This morning Pa Kettle and I went farm hunting. (....again)
Something that has been keeping me off the streets lately is crocheting. I am definitely getting better at it. Here is my first attempt rug. Mr Duck Herder wants to know if it I am making myself a security blanket. (!) It is almost finished.
but it does keep me off the streets.
In other news, after seeing poor Mrs Nefley pom pom head run straight into the nashi tree trunk while attempting to escape from being chased by a duck, it became apparent that she couldn't see. Pom pom too big- as you can see from the picture below.
So I gave her a Mohawk. She can SEE! And I think she is very happy now. The funny and adorable thing about silkies is that under those silly pom poms they have the most beautiful, large glossy dark brown eyes. You would just never know it.........
Weekend Farmer wondered about the recipe I used for my cucumber pickles - well, here it is!
Ingredients:
And here is the duck herder again - resplendent in hi vis, perusing the level of contamination folks are putting into their green waste collection.
"preen" its a lovelly day when you can make 20 tonnes of compost before lunch!
Did I mention I loved my job?
In other news, here is a little shot of one of the three remaining adolescent children of Nefley - how cute! I am keeping all three of them!
And here is a blurry shot of Camilla - the new secret chicken. She has just started laying - lovely little white pullet eggs. Why is she secret? Well, unlike all the other hand raised animals in the back yard, who trip you up while you are walking because they are so bold and tame, Camilla runs and hides whenever she sees a human. She is slowly becoming more confident , but she is a secret chook because no one ever sees her!
Busy weekend! Mr Duck Herder and I went farm hunting on Friday - back in time to whip up another batch of Juzzy's Grandmother's Relish (previous post). Yesterday neighbour Sue and I bottled two batches of Roma tomatoes and a few bottles of Apple Brandy Blackberry Apples in Syrup (our own recipe!) These were not so successful - the bottles lost liquid - perhaps because the apples should have been stewed a little in the syrup first? SO, happily I scoffed down one deliciously alcoholic bottle, and then somewhat tipsily used the fruit and apple brandy syrup from the other in a batch of muffins.
Half of these will become morning tea en route to Condobolin tomorrow, accompanied by some work colleagues and Stanley the thermos. The other half, for my beloved to eat while I am away.
And finally, I whipped up a batch of pickled cucumbers. This is a first for me too. They are cheats ones really - mustard, dill seed and garlic flavoured (my own cucumbers, dill seed and garlic!) doing their pickling thing in the fridge after a day of sweating it out in some salt - but if these work, then perhaps next year I will be brave enough to do the whole fermentation thing.
Well, the BRANDYWINE tomato harvest has been good, DELICIOUS even, but not really prolific - although that could be because they are too delicious to let stock pile enough for preserving.
Which was turning out to be a bit of a shame, seems as next door neighbour Sue and I had lashed out and gone halves in a preserving kit during winter.
But then yesterday, as I was watering my carrot seeds en route to work at the community garden, fellow gardener Phil suggested that I might like to raid his patch of ROMA tomatoes as there were too many for him to eat and they were going to waste.
Well, ALRIGHTY!!!!
This whole preserving thing is very new to me. Luckily one thousand clever women have gone before, and I have drawn inspiration from my Nana, for her wondrous pantry lined with jar after jar of apples, peaches, pears and buttons, and instruction from the lovely and relentlessly wondrous Rhonda Jean from Down to Earth, as well as a couple of books on the subject.
So, above, is today's batch of RELISH, cooling after a little hot bath in our new vacola preserving kit. Sue (and probably my Nana) and her mum tut tut at the extravagance of bathing relish - believing very strongly that if the jars are hot then it is unnecessary. But I really wanted to practice using the preserving kit, and also, this is the second batch of relish this season - I would like these bottles to last through the winter if possible.
So if ANYONE around here dies of botulism over the next 6 months, it wasn't my relish ok!
AND later today, when it cools down a little, I will go back down to Phil's patch and steal a few more ROMAs, and then Sue and I will spend tomorrow drinking beer and bottling tomatoes.
In other news, I have learnt a little lesson in chook psychology and the perils of anthropomorpology. Remember the last red egg laying chook? Well, she SEEMED lonely - spending her time up on the back deck - gazing longingly at her reflection in the mirror and wandering off to bed alone every night - refusing to make friends (or stop attacking) the fluffy chickens. Well, we got her a friend - a little point of lay leghorn/new hampshire cross. And Charlotte - HATES her - is violent and TERRORISES her. She has been hiding in the nesting box for two days now.
sheesh. never a dull moment with feathered friends. I thought I was doing the right thing getting her a friend to shnuggle up to before winter, but alas, it seems she would rather be alone than make space in her life (and chook run) for a new friend.
Oh well.
