Fried duck breasts

 

Somewhere under the cabbage and carrots are some fried duck breasts. The ducks were from a friend who shoots regularly. The breasts were removed from the carcass and then fried in butter. The cabbage was from the allotment. The Yorkshire pudding was made using our own eggs. Very pleasant.

Pigeon meatballs

 

We still have lots of pigeon breasts in the freezer so recently we minced some of them, added breadcrumbs and onion and made the resulting mixture into meatballs. They went rather well with rice (which sadly we can't grow ourselves!)

Chicken soup

 

Some of the chicken meat left over from making the chicken pies went into making chicken soup. We had a few vegetables that needed using up as well so they went into the soup as well.

Chicken pies

 

Some of the meat from the 4 cockerels we had dispatched recently made its way into these three pies. I included mushrooms, onions, ground black pepper and ricotta cheese from our goat milk in the fillings. Very pleasant.

Mud at the gate

 

The storms we endured at the end of last year resulted in a stream flowing across the entrance to our farm. A great deal of silt was washed off the field of the neighbouring farm and was deposited at our gate.

More recently, the cold snap of the past week froze the silt solid. It has now started to thaw but over the next day we are expecting another deluge. My plan is to dig out the silt and put it on our raised beds. That may have to wait a bit while the deluge takes its course.

Pork chop

 

In a further attempt to create space in our freezers, we decided to use up the pork chops stored in one of them recently. The pig belonged to our friend Steve. Another swap "bought" us the chops (and other pork as well). The leftover bones have been used to make stock and are now drying out in the oven to be made into bonemeal. Noting wasted!

The last Christmas tree

 

Our appeal for people to give us their Christmas trees was a success. People donated over 70. We feed them to the goats. They eat the branches and the bark. We then let them dry for a year when we use them as firewood to keep our house warm.

I am now pleased to report that the last Christmas tree has been shipped down to the farm. Job done!