Plum gin

 

Plum trees are currently sagging under the weight of fruit. We've pick lots to make chutney. Now we've made a batch of plum gin as well. The plums were stoned and put into jars (400g) and sugar (200g) and gin (70cl). The jars will be stored in a dark cupboard and should be ready by Christmas.

No time to waste - the apple tree branches arrive

 

A friend's apple tree collapsed recently. Last week we collected the branches and put them into our goat paddock. The goats wasted no time. They were chomping their way through the leaves before I could get the branches out of the trailer!

Plum and chilli chuthey

 

The plum crop is ready for picking. The first fruit to arrive in our kitchen has been made into chutney. I wanted it to have an extra kick so I put in a good quantity of chilli flakes. The ingredients are as follows:

• 1 kg stoned plums
• 2 onions
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp chilli flakes
• 300 ml red wine vinegar
• 500 g soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp salt.

Put all the ingredients into the pan, bring to the boil and then simmer until the volume has reduced by at least half and the consistency is that of a sauce. Then put into hot sterilised jars.

A successful day at the Bowes Agricultural Show

 

On Saturday we headed off to the Bowes Agricultural Show near Barnard Castle, Co Durham (North East England). After the disappointment of last year, this time we were awash with prize winning certificates. We go five 1st, five 2nd and three 1st prizes. I was especially pleased with the pie competition. My pork, apple and honey pie came out tops!

Baling the hay

 

I was at the Bowes Agricultural Show on Saturday and the main issue of discussion was the poor hay crop. I joined in discussions from a position of experience. Our hay crop is now in but we have only 23 large round bales. That will get us through the winter but it won't give us much to sell. Let's hope for a bit of rain to get the grass growing again.

Hay crop disappointment

 

Last week we started cropping the hay. The result was disappointing. From a 3 hectare field we got only 12 bales. Admittedly the sheep have been grazing here but the main reason for the low yield has been the drought. Our big hayfield is next to be cropped. The hay will be cut tomorrow. I suspect the yield is not going to be much greater.

Isolating Rambo

 

Rambo is our Cheviot ram and has spent the spring and first half of the summer with the ewes on our two main fields. Sadly for Rambo we have, in the past few days, isolated him from the ewes. He is in the goat paddock instead and he will remain there for 10 weeks. The reason for this is the timing of next year's lambs. We want to avoid lamb births in the winter. Instead, we want them born in April. We needed to move him now because the ewes will shortly start to come into heat. Hopefully he will enjoy his rest.