Harvesting 800 pounds of food in 50 days

What an amazing experience this project has been! 50 days ago I set myself a target of harvesting, processing and storing at least 5lbs of food a day. Whether it was something grown in our garden, meat birds or something foraged. 

My target was to store 250lbs of food in 50 days, but by the end of the first week it became obvious that I would achieve that volume of harvest fairly easily and quickly, so I increased the target to 500lbs.

And, shortly after the midway point I realised that I could increase my target once again. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that this plot could yield so much food in such a short space of time.

I have, in fact, harvested more than the list below, because for the purpose of my 50 Days of Harvest project, I didn't include any food that we harvested to consume that day and it didn't include anything harvested prior to the start date. I will, in due course, calculate the total amount that has been harvested from our smallholding this year, but for today, I am celebrating that I have been able to harvest such a fabulous amount in seven weeks and a day.

Here's today's vlog, or if you can't view it on your device, you can watch it on YouTube here

The harvest included

317 lbs apples (cooking apples and eating apples)
85 lbs winter squashes
22 lbs beetroot
30 lbs dwarf beans
44 lbs courgettes
57 lbs tomatoes
3 lbs cucumber
9 lbs plums
48 lbs runner beans
8 lbs savoy cabbage
31 lbs borlotti beans (net weight)
9 lbs blackberries
75 lbs chicken and duck
16 lbs raspberries 
19 lbs sweetcorn
3 lbs Greek gigantes beans
23 lbs pears
1 lb parsnips.

Our cupboards are filled with jars of apple sauce, plum sauce, green tomato chutney and raspberry jam. Demi-Johns are filled with country wines nicely fermenting away, the freezers are filled to bursting with produce and our hearts are filled with joy.

The whole project can be found on YouTube here

50 Days of Harvest - Day One - An invitation to join a celebration!

Today I start a new project and I invite you to join me in a celebration of an abundant harvest.

If you can not view the video on your device, you can watch it on YouTube here.

Food Forest Fruit year one

The Food Forest is starting to take shape and offering an abundance of fruit even in its first year. In this video I have a look at some of the fruit that is growing well at the moment.

It you can't play the video below, you can see it on YouTube here.

End of summer planning

 As I type it's very warm, we've had a couple of days of summer in mid September and it's due to continue for a few more days, but without a doubt the summer is coming to an end and the activity in the garden reflects this.

I've harvested the borlotti beans, popped them all out of their colourful pods and left them to dry on the kitchen windowsill. They will be a useful addition to soups and stews in the winter. I won't be able to use them as seeds for next year as they are F1 hybrids, so I will need to buy fresh seed. Now I know that we like these pink marbled beans I will source some organic seeds that are not F1s so that we can save the seeds year after year.

The freezer is being filled up with vegetables and fruit from the garden, our neighbours' fruit trees (windfall apples) and from the hedgerow. There are pounds of runner beans, broad beans, mangetout, patty pan squash, rainbow chard, apples, blackberries, white currants, elderberries and chopped herbs. There's a paper sack for potatoes that is being filled a little more each day as I lift the tubers. And the larder cupboard is being filled with jars of jam and sauces and bottles of wine.

 The pumpkins are turning bright orange and look like they will be ready for us to give one to my grandsons and another to a friend's children for Halloween and we will be able to have pumpkin soup, roasted & mashed pumpkin and sweet pumpkin pie. Root vegetables will stay in place as long as possible and leeks will be lifted as we need them.

Most of the brassicas should be fine until we need them. 

Some of the first January King cabbages look ready to cut.

 And the red cabbage won't be too far behind. Many of the leafy vegetables will stay in the ground throughout the winter and be harvested on a 'cut and come again' basis. There are also crops that I've grown specifically to give to the chickens to supplement their pelleted food in the cooler months.

My daughter gave me some seeds last Christmas and has offered to do the same again this year, but she has asked me to select what I would like to grow. This means that I need to start thinking about next year's vegetable garden before too long. I had a plan for what I was going to grow this year (it can be seen here) and inevitably, it didn't quite work out that way. 

What we actually achieved looked like this.
The 'empty' sections are places were we haven't created the raised beds yet. Given that this was our first year here and that we were unable to rotavate the ground as we had anticipated, I am very pleased with how much we have achieved, especially as now I've realised that churning up the ground would have been a bad decision. I've learnt a great deal about the garden, the way the wind blows throughout the year, the sunniest spots, the driest places and the subtle slope of the site. 

