The last of the tomatoes

and cucumbers and peppers!

Yes, you've guessed it I've been in the polytunnel again this afternoon.

Now my husband and I have come to an agreement this year, that we are not buying those red, watery, tasteless things they call tomatoes in the supermarket anymore.  We shall wait until we are growing our own again next year, before we have any more, they are just a waste of money.  So when I told him today that that was it, I don't think he was all that impressed - no more tomatoes til next summer!

I've been doing some totting up of sales, aside from eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers have been my biggest sellers.

Cucumbers started selling in July and I have sold 33 of them at an average price of 60p each, some larger ones were sold at 70p and some smaller and late season ones were sold at 50p each, and this was all from two plants.

Tomatoes have done even better, 62 x 1Kg bags were sold at £1 per bag, both salad and cherry varieties.

This is aside from what we've eaten, given away, fed to the pigs etc.  So I don't think that's a bad harvest at all, pretty pleased with that.

Polytunnel tidy up

I have started what always seems like an arduous task at this time of year, the annual tidy up of the poly tunnel, after the tomatoes have finished.  I say finished, I'm just picking the last of them now.  Quite a few have split, which is a shame as they have been just delicious, but they won't get wasted as the pigs will happily eat them.

I love this time of year, the harvesting of all your hard work, the bountiful harvest and deciding what to do with it all.  As you can see above the onions and shallots have been stored in here temporarily, but will have to be moved to the shed as the space is needed.

The tomatoes are coming down -

The deconstruction phase always takes longer than you expect, then its hauling out all the unwanted vegetation, canes, bits of string etc that you forget need doing when you start!  But it won't take me too much longer and at least I'm in the dry!

Tonight's tea was made from pickings out of the tunnel too -

There are still some carrots to be harvested and this is the second sowing of the year for carrots in there - really chuffed with them

The space will not be wasted.  I am going to transplant the spring cabbages that are in desperate need of doing so, which will fill the majority of the space.  I love spring cabbages, a bit of green when there's not much else around, lovely.  Plus I'm planning to sow some more Swiss Chard and winter lettuce, although I'm not sure how much salad will get eaten as we don't tend to eat much during the winter, but maybe I should try and eat more during winter times, use it in sandwiches and at lunch time.  Plus I mustn't forget to leave some space for the new potatoes that go in, in January - fabulous!

Apologies and Sheringham

Apologies again for the lack of posting - not my fault this time - the broadband has been down for three days.  Sky booked an engineer to come out this morning, between 8am and 1pm, suffice to say they didn't turn up! Grrrrr!  So at 1.05pm I'm on the phone only to be told the problem had been fixed at the exchange yesterday!  Thanks for letting me know!  I did manage to get a £10 credit on the account for the inconvenience of it all, by my reckoning that's £2 per hour!!!

On a brighter note, we had a day out at Sheringham on Sunday.  Michael's daughter Helen, is studying at university in Norwich so we picked her up on the way and off we went.

It was a tad breezy and chilly with the North Sea coming straight at us, but this didn't dampen our spirits. We had a good pub lunch in The Robin Hood, down the main street of Sheringham, plenty to eat and a large selection including Sunday Roasts, then headed off to our favourite haunt - The Funky Mackerel Cafe.  This is a bit of a find for us, recommended by a friend of  mine, it's now our third visit, and one we intend to haunt more often.  It's a quirky little place, sells good food, excellent coffee and hot chocolate's, fabulous flapjack and is famous for its bacon sandwiches, of which we have yet to taste.  It caters for kids, adults and dogs, well behaved ones are always welcome with dog biscuits on sale too.  Set right on the sea front, you can look out through double glazed windows at the ever roughening sea and watch the seagulls struggle against the wind.  We love its relaxed and laid back, friendly atmosphere, its mis-matched furniture and I love the rummage room.  Just a great place to relax.
See www.funkymackerel.com for more information, or take yourself off there to experience it for yourself, just don't tell everyone!

The wild North Sea

Helen and Michael with the Funky Mackerel in the background - red topped building

Of course they do Mackerel sandwiches, you didn't think it was just used for a name did you?

The view from the window

Amendment to yesterday's post

I have just had an email from Ann at Burnt Fen Alpacas, extremely glad to hear that she likes the blog post, although I did get something wrong - sorry Ann.  Here is what she wrote in her email -

'Nuno felting, a process which turns the fibre into silk" could do with changing; my explanations were obviously a bit garbled! I can't make silk out of fibre - if only - that would solve a few financial problems! I blend the loose alpaca fibres into the silk; the technique of melding the materials together to make a new unique fabric is called Nuno felting, hopefully that makes some sort of sense......?'

