Visit

It's been a weekend of splendid relaxation, aided immeasurably by the company of Ann and David. There has been considerable coffee drinking, baked good crafting, game playing, and even a film (Monsters University, which was great fun).

Someone (who shall remain nameless) decided we should make eclairs. Chocolate and salted caramel eclairs. It was a fine plan. (&copy Ian 2017)

Frankly, more weekends should be like this.

Enjoyment only slightly dampened by a missing jigsaw piece (&copy Ian 2017)

In (belated) honour of Yorkshire Day, we had Yorkshire Puddings as all three courses of dinner.

Starter with gravy (© Ian 2017)

Toad in the Hole as a main (© Ian 2017)

And served with honey as dessert (© Ian 2017)

Bees and Yarn

We've had a truly lovely weekend with David and Ann, who came up on Friday night, and leave in the morning. There has been a lot of baked goodness, including my cinnamon rolls, which I promised to note here.

• 250g strong white flour
• 1tsp salt
• 75g butter
• 2½tsp yeast
• 100g granulated sugar
• 250ml warm milk

Make that into a dough, and knead it well (it's a rich dough, so it needs a good knead). When it's doubled, roll it out into about a 16" square. Pour 75g of melted butter over it, then pour 140g light brown sugar mixed with 3tbsp cinnamon onto it. Roll it up, and cut it into eight. I like using a length of cotton to radially guillotine the roll: it is immeasurably neater than trying to slice.

Arrange into a baking dish, and allow to rise again. Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. They can either be served warm, or they store fine for a couple of days.

If you make up a cream cheese icing (85g butter/soft margarine, 120g icing sugar, 45g cream cheese, ½tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt), and spread it on the top before microwaving for a minute per roll...then that works really, really well.

We managed a walk, and a few games, and a film. As well as a lot of coffee, gin, wine, and knitting. I managed to start building a beehive, too (a stand, floor, and roof), which will go in the garden in time.

WBC-style stand and roof, with an open mesh floor and 70mm eke, all in BS National pattern (© Ian 2016)

Apples and Berries

The older apple trees in the orchard (the ones planted some twenty years ago) have started ripening, and some are falling on windier days. While these don't tend to be ripe, and aren't great for eating (you can cook them: we may use some for mincemeat), they make brilliant fruit juice. Our apple juice endeavours in the past have been hard work, because before you press the apples, you have to crush them.

The traditional method, it appears, is to put them in a large vessel, and whack them with&emdash;essentially&emdash;a beam of wood. In the past, we've grated them, but that is hard and slow work. In anticipation of ever-increasing apple crops, we bought a powered scratter, which turned last night's job into a real pleasure. It's essentially a spinning blade attached to a 1kW motor, and it turns a trug (40l volume)) of apples into pulp in, oh, two minutes.

The pulp gets loaded into the press, which we squeeze down: from a 40l trug of apples, we get about 10&endash;12l of juice, which we pasteurize to 70°C, and bottle with a Campden tablet per gallon. Hopefully it'll store reasonably.

We also made our apple & vanilla Danishes, and almond pastries, today. They're delicious.

Almond Pastries, and Apple & Vanilla Rolls (© Ian 2016)

We started a batch of ginger wine, too (ginger, sugar and water into the slow cooker); tomorrow, that'll go into a demijohn for a couple of weeks. This time, Liz helped: it's not a surprise for her birthday!

Yesterday, we also started some berry cordial. This year it's mostly blackberries, with a few elderberries. They get boiled up, and left overnight with pectolase. Today, we strained them, added sugar and spice (cinnamon, unsurprisingly), and boiled that before bottling it.

Burger

Yesterday, I had lunch with Cath & Jason at a new burger place in Lindley (delicious; a blue-cheese sauce'd burger, with sweet potato fries), which was a lot of fun. The rest of the weekend has been effective, but less outright fun: a lot of cleaning, tidying and sorting inside—and I've managed to do a load of weeding and mow the lawn.