The appalling soil that we started with is already improving having added tons of compost made in our compost bins and bays, wood chippings, well rotted horse manure and top soil. The health of the soil life is improving too, it now has masses of worms, bugs of various kinds, fungi and bacteria. 

The chickens have played their part in improving the soil by scratching at the surface of the ground and fertilising it as they go. Their used bedding materials have gone into the compost heaps and into the circles of love, which in turn have gone into the ground. Even the young chicks have been working hard in the garden. 

These seven week olds are now free ranging daily and go to their own house at night. Next week I will put them into the chicken shed with the other hybrid birds. Two of these four are female and will remain with the flock as they mature to become part of our egg laying flock, the two males will be dispatched before they reach maturity as for the next two years we don't need more cockerels in Big Red's flock.

The seven week old Austrlorps are huge in comparison to the hybrids, they now live in an enclosure and house of their own and before too long I will add the older Austrlorp into this group. Our plans for the chickens next year is to have four areas in the field, each one having a separate flock of birds. One each for the Cream Legbars, Australorps, Jersey Giants and the hybrids. By keeping them separately we will be able to offer hatching eggs for sale and also young birds for those who can travel to collect them from us. We have been careful to ensure that we have birds in each flock from different bloodlines to keep the offspring strong and healthy.

We've decided that next year we will aim to have a larger hatch of ducks earlier in the year rather than several smaller hatchings. This way we won't need to have lots of small poultry houses to keep ducks of different ages in, but can use one or two larger houses for a shorter period. If I have to clean out smelly duck houses I would rather do it for more birds for a shorter length of time than a constant need to clean throughout the spring and summer that would happen from multiple hatchings. 

So our planning for next year is beginning to take shape, little by little. Next step is to have a good look through the seeds that I have left over from this year, decide which crops I want to grow again and order any seeds that have run out and any new varieties that we want to try. I am going to start this process today, but first, of course, it's time for a cuppa!

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Abundance and Fruits of the Forage Jam recipe

As   we head towards the end of the first summer on our smallholding, the rhythm of my days is changing. Although I am up at around five each morning, I am no longer out in the garden right away because it's still dark. So for the first hour I'm now reading, watching and researching instead of doing that in the midday heat.

I've been gathering as much food as I can, to eat fresh and also to preserve. I have frozen kilos of mirabelles, fat juicy plums, elderberries, blackberries from the hedgerows, sliced runner beans, broad beans, chunky rainbow chard stems and mangetout.

In  the piggery I've stored the garlic bulbs and the onions will join them once they have ripened. Yet to come are the apples, potatoes, carrots, parsnips and a myriad of other vegetables. Some crops will stay in the ground over winter and should give us freshly picked vegetables throughout the winter and early spring.

By  sheer good fortune, my neighbours have a glut in some crops that either have failed in our kitchen garden or we haven't very much of and we have a glut of crops that haven't done too well in their garden. Being the sensible bunnies that we are, we have started to swap the excesses meaning that both families now have a wider selection of foods to eat now and to store for the winter.

Yesterday evening our neighbour dropped by with a carrier bag filled with plums which were a swap for runner beans that they have been having for the last few weeks. 

They've also said that I can help myself to windfall cooking apples which I am delighted about as I have been foraging blackberries from the hedgerows and can now make blackberry and apple pie filling to freeze. If there are enough cooking apples I will also make some blackberry and apple jam or jelly. The apples on our young trees are eating apples and there are not very many of them as yet because the trees are only four or five years old.

The success of some vegetables has inspired me for next year. I will plant many more beetroot (Boltardy) which have been very sweet and flavoursome this year, to make wine from next year. In the area between the perennial flower border and the vegetable garden I had planned to have cut flowers and herbs, but I will now have fruit instead. I will plant some fruit trees, underplanted with currant bushes, fruit canes and strawberry plants together with some complementary herbs. Some mint in a pot buried in the ground to go with the strawberries, some sweet cicely to help take the edge off the rhubarb, some licquorice roots, tarragon to go with the raspberries.

This afternoon I have made some of my favourite mixed fruit jam, which I'm calling 'Fruits of the Forage' Jam.

Fruits of the Forage Jam

Ingredients

3lbs of foraged fruit (I used 1lb cored windfall apples and 2lbs of stoned plums, blackberries and elderberries)
Juice of 1 Lemon
2lbs unrefined granulated sugar
1 glass red wine (optional)
7 fluid oz boiling water
1tblspn ground cinnamon
1tblspn ground ginger
2 dried cloves (ground in pestle and mortar)
1/2 tspn grated nutmeg

Method

Wash jam jars and put in heated oven to sterilise and put lids in a pan of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes to sterilise and leave in water until ready to use.

