Feeling a little smug..

We definitely deserve a pat on the back for a good growing season. As we hit Autumn it is finally time to really start to reap the rewards of Diz's diligent watering and my care for the plants grown and feel particularly proud of providing ourselves with all of our own vegetables for the year.
The fruit crop earlier in the year was plenty and produced a number or delicious jams and the spring vegetables mixed with the home grown meat have not only fed us daily but also filled the freezer for the winter.
And now it is the turn of the Autumn cropping. As you will remember lasts years potato crop was a disaster, with nothing to show for all our hard work, even the pigs didn't find anything to dig up while pigavating the ground. This year I am delighted and a little smug.

I didn't plant half as many as last year, but I am delighted to have some, which will take us through the winter. They are our favourite's 'Desiree', a versatile cooking potato and is far better than anything we can buy in the shops in Ireland. Might have to have a baked potato tonight, drooling just thinking about it!

The thirty tomato plants are cropping fantastically and I have already bottled three shopping baskets full. Last year it was October before they even started to turn red so we are fortunate this year. I grew several plants of 'Beefy' tomatoes and most of them are bigger than the palm of my hand! And Diz's favourites are the Cherry tomatoes which he tells me are very sweet and quite delicious. I can't stand the taste of raw tomatoes but will eat them cooked.

Sweetcorn was very late to grow this year (for me), but there will be a few cobs although they will be smaller than previous years and a month later.

We tried something new this year on the recommendation of a friend, Kohlrabi. It's not the most attractive vegetable, but it has an interesting taste. It's a bit like a turnip but milder or the stalk of a cauliflower/broccoli. Can be eaten cooked or raw, it is best eaten about the size of a tennis ball and needs peeling first like a spud. Different and might be worth trying again next year. I'm looking for a few different things to try out next year.

The strawberries are on their second go and taste wonderful.

And as long as I can keep the Turkey's away from them, the Raspberries are fruiting well. The sheep gave them such a hard time at every opportunity, I doubted we would see anything on them. Not bad though, maybe more last year.

And the grape vine has had a bumper year, the grapes have had so much more sun this year so have grown plump and juicy. They are very very nearly ripe, another few days and we can dive in. Not sure what we will do with them all, not enough for wine but too many to eat as bunches. Never had this problem in previous years, will have to get onto my mate Google for inspiration.











The winter vegetables are coming on nicely, Brussels, leeks, parsnips and we should have another crop of cabbage and cauliflower before the end of the year. The sprouting broccoli will be our early spring crop.
A couple of weekends ago we had a spit roast with one of our lambs, which went to slaughter a couple of weeks back and we invited our like minded friends to celebrate the years crops. I'll write more in a different post later to tell you all about it.

I am not daft to think that the hard work is over it will still be a constant battle over the winter trying to keep the harvested crops protected, all depends on what type of winter Mother Nature decides to throw at us, but for now I will continue to feel smug and proud of this years achievements and start planning for the unknown next year.

Bye for now.
Stell n Diz
xxxx

Elphin Agricultural Show 2013

Another 12 months passes by and its time for the local village;s annual show. Last year I helped out in the Poultry section as a steward and this year was no different, but Diz got commandeered to also help out. He was going to stick around for an hour to help with the bird entries, but within a few minutes he was asked to help with bringing in the 'Scarecrows' instead. Once several entries got situated, it got hard to tell which were the scarecrows and which was Diz. Even the judges included him in the entry count!

We entered our Indian Game cockerel, some photos, some tomatoes and a cucumber. The cockerel got a third and one of the photos got a third, I was very disappointed the tomatoes didn't get anything but I didn't make them look pretty enough with sprigs of parsley! Mental note for next year! It is serious stuff this showing.

The show is predominantly for the farmers to show off their bovine stock, but there are a few sheep, goats and horses thrown in to make an interesting show. Their is also a poultry section which has done well for the past couple of years, with 160 birds (chickens, ducks and geese) entered this year. It is a noisy day with lots of questions from the public. We (the stewards) get free entry into the show though and fed, so it's not too bad. We make a lot of bird contacts as well, which always helps. There is a dog and cat section, but we haven't entered our dogs yet as Kip is too mad and Jes has gone shy. Maybe next year.

It is always amusing to see the cows washed, fluffed, buffed and polished for hours before they get in the ring. Some of the Black Belgium Blue's (not sue how that works) looked like they had coats of velvet, couldn't touch them though in case your hand got black (they get sprayed with something). The handsome beast in the picture is an Angus.

The cows were outside this year and lined up by colour and breed, they had a good contrast against the green grass and no mud in sight for a change.










Once all the judging is over and everyone collects their winnings, another year is over and planning for 2014 has already started.