Plaster, Primer, Paint

Liz has spent today and yesterday painting the walls downstairs: a coat of white, and then a top coat of 'Timeless' emulsion to finish.  She's even managed to do the bits of the sitting room that we haven't re-plastered (around the door into the dining room, and the wall behind the sofa/bottom of the stairs. I've been doing bits and pieces, getting the biomass boiler fired up for the first time this autumn (the stove is no longer able to keep up with the cold outside), priming window reveals and boards, and repairing (finally!) the sewing machine.

We did manage to have yesterday evening off, though, and spent a pleasant evening at Eric's, a nearby restaurant, with Cath and Jason. Delicious food, and lovely to spend the time with them both.

Roof and Sausages

We received our half pig, and have spent the day getting it sorted out. We set a number of joints soaking into a beer brine (same as last year, a Wiltshire cure) and made a batch of brawn (as per last year).

Sausages were 3.4kg of pork, 540g of oats, plenty of black pepper, 750g of chopped apples, 4tbsp of fresh herbs, and 40g of salt.

This year's black puddings were poured into beef middles. Same recipe as last year, with an extra 200g of oats, funnelled into the skins, and the poached for ten minutes or so.

While all this was going on, my builder has re-attached the roof ridge tiles (which were just sitting there, balanced, with the mortar decayed). He's taken some photos from the roof, too, which are rather a fun perspective on the garden.

Blood

On the way home from work, we picked up a gallon of pig's blood, as our half-pig went to slaughter today. For once, I was also able to pick up the pluck, which I don't normally get, so I've been able to freeze this (separately, as liver split into three; heart; and cubed lungs (or 'lights')). The blood's frozen as 500ml portions, which defrost easily to make black pudding when we get the rest of the carcase.

Once we were home, I went up onto the roof of the utility room extension, to repair some flashing where the soil stack goes through the roof. The bitumen seal has worn out, and there was a significant gap, which has been soaking the roof timbers. I think I've made good, so the stones should be weatherproof for the winter.

While up there, I also needed to clear the downpipe for the main house gutter at the kitchen end. I cleared out the other end a month ago, and it turns out this one was blocked, too. Good job to have done before autumn: the bends right at the top were completely clogged with soil.

Wiltshire Cured Ham

As I noted, we collected the half-pig from the butchers after getting home from Ludlow yesterday. As normal, we're turning some of it into bacon and hams, and leaving some as joints for casseroles or roasting. There are also a number of chops (which, it turns out, are huge), and we've also got a bag of 'bits' (tails, trotters, kidney, heart, liver), which need different processing.

In previous years we've also made sausages, but we've actually still got loads left from last year, so we're not doing that. (It must be said, we also don't really have time for sausage-making at the moment.) Instead, we're mincing the trimmed scraps of meat (about 5lb), mixing them into sausagemeat, and freezing them in patties. If we do run out of sausages before next autumn, and want to, we can always make them as needed, after all.

The sausagemeat made, we mixed up the curing brine for the bacon and hams. We're repeating the Wiltshire cure, which is a beer-based brine:

• 4l beer (again, the Harvest Mild I brewed a few months ago)
• 1900g salt
• 1000g black treacle
• 65g saltpetre
• 50g black peppercorns
• 50 juniper berries

Once mixed, that's brought to the boil, and simmered for 10–15 minutes. I'll chill it overnight, and add the joints in the morning. They're refrigerated, stirring whenever I remember, for 36 hours (the bacon) or 3.5 days (the hams).

Paths

Today started with a soft-fruit picking session. The raspberries are nearly over: probably one, maybe two more pickings left. However, the gooseberries are really just starting: the fuzziest, first variety at the top of the bed, Invicta (which also seems to have bigger fruit) is mostly ready, and some of the red and golden Hinnonmaki are there, too. While I prickled myself collecting these, and then a bowl full of blackcurrants, Liz collected about 80% of the redcurrants. The whitecurrants are always a bit later, and some of the red weren't ready yet...but it's still a lot of fruit. The bushes have now properly hit their stride, in their fifth year (we planted them in December 2009), although one of the blackcurrants isn't doing nearly as well as the other two. That's a shame, as blackcurrants are my favourite (compared to red/white/pink...I don't know how I'd choose a soft fruit, let alone a fruit, as a favourite), but there you go. I'm hoping that a couple of year's good mulching and pruning might see it straight. Alternatively, it may not be getting as much irrigation, as it's at the top of its bed (which is, literally, the highest point of the kitchen garden, and furthest from the watering system inlet).

