Proud Grandparents

On Wednesday 28th August 2013 we became the proud Grandparents of baby India Disley.

She was a little overdue arriving, but once she decided it was time for her grand entrance to the world it didn't take long. Mummy Dee had a C section within a couple of hours of arriving at the hospital.
And Daddy Ben still doesn't know what all the fuss is about, he believes giving birth is nothing compared to his experience of standing on a 3 pin plug!

Granddad Diz winged his way over to welcome the new arrival, but sadly I had to both work and animal sit so couldn't make the trip and had to make do with Skype.

Great Grandma Joyce was also on the trip (wild horses wouldn't have stopped her).

Congratulations to Ben and Dee. 

Too much work....

Too much work... can make life very difficult!! As I'm sure many of you know. We moved to Ireland to get away from all that 'rat race' stuff.

I have started a new Part Time job 7 weeks ago, which has unfortunately turned into nearly a full time job! This will hopefully only be for a short time and I will be back to less hours very soon as it is very difficult to juggle Cloghermore and all the animals and the job. Poor Diz feels a bit trapped as well, as I have the car and his bike isn't working at the moment. Sigh. 

This is also my excuse for being sooo lapse at writing anything on the blog, so my appologeese. I am hoping to take some up to date photos and get posting.

Take care all

Stella

Bar B Q Bread

I know its past the normal season for BBQ, (we will be Barna Qing untill it warms up again). A quick and tasty bread which improves immensely if cooked on charcoal but is a knock out if done on wood. Ash out of preference, but Beech is good for a less smokey taste. Something we tried earlier in the year and was a resounding success, especially if you can find a willing victim, I mean volunteer to cook the bread for you, so you can get on with something else.

To Make 8
500g strong flour or bread flour of your choice. A little extra for dusting.
5g powdered dried yeast.
10g fine salt
300ml warm water
A drizzle of oil 

 

Mix ingredients in a bowl (We use a bucket that had bird fat balls in). Start with the tepid water, add the salt and dissolve, add the yeast and swill/stir add the oil and the throw in the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until you get a sticky mess then turn out onto a floured surface. Then Knead. 

 

 

When the dough becomes smooth and springy, shape into a round, coat with flour and pop it into the bowl (Stell prefers to coat with a little oil as it is easier to get it out of the bucket) 

 

Cover the bowl with cling film, put in a plastic bag or pop the lid on and leave to rise somewhere warm to rise to double its size. If you don't need the dough until a later just 'knock back' (push your fingers in it to deflate), leaving at least an hour for it to rise again by the time you need it. 

 

Tear small bits off and shape into small rounds. Squash them flat and leave to rise again for 10 mins or so, on a well floured sheet. 

 

Get a fire going in the BBQ and allow to burn down so the wood is white. 

 

I have halved some clay bricks as a heat sync which works well with the wood.
Cook for about 7 mins or so until cooked turning regularly to stop burning. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. 

 

 

The rolls freeze well and tastes just as good as fresh.

This recipe is out of the River Cottage Handbook No.3 Bread. Its got a lot of Ideas and recipes in.

Cheers

Diz

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