I harvested a parsnip for tea tonight. It was almost dark so I had to guess where the plant was and managed to put the tines of the fork through it as I lifted it but I was over the moon with the monster I dug up. It weighed 700g! I also picked 15 sprouts to try but as we were running late with tea and I suspected them to be full of unwanted bugs I’ve covered them in a salt soak . I think that’s what you do with fresh sprouts full of insects. Normally I’d just take them (the sprouts not the insects!) out of a plastic bag from the freezer once I’ve bought them from a supermarket!

Katie Thear suggests that an effective way of getting rid of red mite is to use a blow torch. Well, I didn’t have one of those but I did have a weedwand which is the same but with a longer tube so I’ve blasted the little coop out with that. The wand normally produces an intense blue flame but when held horizontally or, even worse, slightly vertical, the flames go from a nice concentrated blue to a massive, wide spreading yellow. Several time I almost set fire to the pen; at least the mites would be killed! I’ve never used a blowtorch and found it difficult to judge how long to hold the flame on the wood. As it was raining and very windy, I couldn’t tell what was steam and what was smoke. I didn’t actually scorch anything so I think I did well and fingers crossed that when the pekins go in, the mite have gone.

At 3pm I went over the lotty. I’ve been saying for months about all of the plot holders getting together and clearing communal areas such as pathway and the carpark. It was arranged at the last meeting (which I didn’t go to) to do that today. DFS had been there since 13:30 and when I got there there were quite a few people – which made a change.
There was us, KM, DK, RP, PH, JH,  E&GT, and TW which was half the plot holders and a very good turn out for us and a fair amount of clearing was done. It means we can now see the back fence and where we stand with the trees. There are a few small oaks to come out which will be fun!

Let me start by saying that in this text I will describe the killing of a chicken. If you are likely to find it upsetting, please don’t read it.

I killed a chicken today.

I know I’ve said since we started keeping these chickens that the idea was to raise them in a nice environment and cull the roosters we raised for meat. I also know that we have kept them to the best of our ability and that they’ve had a far better life than most chickens that end up in the shops but when it came to killing one, I found it very hard. I’ve never deliberately killed anything in my life – except slugs. This chicken wasn’t for the table but I think it had a neurological problem.  Not long after we bought these  2 week old chicks we noticed this one had a twisted beak but left it as it seemed to be doing ok. At 5 months old it isn’t doing so well.  DDJ had named him beaky (yes it was  a rooster too) and it’s the only one she said she liked which  made it harder as I had to face her. I watched him today when he fell over yet again and struggled to get up out of the mud. The only thing holding him up most of the time was the netting around the run. He fell over a lot, he got knocked over a lot, he got trampled a lot and he  found it hard to get back up. He also found it difficult to drink as his beak was so twisted and the water kept pouring back out of the sides.

After watching him today, I set my mind to dispatch him later this evening and to light a garden fire and cremate him; DFS said that he wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t showing 100% health and even though I was convinced it wouldn’t be transferable to humans, I wouldn’t risk it with my kids either.

I waited until it was dusk to light the fire and only DFS knew what I was doing. I fetched the chicken from out of the coop while he was asleep and tried to use the broomstick method. I found it awkward. When I held him and put his neck under the pole and tried to get my feet on each end of the pole, I kept losing my balance as I was frightened of squashing his neck and hurting him so was leaning my weight back. I know I was about to kill him but I wanted it to be quick and painless, I didn’t want to hurt it by crushing it’s neck. I was almost in position when someone came through the back gate and I had to move as I didn’t want anyone else to see and be distressed by what I was doing. I then realised how dark it had got. After being outside all evening I didn’t realise until I noticed all the lights on in the house and realised that everyone would be able to see what I was doing as I’d lit myself up by the fire to see what I was doing! I could imagine all the neighbour complaints!

I managed to get in position again away from the fire and pulled his body up until I felt the dislocation. I didn’t jerk or yank or pull fast in case I decapitated him as I’d read can happen.  Although expected, it was quite disconcerting when the nervous flapping and movement started. It seemed to go on forever and I was getting convinced I hadn’t done it right. As I’d tried to stop any overlookers seeing, I’d moved into the dark. My eyes had adjusted and I could see quite well but not in detail. In some ways was a relief but in other ways I wish I’d been floodlit to see exactly what was going on! I felt his neck and it felt longer than normal but I had no idea what else I was feeling for and still the twitching and flapping continued. I fetched a torch from the garage to test the corneal reflex. I saw that there was blood on  my hand and when I checked, I saw that the skin on his neck had torn! I lay him on one side and he stared up at me, I turned him over and was sure that he blinked! It was probably my nervous state but just in case, I did the broomstick method again. I did the corneal reflex straight away and found that he didn’t have one so I was now convinced he was dead despite the twitching that was still occurring. I found the whole experience distressing as I wasn’t sure if I’d done it right. I waited and built wood around the outside of the fire and placed him in the centre and covered him with more wood.

