Update on the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Event. Gentle beings.
June 2007 saw the launch of the Farming Friends’ – Cottage Smallholder’s Interblog Guinea Fowl Event. Looking back at the guinea fowl posts this is a well rounded cycle. Amazing highs and lows and even tears. Everything started here when Sara at Farming Friends sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post I love my guinea fowl. They are gentle docile beings. Hanging about in a group, they communicate constantly with one another. I went down at dusk on Saturday to lay some gravel in the gluey, muddy run. They had settled in the...
read moreMenu for Hope and Food blogging
We all love to eat great food. Most of us have never gone without. We might read a recipe and turn it down because it’s just too expensive to make. Imagine not having the money to buy food. Any food. It’s the last day of Menu for Hope. ?5 buys you a raffle ticket to win a scrumptious prize. Last year $66,000 was raised to fight real hunger. Just now I saw that the total was just $57,000. It would be so good to top last year’s total figure. We have put up a slim hardback winemaking book that has given me superb results –...
read moreMarmite
I used to always buy small jars of Marmite. I didn’t lavish it on bread every day so it seemed the sensible choice. But these dinky jars easily get lost in the larder. When the Marmite Deamon took over I often couldn’t find the jar. I would carefully search each shelf and finally tear the larder apart. Eventually, two days later, I would discover the jar skulking behind the kitchen roll. Danny always got the blame. A bit unfair as he hates Marmite. When I discovered that he really didn’t like Marmite I questioned the...
read moreFather Christmas
My sister’s bedroom door was ajar. She had just started school and was closeted with her new friend, May Ashmore. Two years younger, I was feeling the age gap. Sara was five and out in the world and I was stuck at home. I hated being excluded. When I quietly opened the door my sister spun round, “This is a private conversation.” The tone was sharp. And they looked complicit. I crept away but hovered in the corridor, intrigued by the whispers. May Ashmore had come to tea. At the table Sara’s new friend had announced that...
read moreMoney tree
Many years ago I was staying with a friend with time on her hands. In the past, I had noticed the tall green leaved plants that stood in three pots in her drawing room. They didn’t flower. They just made up a dull wall of leafy greenness. When I arrived for this particular visit, they were covered in tiny white flowers, as insignificant as the plants. “The flowers are not real,” she whispered. “They are teeny pieces of tissue paper secured with a twist of florist’s wire. It took me two days to make them. My...
read moreGuest spot. Best vegetarian recipes : Emma Bennett’s Vegetarian Moussaka recipe
Last week I ate three excellent vegetarian meals. Danny ate two – he was stuck coming back from Wales and made do with a burger. My trusty Alpha Carnivore mentioned his meal in passing. “It was an Aberdeen Angus burger but it was tiny. I didn’t want a burger and envied you.” I was polishing off the final (large portion) of Emma’s Vegetarian Moussaka. Unbelievably good. With Danny away I could have seconds too. I decided to start cooking this meal on Sunday evening and prepared the lentils and aubergine. I made...
read moreA True Blue Award
Sara at Farming Friends has given me this award! Thank you Sara -I’m bowled over. Sara is very supportive of The Cottage Smallholder blog and we have had enormous fun with our Interblog guinea fowl breeding event this year. If you write a blog, blogging friends are important. These are the guys that support your blog leave comments and get involved. This award made me think about my short blogging history and commenting in general. My sister Sara had been suggesting for months that it might be fun to do a blog. “You could talk...
read moreBritish and American units of measurement
Last Sunday I drifted into TKMax. The shop is heaving with great stocking fillers. Scented drawer liners, a loofah, Amaretti, shortbread and Liquid French soap for my mum. Toffee for Danny. The kitchen department is always worth checking out. I’ve bought great kitchen knives for under a pound. We needed a new saucepan so I went upstairs to see what they had. I spotted a small clutch of measuring cups that were American cups. I was tempted, I wanted them. The little nest was so cute. Then I remembered that we had found this great site for...
read moreGuest spot: Quick Banana Chutney recipe for Christmas and beyond by Kate(uk)
“Fiona, would you be interested in a recipe for banana chutney? It sounds odd, but I can assure you that it is the very, very best chutney with cold turkey and if made this week will be ready for use on boxing day. As long as it is kept secret or you will find family members standing with empty jar in one hand, dessert spoon in the other and a guilty look on their faces” “Yes please.” Just reading her email made me desperate to get my hands on the recipe. A superb chutney that only takes 10 days to mature. This would be...
read moreSeduced by homemade butter
“Have you got to Sainsbury’s yet?” “No.” I was curious. Why was Danny ringing me? I had run out of tea bags and was combining a trip to Sainsbury’s with a trip to Ridgeons to pick up some more paint. Tea is fuel. Without it all work would quickly grind to a halt. “There has been a small domestic disaster.” I imagined the worst possible scenario. The fridge freezer had finally died. A Min Pin had discovered how to lift the lid of the bread bin. A visit from a Davisdstow cheddar enthusiast. I said...
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Recent Comments
{ I was thinking the same as Magic Cochin but then like you I don't have my phone attached by an umbilical cord wherever I go.... } – Wed 8 :47 pm
{ Good point but I don't tend to take it about with me everywhere 
} – Wed 7 :25 pm
{ Doesn't your mobile phone have an alarm setting? C x } – Wed 6 :32 pm
{ I would put it towards a bbq, it's just a shame you can't purchase some sunshine from b&q } – Wed 12 :04 am- { Hi Lesley The clucking means that she is brrody also plucking her own feathers is a sign too. } – Tue 11 :58 pm
- { Hi Lesley They have to stay in the broody coop 24/7. Could you put in a garden shed or garage? } – Tue 11 :57 pm
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