A few clumps of ragwort have been growing in the orchard, and while certainly not an infestation (there's a nearby field which is just a mess of ragwort—and, worryingly, is a horse paddock), I wanted to remove it before it sets seed. When we bought the land, there was, comparatively, quite a lot, which a year of strimming and pulling has mostly resolved. Anyway; I pulled up what I found, and checked in on the graftlings, which all seem to be doing ok.

When I'd done so, Liz had weeded beech bench bed, and the bed to either side, and had also put down cardboard mulch sheets around the beech. That was a prerequisite for spreading chippings around the beech, which will now have much less competition for light, water, and soil, and look a lot tidier. I moved the turf stacked in front of them, and the spoil heap of stones (including a couple of large lumps of concrete, and several stones worthy of walling or pond-side). Between us, we've laid out weed-membrane, and covered it with chippings, to form a path down that side of the lawn. During the winter, when we're bringing wood up from the wood shelter, that path quickly gets muddy, so this should be a better route, now.

This was really part of a larger chipping-spreading activity, as we've put a path (membrane and chippings) through the middle of the herb garden. It's not planted, apart from the lavender lines crossing it, and having the lined path will mean a bit less weeding. The un-dug part of the potager, which has had weed membrane down on it for some time, has now also had a layer of chippings, which makes it look much more attractive than black membrane.

Putting this path down meant moving four box that were an edge in the old design, but are no longer, as the edges have moved, and aren't going to be box any more. The four plants have moved into the long border, replacing clumps of alchemilla, and will gradually form balls.

Lastly, I've had to add more strings to the legume supports, as they finally, slowly, start to grow. They went out too late, really, delayed by the work on the back of the house, so it's not going to be a productive pea and bean year, sadly.

Harlow Carr

We spent today at Harlow Carr: the first time, actually, we've been not on a weekend or Bank Holiday. Unsurprisingly, it's much quieter!

We found this in the scented garden, but couldn't see a label, sadly.

The Scented Garden, RHS Harlow Carr (© Ian 2014)

A heavenly almond macaroon (© Ian 2014)

Knautia macedonica, which caught our eye for the wide range of colour (© Ian 2014)

Sweetcorn (Snowbaby and Popcorn Fiesta (this one, with red stems)) in containers in the Bramall Learning Garden (© Ian 2014)

Rhododendron auriculatum in the woodland (© Ian 2014)

When we got home, there was enough time to sow some salad leaves (in pots: direct, they keep getting slugged), and a barrel of carrots.

Floor Finished

We made a list on Saturday morning of some things we wanted to try to do this weekend (a long one). Pleasing progress has been made, although, as it ever was, not quite everything happened.

Painting the last section (3/8ths) of the garage floor with bituminous sealant happened on Friday evening, Saturday lunch time, and Sunday morning. The plan was that the last coat (Sunday first thing) would then have a clear 24 hours to dry before we put the rest of the floor down.

Saturday morning, before we could do the second coat, we spent digging over a further section of knot garden. While I cut turves, and dug over the stony ground, Liz was busy clearing our stone dyke from last time. We've not worked on extending the herb garden since September, in order to get the overwintering alliums in the ground, so it's nice to once more make progress on it. Although we only did a couple of hours work (too hot!), we returned to the garden on Sunday, and have marked out anew the pattern. We needed to do this because we've changed our mind about the size of the squares (diamonds), which we decided were too small (roughly 1m edges), and needed to be 50% bigger. There wasn't quite enough space in them to allow planting, but still be able to walk through them.

