Apples

We have a small apple tree in the front garden of our home in London. In a typical year it will produce about 10 large apples. Suddenly this year it is sagging under the weight of hundreds of apples. Admittedly they are small but they are still edible. I will bring them back to Sunniside, bag by bag. There is a limit to what I can carry on the train!

Hollowed out

This is quite something. We gave a whole turnip to the chickens recently and they proceeded to hollow it out. You can see the impressive result above. It reminds me of when I was a kid. It was pre-pumpkin days and so on Halloween we used turnips to make lanterns. It was always a difficult job to hollow them out. I should have had chickens when I was young!

Happy duckling

I found the duckling we took to the allotment last night happily paddling about the pond this morning. It appears not to have been bullied by any of the other ducks though it spent the entire day in the duck run. My guess is that tomorrow it will follow the other ducks around the allotment.

Building a new goathouse

We are going to build a new goathouse for Geraldine and Georgina. Their current shed has been knocked to bits by them but is also too small if we are to breed them. So we've bought some materials to build a much bigger goathouse. It will take a couple of weeks to get it up but the end result will be a great improvement.

Paving the way forward

I was offered all the paving stones recently by a friend from his garden. I agreed to take them. They will be put to good use on my allotment to create paths. Much better than sending them to landfill. I will pay for them - a few jars of jam will clear the debt!

Duckling on the move

The lone duckling that hatched a month ago (above photo taken a couple of days later) has now been moved to the allotment. It is 10 times the size it was when it hatched (see below) and we needed to get it outdoors to get it acclimatized before winter sets in. I took it over this evening and put it in the duck run with the other birds. It settled down immediately in the shelter but I suspect it may take a few days to integrate itself with the group as it has no experience of other ducks or ducklings. I checked on it after a couple of hours. It was quite content. It will be interesting to see how it is in the morning.

Crab apples

I've been picking crab apples recently, from a hedgerow in a field near our village of Sunniside. I've already used some to make bramble jelly. The tart flavour is balanced by the sweetness of the blackberries. The crab apples also supply the pectin to set the jelly.

The leftover pulp was pressed through a sieve and the resulting fruit puree was added tonight to the sweet mincemeat I am currently making. More about that later.

Tomorrow I will also make crab apple jelly. It's about 3 years since I last made it and then most of it went in swaps!