Plum crumble and goat cream

We now have an awful lot of goats milk in the fridge. We had yet another record quantity tonight - 2.6 litres. We have found a good layer of cream on the top of the milk so I have spooned some of it off and put it on to some plum crumble (we have loads of plums at the moment).

Before we got our goat Pinkie we were doubtful that we would get much cream from her milk. Now that we are getting some, we are planning to make our own butter. And that will eliminate one of the few food items we still need to buy from the supermarket.

Burning issues

We have been in danger recently of disappearing under a mass of sticks and branches, all with their leaves carefully removed and eaten by the goats. Having removed nearly all of them from the goat paddock to avoid Pinkie's udders being scratched, I was faced with the task of disposing of them. The larger ones have been chopped up for future use as logs for fuel (we haven't yet made the move from gas and electric heating to the wood fired boiler I want but I foresee it happening at some point soon.) The smaller ones went on to a bonfire. I had tried to use our incinerator but after the 6th attempt to get it to light, I built the fire instead. All the branches had now gone. New supplies of hedge cuttings for our goats are expected tomorrow, and for the days and weeks ahead, as the other allotment holders trim the large hedges around the site. I anticipate having another bonfire later in the year as a result.

Bramble jelly

The blackberries are very ripe now. I've been out today to pick a bucketful to make my 2nd batch of bramble jelly. The first batch was made last week - 6 jars in total. Today's batch is bigger. It is currently being strained. I'll make it into jelly tomorrow. The pulp will then be pressed through a sieve and the resulting fruit puree will be added to our sweet mince which I shall be making shortly. The hens will get what is left of the pulp that won't go through the sieve.

Drying nettles for goat fodder

Our goat Pinkie's former owner visited us on Saturday. She said that Pinkie likes dried nettles and thistles. She picks them out of the hay. We have often fed the goats fresh thistles we dig up on the allotment but hadn't thought of drying them or nettles for fodder. We have already pulled up lots of nettles in recent weeks and put them on the compost heap. As of Saturday, a new approach was adopted. All nettles are now being dried. The goats don't eat fresh nettles but we can continue to feed them fresh thistles. If we discover a large supply of them, we'll start drying them as well. We'll feed them to the goats over the winter.

The onions are pickled

I'm pleased to say that our onions have now been pickled! I made a sweet vinegar for them (1 litre of white wine vinegar, 300g sugar, tbs of peppercorns, sprinking of ground mace, tsp of powdered cloves). They should be ready to use in about a month.

Plum, apple and marrow jam

Plum, apple and marrow sounds a bit odd as a combination. However, there was method to my madness in putting them together as a jam on Friday. Plums provide the flavour, apples the pectin to set the jam and marrow bulks out the jam. Marrow absorbs the flavour of what it is cooked with.



This is my recipe:

• 2kg stoned plums
• 1kg apple (peeled and cored)
• 1kg marrow (peeled and seeds removed).
• 4 kg sugar

Chop all the fruit. Put the marrow in the jam pan and cover with water. Simmer the marrow for 10-20 minutes, then add the apple and plum. Bring back to the boil then simmer until all the fruit has pulped. Add the sugar, bring back to the boil and keep on a rolling boil until the setting point is reach (put a dollop on a plate and leave for a couple of minutes - if it forms a skin, it has reached setting point). Put the jam into hot, sterilised jar.

If you have a large number of plum stones, use them to make plum vodka. Put all the stones in a storage jar, enough to half fill it, along with any bashed and bruised plums, add 200g of sugar and then 70cl of cheap, supermarket own brand vodka. Give the jar a good shake every day for 2 weeks, then every week for a couple of weeks, then leave to stand for a few months. Strain and bottle. 

I haven't yet put enough plum stones into the jar to make this a worthwhile exercise. However, I did get 14kg of plums on Wednesday (it cost 2 jars of honey and 4 jars of chutney) so I am not going to have a problem getting enough stones.

Meatball toad in the hole

In an attempt to use up yet more milk from Pinkie our goat, we had toad in the hole yesterday. The sausage meat came from our Tamworth pig, the egg from one of our hens and the flour from the supermarket (the only ingredient that was not self-sufficient.)



And for vegetables we had marrow cooked in tomato sauce and green beans (which came as part of a swap with local allotment holders). A veritable feast!