July ramblings

True to say that a week was going to be far to optimistic in doing a follow up blog however I think that in current times five weeks is not bad going for me.

Enjoying a French evening

Summer as described in the prior update has now fizzled out, the scorching temperatures of earlier months has now returned to the norm of grey, moist and humid days, the occasional glimpse of sunshine equated with torrential rains. Needless to say it plays havoc with your tomatoes if you are growing them outside.

At the end of June we went out to Limousin to visit my sister and her partner who have very happily settled into the French way of life. While we were in the lovely little town of Le Dorat it really was exceptionally hot but glorious, the downside being that for a couple of nights sleep eluded everybody due to the heat and a bloody black redstart that insisted on calling at 4am for about an hour! All of our adventures are in husband's excellent blog, just click on the Max and Millie link opposite.


What I wanted to mention was how lovely and completely unspoiled the entire area is, for me it recalled country lanes in the Cheshire of my youth and a pace of life that somehow I think I want to embrace. Needless to say its not a fast process however I do feel that we shall be spending more time in Limousin.

While we were there we did visit a very large country market which not only had the most amazing selection of goods from stunning pre 1970's nylon leisurewear to mattresses, tripe sausages (which we accidentally bought and manfully tried to devour but failed miserably) but lots of stuff for the garden from plants to mini-tractors and livestock. You literally could by anything from a horse to a hen.

On the practical side of it husband wasn't overly happy with the way ducks, geese and chickens were dealt with, crammed into cages then boxes, dignity and welfare out of the window. It's a farming community with little time for compassion, in real terms it looked worse than it was in reality. Once you left the utility area however there was a good selection of fancy poultry, silkies seemed very popular, and lots of other odd pets. If you wanted to buy a chocolate labrador well you were in luck along with a good selection of ferrets, budgies and indeed all manner of creatures that were not going to end up on the table.

All in all it was a very interesting and fun experience though despite my general happiness at eating most things apart from celery I very much doubt I will be having andouillette (tripe sausage) again.


Recipe with eggs as promised in last blog is as follows and not only is highly seasonal but of course uses eggs. My sister made this for us (the cherry version) and it was delicious (and apparently from the Limousin anyway)
Cherry (or in this case, plum) clafouti
Firstly bear in mind that this is a kind of sweet Yorkshire pudding and secondly make sure your baking dish is big enough as if the batter is too deep it gets stodgy in the middle (not a bad thing but the idea is summer and not stodge)
You need a 22cm dish in which you put 2 tsp vegetable oil and get it into a hot gas 7 oven
In a big bowl mix 75g plain flour and 50g caster sugar (or more if the plums aren't ripe) then whisk in 5 bantam eggs (or 4 normal sized ones I guess) along with 250ml milk (full or semi-skimmed).
Stone and chop 400g plums, small plums got chopped into quarters so take it from there. You do need them cooked after all.
Once the oiled dish has hit the required temp quickly mix plums into batter then whip dish out of oven, pour in plummy batter mix then get back into oven asap!
Cook for approx 30 minutes - don't peek!
After the prescribed time you will have a lovely golden puffed clafouti which will collapse within 5 minutes but no matter as it tastes better after waiting around for 10 minutes.
Dust with some icing sugar and serve with cold cream - delicious

Needless to say you can use cherries. It also tastes great cold



Nigella

 The chickens have of course been feeling the seasonal desire to go broody. Harriet as reported, did eventually finish her spell only to be followed by Tallulah who I managed to persuade to finish slightly early, Ruby who got finished off within two weeks so hopefully all have now had a broody attack which will see them over the summer. All have gone into a huge moult apart from Nigella so the garden looks as if it is suffering the remains of a major pillow fight. We did have a most odd week when there were no eggs at all. At one stage I thought that maybe the eggs were being taken but no, laying resumed this week. It's odd not having any eggs!

Small snippets of information. Winter always causes a problem with trying to provide the birds with some greenery or forage. I know that they will do well on just pellets with the occasional scattering of mixed corn but I do like to keep the girls as happy as possible. I have just been reading about feeding them nettles in the winter. I know on various poultry forums there is always debate on nettles, some people say their chickens eat fresh nettles others say that the chickens never touch them. I have been looking into using nettles as enrichment fodder for giraffes of all creatures. Once the nettles have dried the stinging mechanism in nettles is deactivated and giraffes LOVE the stuff. A little research has revealed that if you go and collect your nettles (without getting stung of course), dry them out and bundle them up they can be used to great effect with your chickens and if you have the room and place to keep the nettle bundles dry you could store some for the months when greenery is at a premium. I am going to trial some but not sure quite yet how I am going to make some extra space in the already packed shed in the garden.

