What a Very Productive couple of days

Sunday 11th February 2018
Looking after my body
I woke up aching. These old muscles need recuperation time from activities such as lugging sacks of potatoes about.

So I chose gentle jobs for the day. First up was creosoting all the wood in the polytunnel for I suspect that is where the red spider mites hide away to overwinter. The metal frame has already been nuked with disinfectant and blasted with water but a multifaceted chemical attack is clearly what is needed.

All I need to do now is to clean the polythene. Most of the algae is on the inside and the outside is just grimy. I have ordered a long handled squeegee / soft broom affair for the job. The reason it is not here yet is another story.
This is a great job to do, as the light floods in afterwards.

We are not exactly having many beautiful clear winter days at the moment, so again it was not a day for outdoor jobs.

Instead I potted up some of the tomato seedlings. I've started a few varieties off early this year just to see how they do compared to the others. My hope is that the conservatory proves to be the ultimate plant rearing facility and I can start everything off that bit earlier so that harvests come sooner. I don't normally rush things, but the sooner I get a harvest the more tomatoes I will get if blight strikes later on.
I have sown some lemongrass as well and it has already germinated as has my first sowing of coriander.
I potted up the chilli seedlings too. I am still waiting for a couple of varieties to come through, but old chilli seed often loses its viability.

Finally I sowed my leek seeds for the year. I have changed variety this year as last year's suffered terribly from rust and have not stood the frosts well. I just feel it is time for a swap, so I've gone for Porbella which claims to have good rust resistance. By the way, this is not the same rust that cars suffer from!

With the sowing of this year's leeks, I harvested the last of last year's for a leek and potato soup. I harvested the last of the carrots too. They should have been harvested before the winter to save them from the slugs, but we got plenty this year so I left some standing in the ground.
The last ones left were Autumn King and had grown to a good size.
There was a fair amount of slug damage and a few millipedes and woodlice had been munching too, but I still got a good bowl full even after sorting. The geese got the rest and spent the next few days doing orange poo!
As I harvested the carrots, the chickens pecked up the baby keel slugs which had moved in. One I'm particular waited for me to hold up each newly dug carrot. The fate of this carrot harvest was a carrot and ginger soup which came out very nicely. In addition, any spare carrots, leeks and a few other bits and bobs were used to make two big pans of stock to add depth of flavour to the soups.

The evening was spent cooking. I am still keeping to my New Year's resolution of cooking more with our produce. The two aforementioned soups plus a big pot of roast sweet potato and pumpkin soup.
These soups will feed the first meeting of the Fenland Smallholders Club committee that I am chairing this weekend.

Monday 12th February 2018
Cooking and Preserving

Beef Goulash with roast Salsify and Scorzonera.

Portuguese Corn bread and very British Lardy Cake.

What a very productive day. After three batches of soup yesterday evening, I took on a Beef Goulash with Roast Salsify and Scorzonera with Ginger, Lemon and Honey. Yummy!

Then onto bread making. with a Portuguese Corn Bread (thanks to finding somewhere to buy corn meal) and a soda Pumpkin Bread (courtesy of the buttermilk I found in the same shop)

While I was doing all this, Sue was processing a ton of blackcurrants from the freezer, juicing them ready to make a jelly. She mad 30 jars of delicious damson jam too.

Next up for me was Lardy Cake. I make this wicked favourite every year, using some of the very best lard we saved from Daisy when she went to the great pigsty in the sky. 

Then biscuits for the committee meeting. Orange Biscuits, Walnut and Chocolate Slices and Prune and Peel Rock Buns.

It's a good job I am trying to lose a bit of weight at the moment!

Potato Day 2018

Saturday 10th February 2018
An early start as I headed for Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire Self-Sufficiency Group's annual Potato Day.
I've helped out for the last three years, each year at a different venue.
This year's venue was the most grandiose by far.

Generally I just help with the heavy duties, lugging sacks of potatoes and laying them out on the tables. I like to make myself scarce before the general public get let in.