I was shaking and felt sick. I still had to tell the kids. I went in the house and told the boys first as they were in the kitchen. Surprisingly, their reaction was to ask if I was ok! I told them I was fine – I didn’t want them to know any different. I then went to Asda for a bottle of wine! DSL wanted to come and when we were alone in the car asked me “really, how are you!? You don’t look fine” I asked if he really wanted to know and wanted to know details and he said yes (he’s 21 so is old enough). I told him and he listened but said I was probably over imagining things and was convinced I’d done it right. He offered to do the next one as we still have 4 roosters for the table. Where does he get his courage?! I said I had to face it and do it if I was going to be responsible. Later I had to tell DDJ who again asked how I was first. I told her I was ok but that it wasn’t easy. She didn’t get upset as I thought she would and seemed unaffected.

Although I didn’t enjoy what I did, I will do the roosters when the time comes. I’m dreading plucking and cleaning them as  I don’t know if I can do it or how to do it or if I can eat it if I do but I wanted a “guilt free” way of providing meat for our table. I completely disagree with how battery hens are raised and feel that raising our own to free ranging standards gives them a good life but it is far from guilt free. In fact I feel more guilt this way but that is only because the killing and cleaning process is too far removed from me on the supermarket packs on the shelf. Even though I know it’s a chicken sitting in the plastic wrapper, it’s a similar feeling buying one as it is buying a loaf of bread! Common sense tells me it was once alive and was killed and that someone has taken the innards out for me but I didn’t see it and it takes away the  personal guilt. Culling my own gives meaning to the meat on the table.

In other news, DFS went to the Dr’s today. I was half certain he had an Inguinal hernia. I wasn’t far wrong. In fact he has an inguinal tear and is being refered for keyhole surgery.

Today was a strange day; one minute it was raining and the next the sun was shining. DFS and I went to the lotty. Since it’s been dug DFS is very eager.  The plan today was to get the side path and a central path sorted.   I always chat to people so DFS went and got the rake and “levelled” the side path. It’s way better now but is far from complete as it needs firming and levelling. As you walk you sink into the soft soil the digger has left. I then suggested DFS plant the onion sets in one of the raised beds (RB1 for my records) only to find out he’d never planted anything before. I hadn’t even considered that when he didn’t get involved as he’s always been so anti-gardening. He likes a nice garden and buying plants etc but his punishment as a child was  to dig a part of the garden so understandably he’s left it all to me. I will never understand some people’s idea of discipline – gardening used as a punishment for a child?!  I try to make things like that enjoyable for the kids and anyone else that I can encourage to be interested including DFS and after showing him how, I watched him kneeling happily beside the bed meticulously measuring the planting distance and gently firming them in. So gently in fact that I think they will all fall over in a slight wind as the soil hasn’t been firmed down. Still, he was happy!

We then went on to tackle the mountain.  I want a central pathway from which I can access and mark other beds but the mound goes across where the path will be.  We decided to move it. DFS started by shovelling the soil from one place to another but I’m too lazy. I don’t want to move it twice so I sugested that we shake out any roots and use the soil to build up the lower side of the plot on the left. It took an hour or two but by the end of it we could put a string line up representing the path.

Some of the plans I made last night have now changed.  I’m not sure how to plan the site. I wanted to put a cordon hedge of soft fruit (raspberries, tayberry, black, red and white currants and gooseberries) but when I looked at it it will run from north to south and cast shade over the whole plot. I wanted it as a wind break but I’m not sure about the shade.  I’m thinking now of putting them at the bottom of the plot.

We had a power cut today. We haven’t had one of those for ages and I was a little lost without my internet to pop backwards and forwards to. I spent a peaceful hour or so in the garden instead; without electricity I couldn’t hear the normal 3 different types of music blasting in competition across the back fences. I managed to actually clear one side of the greenhouse which I’ve been meaning to do for a few weeks now.

I’m pleased with how the moneymaker tomatoes are cropping and harvested a whopping 6 kgs. I’ve washed and dried these and then put 1kg of whole tomatoes into ziplock bags with the air sucked out ready to be dealt with in winter when the dark nights and cold days keep me in the house for longer. Then the smell of tomatoes can remind me of the summer and give a promise of whats to come as the heat from the cooker warms the house.  It sounds very poetic and simply means I’ll get into a mess peeling skins off toms as I complain about frozen fingers and water!

