The Cottage Smallholder

There are still a healthy amount of wild strawberry (fragaria vesca) Bilberry (vaccinium myrtillus) & chanterelles (cantharellus cibarius) around Cornwall at present and after years of looking I actually found my first burdock... nearly ran it over collecting for the woodstack!....

Have just finished blanching and freezing a stack of vine leaves ( for dolmades or koupepia in Greek). And wild cherries have been frozen and preserved. Any mushrooms correctly identified that are surplass are being thinly cut and threaded onto a string in the kitchen as well as cheap supermarket mushrooms.

Herbs are drying in bunches in the conservatory and crunched up into bags and just about to pull up rooted oregano to spread on the field for the poultry... Eggs already taste fantastic but have lost eight to various things!. Quail eggs are also being pickled and seem to be a glut at the mo.... just about to hatch some more chickens for laying and freezer and Our friend up the road has bought a chest freezer... for me to use!!! can you believe it?... we had her last one because we thought she wanted shot of it!!!... already planning on filling with a few geese and several braces of quail!!!

Lots to do and probably more I have forgotten.. oh yes dont forget the rock samphire and sea beet when on the coast!... I obtained a loose root of samphire last year and water it with a good deal of diluted salt and the thing is thriving!! and flowering!!

Out bunny shooting tonight. I am mentoring a chappy up the road and its a good excuse to top up the freezer. I usualy only keep the saddle and boil the rest up as animal feed... If the cat doesnt eat it there are plenty of dogs around that will!

First proper post and suitably vague I hope..

Oh yes the sweet chestnuts are flowering profusely so a good harvest to be expected I hope?.

Stephen