Wash and prepare the fruit, squeeze lemon juice over the fruit and put in a heavy based large pan with the glass of wine and boiling water. 

Cook until the fruit is soft stirring regularly to prevent it sticking to the pan. 

Add cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. 

Stir in the sugar until dissolved.

Cook rapidly stirring to prevent sticking until setting point.

Remove jars from oven and leave to cool a little.

Spoon or ladle the jam into the jars (be careful because the jars will be hot).

Wipe the outside of the jars if necessary to remove any spilt jam, but avoid putting your cloth into the jar.

Using tongs, remove the lids one at a time from the pan of water and seal jars.

Once the jam has cooled in the jars, remember to label them to help avoid confusion later.

Use a deep pan to avoid splashes

Ready to put jam into jars

Use tongs to remove lids from hot water

Don't forget to label your Fruits of the Forage Jam

Morning celebration in the kitchen garden

First thing this morning I took a long, hard look at the garden and I am really pleased with how it is progressing. So, here's a picture-filled catch up of what's been going on.

Yesterday I started another compost bay as we'd been given several more large bags of spent brewer's grain and hops and if the grain isn't covered fairly quickly it gets jolly smelly and unpleasant. I used three pallets tied together with baling twine, the back pallet is part of the fence that I am constructing right around the kitchen garden, the pallets that become the sides of the compost bay offer stability to the fence, which we need because this site is exposed. My hope is that composting and water collection bays along the lengths of the garden will help not only to protect the fence, but also offer protection for the crops within the garden.

I then lined the pallet with straw and began created the compost heap with layers of straw, spent grain, annual weeds, chicken and duck manure and a little compost from a heap that I made a couple of weeks or so ago, to add micro-organisms.

This is the heap that I turned last week and added some more grass clippings, it is breaking down nicely. The thick straw top, which I will remove before I use the compost, has been very effective at keeping the heat in and the rain out, I will do this again. I used a little of this compost in the new heap and also to add to the heap we made last week that is out in the open rather than in a pallet sided bay.

A couple of weeks ago I fenced off an area that the chickens have turned over very well and planted some seed potatoes and then mulched it with straw.

I was delighted to notice yesterday that the potatoes had started to grow. The little shoots are now about two or three inches high and I now feel reasonably confident that we will have some sort of crop from this area, although they may not be very large potatoes as I put them into the ground quite late in the season.

The old tractor tyres that I planted up a month or so ago are now filled with rapidly growing potato plants. Having 'earthed up' using partially rotted wood chippings last week and mulched with straw, I was surprised to see just how quickly they are putting on growth now. I suspect that all the recent rain has been to their liking.

The tractor tyres are next to the herbaceous border and I am really pleased with this corner. The delphinium and foxgloves were bought at our local garden centre in the reduced section as they were really very much past their best. They were six packs of mixed colours so I had no idea what colours would appear when, and if, they grew. As luck would have it, the delphinium and foxgloves are creamy white, so it almost looks as though it was planted this way on purpose. As this is their first year the flower spikes are small but still, they are very pretty. This rose with delicate pink flowers was a gift from my friend Jane and the acer in the very corner was already in the garden but tucked away behind the house, so in February Jane and I moved it to this spot where it seems to have settled in well.

Anyway, back to the kitchen garden. When I drew up the plan for the garden I had grand visions of immaculately manicured pathways and attractive beds giving it a potager look. It didn't take me very long to change my mind when I realised that actually what I want is a highly productive garden that works as much as possible with nature, but also one that doesn't create a huge amount of upkeep. I knew that this year, during the setting up period, there would be a vast amount to do, but I've also learnt a lot of ways to reduce the workload and to make best use of the resources that we have. One of those resources is the chickens and in the autumn, when there is plenty of clearing up to do in the beds, they will have a part to play. We already have a run, that we used for the chicks in the garden that is the perfect size for putting over the beds. We can then put a few of the chickens into the run for the day to scratch about in the bed and clear it of weeds and any remaining crops that have started going to seed. At the same time they will be fertilising the soil, turning it over and fluffing it up.

We are now about half way through creating the raised beds and bit by bit I am covering the pathways with cardboard and shredded dried Leylandii (because that's what I have). Next year on the pathways I will probably use straw or, if I can find a good source, with wood chippings. I have now put up approximately a quarter of the pallet fencing that will surround the kitchen garden and it really feels like it is all coming together.