I still have about the same amount of tomatoes left on the plant so I’m shutting up the greenhouse and hoping that they turn red.

I also found this little chappy under the mess and very happy I was to see him too! He’s been very busy this summer as I only found one large slug in the greeehouse which the ducks were very grateful for!

After clearing the greehouse, I planted up my cheap onion sets. There were 25 in each net which were reduced to 20p in Bradley Nursery. As there’s still no where for them to go while we wait for the plot to be ploughed,  I put them into modules which I’ve left outside.  When I came in the house I looked at the moon calendar and today is a root day so hopefully, these should romp away!

As soon as the power was back on, the boom boom of rave music blasted over the fence and the fan kicked in from the “social house” that the neighbours at the bottom of our garden have built so I had pleasant wafts of au de lager and cigarettes drifting up the path. I pottered around for a while but gradually got more and more fed up and frustrated with my neighbours lack of consideration and came in to cook tea instead.

Over the past few days I’ve been trying to keep one of the chicks that hatched a few days ago alive. It wasn’t attempting to eat or drink so I’ve been feeding it by hand. Really I shouldn’t have bothered because it would probably never feed itself. I should have researched how to dispatch it and done that as soon as I knew it wouldn’t survive but DFS thought that it wasn’t trying to feed itself because it was week. I didn’t think so as it was managing to get itself back to the heat lamp if I left it out of the way.
It means that there are only two of the pekins now and I suspect them to be one cockerel and a hen – at least I hope one is a hen. We’ve got enough cockerels and I’ll have to dispatch those soon along with the cock quails. I’m not looking forward to it but I said when I started that we would be raising them for meat and eggs.

What a day today. DFS woke me by ringing half an hour before my alarm was due to go off and it was raining. I’m fed up of the rain. The kids wanted to go swimming so I dropped them off and when I came back I popped over to the neighbours. I only meant to have a quick coffee but that turned into almost two hours leaving me only 15 minutes to get ready to go collect the kids.

I want to save some seed off the hollyhock so when I went home I  thought, despite the rain, that I’d nip out before I had to go and collect the kids to take a photo so I remember what the flowers were like. I grabbed my fleece and a rain hat, slipped on my flip flops and ran outside. It was hard taking pics with my left hand but because of my right wrist, I couldn’t use it properly. I  couldn’t get a picture through the fence anyway so I went around to get closer. Getting soaking wet, aware that I would be late to fetch the kids if I didnt hurry, I stepped into the overgrown grass and felt a sharp pain in my right foot. Looking down I saw the end of the plank of wood in the grass and I knew what I’d done. I went to pick up my foot but the wood lifted too. I tried to pull the wood off with my one good hand (remember my bad wrist that’s been in a support for two days) and realised avplanter of sweet peas was on top of it. So I had to try to balance on my left leg,without moving the right, put the camera in my pocket and lift the planter off the wood with two hands but without bending my right wrist nor taking too much weight with it. Achieving this, I had to pull the wood off my foot. The nail that had pierced my flip-flop and foot was very rusty and bent. I semi-hopped (have you tried hopping in flip-flops), semi-limped, and semi-skidded in the rain up to the house. Then I did my best to clean it but there was now mud that had splashed from the downpour mixing with the blood trickling out of the tiny hole and I now had 3 minutes to get to the sports centre to fetch the kids. Typically, the plaster I put on wouldn’t stick so I had to tape it on! I limped to the car, pulled off the wrist support which was now soaked and tried to get in the landy. Not fun with a right hand I can’t bend – hence can’t pull myslelf up – and a right foot painful to weight bear. And guess waht? The wet floor must have caused some type of suction with my foamy flip flops becuase as I lifted my left foot up to get into the landy, the bottom pulled off the bar that goes between your toe leaving the sole hanging off and getting wrapped around my foot! In frustration I flicked it off my foot and drove bare foot up town in a rush as I was now late. The kids were even later and I sat outside (couldn’t go out with only one shoe and a limp on the other!) for another 10 minutes.

When i got back I realised the khaki cambell drake had escaped and was wondering arounf the garden. I left him out. It was still raining and I wasn’t in the mood to chase ducks.

By this afternoon the rain was coming down in gallons and we had our annual eye tests. I took them up and the same as last year, we were split up – I don’t like that. I should have asked more qestions but wanted to get to see what was happening with the kids but the short version is that I need glasses for both reading and driving. I’m not sure why I need some for driving. I know reactorlite will be usefull for me because I really suffer with bright light but prescription glasses? My reading ones i was expecting because I find myself pulling things further away to focus on them – it’s my age they told me. I will research my prescription to see what it means. It seems I also have astigmatism.