For helping out I get first pick of the seed potatoes. I had already planned which varieties I wanted, completing my final research the night before. Priority has to go to slug resistance and blight resistance, for each of these curses is more than capable of taking out half my crop.
Fortunately there are enough suitable varieties left for us to have a good selection of spuds throughout the year.

The advantage of going to a potato day is that you can buy just a few tubers and try lots of different varieties. You get to pick your tubers too. The best are not the largest. I go for the size of a smallish egg.
The CSSG also have onion and shallot sets for sale as well as a very nice refreshments stand and a seed swap.

On my list this year were:
Earlies
- Arran Pilot (actually already got these, as I like to get some going in the polytunnel early)
- Red Duke of York - I've bought these every year since I first started growing them
Second Earlies - many of my absolute favourites belong in this category. In a bad blight year, they have at least grown for long enough to get a decent crop before it hits. The early growth means they beat the worst of the slug season too.
Charlotte - just perfect!
Kestrel - My third year with these, since Blue Kestrel stopped being available on the day. We are still eating these now and they haven't lost a bit of quality.
Maincrop
Desiree - always a reasonable performer, sometimes exceptional. A tasty mainstay.
Cara - an organic grower's favourite. Very good resistance and tasty.
Valor - grown for the first time last year. An offspring of Cara which did very well with wonderfully firm flesh and a great taste.
Pink Fir Apple - an oddity which does very well in my soil. A really good, earthy taste and keeps amazingly well. We've not even touched last year's crop yet.
Setanta - this year's new variety. One of the very blight-resistant types, but will the taste be good?


I don't get in the car these days without compiling an endless list of things to do while I'm in town. The rest of the day saw me stopping off at a health food shop (not many of those in The Fens) for nut supplies, Wickes for roof felt (sheds and chicken coops need constant repairs), The Water Zoo for pond liner (new pond for the ducks so I can have the wildlife pond back).
Then it was on to Lincoln Road where the ethnic food shops are. Corn Meal and Buttermilk haven't yet made it out of the city and into fenland! Spices, pulses and exotic vegetables are easier to find here too and cheaper. There's some wonderful Turkish bread available too and we always treat ourselves to a loaf when we're in Peterborough. Finally Morrison's for frozen ginger (the only place we know to get it).

After my grand tour, I hunted out the old egg boxes in the sheds. They come out every year and are ideal for chitting potatoes in. This is the process where the seed potatoes are set out, eyes up, in a light and moderately warm place so they gradually start throwing out new shoots. This gives them a head start provided you are careful not to knock off the tender shoots when they are eventually planted. They can't just go in the ground outside as a hard frost would destroy them or at least set them back a long way.

Now all we need is a good year. Not too wet, not too dry, not too humid. No slugs or splitting, no scab, no blight.

Bring On The Winter!

Sunday 4th February 2018
I am a Chair!
After putting the finishing touches to the fedge, it was off to Upwell Village Hall for the Fenland Smallholders Club Annual General Meeting.
I came back as the new Chair, not entirely unexpected but not official until properly nominated and elected at the meeting.
I have big plans for the club so it should keep me busy enough. I am very excited at the prospect at taking the club forwards into the twenty-first century!!! 😉

For a while now the committee has had a number of spare places which means that the burden of organising events falls on fewer shoulders. So I was absolutely thrilled that quite out of the blue one after another after another put themselves forward until all twelve committee positions were full.

I went into Monday and Tuesday really buoyed up.

Monday 5th February
Wrapping Up
I think I have finally adapted to winter. Having worked outside all day in the drizzle on Saturday, I worked outside all day in temperatures close to freezing with occasional flurries of snow.
I didn't even feel cold. The secret is to wear layers and to work hard. I have just discovered Aldi Special Buy fishing gear too. Does the job perfectly.

With the clear, cold weather come some stunning sunsets. I often see them as I'm walking the dogs along the river. We have to cut back across the fields and often end up crossing the dyke to get back onto our land after the sun has gone down.