Yes, it makes perfect sense thank you Ann and for correcting me on my error.  However the process works it is a fabulous one with some stunning results.

See yesterday's post for more information or visit - www.burntfen.co.uk

Burnt Fen Alpaca's

Monday 4th November 2013 saw me visiting Ann of Burnt Fen Alpacas and what a lovely couple of hours it was, despite me turning up on the wrong day (Sorry again Ann!).

Now Alpacas are endearing creatures that have fascinated me for a while.  I say fascinated, I probably mean intrigued rather.  They are not your typical farm livestock, or weren't at one time, but I do think they are becoming more so now, especially with smallholders.  They are shy but trusting creatures once they get to know you, which is obvious when we enter the nursery field; Ann claps her hands, shouts and they all came running; she then felt immediately guilty as she had no treats for them.

Smiling for the camera!

Their distrust of me, the stranger, was obvious by the looks they were giving me but Ann soon put them at ease. The vast array of fleece colours is gorgeous from white's to fawn's, brown's through to black, one of the reasons Ann decided to keep them.  They are not strictly speaking a meat animal, it's all about the fibre and the quality of which is paramount.

The key to Alpaca's is to use the fibre and to find an outlet for said fibre, which Ann had to do when the co-operative she was using closed a number of years ago.  She now uses all the fibre herself in a number of ways - selling to hand spinners, spinning some herself to turn into gorgeous knitted garments.  She also felts the lesser quality fibre and turns this into scarves and hats, including a gorgeous trilby I was rather taken with.

She teaches courses on Nuno felting, a process which turns the fibre into silk, from her purpose built Yurt in her back garden!

Ann in the Yurt

The scarves that she has made by this process would grace any woman's neck up and down the land.

At the moment she is struggling to produce enough garments to be able to sell at craft fairs etc.  She has two ladies who knit for her and she knits herself, namely waistcoats, scarves, wrist warmers, hats and the like.

She does sell some animals occasionally but only to people who will appreciate them for what they are - lovable creatures with great characters and personalities.

She also does Alpaca walking sessions, where you can literally take an alpaca for a walk around the farm and past the edge of the private Burnt Fen Broad.  An endearing experience loved by young and old, male and female.

The gorgeous and private Burnt Fen Broad

Apart from the NSTG show (Norfolk Smallholders Training Group), she has given up showing due to current Tuberculosis (TB) regulations, or lack of in camelids currently.  Alpacas are susceptible to TB and the current DEFRA regulations mean that Alpacas are not registered and no specific tracking is in place. Plus there is no specific camelid test at the moment.  So if you'd like to experience these delightful creatures then get in touch with Ann at Burnt Fen direct.

So have I changed my opinion of Alpaca's?  Yes, but I believe that you must have an outlet for the fibre, which means entering a whole new world of spinning, knitting etc, which needs careful consideration to get the full benefit of the enterprise.  There is no doubt though that the enterprise of Alpaca fibre is truly fabulous and luxurious.

White fibre

Ann knows where all her fibre comes from, even named!

Bagged fibre, waiting to be used

Thank you Ann for letting me visit you and your delightful Alpacas, it was a lovely way to spend a few hours in the sunshine.

Swiss Chard

Now this isn't a well known vegetable in our house.  We have never grown it before, neither have either of us tasted it.  So when I decided to try and grow some, it was met with differing views!

I sowed a single row, in space between the broad beans and leeks.  In fact it was just a half row, the other half of the row being Pak Choi.  Unfortunately the weeds got the better of me in the hot summer, and the Pak Choi got drowned out, but thankfully the Swiss Chard struggled on and there are some good looking plants out there -

There is also a yellow too -

There really are very attractive plants indeed and I'm pleased to say that most of the half row has grown really strongly.  I am also planning to sow some more in the polytunnel once I've got the tomatoes out, which are at the moment still producing fruit.

