A present of stones
“I don’t know what we are going to do with these stones.” David peered at the rocks that were arranged in a commodious pot just outside the front door of Einat’s house. “I don’t suppose that you’d be interested in them, and the others?” His eyes drifted to the grass and a group of sizeable flints. “Yes please.” They were all large rocks. Massive flints and other superb unidentified specimens. Stones are handy. They can stop up rat holes, block escape routes for the Min Pins and...
read moreUpdate on Mrs Boss and the duck eggs
I’ve overslept, having fallen asleep at the laptop last night. My post is not finished and I have to go out for the day. So this is just a small update on Mrs Boss and the duckling eggs. I have made extensive repairs on the “castle”. Mice have spent a happy winter chomping through the castle walls. With the aid of one of Dan’s olive tins and a large pair of tin snips I have repaired the damage and disinfected the accommodation with Citrox the organic disinfectant. I discovered a rat run under the house, which ends just...
read moreHow to tell if your eggs are fresh
When I cracked the eggs into the frying pan this morning, one egg was clearly much fresher than the other. The first had a yolk standing just right above the white like a small hillock. The next had a much flatter yolk. It smelt fine but the flatter yolk indicates that the egg is not so fresh. Even if I put the ‘flat’ egg on my plate Danny always notices and offers to swap. “There must be some way of knowing which eggs are the freshest.” We have a superb wooden egg stand that I inherited from my Aunt Pickles. This holds...
read moreGrowing your own tomatoes and coping with blight
Each year we marvel when the first tomato seedlings appear. It’s hard to believe that they should grow into sturdy plants almost as tall as me and provide us with pounds and pounds of fruit. Out of 80 potential finalists, only forty will make it to the next round. Usually we end up with around thirty plants. These make up the cast of our grand tomato opera. A few divas and supporting roles and at least twenty less showy plants that make up the chorus. The main cast bask against the sunny side of the cottage and the rest are in the...
read moreForaging Rocambole (Sand Leek, Spanish Garlic): an edible alternative to wild garlic
There’s a lane that I often drive through on the outskirts of Dullingham village. It is called Eagle Lane and runs beside a large estate. At the top of the lane there are a pair of vast palace sized ornamental gates with a gate house just beyond, snug amongst the trees. A good half mile down the road, two large stone eagles guard anther wide entrance. These old eagles sit aloft high stone posts. They are large and distract the eye from the entrance. On close examination, the entrance reveals nothing but a haze of trees, wispy green and...
read moreHome
Quite often I sit at the kitchen table and think about the people that have sat in this room over the last 360 years. Until 25 years ago this was a small two bedroomed cottage with a couple of lean to barns each side. Probably in its infancy, our kitchen housed cattle and hens along with the humans. Three hundred years ago, domestic livestock often shared the ground floor with the inhabitants of a cottage. Upstairs was the purely human realm, with a scatter of dogs and cats that crept up and were welcomed to warm cold feet on a chilly night....
read moreCottage Smallholder wet cured and smoked bacon recipe
One thing that lightens the darkest day is our home cured bacon. When I took a small hamper of food to my mum the small package that I was really pleased with was our bacon. Her grill is different from ours. She had to wait a good twenty minutes before it was cooked, compared to our ten minutes. But the smell of slow cooked bacon is the heart of any good breakfast, so by the time I had warmed the plates and rustled up some scrambled egg my mum was in the starting stalls and eager to go. She tasted a small forkful and looked up. “I...
read moreDuck egg incubation by Mrs Boss: preparation
It’s that time of year again. Mrs Boss is going broody. When I go down to collect the eggs from the nesting box, she is keeping them warm for me. She is at the early stages of broodiness so she can still easily be shifted off the nest and scuttles downstairs to eat and drink. She will join the rest of the flock to forage for seed but within twenty minutes or so she is snaking back up the ramp in the hen house that leads to the dormitory upstairs. In past summers she has spent weeks going in and out of jail. An anti broody coop is a...
read moreSunday roast: Breast of lamb stuffed with bacon and apricots recipe
We have got a craze for breast of lamb at the moment. It’s such an economical joint and it’s a great opportunity to play with store cupboard ingredients for the stuffing. I usually use fresh breadcrumbs in stuffing but I had such a lot of dried breadcrumbs I though I’d whiz them up in the food processor and give them a go instead. I also left out onions to speed up the preparation. The result was lots of texture and a satisfying crunchiness that balanced the sweet melt in the mouth meat. Following Nigel Slater’s...
read moreGuinea pigs are heaven to eat
Warning ! This post is not suitable reading for the faint hearted, it contains black humour. Guinea pigs are a delicacy in Peru. I discovered that they are delicious raw. One day I returned from my first wallpapering job to find The Contessa barking with delight from a pretty yellow silk button backed chair. Peeping out from a pile of cushions beside her was a tan shorthaired guinea pig with very bright black eyes. Not knowing quite how to deal with the situation I reached for the kitchen roll. My sister, who was with me at the time,...
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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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