Tuesday 6th February
The Gardening Gang
With temperatures still below zero I decided to heave out the rotavator and start working the bed where the broad beans will be planted. I thought I had covered this bed with cardboard, but was disappointed to find it was one which had become overrun with nasturtiums last year. The dead stems still trailed over the surface. These would need picking off, icy as they were, otherwise they just twine around the blades of the rotavator.
There were a few nettles that needed digging out too. As I sunk the fork into the ground, it clearly wasn't hard enough under the surface to be rotavated. It would just cling to the tines and coagulate to clog up the machine.
Instead I decided to do some good old fashioned digging. There were areas of couch grass too and the roots needed excavating and pulling. A rotavator would have just propagated them.
I had a bunch of willing helpers today - chickens, ducks and guinea fowl. I let them out of their pen as I would be in attendance so they were very unlikely to come into contact with any wild birds.

They appreciated the extra protein as they pecked at anything that moved as I turned the soil. Hopefully I exposed all the slug eggs and nasty bugs, though they are not fussy about who they eat. Goodies like worms and ground beetles go down well too. Of course, as they eat, they scratch and break up the soil and they fertilise as they go.

I discovered a few Romanesco cauliflowers which I had missed. The frost had got to some of them, but there was enough to salvage. These are certainly hardier and easier to grow than conventional cauliflowers. Some went to make cauliflower rice along with some pheasant curry, the rest went into the freezer.

With a whole day's hard work under the belt, I decided to take the dogs on a good long walk before dark. We crossed the fields from the back of the land, along the river and then along the road where we virtually never meet traffic or people. Boris and Arthur just love running along this road.

Coming up in next post: ELVIS LIVES (but a successor has been appointed)

Step by Step Fedge In A Day (and a bit)

Saturday 3rd February 2018
Today was drizzly, all day.
But with colder weather forecast for the coming week I took the plunge (not quite literally) and decided to get six metres of fedge complete with archway constructed in a day, right through from harvesting the willow.

The idea was to mirror the fedge we made last weekend, creating a corridor with archways off to the side leading into the future butterfly meadow areas.

So here it is step by step:

Step 1
Peg out ground cover fabric. The willow slips are programmed to root and sprout, but they still need a little protection from competition from grasses, at least until they get their roots established.

Step 2
Harvest the willow.
I pollard my willows so the new growth doesn't get nibbled at ground level. It's easier to harvest too.

Step 3
Trim and Sort the willow.
Long straight stems are best. The longest for the archway, the next thickest and straightest for the uprights.
Weavers need to be just a little thinner and anything really long and thin is ideal for binders.

Step 4
Drive holes into the ground and insert the uprights, ideally a foot into the ground. Align the uprights in the plane of the fedge and firm the ground around their bases.
It doesn't matter if they are not yet completely vertical - this can be achieved when the binders are woven in.
For the arch, the uprights are inserted into the ground at an angle so they bow outwards. The tops are tied temporarily with baling twine, trying to pull the arches into a consistent  symmetrical shape.


Step 5
Weave in the binders. This is the trickiest part. Pairs of long willow whips weave in and out and over and under. They bind everything together (hence the name).
I find that this step often causes the whole fedge to pull one way or another. If this happens I pull it back with cord and a stake. Once the fedge is complete it will hold itself in place and no longer pull one way. Then the cord can be released.



Step 6
Insert the weavers. These go into the ground and weave up across three uprights. This is where everything suddenly comes together.

By this stage I really was working in the dark. The temperature was dropping and my wet hands were turning numb. I kept going, keen to at least get all the whips into the ground before it turned icy over the next few days. But eventually I had to give up. I placed lengths of twine on the ground which are used to temporarily tie things in and I couldn't even see where they were. I was pretty much working by touch alone!

I didn't get the whole thing done in a day, but given the conditions and how short the days are at the moment I was pretty amazed how close I had come. Another hour or so of light and I would have finished.

Sunday 4th February 2018
Steps 6 - 8
Up early to get the fedge finished (and get some photos of where I got to last night).
First those last few weavers.

