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.