All the best
Stella and Diz

Pig on a spit

While some friends were visiting, we got onto the subject of lamb and pig on a spit and how incredible the taste was, as you do. The wife said she would persuade her husband to arrange a date and if we could help they would cook a pig on a spit for a family get together. So a few days later a text was received confirming the date and our availability. Something to look forward to.
As the date got closer, the planning began. Diz to supply the spit and expertise of 'how to' and the friends would provide the pig, wood and location. The conversation started as 'I have a small pig for the occasion which I thought we could kill for the occasion, couldn't you Diz?' Various discussions on home kills versus slaughter house and the guy picked up a prepared pig on the Friday. Diz showed how to prepare and mount the pig on a spit and I delivered 48 bread rolls, pig liver pate, potato salad, and a meringue base all prepared fresh during the week. We then left leaving instructions that the fire needed to be started at 0900 and we would return once the birds were all fed and watered, to mount the pig and show them what to do.

On our arrival, the fire was just starting to get going. The spit was then assembled and the pig mounted in front of the fire. The skin had been well rubbed with salt the night before and the skin had been 'scored' to help make yummy crackling.

Diz explained the process of fire management to ensure the pig would be cooked slowly and evenly over the next 6.5 hours. The idea was to have a white heat not a roaring fire and for more of it to be under the rump and shoulder. The pig was put quite low down to begin with to ensure the skin was crispy and bubbly and then it was raised with regular turning every 10 to 15 minutes.
Once instructions were left we went home to get some other stuff done to return an hour before the pig would be finished. A couple of phone calls in between to ensure all was well and then returned to a wonderful looking pig on a spit, which we couldn't wait to try.

Bang on time the pig was ready for carving and the guests grabbed platefuls of food and then had meat freshly carved straight onto the plate.
What an amazing taste, juicy, plenty of flavour and the most incredible crunchy crackling. The best compliment would be the few 'squeamish' individuals who weren't keen to partake because it was a whole pig presented to them, but when you watched them returning again and again all night for more that's when you know you got it right.
Not only was the pig a raoring success but so was the bread and pate, with strangers seeking me out to complement me on how good the bread and pate was. Diz and I had smiles on our faces all night.
The best bit for me though, was.......

Jelly and Ice cream!!!!!! A little girl was in heaven.


The whole day and night was such a success that we have decided to do one of our Lamb's on a spit in a couple of weeks, just because we can.

Enjoy
Stell and Diz
xxxx

 

A lamb to slaughter

Chops, our oldest lamb was taken to slaughter last week and we picked him up from the butchers yesterday. He looked a good weight going off to slaughter, but exceeded our expectations on return. As a general rule of thumb, the walking weight of the lamb should be around 40kg for an on the hook weight of 40lb, (can't beat a bit of mixing units of measure). Not having an agricultural weighing scale, we guesstimated him to be around the 40 Kilo range. We were pleasantly surprised to find he weighed 46lb-21Kg (dead weight).

The idea was to convert the whole carcass into chops as we eat quite a lot of them, hence his name. However the shoulders proved a bit of a head ache to work out how to chop them so they ended up boned and rolled into roasting joints. A trip to our butcher for a lesson or two might be good before the next two come back.

          
In a relatively short space of time (2 hours) the whole carcass can be cut up, bagged and thrown into the freezer. The hardest part is trying to decide which bit to eat for dinner that night. We settled on the best bit, cutlets and were not disappointed. Considering we had a lack of grass and had to feed the lambs finisher nuts, he tasted pretty good. Better than from the supermarket!!
Our last two lambs Shoulders and Shanks are eating up the last of the finishing nuts and then they to will be on a one way trip. Not sure how Jes will react as Shanks is her favourite and he use to suckle on the end of Jes' ear when he was younger. She didn't seem to have too much of a problem when she was chomping on Chop's shoulder bone last night. 

Cheers,
Diz and Stell

A cake to order

I have enjoyed making cakes for friends and family, but when I was asked to do an anniversary cake for a complete stranger and be paid for it, that was a different kettle of fish.
The lady wanted a square cake with a white background and silver icing. Plain and simple. Anyone who decorates cakes will know that silver and gold are not as simple as other colours. They would come out more grey and yellow using food colouring. So after some investigation I found some silver dust and instructions for what to do. I love google and you tube!
The lady wanted sponge cake so I could only make it a couple of days before which meant the pressure was on as I would normally make a fruit cake and give myself plenty of time to 'play'. The first day I made the sponge cake, waited until it was cool and then butter iced it. I then made some white hearts and painted them silver with the dust I had acquired.  Following day I covered the cake in white fondant icing and smoothed it out as best I could (I'm not an expert at this yet). I then piped on the writing and decoration, waited for it to dry and then carefully painted on the silver to finish it off.