I will put my results here if anyone wan’t to explain then (when I can be bothered to go and get  them!)

My foot’s throbbing now. As my nan used to say. I am in the wars!

I think I’ll save seed from these too:

Am I the only woman that hates going to the hairdressers? I leave it that long that it’s always a major event and I never know how to have it styled. I’m going tomorrow and I’m dreading it. I’m only going becuase we have a family do to go to – which I’m also dreading.

Yesterday I decided to try making relish’s with the fruit we’ve grown.  I had a couple of large cucumbers that weren’t going to get eaten. I scoured the web and came up with these:

Cucumber & Green Tomato

• 2 lb (900 g) green tomatoes
• 2 lb (900 g) cucumbers
• 1 large onion
• 1 large green pepper
• 2 tablespoons salt
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 tablespoon pickling spice
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 6 oz (175 g) white sugar
• 1 pint (570 ml) white vinegar

Method:

1. Chop all the vegetables finely. Put in layers in a large bowl, sprinkling each layer with the salt. Leave to stand overnight. Tip into a colander and drain well.
2. Put the vinegar, sugar and spices into a pan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil and add the vegetables.
3. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture is fairly stiff but still moist.
4. Pack the relish into hot, clean, sterilized jars, right to the top.
5. Cover and seal immediately.
6. Label when fully cool.

Makes 3 -4 lbs (1.4 kg – 1.8 kg) of Cucumber and Green Tomato Relish. Ready in about 4 weeks.

Cucumber and Pepper

• 1 lb 8 oz (750 g) cucumber
• 2 large red or yellow peppers
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 6 fl oz (175 ml) red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds

Method:

• Cut the cucumbers in half lengthways and remove the seeds. Chop coarsely into a colander or sieve, sprinkle with the salt and leave for at least an hour.
• Squeeze out the excess moisture.
• Core, de-seed and thinly slice the peppers, put into a bowl with the lime juice and mix well.
• Bring the vinegar to the boil and add the cucumber, peppers, lime juice and mustard seeds.
• Simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.

Makes about 1lb 12 oz (750 g) of relish.

I used all of the green tomatoes we had from two baskets and I had to buy another cucumber to make up the recipie. The recipes say to chop the veg but last time i made a relish, I left the pieces too big and I dont like it so I thought I’d chop it all small. It took ages, a good hour or more. The recipe then says to sprinkle with salt and leave. (Why is that? to remove the excess fluid? Why?) So I did and today it’s full of hundreds of fruit flies. And we have no more fruit to make more and this is just worm food. At least I’ve prepared it nicely for them…

I don’t really like beans. It’s probably not a fair statement as the only beans I’ve ever really tried are baked beans from a tin but I’m not keen on those. Trouble is, I’m reading all these blogs and forums and when people talk about them and describe themthey sound lovely. Perhaps someone can recommend some good recipes. I’d also appreciate someone explaining about what I think are different stages (which I used to think were different beans) shellies, haricots, driers, green, snap, flagelot etc etc?! How confusing is that?

I’ve also discovered the many types of beans there are to grow! There are lots of colours; green in varying shades, orange, brown, red, black and white, yellow and even blue. I want to grow them as much for the variety in the beans and the flowers. Again, I’d need to learn. Can I plant them all in my garden or plot and have the beans breed true or do I need to isolate and hand pollinate as I’ve read you need to for cucurbits such as courgettes and marrows?

On a forum recently I was reading about beans and they were discussing different types. When I said that I’d never seen one type of bean they were discussing, one member (TS) pm’d me and offered to send my some in exchange for the stamp and an SAE! Aren’t some people lovely!

I wish I’d been growing my own for years. I feel like I’ve wasted all this time buying and eating supermarket food and I should have been learning how to make our food from scratch and showing the kids as I did. There are so many skills that are being lost. I vaguely rememebr being a little girl and watching my great gran when she had a baking day. We were shoed out of the way but I remember bread and pastries covering the tables in the dining room and she seemed to just throw it together and it came out gorgeous. Sadly these skills weren’t handed down and most of what I cooked and served as an adult was “ready” meals. fish-fingers, chicken nuggets etc . Over the last year or two, that’s changing and I’ll learn but I wish I’d done it a long time ago when the kids were little. Oh well, it’s never too late to learn and hopefully the kids aren’t too old to want to help in the kitchen…