 I haven't grown broad beans before, I don't like them, so there was little point in giving them space, but Mr J does like them and so now there is a jolly good reason to learn about them. I sowed them indoors early in the year and grew them on in the greenhouse until they were about four inches high before planting them out. I planted them between the rows of garlic, hoping that the smell of garlic would confuse any bugs that might find the broad beans tasty. Today I spotted that there are small bean pods forming and none of the leaves look too badly nibbled by unwelcome visitors.

The onion beds are a mixed bag of results so far. I planted two varieties and one has done very well, with strong growth and a rich dark green colour, the other is weaker, smaller, paler and not looking so happy. I will make some nettle and chicken manure liquid feed in the hope that they will pick up once they've been given a nutritional boost.

The deeper bed which had parsnip seeds sown into it and edged with pot marigolds is now starting to do well. I got very excited last week when I saw lots of little seedlings appear, only to realise that I was getting excited about small vetches and plantain! This week however, I can celebrate properly as the parsnip seedlings are starting to pop up in neat lines across the bed. I'm leaving the weeds to grow a little more and then when they are four to six inches high I will hoe them off and leave them where they are to feed the soil and create a green mulch to reduce the number of other weed seeds that might otherwise germinate. There is also a volunteer potato growing in this bed because some potato peelings ended up in the compost heap rather than being boiled and fed to the chickens. The peeling has sprouted and grown and I'm happy for it to be there, it may or may not produce edible potatoes, we will know later in the year.

This pea bed is also growing now. At the far end are mange tout which seem to be struggling a bit, the lower leaves are yellowing. Everything in the garden seems to be suffering from a lack of nutrients, which I suspect is a reflection of the poor soil on which we are trying to create this vegetable and fruit garden. Looking further around the garden, I can see some shrubs with similar problems, so I think it must be an issue across the whole of the smallholding. The large amount of compost being created should help improve the soil in the long term, but for the immediate needs of the plants I will make nettle and chicken manure tonic and look in the garden centre for organic plant foods that I can use to give the poor plants a boost.

The borlotti beans are now about three feet high and this morning I noticed this beautiful flower had opened. The plants are more delicate to look at than those of the robust runner bean, or at least they are at the moment, I'll assess them again for delicateness at the end of the season.

 At the back of the vegetable area is the space that we have designated for soft fruit. In late spring Mr J and I dug a small bed (which we nicknamed 'the grave') and planted it with some of the raspberries which we brought from Mr J's mother's home. These are now doing well, but interestingly no better than the plants that are still sitting in pots waiting to go into the ground. I haven't got as far as weeding between the rows of raspberries, but will need to do so before they go to seed.

The soft fruit area runs to the far end of our smallholding. Along this boundary we have planted a hedge with native plants like hawthorn, buckthorn, hazel, wild rose, dog rose and honeysuckle. As small plants they will take a while to form a useful boundary, be a wind break or to provide us with hedgerow crops. Yesterday I spotted that a large bramble has grown, it's roots are just on the other side of the stock fencing that marks the edge of our property and I made a mental note to take the secateurs to it. This morning however, I have changed my mind. I will go out with some garden twine and tie the longest stems to the wire of the stock fencing and rather than battle with a weed, I'll embrace it (not literally) and use it as a valuable fruit crop.

Yesterday Mr J moved several barrow loads of top soil from where it had been delivered in the front garden to the next raised bed in the kitchen garden and I mixed in some compost and hops. Today he plans to add a few more barrow loads and then I will plant it with purple sprouting broccoli (which should provide us with a crop next spring), under-plant them with perpetual spinach and strawberries. I noticed some strawberry plants hidden amongst the long grass in the back garden, hopefully if I take a large enough soil ball they won't notice that they have been moved.

Last week we cut and ate our first home grown lettuces. Rather than pull the plants out, I cut them quite low down, leaving a few leaves. This morning there are new leaves growing from the base, so we will have a second flush of crispy lettuce from this plant. The red oak leaf lettuce is doing the same thing, so we'll be able to enjoy more if the slugs don't get to them first!

And finally, to complete my celebration of the kitchen garden, I checked on the  plants in the greenhouse. The tomatoes are doing very well, they seem to have grown quickly in the last couple of weeks. I've tied them gently to their cane frame and pinched out the side shoots as they appear. Between the tomatoes I've planted lettuce and along the front is a row of basil and one clump of parsley. I have a few red skin onions that can either be spring onions or left to grow into bulbs, that I plan to add to this bed, again in the hope that the aromas of basil and onion will keep away anything that might attack the tomatoes. The tomatoes at the back in pots are a cordon variety (the name of which I can't remember) and the front ones growing direct in the soil are Money Maker. I also have some Red Alert tomato plants that I will plant in the kitchen garden area. Interestingly the Money Maker seem to be growing more strongly as plants even though the ones in the pots have already started producing fruit.

