Fried duck breasts

 

Somewhere under the cabbage and carrots are some fried duck breasts. The ducks were from a friend who shoots regularly. The breasts were removed from the carcass and then fried in butter. The cabbage was from the allotment. The Yorkshire pudding was made using our own eggs. Very pleasant.

Pigeon meatballs

 

We still have lots of pigeon breasts in the freezer so recently we minced some of them, added breadcrumbs and onion and made the resulting mixture into meatballs. They went rather well with rice (which sadly we can't grow ourselves!)

Chicken soup

 

Some of the chicken meat left over from making the chicken pies went into making chicken soup. We had a few vegetables that needed using up as well so they went into the soup as well.

Chicken pies

 

Some of the meat from the 4 cockerels we had dispatched recently made its way into these three pies. I included mushrooms, onions, ground black pepper and ricotta cheese from our goat milk in the fillings. Very pleasant.

Mud at the gate

 

The storms we endured at the end of last year resulted in a stream flowing across the entrance to our farm. A great deal of silt was washed off the field of the neighbouring farm and was deposited at our gate.

More recently, the cold snap of the past week froze the silt solid. It has now started to thaw but over the next day we are expecting another deluge. My plan is to dig out the silt and put it on our raised beds. That may have to wait a bit while the deluge takes its course.

Pork chop

 

In a further attempt to create space in our freezers, we decided to use up the pork chops stored in one of them recently. The pig belonged to our friend Steve. Another swap "bought" us the chops (and other pork as well). The leftover bones have been used to make stock and are now drying out in the oven to be made into bonemeal. Noting wasted!

The last Christmas tree

 

Our appeal for people to give us their Christmas trees was a success. People donated over 70. We feed them to the goats. They eat the branches and the bark. We then let them dry for a year when we use them as firewood to keep our house warm.

I am now pleased to report that the last Christmas tree has been shipped down to the farm. Job done!

Stilton and leek soup

 

We are aiming to be self-sufficient but we aren't there yet. Sometimes we buy some food from the local supermarket, which is how we ended up with a wedge of Stilton cheese. Alas, we forgot about the Stilton until I found it at the back of the fridge. Part of our mission statement is to avoid waste so I invested a recipe for soup that used both the Stilton and some leeks from a friends allotment (acquired through a swap). The leeks had seen better days but were still usable. The stock was from one of our freezers. It was pork stock and one reason for using it was to create space in the freezer (we are likely to have some mutton to freezer in the next few weeks).

In terms of the soup, leeks and Stilton were a great combination. Alas, our usual problem kicked in. We made so much that we ended up having the soup for 4 days in a row!

The egg supply starts again

 

It is usual for our poultry to stop laying in the autumn. Typically, the birds start again as the days get longer, normally in early January. This time, one of our Buff Orpingtons continued laying without a break. Today however she was joined by another hen. I am expecting others to start popping out eggs as the increase in the daylight hours is more noticeable. It looks like we will be having more omelettes for dinner this month.

Crackling

 

We got some pork from our friend Steve as part of a swap. We removed the skin and roasted it. Fantastic crackling! Gorgeous taste.