Autumn has arrived, with 2 big frosts already finishing off lots of the summer veges. The morning & evening chill in the air means outside coats for the chicken run, at the very least. As well as the frosts killing the veges, the choughs & ravens are running rampant, tossing mulch around, digging up new seedlings in the daily quest for worms & grubs. Before planting any more seedlings out, I'll be birdproofing each garden with polypipe, garden stakes & bird netting. The seedlings in the shadehouse are doing well, with frequent watering as there has only been a little rain in the last few weeks - 10.5mm last week & 2mm on Saturday.
We've ordered 40 more fruit trees to add to our food forest - some more apples including cider apples, pears, cherries, plums & hazelnuts. They won't arrive until August, so we'll be digging the holes early for them. 44 more trees (tagasaste & natives) have been planted in the laneways to provide shelter & fodder, & are doing well despite the frosts. We bought some more natives at the markets to add to the windbreak hedge on our west & north west fences, so will be digging holes with the auger on the tractor & planting them tomorrow.
All of the animals are doing well, & the smallest chickens are now out with the other Buff Orpingtons. One young Orpington cross hen has moved in with them to mother them & keep them warm, so the littlest ones think that is pretty good, although they don't listen to her as much as those raised from egg crack do. Their second feathers are growing at the moment so they look a bit scruffy, but at least they will be warmer. Ella, our dog, killed one of the young pullets the other day - at least it was quick, so it ended up in the compost.
We have tried some of our pancetta, which is delicious - a recipe & process I found on the internet, but alas, our hams have not turned out this time. So whilst that is not a total waste (after cooking, they can be fed to the chickens), it is a tough learning experience, so more research will need to be done, & I think that in our climate, it is better to process pork in late Autumn or early Winter.
We are having our annual Farm Open Day in a couple of weeks, which is great & I am looking forward to it, but a walk around the garden still shows a lot to be done before we are ready. Even the area near the shed where the new water tank has been installed has got lots of junk there - bits of leftover corrugated iron, the old stumps from the tank stand, bits of screws etc etc, some of which can be recycled, some for the tip, but all of it has to be moved somewhere else.
We did a 3rd skirt on some more white alpaca fleece last week - yarns have been selling well with some wholesale orders too, & I have totally run out of all white 2ply yarn. It didn't take too long until we got to a cria fleece, which was so lovely & fine & so full of vegetable matter - it took an hour to clean it up enough to send away. And there are 10 more to go! But not in the next fortnight, I think!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Pork, Charcuterie & Freezers
Well, the pork has moved from the paddock to the kitchen & freezer, & some has moved to the plate & stomach too! Our 2 pigs were dispatched & butchered, giving us a dressed weight of 140kg of pork to process, not including the offal (used for pet food) & heads (used for new home made dog biscuits). We have made 5 hams, 2 bacons, 1 proscuitto, & 1 pancetta - all of which are now drying in the shade hanging on the verandah (thoroughly protected from all insects & other pests, including labradors), & have packed & labelled all of the rest. We still have to make sausages, chorizo & salamis etc, but have minced all of the meat & fat for that. It was a big job, taking quite a few days, & I'm glad it's now over. Thanks to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's "Pig in a Day" DVD http://www.rivercottage.net/ & to the internet pancetta instructions (complete with YouTube). Still, I realised how much there is to learn about the history & practice of charcuterie, & so have ordered some Amazon books to add further French, Italian & English recipes to add to my repertoire. Other than frozen poached peaches (from our peach harvest), we now have most of our freezer space devoted to pork. Following Jamie Oliver's Saving our Bacon http://www.jamieoliver.com/tv/jamie-saves-our-bacon-1 which aired on Ausstar in March, I slow roasted a pork belly following his recipe, which was absolutely delicious, & the leftovers have gone well with a great red cabbage slaw with vinagrette, So, the proof of raising happy, well fed, free range pigs is definitely in the quality of the end product on the fork.
The garden harvest is still continuing, with plenty of beans, peas, snow peas, spinach, kale, carrots, herbs of all types, & rocket & sorrel for salads. Some very optimistic pumpkins are getting quite large, but it will be a battle to get many ripe pumpkins before the first frosts (usually expected around Anzac Day, but could happen at any time!). The choughs (black birds) have not only been digging up all of the garden mulch hunting for worms & bugs, but have been demolishing most of the ripe tomatoes, so unless I pick them when they have started to colour & ripen them inside, all I get are half eaten ripe ones. So for preserving purposes, I may have to try & buy a box of local tomatoes soon to make tomato sauce & pasta sauces. New seeds & seedlings have been planted out too, & autumn cuttings are being potted up.
The last batch of chicks for this season have hatched - another 12, & will be moved to their first outside secure accommodation later this week. The previous batch have just moved up to be with the older chicks in our small mobile Uncle Joe's pen, which is inside the Britannia enclosure with all of the adult Buff Orpingtons. They are still a bit nervous of the other chicks, but are settling in well. The broody bantams (all 6) have finally hatched 1 chick, which was promptly adopted by Hazelnut Cream, a Pekin/Silkie bantam hen named by my neice, who had not been broody at all - talk about getting the prize without doing any of the work! Anyway, it is quite funny to see 1 chick with 3 bantam mothers all telling it what to do! One of our Muscovy Ducks in Chookingham Palace is still broody, after sitting for a long time on some hens eggs that did not hatch, but still will not get off the nest. As long as she is eating & drinking, there is not much to be done to break the habit, since if I shut her out, she flies back in. Egg laying has slowed down in all of the pens, which is a bit of a relief, although I think the pigs had been helping themselves to the odd free range egg while they were here.
Autumn
The garden harvest is still continuing, with plenty of beans, peas, snow peas, spinach, kale, carrots, herbs of all types, & rocket & sorrel for salads. Some very optimistic pumpkins are getting quite large, but it will be a battle to get many ripe pumpkins before the first frosts (usually expected around Anzac Day, but could happen at any time!). The choughs (black birds) have not only been digging up all of the garden mulch hunting for worms & bugs, but have been demolishing most of the ripe tomatoes, so unless I pick them when they have started to colour & ripen them inside, all I get are half eaten ripe ones. So for preserving purposes, I may have to try & buy a box of local tomatoes soon to make tomato sauce & pasta sauces. New seeds & seedlings have been planted out too, & autumn cuttings are being potted up.
The last batch of chicks for this season have hatched - another 12, & will be moved to their first outside secure accommodation later this week. The previous batch have just moved up to be with the older chicks in our small mobile Uncle Joe's pen, which is inside the Britannia enclosure with all of the adult Buff Orpingtons. They are still a bit nervous of the other chicks, but are settling in well. The broody bantams (all 6) have finally hatched 1 chick, which was promptly adopted by Hazelnut Cream, a Pekin/Silkie bantam hen named by my neice, who had not been broody at all - talk about getting the prize without doing any of the work! Anyway, it is quite funny to see 1 chick with 3 bantam mothers all telling it what to do! One of our Muscovy Ducks in Chookingham Palace is still broody, after sitting for a long time on some hens eggs that did not hatch, but still will not get off the nest. As long as she is eating & drinking, there is not much to be done to break the habit, since if I shut her out, she flies back in. Egg laying has slowed down in all of the pens, which is a bit of a relief, although I think the pigs had been helping themselves to the odd free range egg while they were here.
Autumn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
