the far end of the meadow, we did allow ourselves to stop and take in the beauty. There is something special about spending time in a meadow. Butterflies skipped through the air all around us, mostly ringlets at the moment, and a Marsh Harrier hunted the surrounding fields.

After a while, we headed back towards the house on the final stretch, and by the time the job was finished we were most certainly ready for a glass or two of ice cold cider.



Sue lays exhausted after the first day of her holidays!!

With renewed energy, I set to work trimming some of the lower branches from the ash trees, a treat which the pigs certainly enjoyed.

Ash - a rare treat for the pigs.

Meanwhile, Chick of Elvis has started laying again
and has left her two chicks to fend for themselves.
She doesn't even roost with them any more.

Eventually, as late evening approached, I gave up and stopped work. And that was the cue for the aching and twinging to begin as my poor back took centre stage, complaining most vigorously! I normally look after my back very well and rarely does it let me down. Right now though, I really do have too much to do. This is not a good time for an injury.

Tomorrow the polytunnel begins. I've got a deadline of Wednesday for the cover to go on. That's the first day this year when, hopefully, heat combines with not a breath of wind. The first job... Dig 18 holes. That'll test the back!

Ragwort and Thistles - Poisonous and Prickly

Sunday 8th July 2012

More wildlife at first light.
This leveret relies on sitting tight for protection.

At some point last night Daisy and Gerald must have sorted out their sleeping arrangements. All was sleepy under dramatic skies this morning.



As I said in yesterday's post, I took a bit of a battering yesterday. So my aching body would appeciate a day of leisure today, with a certain Wimbledon final scheduled at the heart of it (and, less historically, a manure collection). I spent the early morning taking in some of the details in the garden. 

 

There was too much dew to venture back into the meadow.

But it looked beautiful as it bejewelled the drooping asparagus ferns.

The chickens gained height

to avoid getting their

feathers drenched

and Cocky fluffed himself up big.

Back in the spring, Sue peppered Weasel Ridge
with poppy seeds.
Her efforts are now being handsomely rewarded.

 

And so it was that I pottered around for a while, browsing on dew-covered raspberries and strawberries, delightfully crunchy sugarsnap peas and the freshest of garden peas plucked straight from the pod.

All a far cry from yesterday's exertions. Reward for my efforts.

Ragwort and Thistles.



I actually happen to like both of these plants. The deep cut leaves of ragwort topped by sunny explosions of yellow florets. And the stark, sharp outlines of thistles supporting those wonderful globes opening into deep purple tufts so beloved of bees and butterflies.

Cut in May, they'll grow back in a day.

Cut in June is much too soon

Cut in July, sure to die

(or say goodbye)

That's the old rhyme about thistles. So it's time for action! In fact I'm still in two minds about the thistles. They're so very good for wildlife, but the problem is that if I let them flower and seed they end up everywhere. They're a complete pain to clear though. So spiky I can't even pick up the cut stems with gloves on. Instead I have to pick them up using the shears. Leave them on the ground and months later those needle like thorns come back to haunt.

Maybe I should just leave one patch, far enough away from the bare soil of the veg patches to not cause too much of a problem. 
No. Those seeds get blown everywhere. Better, I think, to replace them with something less invasive. Probably teasel, so good for the bees in the summer and the goldfinches in the winter.
There'll always be a few thistles that get through the net. But I'm going to learn from my mistakes of the past. Whenever I have selectively allowed certain 'weeds' to grow because I liked them, they have invariably betrayed my trust and ended up swamping everything around!

As for the ragwort. Well, if everything I read were true it would surely have taken over the Earth by now, wiping out all wildlife that stood in its way.
True, it's a complete pain to eradicate. Let it flower and, as a biennial, it should die. But how many seedlings will pop up elsewhere? Cut it and it just resprouts stronger, even changing it's growth habit to behave like a perennial. Try pulling it and invariably it snaps at the base, leaving the roots to sprout new growth. Even digging it out would leave fragments of root, each reportedly giving rise to a new plant.

Now, this would not be a problem if it weren't for the fact that ragwort is one of only five plants which landowners are obliged to control. For it is poisonous to livestock, particularly horses. Again, if you believe everything you read it would seem that a horse or a cow only has to look at a ragwort plant and it will drop dead.
Of course, all of the above dire warnings come from the chemical companies, who'd just love you to feel you had no option but to use their products. It might be easier, but my experience tells me that with persistence and hard work I can get on top of the problem. But it is a problem I need to keep on top of, for if I let it get out of control I will never be able to sell hay from the meadow should I wish.

And now is the perfect time for the job. The ground is waterlogged, even with patches of standing water. It's hard to remember we're in July! The plants are towering up and their disks of yellow flowers announce their presence.
So, with a trowel to loosen the soil I set to work prowling around the meadow pulling and digging every plant I could see. Every plant I pulled was carefully collected for burning.
Most plants yielded their long tapering roots and even the largest came out with most of their rootballs intact. OK, so some of the tiny bits of root will regrow, but there is no way that inflicting so much damage on a plant can result in it coming back stronger.

Of course, if I am eating my words in a couple of years, I can always give up my principles. Though even then I'll spot treat each individual plant rather than blithely wiping out every broadleaf herb in the meadow.