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.

Two month dry period ends with a shower

 

We had no rain from 22nd March to 22nd May. Admittedly there were 5 moments of slight drizzle during those 2 months but that didn't even dampen the dust. Since 23rd May, the weather has been a bit more unsettled. So we have had enough to spot the damp on the ground and to soak my deck shoes (see photo below). 

You can see in the photo above, taken of the allotment car park, the rain has been enough to dampen the ground. It may be enough to percolate into the ground but don't count on it. We are due a bit more rain over the coming week. We certainly need it to get the grass growing for the hay crop. We also have a potato crop that needs rain as well. Perhaps I need to do another rain dance!

Wool sacks

 

The byproduct of shaving the sheep earlier in May was a big pile of wool. We have no use for it. We typically give some of it away to allotment keepers and gardeners but we always have plenty left over. Recently we posted on local Facebook pages that we were giving the wool away. We discovered that local stables use wool and they took the lot! Problem solved.

Another egg recipe

 

Our egg glut continues so we've made custard to use up some of them. It goes well with apple crumble.

Eating her greens

 

Crystal, the lamb we are having to hand raise, has started eating solids, mainly weeds and grass. This is good news as we are able to start reducing the amount of milk we give her. She was on 6 bottles a day but is now on 5. Once she is weened, we will take her back to the farm and put her in with the rest oft he flock.

13 chicks

 

Two of our Buff Orpington hens went broody a few weeks ago so we collected up 17 white leghorn fertile eggs and put them into the incubator. Three weeks later, 15 chicks hatched though one died in the incubator. The chicks were introduced to the two broody hens to be foster mothers. This went well except one of the chicks died. The brood is now well established in our former quail house and the chicks are growing rapidly. 

Meanwhile we have another two Buff Orpingtons gone broody. The are currently sitting on fake eggs while 16 Rhode Island Red eggs are in the incubator. Hopefully lots more chicks hatch in just over a couple of weeks.

Bottle feeding

 

We were hoping to repeat last year's success in lambing by not having to bottle feed any of this year's lambs. Alas, it was not to be. This lamb - named Crystal - by some local children, was rejected by her mother so we are having to bottle feed her. She gets 3 feeds a day, polishing off 2 bottles each time. Fortunately she has started to eat grass and leaves, though it is early days at the moment.

Eating the trimmings

 

One of the local residential homes cut back their hawthorn hedge recently and phoned me to ask if I wanted the branches and trimmings for the goats. I'm not one to give up an opportunity for free fresh food. The goats enjoyed the feast.

Egg curry

 

The egg glut continues. Egg curry was a useful way of using up some of the surplus. In this meal we went further. We had egg fried rice as well!

Sheep shearing

 

In previous years we have sheared our sheep ourselves. It has normally taken us a week to get the job done. This year we decided to buy in the service. A friend (who is also a professional sheep shearer) offered to to the shearing at a competitive price.

So, on Friday evening we rounded up the sheep into the goat paddock (see video above) and this morning we set up a pen and got the sheep into it in time for the arrival of the sheep shearing equipment. It took less than 45 minutes to do the shearing. With the current dry, hot weather, the sheep no doubt were pleased to be relieved of their coats.

Sheep shearing video below.

Chicken liberation day

 

Today the avian flu restrictions that required birds to be caged came to an end. At last the chickens can go free range. I filmed this video this morning. Notice how some of the birds headed straight for the compost heap, rich in bugs and worms!

The egg battle continues

 

Our hens are continuing to lay eggs at a rate faster than we can use them or give them away. So we have continued to have egg based meals. We've also trawled through cookery books looking for interesting recipes. Anyway here are three more egg dinners we've had recently. Above - scrambled eggs on toast.

Yorkshire pudding with baked vegetables.

Egg curry with egg fried rice.

Tractor envy!

 

We have been using a rotovator recently to plough up the top of field one so we can plant a potato crop. It is a long and arduous task. Imagine the envy we felt when we looked over the hedge to the next farm where a giant tractor was ploughing up in seconds what was taking us hours to do! Here's the video!

Creating a market garden

 

We have put aside about an acre of our farm to create a market garden to grow fruit and vegetables. The grass here has not been ploughed in living memory so getting the rotovator to bite into the earth was something of a challenge.

Egg recipes

 

Our hens started laying late this year. Normally they start around New Year. This time they started around the end of February. They are however making up for lost time. We now have an egg mountain which seems to get bigger by the day. We are trying every egg recipe going. Above is that old trusty dish - an omelette.

