The Cottage Smallholder

I went into the garden in the morning when it was sunny to check the keets and see what was happening in the garden generally. The rain has battered a lot of the plants in the herbaceous border but it still is looking lush. This opium poppy had opened in the kitchen garden and was Read More »

We are now on day 28 of Farming Friends’ and Cottage Smallholder’s interblog guinea fowl breeding event . The gestation period for guinea fowl eggs is 26-28 days. This morning I jumped out of bed, pulled on my wellies and shot down to the chicken run. Perhaps the eggs that Sara from Farming Friends had Read More »

My friend Jane and her family moved from London to the coast a few years ago as they didn’t want their children to grow up in the city. They are now is planning to make the leap to life in a country cottage. She kindly agreed to let me publish extracts of her sparky email Read More »

I’ve been away in London for a couple of nights. Danny took over as Maternity Matron and attended to Mrs Boss’s castle. The first thing I did on my return was rush down to check if we had keets. They could arrive anytime from now on. Mrs Boss was looking pretty chirpy and the nest Read More »

Watching the birds feeding just outside the kitchen windows gives me enormous pleasure. Since the bird eating cat that used to lurk in our front garden has moved away there are many more ground feeding birds and quite often I spot mice collecting seeds. Mice in the shrubs are fine. When they come into the Read More »

After the disaster of my tomatoes getting what I thought was blight, the replacements that I bought are romping along. Good sturdy plants and much better than the understudies that were waiting in the greenhouse. These are growing but in a thin and straggly sort of way. I should have moved them to the cold Read More »

Hopefully this is the last weekend that we will be waiting for the arrival of the keets (baby guinea fowl). The eggs were sent by Sara at Farming Friends and are due to hatch anytime from June 27, so the next Mrs Boss newsflash may well report the addition of tiny keets to our menagerie. Read More »

Do you remember the craze for cooking fish in little foil parcels in the oven? I was looking through some old Waitrose recipes and I thought that I’d try baking some sea bass in them. It worked well and infused the fish with the fennel and lemon flavours. It was easy too, giving me some Read More »

On Friday evening, when I am tired, it’s always the small husbandry tasks that magically make me feel better. By the end of June, the fish respond to my footfalls as I pass the by pond, rushing to be fed with mouths wide open. Food falls from the sky when they hear the thundering steps. Read More »

“We decided that we’d taste this uncooked.” I proffered a stalk to Danny. He looked uncertain. “When did we decide to do this?” I picked off a large branch and ate it trying to remain expressionless. “Come on, you promised. We were sitting in Jalopy, and the rain was bouncing off the roof.” Danny took Read More »