A Solstice Tree

Last week at the Green Back Yard Christmas Fayre I was inspired by this:

Tuesday 19th December 2017

My Own Solstice Tree

So today I embarked on my own tree, for solstice of course, not Christmas. I don't do Christmas.

First step was to harvest the willow and sort it. I needed about 30 rods for the verticals and some thinner but long ones for the weaving.

I then tried to figure out how to actually make the thing. I cut a silver birch branch, choosing one that was straight and nicely white and pushed it in the ground. I then used a brooder ring to mark the circle and set about poking the willow rods into the ground all around it. There was a fair bit of trial and error to get all the rods to the same length and the ground got muddy as I worked round the tree but I ended up with this (the tree, not the dog):

I was very pleased with my afternoon's work.

Wednesday 20th December 2017

Natural decorations

I do the construction, Sue does the decoration. And a fine job she did of it too. By noon on Wednesday our solstice tree was adorned with ivy, rosemary and conifer sprigs. Colour came with a splash of hawthorn berries and a dash of class was added with artichoke and teasel heads. The whole was topped off with a star of allium seedheads.

Thursday 21st December 2017
Happy Solstice!
So this is it. The shortest day reached. The sun rose at... well, it was misty most of the day! I was busy in the kitchen all day since I'd invited the Grow Your Own group over for a special solstice celebration meal and I was really pushing the boat out, as you can see from the menu.

The evening went very well indeed. The food was delicious with the soups and the roasted butternut being the stars of the show.

From now on the days get longer.
Hopefully the chickens will realise and start laying again very soon.

Dispatch Day - Down To Earth Smallholding

Sunday 17th December 2017

Bad news for the Muscovy boys

Back in early August Elvis hatched out these little beauties.

They grew quickly and for a while were a bit of a pain as they kept nibbling each others' wing feathers. But that has mostly sorted itself out as they have arranged themselves into friendship groups and go into various houses of their own choice every night.

They are now almost 20 weeks old, which is pretty bad news for them. Firstly, they are getting big and putting pressure on housing space. Secondly, the drakes will be harassing the females soon. Most importantly, their pin feathers will have grown out so plucking will be slightly less impossible now.

And so today we bade farewell to the four largest males. I pulled them straight out of their roosting house to save chasing them around the smallholding. Dispatch was quick. I always say sorry to each one before the deed.

We like to take the time to prepare the big males properly. A whole roast Muscovy duck is a very special meal. But plucking takes ages. They have three layers of feathers.  When we do the females we will just take off the breast, legs and wings which is a much quicker process.

While we were at it, one of the turkeys had an unlucky day too. I chose one of the young stags as they have started strutting their stuff recently, challenging the old breeding stag. Again I took the time to dry pluck it carefully and it will now hang for a few days. On 23rd we will be taking it over to Paul (the butcher from CSSG) who is kindly showing us again how to bone it out ready for stuffing.

Monday 18th December 2017

A glorious sunset today. These clear days leading up to Solstice provide us with some stunning skies.