Grow Your Own Mistletoe - Endangered Parasite Plant !

Grow Your Own Mistletoe - Endangered Parasite Plant !:

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Land Cress and snow

Planted land cress in greenhouse and harvested some in multispan polytunnel this week. Also digging in the snow for mustard leaf and stripping leeks in the barn in sub zero temps. Got some pucca gloves for winter, Showa from Japan, fleece lined, thick and mega waterproof. Picked some sprouts which are few and far between now. Spinach is a bit shrivelled and small, some nice spring greens and endive lettuce. Rocket is popularin salads. We bought a ceramic harvester for growing bean shoots etc. It's great. Pictures to follow. Also will be growing our own wheat grass for processing. Shot a pheasant today with the 177. Hanging for a few days in garage, nice and cold in there. Delivered some wheat feed to big barn near East Grinstead on Wed. Took a few pictures of the animals.

And one of the tractor.

Here's one of snow covered sprouts.

Finished the aviary so will post some pictures of the birds who seem quite happy despite it being minus 5 out there. We tried to insulate the shed as much as poss and it is quite cosy in there. The goats got a load of barley hay and straw so they are fine. Made a new chicken run with left overs from aviary and it looks ok, will take pic tomorrow. Lots of harvesting still but also the sowing must start, life is a hectic balance on the farm still.

Pig post

Lots been happening down on the farms. After another trip to Sussex got some nice pics of the animals at Tablehurst.

                                                                            Pigsy!!

                                          And another friendly critter.

Very icy weather and spinach etc frozen and limp. Paul was saying it will be at the equinox when the growing circle starts to turn. Incidentally, I realized that my daughter Olive's birthday was not only at the start of the millenium but on the autumn equinox (22nd September) which is a bit nifty. Here's Paul on the old Massey with thin wheels ideal for going between the rows of veg without causing too much compaction.

We have been clearing the celeriac from the field as it is starting to rot. Most are ok though and gave them a good wash. We got over 250 celeriac and still more to come.

Here's a picture of part of the bountiful harvest. The celeriac were a bit small this season due to the dry conditions. Plenty of leeks though and they are getting massive. Finished of the pak choi to put in mixed salads and cut some celery and bagged it up to put in the shop. Veg is getting a bit scarce now and salads can have baby Kale in, mustard leaf and spinach. Coming to the end of the squashes too, blue squash left mostly.

                 Here's a picture of someone getting carried away by one of our squashes!

                                                 Happy pig in February sunshine

Bountiful Harvest

Lovely crisp sunny day today, basking in the sunshine and appreciating outdoor work. Harvested spinach, black and red kale, some chard and mustard leaf. Bagged up sprouts for market aswell as mixed salad with pak choi, baby sized kale and mustard leaf in. Mostly root vegetables around still lots of produce off to market. Spent the weekend putting up an aviary and fixing motors. Good to get things done though. Got some great council style slabs for the aviary floor. Really heavy but we got them down and the aviary is nice and solid. Birds getting more and more tame especially the cockatiels. Lovely temperament and like to peck at my ring for some reason. Also the kakarikis were out for a scout around. Will post a picture soon.

BAG BALM

BAG BALM: "Bag Balm’s “packaging” (practically an unheard of marketing term in those days) would prove to stand the test of time with as much distinction as the product itself. Mr. Norris traveled from Lyndonville, Vermont to Boston to design the original can. Its distinctive, dominant green colour accented by red lettering and red clover surrounding a cow’s head on the top of the lid has remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years.

For chapped conditions, and superficial abrasions. Bag Balm contains lanolin and stays on to provide moisturizing and softening. For pets, apply liberally to the affected areas. Contains no alcohol.

"

Bag Balm’s “packaging” (practically an unheard of marketing term in those days) would prove to stand the test of time with as much distinction as the product itself. Mr. Norris traveled from Lyndonville, Vermont to Boston to design the original can. Its distinctive, dominant green colour accented by red lettering and red clover surrounding a cow’s head on the top of the lid has remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years.

For chapped conditions, and superficial abrasions. Bag Balm contains lanolin and stays on to provide moisturizing and softening. For pets, apply liberally to the affected areas. Contains no alcohol.

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Of gorse!!

When it's barren outside you really notice the lovely yellow flowers of the gorse. Apparantly it was used for dying wool and boiled eggs at easter time in Ireland. It was grown for animal shelter and crushed up for horse feed. I saw a programme (Victorian Farm) where the Dartmoor ponies were eating the gorse thorns and all! Here's a great page on it.
          Driving to East Sussex with veg and took a picture of the ruins at Brambletye. Also of the woods nearby.

The house (ruins) go back to the English Civil War.

                                             The wood nearby. I stop here for a break.

As I was delivering to Harvest Home which is situated in the middle of Ashdown Forest and has a shop full of organic, biodynamic, alternative medicines etc. I picked up a copy of the 'Positive News' which is a newspaper full of positive news! It's a great and refreshing approach to news. Here is the website link.

Picked a couple of hundred pak choi in the (11 degrees C) greenhouse. Seedlings coming on on the heat table (20 degree C) for the lettuce (similar to Cos). Pak Choi really lush and green, sometimes have a yellowing on the underside (mildew) so need to be cleaned up a tad and sometimes 3 in a bag if small. Baby chicks arrived and put on heat, nice drip feeder for the bigger chickens. Picked loads of lush Kale today, easy crop to harvest and lovely snapping sound when picking. Here's a pick of the crop;

It's a Kale forest!!

                                         
                                                                 Bagging up for an order

Just a small detraction from growing and a picture from Ella to celebrate True God's Day 2012...

Ella is year of tiger, Gloria year of the ox, Olly the dragon, Lily the rabbit, Archie the horse and Merlin the rooster as is Bogusia. I'm a pig but enough said about that ;)

And I cannot resist Archie's picture just before his up and coming haircut. Einstein and go go?

Back to the growing. I sowed some lettuce and radish in our unheated greenhouse and they are sprouting forth, hurrah. Also have some early onion seeds in the propagator in the garage. Will see what happens there. Got a visit from Martin Macky from Ripple Farm today. They are a very good local supplying organic set up near Canterbury (Godmersham) which incidentally has links with Jane Austen I believe.