Moving the firewood

 

We have a huge amount of firewood to use on our stove but we have had to move it. Much of it was stored on our Farside allotment which we are giving up. So we spent half a day moving it all to the farm.

Moving the raised beds

 

We are closing down one of our allotments. We have so far removed 8 raised beds and have started to dig up and move our soft fruit bushes. Not an easy job. See the video above.

Crab apples and bramble jelly

 

Despite the best efforts of the weather, we have a good crop of crab apples. The trees grow in the hedges on our farm so I recently pick some and I'm using them to make bramble jelly. The crab apples are full of pectin so getting the jelly to set is, hopefully, a straightforward task. Currently, I'm at the stage where the pulp is being strained to extract the liquid which will be turned into jelly.

Winning at the Bowes Show

 

Last month I took 30 entries to the Bowes Agricultural Show competitions and came away with 13 prizes. Check out the video above.

Another community fair

 

Tomorrow I will be taking two of our goats to another local fair, this time in Dunston Park, Gateshead. I will be taking Dandelion (see above) one of our young nannies and Basil (see below), a billy kid born earlier this year. The fair is open 11am to 3pm.

Plum gin

 

Plum trees are currently sagging under the weight of fruit. We've pick lots to make chutney. Now we've made a batch of plum gin as well. The plums were stoned and put into jars (400g) and sugar (200g) and gin (70cl). The jars will be stored in a dark cupboard and should be ready by Christmas.

No time to waste - the apple tree branches arrive

 

A friend's apple tree collapsed recently. Last week we collected the branches and put them into our goat paddock. The goats wasted no time. They were chomping their way through the leaves before I could get the branches out of the trailer!