Storage space

In setting off on our mission to become self-sufficient, we overlooked the issue of storage space. Now that we have developed our poultry and beekeeping mini ventures, the problem of adequate storage space has become more acute. Had we had decent sized crops last year to store through the winter (the rotten weather ensured we didn't), we would now be at crisis point. Even without the problem of storing our crops, we are currently climbing over sacks of hen food and boxes of empty jam jars just to get into the garage. A solution is, however, on its way.

Last week we bought a shed and it was delivered flatpack, along with a base, on Thursday. The base was painted with preservative today and we will take it over to the allotment tomorrow and assemble it. Hopefully within the next week or so, the shed will be assembled as well.

We have noticed that the lack of storage space is actually holding us back. 2013 is to be the big push to become as near self-sufficient as possible. Therefore, getting that shed constructed has to be a top priority for us.

Duck egg and broccoli flan

Our egg mountain continues to grow, despite my best efforts to supply family and friends. I decided on  a radical solution to clearing the pile of duck eggs last night. I made a couple of duck egg and broccoli flans. My confession is that the broccoli was not grown by us and neither did we swap for it. With so many crops lost to the weather last year, we had to make a trip to the shops and buy some foods for the Christmas dinner to supplement what we had produced ourselves. The broccoli was not used up over Christmas and was unlikely to last much longer. To avoid food waste, it went into the flans.

I blanched the broccoli before adding it to the flan cases. I then added 8 beaten duck eggs to each flan. That got rid of the duck egg pile and will provide us with lunch for a few days.

Egg numbers

We had 11 eggs today from our hens. I had to go back through our records to find that it was October when we last had that many eggs in one day. One of today's eggs was laid by one of our new hens though we are not sure which one in particular. Over the past few months the yield has been down as the hens have been moulting. Typically in December we were getting about 6 eggs a day. Since New Year's Day, yields have gone up.

The hens laid 2145 eggs in total in 2012. The ducks came in with a more modest 94 eggs though only 2 of them are laying and they only started in October. At some point soon, we will hatch some of the duck eggs in our new incubator, but that is for later in the year.

Onion planting

The heavy rains last autumn put an end to many of our attempts to plant winter crops. If we managed to get a few days without rain (there weren't many), we often found that the ground was so wet that it was impossible to plant anything. We managed to get a few cabbages in and half a bed of onion sets planted. Onions are one of our most important crops. They are used in a huge range of recipes and preserves. The miserable crop we got in 2012 has been supplemented with onions from other allotments. We traded eggs and jam for them.

Despite getting some of the onion sets planted, we had three quarters of them still to be used so over the weekend, instead of planting them outdoors, I decided to plant them in the greenhouse. Some went into recycled seed trays - ones in which we had previously bought seedlings, made up of lots of little compartments. Claire, one of my fellow presenters from the Horticultural Channel tv series, came up with the idea of using cut up toilet rolls as disposable plant pots. We liked the idea so much we have adopted it ourselves. No toilet roll holder is ever put into card recycling in our house now. For the past year, we have collected them and a few days ago I chopped them into smaller sections. Yesterday I filled them, and the recycled seed trays, with compost and put an onion set into each.

Once they have established themselves and the worst of the winter is behind us, we will plant them out in the allotment. The cardboard toilet roll holders will simply rot in the ground. We have two sorts of winter onions: electric red and radar.

Claire has her own YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/clairesallotment.

Three new hens

Yesterday we added three new hens to our flock: two are rhode rocks and one is a columbine.





They have settled in well and spent yesterday and today wandering about the allotment and eating. We have experienced no problems getting them to go into the henhouse in the evening. There have been a few scraps with some of the other hens but this always happens when new hens are added to an established flock. A new pecking order will establish itself.

We got three as that henhouse has a capacity for 10 but we had only seven living in it. Our other henhouse has no spare capacity. It brings our total of hens to 17.

Meanwhile, I snapped the shot below this afternoon. These are some of our older hens. They sometimes congregate next to the hedge and preen themselves. They particularly like it when the sun is on the spot. And over the past few days, sun is, remarkably, what we have been getting.

How to make Quiche Lorraine

This is definitely not a recipe for the calorie-control minded person. We are building up a bit of an egg mountain at the moment so we are trying out lots of egg recipes. So last night I made 2 quiches, which also give us the chance to use up some of the bacon from our Tamworth pig.

To make the pastry, use 175g plain flour, 100g butter and the yolk of an egg with 4 tablespoons of water. Roll out the pastry and put it in a flan dish. Put a sheet of baking parchment over it and fill it with ceramic baking beans and bake for 15 minutes.

Chop 300g bacon amd lightly fry it for about 3-4 minutes. Then put it into the flan case (having of course removed the parchment and beans!). Chop 50g hard cheese (I used parmesan) and scatter it over the bacon.

Then beat together 200ml creme fraiche, 200ml double cream (I did warn about calories!) and 4 eggs along with the white from the egg which supplied the yolk for the pastry. Pour the mix into the flan dish over the bacon and cheese. Then grate some parmesan over the top and put into the oven for 25 minutes.

The quiche can be eaten hot or cold. We had ours cold with salad.

I am going to attempt a lower calorie version soon without the cream. I'll tell you how I get on.

A rain-free digging opportunity

What a useful way to start a new year: mild and rain free! Having today received the news that 2012 was the 2nd wettest year on record in the UK, I used the opportunity of a day of dry weather to begin preparing one of the large beds on our allotment for planting. A look around the rest of the allotment shows just how heavy the rain has been in recent months. Paths are still mud tracks and who beds have been flooded so often that nothing grows on them.

One of the biggest tasks coming up therefore is to put in drainage and pave some of the paths. We will dig some channels across the allotment and fill them with gravel. These will drain into the existing pond from which we will dig an overflow channel to a new pond to go into the bottom corner of the allotment.

The ground in the chicken run is also very muddy so we will be putting guttering onto the henhouses connected to waterbutts. This will help to stop rainwater leaking into the nest boxes therefore prolonging the life of the henhouses.