Compost

Successful composting is one of the most valuable skills I am going to have to learn. If we wish to get anything out of the soil we are going to have to know how to put things back. After reading an article about compost trenches I decided to try this. This was also prompted by the failure of the rotary composter to have made any great dent on the woody material we had fed it 18 months ago.

As the second raised bed is empty at present and needed some attention it became the recipient of this attention. Steady rain made the work heavy, but after an hour we hopefully have a nourished and turned vegetable bed. Hopefully this lower layer of compost may act like Hügelkultur and warm the bed slightly over the months.

The plan this year will be to try the rotary composter again. However, this time we will have a more carefully controlled mix. We will aim for all the kitchen scraps a to leave via this route and augment it with the chicken dropping and bedding. Once we have the compost we will be able to use this handy calculator which I found on Skippy's Vegetable Garden Blog. The rotary composter should give a hybrid result between hot and cold heap composting but we will try for a better mix of green and brown items. Most sites list the following groups :-

Green Items (These are high in Nitrogen)

• Urine
• Nettles
• Grass cuttings
• Tea bags and coffee
• Vegetable peelings

Brown Items (These are high in Carbon)

• Paper and cardboard
• Wood and twigs
• Bedding from animals

The brown items take much longer to compost, as we found to our cost last year.

Today's visitors included :-

Mystery Planting

Spring seems to have finally arrived. After working in the garden I decided to try and save the seedlings which were capsized and thrown about by the great winds. I have no idea what is where and these little sprouts, if they survive, will be quite interesting to watch develop.

Nutty Bars

A serious deficiency in self sufficiency has been the difficulty in making sweets or other treats. These Walnut bars, however, come half-way to being acceptable.

2 oz butter
8 oz soft brown sugar
1 medium egg
¼ tsp vanilla essence
4 oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
4 oz walnuts
Cream the sugar and melted butter, then beat in the egg and vanilla essence. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and then fold into the sugar mixture. Fold in the nuts. Bake at gas mark 4 for 30 minutes

Box to Beehive

 
 
 
 
The next stage in our plans to reduce our dependency on the outside world is beekeeping. Already enrolled in the beekeper course we need somewhere to keep our bees if we aver get any. For Christmas Lisa gave me a large box full of wood and nails. In a few easy steps (over a few easy 6 hours) this was transformed into a luxury home for any self-respecting bee.

There was a surprise Christmas present of an unusual suit which is very fetching

From Beehive

Avoiding Itchy Bottom Disease

This weekend we decided to try and make something of the rose hips at the garden gate. After a few hours collecting (This must be one of the few plants which is able to fight back) we had two pounds of rosehips and only mild blood loss from the scratches. We started to split the rose hips in order to remove the seeds and hairs. This was reported as essential as the hairs are the cause of the problem described by the Aborigines as "itchy bottom disease" which might be quite unpleasant if I could work out what the symptoms are. This was laborious and fortunately we found a recipe in Smallholder magazine which came to our aid.

In this recipe there is no need to de-seed the hips.

• Take two pounds of hips and turn them into a rough pulp in the blender.
  
• Boil them with 2 litres of water.
  
• Stain the pulp through muslin and keep the liquid.
  
• Boil the liquid until it has reduced by a third and allow to cool
  
• Add a bag of sugar and bring back to the boil.
  
• Boil for 5 minutes then bottle.
  

Then taste. It is almost like Marcel and his little Madeleine Cakes - memories will flood back and remind you of your childhood.

Praise the lard

While reading Cobbett's "Cottage Economy" I decided to try bread and lard. There were two surprises; firstly it is quite palatable, secondly it may not be as unhealthy as thought.


Praise the lard | Life and style | The Observer

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Early Harvests

The dividends are starting to be paid. In addition to healthy and sweet onions there is now growth in the soft fruit are with both strawberries and raspberries making a healthy appearnace. No sign of the goosegogs yet.

The onions have been transformed into an onion tart later on, excellent with a side-salad from the garden. The recipe is as follows :-







Cut 1lb of onions and brown (about 15mins) in 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 40grams of butter. Add two beaten eggs and 6 tablespoons of double cream. Optionally (if not vegetarian) add cut up pieces of crispy cooked streaky bacon.

Add this mixture to a tart base of eaither shortcrust or puff pastry and cook in the oven at Gass mark 7 for 30 minutes.