Step 7
All the temporary ties (baling twine) get replaced with tying tube. This is a hollow rubber tube which is soft on the wood but over time should create a pressure graft where it is used to tie living and growing wood.

Step 8
Trim everything to look neat, tie the projecting tops of the uprights into design of own choice.

And that's it.
OK, I've simplified it a bit.
If you want to go ahead and build your own fedge, there is a great video on YouTube by the people at Willowbank. (I actually purchased the DVD before I found this.) Unfortunately it stops just before Step 8, but you can probably work out what to do.

I'll post pictures in the summer to show what it looks like with leaves on.

Spring... for one day only

Tuesday 30th January

Spring is here!

Today I heard a song thrush, a mistle thrush, great tits, robins, dunnocks, chaffinches, little owls (more of a duet than a song), skylarks and goldfinches all singing for joy. The sun beat down and cheered up the whole smallholding,

A farm record 22 Tree Sparrows were at the feeders. There were probably quite a few more as they were coming and going, their familiar chipping calls announcing their flights in and out.

I put up some very temporary stock fencing along the boundary where the geese kept going yesterday, but they just waddled further up the land, much further than they have ever been before, until they found the end of the fence.

This was solved with a few sheep hurdles. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

I got on with washing plant pots and cleaning plant labels - the best way to get the pencil off them from last year is to rub wet dirt on them.

I sowed 54 Mangetout seeds to grow in the polytunnel. This has worked brilliantly in previous years and the plants have cropped and are out before the space is needed.

This year I am trying some Sugarsnap peas too. The seeds are old but hopefully they will germinate successfully.

I can't grow peas outside - they need more water than I can provide, so this quick early crop in the polytunnel is perfect.

I sowed my chillies for the year too. Just four varieties and I will only grow one plant of each, for they are prolific.

The Piccolo tomatoes have germinated well already, as have the Black Russians and Gardener's Delight. They germinate on a heated propagator base. As soon as they come up, I open the vent on the plastic lid to allow air to circulate, otherwise they will just rot off.

In another couple of days they will come off heat and go into a mini greenhouse in the conservatory. At this early stage in their growth, light is essential so they don't get leggy.

Taking advantage of the glorious weather, I took Boris and Arthur out for a nice long walk along the river. Unfortunately the drainage board have felt it necessary to completely strip the banks, so no kingfishers, moorhens or reed buntings to be seen. The photo below shows the only small stretch where the vegetation has been left on one bank.

There was still time when I got back to plant up three small blueberry bushes which I purchased. I did have some of these in the soft fruit area, but the rabbits took a liking to them. Besides, they are better in pots which I can fill with ericaceous compost.

I will only need one decent harvest to repay the investment.

Wednesday 31st January 2018

SuperBlueBloodmoon!

Supermoons seem ten a penny these days. Hardly a full moon passes without making the grade. It is encouraging that people are finally noticing the natural wonders around them.

Tonight's supermoon was a blue moon too - that just means the second in a calendar month, so really it's just a coincidence of numbers. What I didn't know was that February will be a Black Moon month - no full moon.

The Blue Moon was also a Blood Moon, something to do with an eclipse earlier in the day and on another side of the world.

To be fair it was a nice moon that shone in through the skylight, though my camera totally failed to do it justice.

A Fedge Cathedral

Sunday 28th January 2018
A New Fancy Fedge
I have been trying to arrange a fedging work party for ages and today everything came together.
A fedge is a cross between a hedge and a fence, exploiting the unstoppable urge of willow to take root and grow apace.
This can not be done when the ground is hard and frosty and is no fun in the rain, which is why I changed it from yesterday. Today's weather was perfect - exceptionally mild, dry and not too breezy. The only unforeseen problem was that the bees were out in force while we were trying to harvest the willows right next to the hives.
I had to tell one of the participants quite forcefully that it really wasn't a good idea to stand in front of the hives watching them. Meanwhile, I lopped the new growth off as quickly as I could.
Each willow yielded about 50 whips up to 12 foot or more in length - amazing.