The original (rough) plan for beds and edges in the herb garden (© Ian 2013–14)

That also means we'll only have two sorts of edge: lavender and step-over apples (which I'll try to graft over the winter). The box will be grown on to form box balls in the garden, instead of hedging: we think they might, for one thing, replace some of the Lady's Mantle that's really a weed in the long border. They'd occupy the same niche, of a rounded green mass, but with the advantage of year-round structure, and less invasive self-seeding.

The new pattern fits around the corner nicely, and finishes in about the same place, which is good. We then moved the part-painted climber supports into the beds, settling on a layout that has the taller of these forming a backdrop to the garden, in the boxes furthest from the house. There are only four of these at the moment, but I can always make more in time. The smaller are nearer the house, and there are squares that suitably frame views from the windows with supports. It looks very pleasing, and once the supports are painted, and sunk into the ground, I hope it's going to look really good.

On Saturday afternoon, we constructed a hinged roof that goes over the steps down into the wet cellar from the driveway, which will allow us to store bikes on the steps but keep the worst of the weather off them. It's a simple wooden frame, with tongue and groove cladding, but it looks quite smart...although it does draw my attention to the falling-apart (non-structural!) wall next to it, which edges the pathway. Another day's work there, I think. At the same time, Liz cleared the driveway of a pile of apple prunings that have been sat there drying: they'll be rather fragrant kindling next winter.

They've been sitting around for longer than they should (by some way, really), but we've bottled the five demijohns of wine that were waiting.

• Dandelion, from May 2013. For whatever reason, the dandelions rather passed me by this May, so I don't have a new batch on the go. This one seems good, though.
• Greengage from October (a more reasonable time-scale). This was slightly fizzy, so I added a Campden tablet, and bottled it a couple of days later. The taste seemed improved, too, after this.
• Elderflower from July: very good, this one.
• Blackberry from September, a predictably dessert-wine red. It was also slightly fizzy, but a tablet and 36 hours rest sorted this out.
• Chardonnay from a kit, in June last year. It's really rather Chardonnay-like!

In the same vein, this evening we've made a five-pint batch of elderflower cordial. Different process to previously: a dozen flowerheads, a pared then sliced lemon, and then a boiling sugar solution poured over them (1 pint water, 1lb10 sugar). You add 2.5tbsp of citric acid, once cool, and allow to sit for 24 hours before bottling.

The batch of cider that we pressed last autumn has, in turn, finally been racked into two demi-johns. It's not tasting quite 'right', but as I understand it, cider often needs a decent maturation period, so I'll bear with it.

Sunday afternoon was spent, largely, making a hatch for the garage loft, and putting up the last of the insulation. Hanging the hatch will have to wait until I've found the right hinges.

Today, then, was spent finishing the garage floor. The sealant paint was nicely dry by mid morning, so we were able to immediately start work on laying the insulation, screwing down the battens, and filling the gaps with solid insulation. The plywood sheets went on with relatively little fuss, so by about 1530 we'd finished. An hour later, and the room was tidied up, rather than having everything stacked into the half that had a floor, and we've even managed to set out the two armchairs we've had stored in a corner since 2009.

Last thing for the weekend was getting some of the preparatory work done for our new patio doors, which arrived on Friday. They're being fitted on Wednesday (including breaking out the hole for them, replacing the garden window in the dining room), and we've done as much fitting of hardware, and so on, as possible.

Vegetable Planting

It's that time of year when the vegetable beds in the kitchen garden go from bare (or green manure covered), to filled, quite rapidly. The onions and potatoes went in about six weeks ago, and are doing well. We've now planted out a couple of blocks of beetroot (half a variety of mixed colours, and half Boltardy), 32 Brilliant celeriac, six courgettes (Defender), and scarlet kale and cauliflowers amongst the spinach. We've sown some more radishes, and sown a pot of scorzonera, as they haven't germinated in the bed. Some of the summer-sown brassicas (winter cabbage, cauliflowers, swedes) have gone into pots to germinate.

As a result, the kitchen garden's looking a lot more full. There's space, still, for leeks to go out (still in the greenhouse), and of course the potatoes get replaced as we lift them.