It is a plant related to sugar beet - the stuff that farmers are madly harvesting at the moment, and is also known as leaf beet and spinach beet - the leaves often been likened to spinach, when lightly steamed. I just roughly chopped the whole stalks including the leaves, placed in a pan with some Kale, added 5cm of water and let the water boil then took it off the heat to finish cooking.  Swiss Chard contains a huge range of vitamins and minerals, like Kale (a winter favourite in this house), although mine did have a slight 'soil' or earthy taste to it, I don't know whether it supposed to taste like that, so I'd be pleased to hear from any of you that think otherwise.  I had heard the stalks are supposed to taste a bit like asparagus, but we haven't found that, maybe ours were too old.

It's certainly a vegetable that I will have to persist in and look for other recipes to use it in.  What does it go well with?  How is it best cooked?  Your thoughts/views would be appreciated.

Apples, apples, apples and all of them to eat

If like us you are inundated with cooking apples, here's another recipe to use up a few more.  It's not a pie, but not a crumble either.  It's an old school recipe of mine from a few years ago now, but is a goodie and easy too!

Granny's Applejack

50g Marg or butter

50g Brown sugar

75g Porridge oats

500g Cooking apples

50g Sugar

Oven - Gas 5 / 190C / 375F

Grease dish

Gently melt marg/butter in a pan and stir in brown sugar and oats

Peel, core and thinly slice apples

Place apples in dish and sprinkle with the sugar

Place oat mixture on the top

Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins until golden

See, dead easy and yummy!

A new Smallholding enterprise

Well the windy and in parts, rainy day has been spent on one of our new enterprises for next year -

Yep, you guessed it, bulb planting, to be more precise - Daffodil bulb planting.  Hubby bought a 25Kg sack of a Daffodil called 'Golden Harvest', an early variety which flowers in March.

Trenches were dug -

This is the first one being dug by hand.  We have positioned them in the field along the veg patch boundary, as this will make it easier to fence in.  A larger part of the field is going to be fenced to provide more room for vegetables, e.g. potatoes and winter veg, as the existing veg patch gets used for other things.

Red hen help is obviously what is needed!

As the digging by hand was taking such a long time we decided to enlist some professional help - Hubby on one of his favourite toys!

The third and final trench just filled with bulbs.  So that was 25Kg, or approximately 400 Daffodil bulbs planted; looking forward to seeing them come up next spring.

There are other plans afoot with our smallholding, but I'll keep them in reserve for now!

Fabulous fleeces

Hello, back to it today.  Dad's on the mend although still out in Luxembourg, they're not letting him go in a rush!

Tonight I have a report on the Fabulous Fleece company - www.fabulousfleececompany.co.uk

Over a lunch of delicious home-made vegetable soup on Monday 21st October 2013, I met Lucy Wright at her home in South Norfolk.  Lucy is the owner of the Fabulous Fleece company, which sells a wide range of gorgeous sheepskins, skins and leather goods.

Gorgeous leather bags, complete with her Fabulous Fleece logo

Waistcoat

Several bad falls from horses caused her to rethink her working life.  Starting with four sheepskins, she sold them, bought another eight, sold them and the business has grown organically from there.

Luxurious sheepskins

She uses local people's skills to produce her fire pipes and leather goods, and all the sheepskins are sourced from sheep in East Anglia.  A local artist also designed her Fabulous fleece logo, (see leather bag above).

Fire pipes

The Reindeer hides are all from the Sami tribe in Finland; a wild and meat managed herd where the tribes people live with their animals.

A pile of Reindeer skins

The Blesbok and Springbok are types of antelope from South Africa, these do sell particularly well online and in London, but it is the Reindeer and good old sheepskins that she sells the most of.

Springbok hide - note the tail!

I had a lovely afternoon, in enjoyable company, talking about Lucy's company and horses along with her faithful friend Ruby the Lurcher, who certainly enjoys the fleeces as much as anyone!

Thank you Lucy and Ruby.

If you want any more information or to place an order then please just visit her website for details.  Please mention the blog on contacting her - Thank you.

Apologies, disruption to service again

Unfortunately I won't be able to post for a few days, and this is also the reason I have not posted for a couple of days too.

I am having to make an emergency trip to Luxembourg tomorrow, my father is ill in hospital over there.  He was on his way back from a coach holiday in Austria, when he collapsed with chest pains, so they immediately whipped him in to hospital.  He suffers from asbestosis in his lungs and it seems this has taken a turn for the worse.  We were hoping to have him home by now, but they have run some more tests and are keeping him in a bit longer.

Everyone says how nice Luxembourg is and I am looking forward to seeing it, I just wish it was under better circumstances.

Normal service (I hope), will be resumed when I get back next week