Sunday 27 October 2013

Blackcurrant

We spent today visiting my parents, and went to a craft fair in Masham (two new pole lathe turned candlesticks!), and have also acquired a new blackcurrant (Ben Sarek or Ben Lomand; not sure which) from mum, which she was disposing of. It'll either go in a fruit cage, or on the hillside (though it might replace a blackcurrant in the fruit cage which then itself goes on the hillside).

Saturday 26 October 2013

Chilli Oil

The chilli oil we painted onto the fruit trees in August seems to have worked, and we've not noticed any more deer/bunny damage on the fruit or pines. As the weather's starting to turn autumnal, and it's been a while, we thought we'd re-apply the deterrent. We mixed three heaped dessertspoons of hot chilli powder into about 700ml of oil, and worked round the orchard, daubing each tree with some. As we went, I sorted out a few too-vertical branches, and cleared weeds from around the trunks.

This afternoon, we've continued tidying the garden, getting it sorted for winter, and moving the last few things into the greenhouse, or workshop: the tuhlbergia, agapanthus, and pelargoniums all needed to come in. The three Bishop of Llandaff dahlias can wait a little longer, we reckon, as there's not been any frosts yet.

Our batch of spiced apple mincemeat has gone into its jars (one and about three-quarters of a 1.5kg kilner), and we then spent some time juicing apples. My mechanized scratter hasn't worked as planned (difficulty connecting axle with rollers), but the aluminium drums with screws set in them work really well as manual graters, and we were able to create good milled apples for pressing. The yield is pleasing: about 55% (ie, 550ml from a kilo of fruit), or nearly 5l from a filled (nominal 12l) press. The juice has been pasteurized (70°C) and bottled.

Friday 25 October 2013

Fence

Having dug the trench for the hedge that will go inside it, today was spent putting up the boundary fence at the edge of the orchard. We've opted for C8/80/15 stock fencing: it's a heavy-weight 'C' wire, with 10 guage (3.0mm) top and bottom wires, with the rest 12 gauge (2.6mm). There are 8 horizontal wires (not evenly spaced: the lower ones are smaller, to deter squeezing through), and it's 80cm tall, with 15cm gaps between the verticals.

We decided to put the fence posts (2.5") every 2700mm (9'), with a chunkier, 3.5" post at each end (with angled straining bar) and in the middle. Getting the posts in took until early afternoon: most of them were straightforward, with only one hitting stones. The stock fence went on in a couple of hours: a joint effort in tensioning it, and it now looks pretty tight. It now looks pretty good: we've left the boundary posts that weren't in the right places to be fence posts, but once Peter and Sara have checked they're happy, these can come out.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Spiced Apple Mincemeat

Most of today's been spent on odd jobs. A big garden tidy up has started, to put it 'to bed' for the winter, and we've planted the rest of the bulbs. The two apple jellies we started yesterday are now made (possibly slightly softer-set than intended, but still perfectly acceptable), and very tasty. We've added to this a batch (a rather large batch, in fact) of apple pastilles, which may turn out to be slightly more toffee-like than planned. And we've filled the slow cooker with the ingredients for the eponymous Spiced Apple Mincemeat, which we're trying for the first time. We've previously used a different recipe, but the method worked well. This has slightly more apples (and we increased it a bit further, using the 'pre-peeling' weight for the post-peeling weight), and a different balance of spices and fruits. It's all in the slow cooker to start to infuse/mellow/blend, and we'll turn it on in the morning. It'll slowing cook all day, cool overnight, and the brandy will be added right before jarring, on Saturday morning.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

More Preserved Apples

Today we started by finishing the trench for the hedge. The last few metres were hard work, with a couple of monster stones hiding underground. We finally got them out, and then, perversely, have re-filled the trench. We added a few bags of sand/grit, and a little compost: the trench is now de-stoned and improved, and can (hopefully) have the bare-root hedging plants planted out with just a trowel, at high speed. We finished by covering the trench, and the surrounding ground, with a metre-wide strip of weed-proof membrane. That's, ultimately, to help ensure that the hedge establishes with less competition from the grass and weeds: for now, it helps kill them off before we have to cut slits in the membrane to plant through.