At the other end of the garden, the rhubarb had put on loads of new growth, meaning there was about 10kg of stems to pick. With such a large amount at once, it's been worth bottling, so we've preserved four and a half big Kilner jars.

While doing so, I've also made a batch of rhubarb vodka, with 8oz of chopped rhubarb, 4oz of sugar, and a 70cl bottle of vodka. Should be ready in a few months...

That was this morning: this afternoon, we sawed, split, and stacked a load of poplar.

First Planting

We've had a busy few days, with friends visiting on Good Friday (much baking), and then getting the vegetable garden ready for the new season of crops. It's never been empty, with leeks, beetroot, celeriac, kale, cabbages, sprouts, and purple sprouting all still in, to say nothing of the green manure (mustard) that I only chopped in a few weeks ago.

However, we've finally had to lift these, to make space for new things. That's meant that we've been able to spread the last of the mulch, and the beds are all looking lovely as a result. Liz planted out a stretch of spinach, which will come out before we need the room for a later crop, and I prepared the trenches for the potatoes. Today, with a fosterling's help, we planted the 300 onion sets (150 Piroska Red, 150 Stuttgarter), and the potatoes: twenty each of Lady Christl, Red Duke of York, British Queen, International Kidney, and Lady Balfour (two first earlies; two second earlies; and a maincrop).

We've repeated the system we found worked well last year; 4 (early) or 3 (maincrop) chitted tubers planted at the bottom of a trench, 18" (earlies) or 30" (maincrops) apart. As they come up, we'll backfill the trenches, slowly. The main crop are up the wood-shelter side of the C-bed, with the second earlies along the top. The first earlies are in the bottom bed. The onions are all the way up the right side of the C-bed, leaving a small gap between them and the second earlies (probably a catch crop). The space at the fruit-garden end of the bottom bed will have the courgettes in; there's also space for a catch crop in between, I reckon.

It's later than last year, for planting, but the weather's now turning a bit warmer (and we didn't have a chance earlier!), so hopefully they'll grow quickly.

With the last of the time, we tried making our own potting compost: a 50:50 mix of compost and leaf mould, which we sieved together. There's some potting up we'll need to do later this week, which it'll be used on.

Noble Potatoes

Our seed potatoes arrived today. This year, we've ordered a collection that are all, in some way, noble, partly for fun, partly because they composed a sensible group.

• British Queen, a second early. I don't know whether it's for a particular British Queen, but note that it was bred in 1894, when Victoria was on the throne.
• Red Duke of York, a red sport of Duke of York, and a first early. I assume it was named after Richard, Duke of York (father of Edward IV and Richard III (not, himself, ever Duke of York, as that creation of the title reverted to the crown with Edward IV's accession), and not one of the later creations of the title.
• Lady Christl, a first early which we've grown each of the last three years. It yields well and early, is tasty, and stores surprisingly well for a first early (right through to spring). Sadly, Lady Christl doesn't appear to be named for anyone.
• International Kidney, a second early. Grown on Jersey, under trademark, as Royal Jersey. Close enough?
• Lady Balfour, an early maincrop named after the founder of the Soil Association. (She was 'Lady' Balfour as a courtesy title, her father being the second Earl of Balfour.)

We've gone for earlier varieties, without a late maincrop (Druid was unavailable, sadly), in the hope that it'll avoid wireworm or blight trouble. The seed tubers are now in the spare room, chitting, ready to plant out in a month or so.

Also this evening, we've sown a few ornamental seeds from the RHS's seed scheme, as well as beetroot and swiss chard.

Twelfth Night

And the last day of our holiday arrives.

2013's Christmas Cake ( Ian 2014)

Almost all our of jobs have been done, in fact, which is most surprising. We de-decorated this evening, having left it to the last minute.

Waes hael!

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas, predictably, was a gourmand affair. I think we've had three 'Christmas' dinners, now.

Table set for the second Christmas dinner of 2013 (both © Ian 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.

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.

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.

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.