Above is a savoury bread and butter pudding which conveniently used up some of our goat cheese and breadcrumbs.

Flan with chips (made from our own potatoes.

There will be plenty more egg recipes coming up!

First lambs of the year

 

We have our first lambs of the year, 2 girls.

Plum brandy

 

We made this plum brandy last year and left it to mature over the winter. Very pleasant. The plums will be stoned and then go into the sweet mince we will make in the autumn.

Grass

 

The grass is growing. That means lots of free food for the goats. All I have to do is pick it. I gathered 2 sacks today. They loved it.

In the wrong field

 

One of the fences on our farm had fallen over. Result: some of our sheep wandered into the field belonging to the neighbouring stables. It was time to check out what repairs were needed.

Pan Haggerty

 

Another of the meals we had recently gave us the opportunity to use some of last year's surpluses. Pan haggerty is made from potatoes, onions and cheese, all of which we have in abundance.

More pigeon cooking: toad in the hole

 

One of my favourite meals is toad-in-the-hole. It's a great recipe for using up our goats milk, our eggs and the pigeon meat we have in large quantities. The meat from pigeon breasts was made into sausages.  Definitely a meal to have again.

Omelette

 

We now have a large surplus of eggs. That means omelettes are now appearing in our diet on a regular basis. Typically we use about 9 eggs for an omelette for two. Boiled eggs for breakfast also help to use up the surplus.

More pigeon cooking: burgers

 

We've been doing a great deal of cooking with pigeon meat recently. This pigeon burger was delicious, especially with some of our homemade onion chutney. The chips were made from our own potatoes. Alas, the bread role and the salad leaves came from the local Coop so this doesn't count fully as a totally self-sufficient meal.

Redcurrant vodka

 

This redcurrant vodka was made last year using the berries left over after making redcurrant jelly. A rather pleasant fruit liqueur it has a bit of a kick from the tartness of the redcurrants.

Eggs at last

 

The hens were very slow to start laying this year. They normally start around new year but this year, they began in late February. Matters weren't helped by the ability of some of our hens to lay in very secret locations. In the photo above, these eggs were laid in the bamboo patch in the garden next to one of our allotments. I only discovered them because the owners allowed me to cut the bamboo to feed to the goats!

Pigeon meatballs

 

We have lots of pigeon breasts in our freezers and we have been using them recently to make into sausage meat which we can use in a variety of ways. In the photo above we have made meatballs which were fried and then cooked again in a sauce.

Rhubarb shoots

 

The allotment is starting to spring into life as we edge towards the start of spring. The rhubarb has started to grow though as the photo above shows, the weeds are starting to grow as well.

A donation of ivy

 

One of the households which borders our Nearside allotment recently cut back the ivy in their back garden. They asked if we wanted it for the goats. The goats are now having a feast!

First egg of the year

 

Our hens normally stop laying by the start of October and then start again around new year. This time they started laying again only in the past few days. So after a disappointing start, hopefully egg numbers will soar.

Grape vodka

 

Last year I was given some grapes grown by a friend in his greenhouse. They were rather soft, still on their stalks and full of pips. Instead of eating them, I put them into a jar along with 200g of sugar and 70ml of vodka. We recently tested the result. Very pleasant.

Pigeon and duck casserole

 

We have a glut of pigeon breasts in our freezers waiting to be used. Some of them are from a friend who bagged about 40 on our farm recently. Some of the meat found its way into this rather pleasant casserole.

Building the goat shed

 

We have friends who run gardening and building businesses and they often give us pallets and old fence panels. These are ideal materials for building shelters and sheds for our animals. All we have to buy are the nails and screws used to hold the structures together. We also have a rather snazzy tool for prising off planks from fence panels which we then use to clad the new animal sheds. No waste and quite sustainable.

Check out the video above for more on building the new goat shed.

What we do with your Christmas tree

People have been dropping off Christmas trees for us to feed to the goats.  Dealing with the trees is normally our biggest task to carry out each January. This video shows what happens to the trees.

Unwell over new year

 

Ant, one of our Saanen billy goats was a bit unwell over new year. We was off his food for a few days. He had the runs but for only one day only. The runs can sometimes we  sigh that an animal has worms so we gave him and the other two goats in the paddock with him the parasite treatment. He made a slow and gradual recovery and is now fine and dandy.

And the winner is....

Last autumn we asked people to come up with suggestions for the name of our new ram. About 150 sent us their suggestions. The final result is that he is called Rambo! Thanks to everyone who took part.