Lemon marmalade

 

We don't grow lemons - hardly a suitable crop for the weather in North East England - but we do use lemon waste to make marmalade. The peel is used to make marmalade. Nothing wasted.

How to make ginger tea

 

We are into the jam making season. One of the jams we've made is rhubarb, apple and ginger. We use fresh ginger which needs to be peeled. We waste nothing so the peel is used to make ginger tea.

Guest chicks

 

Whinnies Wanderers are a group of parents and pre-school children based at the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside. Earlier this week, they invited me to bring some of our recently hatched chicks for the children to see. The good news is that they want me back next week. I will be bringing a goat instead!

First jam of the season

 

We are now entering the jam making season. First off the blocks was rhubarb, apple and ginger jam. This is one of my favourites and is easy to make: same weight of apple and rhubarb with a bit of fresh ginger to taste. Boil and then simmer. Once the fruit is pulped, add sugar - same weight as the rhubarb and apple combined. Bring to the boil and keep on a rolling boil until setting point is reached.

Lovage and potato soup

 

We have quite an abundance of herbs at the moment. Given the large amount of lovage, an the problem that it never lasts long, we made some lovage and potato soup to which we also added fennel, oregano, thyme and sage. The problem we have now is that the store of potatoes is very low. We probably won't have any beyond the end of June and the new crop is struggling to grow, given the almost complete lack of rain during the spring.

Meringues

 

Our egg mountain continues so we recently used some egg whites to make meringues. The yolks had been used to make ice cream. The meringues were a first attempt for us. I was rather pleased with them.

2nd batch of chicks

 

The second batch of chicks this year hatched over the weekend. The hatch rate was lower than the first batch a few weeks ago. Then we had 13 out of 17 hatched and survived. This time it was only 8 out of 16. Nevertheless, the chicks now had a foster mum, a broody hen which has been sitting on fake plastic eggs for the past few weeks. Mother and chicks will be moved shortly to the chick run.

Spanish omelette or Tortilla Española

 

Spanish omelette or Tortilla Española - yet another attempt to use up some of our egg mountain. We also added bacon to the basic ingredients.

From eggs to ice cream

 

The egg mountain continues but we found a useful recipe to turn egg yolks into ice cream. It went rather well with apple pie.

Rhubarb pie

 

Despite the lack of rain, we have a bumper rhubarb crop. Time for a rhubarb pie.

Egg and bacon flan

 

We still have a big egg mountain so here's another egg based meal - egg and bacon flan with roast potatoes. Alas, though our egg mountain continues, we are about to run out of last year's potato crop.