 

Today my friend who lives in Tasmania is calling in for a cuppa again, on her way from visiting one family member to see another while she is in the UK. As I was up at four this morning, I imagine that I will head for bed after her visit, so nothing much more will be done in the garden by me today. And that's okay, I think the garden is doing just fine at the moment.

Thoughtful Thursday

Yesterday evening, after a lot of planning, Mr J and I (with help from our neighbour) bolted together the body of the second-hand shed. This will be the new chicken shed (a chick shack) to replace the mini village of small chicken houses that they currently use.

The small houses will not go to waste, far from it, they will become home to chicks and young birds until they are large enough to join the flock and can be used if we need to isolate a chicken due to broodiness, ill-health or if they are a new arrival that needs to be kept separate for a while.

This morning we had a visit from Anna, whom I have known since 1979 when I met her at the college we both attended. Anna and I have been firm friends ever since and although we don't see each other very often, we always meet up when we can and about ten years ago I went to stay with her for a week or so. When we were 18 years old, Anna moved to Australia. She only went for a year, to gain some catering experience and see another culture, but she decided that she loved it there and made her home on the other side of the world. She lives on the beautiful island of Tasmania and my memories of it are of clean air, good quality light and a very relaxed feel. We have one of those friendships that has little communication between visits, but then we pick up where we left off as though it was only yesterday that we last saw each other. I treasure our friendship.

After Anna had left I pottered in the garden for a while and as it was starting to get very warm outside, I headed to the shady area next to the piggeries. This back garden area is shaded by several very large sycamore trees and we have left the grass to grow long except for a couple of pathways through it which Mr J cut for ease of getting around. I enjoy the way the grass moves in the wind and the seed heads sit like a frothy foam above the rich green grass stalks. The previous owners had planted lots of flowering plants and herbs in this area and bit by bit I have been moving them to other areas of the garden. Today I spotted this lovely combination hiding amongst the tall grass. The sage has huge golden-green leaves and the grey leaves of the Nepeta contrast nicely with its purple flowers.

I spent quite a while watching the wind move the grass and listening to the birds singing. I think it's really important that we take the time to enjoy our environment and I probably don't do it often enough. Mr J and I are so lucky to have found this beautiful place and even more fortunate to have been able to make it our home.

While I'm walking around the garden I always keep a watchful eye for seedlings and young plants that have self-seeded. These voluntary plants are starting to form the basis of a hedge along the last stretch of fencing that doesn't have a hedge yet. Today I found a couple of hornbeam seedlings that have seeded themselves from the hedge that surrounds the back garden. In the next few days, I will move them to the other side of the smallholding where I have started the hedge with some willow, small conifers and honeysuckles. To this I will add the four small trees that my daughter gave me for Mother's Day earlier in the year, a couple of sycamore seedlings (which are around a foot high at the moment) and a horse chestnut seedling given to us by my daughter's father-in-law. I've potted up some tiny hawthorn trees, but will let them grow for another year or so before planting them into the hedge. I also plan to take cuttings from the young hedge that I put around two-thirds of the paddock in the early spring. Then I can add wild rose and dog rose to the final stretch of hedge.

My friends and family are being very generous in giving us plants for the garden and now our neighbours have invited me to have a look around their garden to see if there is anything I'd like cuttings or divisions of. It won't take long for the shrubbery and herbaceous border to fill up and fill out. The vegetable and fruit garden are also being planted with gifted plants. Loganberries, oca, herbs and seeds have been given and we have repaid some of folks' kindness by giving them eggs and the promise of jams and chutneys once the plants have grown.

By the greenhouse I've checked on the courgettes that I gave some nettle tonic to and they seem to have improved already, so this morning I watered the courgettes that are planted in the garden with the tonic mixture and hopefully in a few days they will have picked up too. I haven't noticed any flying insects in the greenhouse and there is also very little breeze in there, so I think I will need to hand pollinate the tomato flowers this evening to ensure that we get a good crop of tomatoes this year.

On Tuesday, while we were out and about, Mr J and I called at the garden centre and bought a triple blade hoe. So shortly I'm going back out to the garden to tackle some of the weeds in the herbaceous border, but first, as always, I'll make a cuppa.