It looks such a simple cake and every time I look at the photo I think 'why did it take so long, there's nothing to it?'. It took me the best part of two days to do and I was so relieved to get rid of it to the customer.
She was pleased with it, so I was happy.
All the best
Stell

Turkey update

We have had some fantastic weather over the past few weeks with wall to wall sunshine and not a drop of rain in site. One day our underfloor heating thermometer recorded the outside temp as 32 degrees celsius, pretty impressive for Ireland.

So with all this lovely warm weather we have been able to get the young turkeys off heat and outside to free range. There is two weeks difference between the two groups of Turkey poults that we have. The Bourbon Reds were four weeks and the Wirral Black were two weeks. Still a bit early for the blacks but the reds could go out as they were nearly fully feathered.

They are still very pale, but will grow darker red feathers as they get bigger. They loved their new found freedom, enjoying a big open space for them to spread their wings.

It wasn't long before they were exploring their new surroundings and eating grass. We will try to keep them shut in their pen until the sheep have gone and they are a bit bigger to defend themselves against the geese. I say 'try to keep them shut in' because within two days of them being in their new pen some had learnt to fly up onto the gate and drop down the other side. Some had miss calculated their training flights and had gone over the fence to where the grass is greener. They then spend the rest of the day trying to get back into their house.

By the end of the week and with the glorious weather continuing we decided to chance our luck and put the blacks out as well. Wasn't a problem at all and they all instantly got along.
I love watching these little creatures, they make me laugh and cry. Even at a couple of days old the stags started to strut their stuff and display their feather (well they would have done if they had any, not quite as impressive with 'fluff'). Now they are out and about the displays are getting better.
They are now 6 & 4 weeks old , so we moved the little trouble makers this morning to a pen with more grass, but they have no respect for fencing, its just a challenge. It's there more for their safety than trying to keep them in. We know that doesn't work. They have already flown onto the top of their tin house and have been eyeing up the branches in the conifer trees above, it's only a matter of time.
We have fourteen turkeys this year for the Christmas market, I already have 5 orders which we had from the beginning of the year. In August I will text our previous customers to see if anyone is interested in a bird this year, but for now we are happy for them to keep us entertained.

Cheers
Stell & Diz

Pile of rocks

Finally with some fabulous weather we decided to have a day off and have a day out. We have both been working very hard and weeks seem to be mingling into each other without us even noticing. We are so behind with all our own jobs and the endless things to be done around Cloghermore, that one more day away will not make any difference.
After checking all the animals have plenty of water we load the dogs into the car, pack the camera's and picnic and off we go. Diz has wanted to head over to 'the Burren' in Co Clare for a couple of years which have the most amazing limestone pavements, ruined castles and rugged coastline, but in particular a 'pile of rocks' that he has wanted to photograph for some time.

First stop, a small village by the sea, time for lunch and a stretch. Poor Jes has started to get car sick so Diz cleared up the back while I take them for a walk. Unfortunately the tide is out so we can't paddle in the sea but there is plenty for them to sniff and loads of people about for a fuss.

Then onto the pile of rocks and the limestone pavements. This particular pile of rocks is the 'Poulnabrone' Dolman, which means 'Hole of Sorrows'. It's a portal tomb dating from neolithic times and is a particular good example, especially because of the limestone background. While Diz set up his camera the dogs and I had an explore and were amazed at the number of small unusual wild flowers to be found in the crevices of the pavement.   
There were plenty of tourists fleeting in and out, which provided some entertainment, especially when the women in red got into Diz's shot totally oblivious he was even there and wouldn't move because she was on the phone. He was patient, while muttering under his breath.
He was using inferred film so it will be interesting to see how they come out. This is one taken from our small digital camara.

We had such a lovely day and just while we were thinking how nice it would be to do again and soon, we returned home to find we had been visited by Mr Fox! It had taken one of the mother hens, Manc our black hen and fabulous mum and one of her seven chicks. We initially couldn't find Tuft, our white mother hen who had just hatched 10 chicks, but found some of her chicks running around desperately calling for her. I eventually found her in the barn looking terrified and returned her to her chicks only to find she had lost four of her babies. We lost one of our new Barnevelda hens and thought a couple of the adults had gone as well as there were several piles of brown feathers, but they were all there. On closer inspection one of them was missing a lot of tail feathers!! Aaaahhhhh, well my language was a lot stronger than that! 

So we are now on Fox watch as it is bound to return for it's free meal, but we will hopefully be waiting.

Take care

Stell n Diz

xx