It does now look as though we've built some sort of toboggan run.

This done, we went into the garden proper, and did another set of bulbs. With over a thousand to plant, it's better broken up into a number of operations!

Last thing for the day has been starting some jellies: a plain apple jelly, and a 'fireside' jelly; also apple based, but with some flavourings (including lavender). The apples, now cooked, are in jelly bags to strain until tomorrow. While that's been cooking, we also prepared some pickled apples. Peeled, cored and quartered apples go into a hot spiced vinegar for five minutes, then into a bottle; the vinegar has sugar added, is reduced slightly, then poured on top. Unfortunately, we slightly over-cooked the apples, and some of them have started to purée. Never mind: we'll know for next time.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Bottled Apples

We made a late start to things today, as we had a team round to survey for wall insulation. That done, we donned boots, and got out to plant our spring-flowering bulbs.
  • 100 mixed daffodils
  • 70 mixed dwarf daffodils
  • 300 Puschkinia Libanotica
  • 100 Iris Reticulata 'Pixie'
  • 200 mixed Chionodoxa
  • 50 Narcissi Tête-à-Tête
  • 25 Purple Blend Tulips
  • 40 Ard Schenk crocuses
  • 20 mixed hyacinths
  • 200 mixed species crocuses
  • 20 Camassia quamash
  • 10 Fritillaria meleagris
  • 12 Nectaroscordum siculum (honey garlic)
  • 16 Allium aflatunese
  • 24 Allium sphaerocephalon
  • 50 Allium caeruleum, and
  • 10 Allium 'Purple Sensation'
We haven't done all 1300 today, but made a good start. The daffodils have gone into the beds either side of the septic tank, and we enlarged the bed on the games-lawn side, making it more like the other one, and curving out into the lawn (less mowing!). The puschkinia, chionodoxa, and crocuses are for the sweet-pea/wildflower bed and the heuchera bed; the camassia, snakes-head fritillaries and honey garlic are for the copse bed; while the rest of the alliums are going at the garage end of the long bed. The irises will go at the kitchen end of the same bed, and the hyacinths and tulips are for pots.

We got as far as the light would let us, and then came in to bottle some apples. Each 2l kilner jar takes a kilo of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. They go in the oven at 140°C for 50 minutes, then you add boiling water and seal. Very straightforward, and they will hopefully keep for a year.


Monday 21 October 2013

Trench

A couple of weeks ago, we started digging a trench along the west edge of the hillside, where it borders the neighbour's plot, ready to plant a hedge. We made quite quick progress, covering about 40% of the distance in about an hour, because there weren't too many stones. Today, we got back from a weekend in Ludlow, and decided to get a bit further.

The weekend in Ludlow was very relaxing. We got a few bits done for Liz's grandmother; pruning a few things, moving a few perennials, and shifting a heavy compost bin. On the way home, we stopped at a previously un-visited garden centre, and picked up some seeds, a couple of half-barrel planters, and some free bulbs (autumn saffron crocuses; just ten, but a useful trial).

The hedge up the left/west side of the orchard is part of a plan to properly define the boundary. We'd previously put in a number of fence posts, but only five along the orchard section, and another six or so from there upwards. Ultimately, we'd like to put some sheep to graze the orchard, and the vague edge didn't make the orchard feel tidy, defined, or complete. So we've agreed with Sarah and Peter to put up a stock fence along the edge, which should secure the fields long-term. Of course, fences aren't terribly pretty, nor good wildlife havens, which is why we decided to separately plant a hedge inside the fence, with space between it and the fence to get for maintenance. It's going to be a non-prickly mix of hazel, purple beech, crab apples, and myrobalan plums ('cherry plums'), which should be attractive, good for wildlife, and yield fruit for us, too.

