Diary Week37-08

            Ran a course for 2 over the weekend.     We harvested runner beans, sliced, blanched and popped into deep freeze.    The takings were good and we put 5 bags into the deep freeze. We harvested walnuts using ladder and long hoe to bring them down before they are completely ruined by the numerous little blue tits which have beaks like chisels.      Walnuts were spread out to dry in flat baskets and we all watched as our thumbs turned black from the effects of walnut juice from the green shells.     We harvested the complete crop of pink fir apple potatoes which had been in the ground since we pulled off the haulms at the end of July because of the blight      Very few had been affected by the blight but there were quite a number of worm holes.      We separated the good from those only fit for the pig and laid them out to dry on the wire racks.      Fortunately the sun shone over the whole weekend and I was able to gather them up into a basked in the evening and put them into a dark shed in a large basket covered by newspaper.       The new basket which I had made the previous weekend from our own willow was ideal.

            We made bread       We made sausages, this time using the dried stuffing mix from Tescos which worked out better than the very dry rusk supplied by sausage makers.     We collected apples, mostly windfalls, and used the peeler and slicer to fill a large saucepan which was put onto the stove to make apple pulp for jelly.     

            We cleared the potatoe patch of weeds, digging out the large perennials, and then ran over it with the rotavator for a couple of passes.      It will be left fallow for the winter now.      I noticed once again how effective a good potatoe crop is as a way of keeping weeding down between May and August.

            We harvested a bucketful of carrots and fed all the tops to the pig.     The carrots were pretty good and will now be peeled, sliced and blanched for the deepfreeze.     We have just 6 or 7 rows of carrots left to harvest now.

            We harvested all the remaining beetroot, putting it into a large plastic fish box and feeding all the tops to the pig.

            On Monday I continued clearing the fallen tree/branches etc from the wild garden and then cut down the tree which had been damaged by the gale..       It was a large ash heavily covered with ivy.      We statted a bonfire to burn all the brashings.      I wheelbarrowed the whole of the first tree up to the woodshed as large logs which then had to be split and stacked (which Liam did very well).       We kept the fire going until Tuesday night so we could clear all the brashing and also much of the bramble and ivy from the top of the limekiln.     

            On Monday I harvested another 3 bags of excellent runner beans.     The sunny weather has been just the thing to bring these on.

            The chickens are still not delivering many eggs.     They always seem hungry now but are not keen on any of the foods which we routinely use - rolled barley and milk or layers pellets.     They love pasta from the kitchen and woms from the garden but we will have to find some better way to feed them.      No more visits from Mr Fox thank goodness.

            We cleared caterpillars off the brassicas but the numbers are on the wain now as the cold nights come.

            I scythed down the heavy crop of grass on the quay.     It has now turned into a excellent crop of hay which will need to be led up to the hayshed - a job I am not much looking forward to!     The new scythe blades continue to be excellent.