The team was a good one and the students listened well. I was happy to let them make decisions and get on with things on their own. By lunch we had the willow harvested and sorted, the ground fabric in place and all 22 uprights in place.

After lunch I showed Dans and Tom how to weave in the binders which stabilise the uprights, then in went the weavers. This is the most satisfying part where everything suddenly comes together. Final job was to tie everything in, trim off the loose ends and decide the final design for the top.

This was my most ambitious fedge to date, with two straight lengths linking in to a central archway.
It will provide a fitting entrance to my new butterfly and bee meadow area which is being sown later this year.

All finished. One wonky upright which I will replace.

Dr Dolittle relaxes in the evening

In the evening I prepared a Jerusalem Artichoke and Orange Salad, another meal which Sue awarded more than ten out of ten!

Monday 29th January 2018

A New Wether Map

First job of the day was to move one of the young male sheep down to the main paddocks. There is no grass left in the top paddock so the sheep are reliant on hay and sugar beet nuts. I would move them all, but the brown wether needs a proper fence and Rambo needs to be kept away from his daughters.

Rambo with  the brown wether - no name as he will be dinner later in the year.

He can't be down in the paddocks as he ducks under the electric fence with impunity.

This young wether (castrated male) has been moved down with the ewes.

He is small so I am keen to get him onto longer grass. 

He spent his first day being very rammy.

I put some finishing touches to the archway in the fedge, mindful of a forecast of rain later in the morning.

It didn't let down and came suddenly enough to drench me. 

Wandering Geese
The geese have been wandering further and further in search of grass and managed to find where the fence ends. They wandered into next door's paddocks. This was never a problem when Don lived next door, but the geese need to learn that this is now out of bounds.

I herded them back, but was not about to start working on the fence in the rain.

Half an hour later they were back next door!

The geese can get around remarkably quickly when they want and can be both stubborn and stupid in equal measure.

Tomorrow I will attend to the fence.

Up, Up and Away

Wednesday 24th January 2018
Turkey escape

High winds forecast again so I stayed at home to keep an eye on the place. Good job really, for Boris woke me up barking. He often barks at nothing in particular, but there was meaning in his bark this morning. I threw on some clothes and rushed downstairs just in time to see five turkeys heading past the kitchen window on a mission!

The girls were clucking excitedly.

I herded them back up the land and eventually back into their cage. The heras fencing was jumping around and had gradually jolted the bolt loose on the door. The door had swung open and the turkeys seized their opportunity.
I did my best to secure the fencing but the howling wind made it an uncomfortable task.

Twenty minutes later the turkeys were out again!!! Much as I wanted to retreat inside, I had to make some adjustments to the latch arrangement. I secured everything with baling twine just in case.

Then it was time for a retreat indoors. Arthur agreed.

Up, up and away - the first seeds of the year

I made the most of my incarceration by sowing the first seeds of the year, some rather early tomatoes. Sowing them this early will mean they need a lot of nurturing but if I can get them through they will hopefully be producing tomatoes ahead of the rest and I might get an acceptable harvest before blight strikes. 

On the other hand, the later sown plants might just catch up and overtake. Nothing ventured...

One tray contains seeds scooped straight from Sue's favourite Tesco Picollo tomatoes. Online forums indicate that they are likely to come true.

I've also put some potatoes to chit. These are destined for the polytunnel and should give me a crop at least a month before those which have to brave the big outdoors.

Saturday 27th January 2018
Rainy day filing
Rain all day. I'm not just a fair weather smallholder, but there's no point trudging through the mud doing more damage than good.
So I busied myself sorting the seeds. They are filed by date. For successional sowing, I simply move the envelope to the second sowing date once the first have been sowed.
It's a great system which means that nothing gets forgotten.

It also did my Big Garden Birdwatch, recording every bird that came to the feeders or onto the lawn during the period of an hour. A sharp frost would have made the list more exciting, but I ended up with a fairly representative list of the birds which are regular in the garden.