Hedges are best (well, cheapest) when planted as bare-root saplings in the autumn. The disadvantage is that they come with very little warning, and will need planting out within a week. We'll need the weekend to do the planting, so we decided to dig out the necessary trench, clearing the stones and adding grit and compost, in advance, so that planting them will be as quick as possible.

So, today, we dug a bit further up. Only a bit, though, as we hit a really rocky stretch, with some pretty big stones. However, we should be finished before too long.

Sunday 13 October 2013

Pig Processing

Our half-pig went to slaughter this week, and I collected it from the butcher's yesterday morning. We spent most of the rest of the day outside, getting things a bit tidier, including a mammoth weeding session along the long border, filling the compost bin in the process.

Today's been a very long and busy day, processing pork into various finished products for the coming twelve months.

We started by getting the various bags of meat sorted, into those that needed something doing, and those that were getting frozen as they were, as joints. That's about half a dozen. Another half dozen, and a big piece of belly, went back in the fridge, ready to go into a curing brine once that was made.

I then started working on the bag of trimmings, and the joints we wanted to turn into sausages, cutting them up into pieces small enough for the mincer. That generated about 12lb of bits, which went back into the freezer, to chill. The mincer works well on nearly frozen meat, but as it gets warm, the fats get messy, and the muscle doesn't get cleanly chopped by the blade. As a result, you get stuck every few minutes, with sticky, stringy, sinewy bits getting clogged on the rotor.

And that's no fun. So, we put the meat back in the freezer, and got on with other things until it was really cold.

The next was brawn, which involved getting all the odds and ends, tidied up (I'm not persuaded of the virtue of putting quartered head into it), and putting in a big pan. Covered with water, and with a few onions and muslin bag of thyme, bay, and peppercorns added, it was set on a simmer for a few hours. Liz then picked over the solids, extracting a dish full of meaty bits. The stock is cooked further, to reduce by half, and then sieved over the meat. This looks much tastier, actually, than last year's: there's less of it (pickier about the bits), but I think it'll be more valued.

While the brawn pot simmered, we got on with black pudding. We made a very tasty boudin noir de Poitou earlier this year, and a British fry-up black pud last year. On the basis of these, we modified the fry-up recipe, hoping to make something better seasoned, and a little more structural, but on the same lines. The new recipe, then:
  • 750g of onions, finely chopped, and sweated in an ounce of butter
  • 250g pearl barley, cooked (for about 45 minutes)
  • 250g rolled (porridge) oats
  • 50g salt
These get stirred together over a low heat, which seemed to help prevent the barley lumping up. We then added:
  • 1l light white sauce (or Béchamel)
  • 2tsp ground coriander
  • 2tsp ground pepper
  • 1tsp ground mace
  • 1tbsp brandy
  • 2l blood
Stirred thoroughly, we poured this into six 1lb loaf tins (and a 2lb tin), which had been lined (but not greased: there's enough fat in the mix). These went into a bain-marie in the oven for an hour at 170°C. That was enough: it's a lot less time than the batch this time last year took, and more like the Poitou blood cakes. I think the Béchamel helps them set, whereas cream doesn't. Sliced, packed into double portions, and frozen.

After this, I ground the sausage meat, and we added 12-15% chopped apples, 10% blended porridge oats, and 1% salt. I didn't add any liquid, this time, as the mix seemed moist enough. This then went back in the fridge, while we made the cure for the hams.

We really enjoyed the two Wiltshire cured hams we made last year as a trial, and decided to do all our hams that way this time. The ingredients are brought to the boil, then allowed to cool, before putting the hams into the chilled mix. In theory, you can pre-brine the hams, but that seemed superfluous (and a waste of salt!).
  • 3l beer (the Harvest Mild we've been enjoying!)
  • 50g saltpetre
  • 750g black treacle
  • 1400g salt
  • 30g black peppercorns
  • 35 juniper berries
They'll come out in three and a half days (Thursday morning).

I then mixed up a batch of 'Ray's Liver Pâté' (HFW's River Cottage Cookbook), scaled to the amount of liver we'd received (about 450g), which went into the oven (another bain-marie!) along with some baked potatoes.

The sausagemeat having chilled, we set to with the mincer, and turned out 96 sausages, running out of skin just too soon. The last of the meat made 12-sausages worth of patties, which will be useful for stuffing, and similar. Arguably, we didn't run out of skins too soon, really.

Last, and late, we settled down with our baked spuds (very tasty Druids), sausages, and black pudding. A very tasty reward at the end of a long day.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

A Gallon of Blood

As last year, we're buying a half pig from a local smallholding. The pig's gone to slaughter today, so we called in at the abattoir on the way home, to pick up a bucket of blood. Destringed, and poured into tubs, it's now in the freezer, ready to make black pudding at the weekend, when the rest of the pig will be ready to collect from the butcher.

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Autumn Preserving

Last week, I started a batch of greengage wine, which was ready today for straining, sugaring, and inoculating with yeast. Into a demi-john it's gone, with 1.7kg of sugar, yeast and nutrients: it appears from my recipe that this one takes a good while to ferment, and the lower temperatures will probably increase that further. Never mind: it's tucked away in the airing cupboard.

On Sunday night we made a batch of apricot and peach chutney (with, inevitably, apples, onions, spices, and so on, too!), which is probably the last batch of chutneys for this year, having already made Windfall chutney and a date and apple one. The cores and skins joined a bag of frozen lemon halves (which I've been collecting over the last six months: zesting and juicing them, then freezing the 'discard' husks) in a big pan. Covered with water, and simmered for an hour, I've strained them, and made the juice into Compost Heap Jelly (450g sugar per 600ml juice).

That was last night: tonight has been the turn of rosehip and apple jelly. Another batch of apples were cooked down, and pushed through a sieve. 300ml rosehip syrup (from two years ago!) and 600ml of apple 'sauce', meaning 900g of sugar: cooked to 104°C, and jarred.

Sunday 6 October 2013

Constructing the Greenhouse

Our new greenhouse arrived earlier in the week, and we've spent a good part of the weekend putting it together. It took longer than I hoped, actually, but then there were an unbelievable number of parts. Although time-consuming, it's been reasonably straightforward, once we had the hang of how it went together: that knowledge was hard won when it came to glazing, and  the first few panes were literally painful (stiff bar capping, and sore fingers!).

We had it pretty much glazed by the end of a long day on Saturday, and then had the roof vents and door to finish this morning. Then we manoeuvred the staging (21" wide, in a U-shape around the edges) in to place, and hung the shelves (4' long, and cunningly suspended): there's a lot of space, when all that's taken into account: probably the equivalent of twice all our downstairs windowsills. That, obviously, is excellent. The windowsills are now clear (except the tomatoes in the dining room: no point, as they're just finishing ripening), and the small deschampsia, lavenders, and hosta seedlings are all under cover, too, along with the few dozen perennials that arrived as plugs six weeks ago. We potted these up into 3" pots, and they're under cover, too. Although they don't strictly need to be inside, they're small, and we hope they'll grow on better for the extra protection.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Greenhouse

I've wanted one for about 14 years, and finally, we have one. Our little 8x6' greenhouse arrived today, as a stack of toughened glass panes, and several bundles and boxes of parts. We'll put it up at the weekend, hopefully, on the back patio.

In other news, I've started a bucket of greengage wine, with some frozen fruit we weren't getting round to using (Liz wasn't enamoured of the jam we made originally). Needs 250g pearl barley, unusually, as well as 1.5kg of stoned fruit.

Last night, we finished the spiced berry cordial, by adding 2kg of sugar, three teaspoons of each of nutmeg, allspice, and ginger, two big cinnamon sticks, and thirty cloves. That was simmered for five minutes, then bottled.

We've also picked all the apples from the front left established apple tree (which we pruned into quite a pleasing, goblet shape in the winter), which were starting to fall rather readily. There's probably been 5kg of windfalls, and 20kg of picked fruit, which bodes well. I'm hoping to build a scratter over the weekend, to help pulp/crush apples for pressing.