Ruby

Allotment is doing okay - of course failed on erecting the polytunnel again this year but with what I think is going to be another disaster with tomatoes I have to promise myself that it will go up this winter! Harvesting is early this year on various crops and we have in mid July already had some bumper crops of blackberries and plums. Have made two batches of bramble jelly so far and jolly delicious it is as well. The most amazing thing is that the jam actually set!

Okay - enough for now. Hopefully I will manage to do another update before Christmas.

Back to blogging and the start of summer

My darling Mum

Your most unreliable blogger strikes again. It's literally months since I wrote however I do have lots of partial writings in the draft section, they just never made it to being posted. One of the major reasons for starting the blog was as an update for my dear Mum. Not only did she enjoy reading about the chickens and the garden, it also made her use the laptop. It was a major reason for keeping the blog updated, that and of course a phone call from Mother asking when the next posting was due!

It's been six months now since Mum died. There is still a big hole in all our lives and there is not a single day that goes by when I don't think about her. Not a single day when I don't think of something that we would talk about:
"What's the recipe for bun loaf?"
"What else can I try to stop Tallulah laying thin shelled eggs?"
"I think I've found a Jerusalem artichoke recipe that won't have you farting all night"
"Have your dahlia's started flowering yet?"
"Can you make me some green bean chutney if you get any spare beans?"

Sadly they are all now conversations in my head however I do still need a bun loaf recipe, I think I have tried everything with Tallulah, the eggs are okay at the moment but she has only just started laying again, Mum never needs to eat Jerusalem artichokes again, there will never be a competition to see who's dahlias flowered first and the green bean chutney will go down in culinary history as a memorial to Mum's as she made the very best.

Anyway as well as for Mum it's back to more regular updates about chickens, gardens and life in general in South London. Actually the life in South London and the pups is fully covered in The Marvellous Adventures of Max and Millie (click on the link in the sidebar).

Nigella eyeballing the camera

Hen wise we are just about back to all four laying, at last. Silkies I have to say are THE most stubborn broodies. Yes, before anybody comments that being broody is their forte, I know but can you get them out of broody mode until they have done their requisite time? No!
Fortunately the Sussex are fairly easy to get out of it - I can usually get them back out again in 7-10 days if not faster. Saying that both Nigella and Ruby do seem very susceptible to an attack of scaly leg after a broody period. Poor Ruby does get it both very quickly and badly, most topical treatments have never worked however Ivomectin works extremely well so both girls have recently been "spotted". Also after her recent broodiness Nigella was getting a bit mucky behind so she also indignantly suffered the chicken horrors of having a bum wash in the shower! Still, she is looking gorgeous as ever now.

 I do enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of other chicken keepers and even more reading about good food so what a find Five Fat Hens was. The author Tim Halket has some great recipes and also has a wonderful approach to life, one I fully endorse and agree with (like how crap and overblown New Year is). Well worth a read and cooking a few dishes from.

Ruby attempting broodiness

With the amazing weather this spring the allotment and garden really have had a flying start. Allotment wise there has been lots going on - in fact the weeds have been giving us a good run for our money trying to outgrow the veggies. Still we have broad beans, peas, french beans, onions, shallots, pumpkins, squash, courgettes and both artichokes all on the go at the moment.
Garlic failed (no idea why) and the giant french banana shallots also failed to grow but that's about all we have had fail so far.

Scratching about

Oh the strawberries were early and mostly got stolen by the local wildlife as were all the cherries that disappeared and not even ripe! Next year that tree is getting a net over it!
At home we have been cropping all the usual stuff such as salad leaves and radish as well as growing tomatoes, cucumber, melon and have a few trays of kale and celeriac ready to plant out later in the year for some winter crops. God, that sounds as if we spend all our lives gardening, I promise we don't but it makes us sound very busy!
The good thing is that the chickens get lots of veggie clippings and thinnings and they still relish every slug and snail they can get. I wonder if all those scraps and garden molluscs make our eggs so tasty?
So hopefully back to more regular updates, next time I shall endeavour to include an egg recipe, until then have a good week.

March arrives....and we depart

One for the galanthrophiles

I can never remember how the old country saying goes about March - "In like a lion, out like a lamb" or the other way around. You get the idea. Well now that March has arrived it seems more like "In like an ice-cube, hopefully out a warm mug of tea".


The plants really have been going mad over the past week, damp and gloomy warmth suits them as it does the frog. Our fish pond has become an orgy swamp for these amphibians and now lumps of wobbling translucent eggs adorn the bases of the iris, merely the product of the wild and noisy copulations of frogs in the pond.


Saying that, everything, including us, got a shock with a good old blast of arctic wind chilling the place out though the night still disturbed with the croaking of frogs and screeching of foxes as the vixens start to come into season. Stay safe little chickens.

Miss Ruby and Nigella on a worm hunt

With one silkie (she who shall not be named - Harriet!) broody it has slowed the other girls right up. As soon as poor Tallulah lays an egg they Harriet has to jump on it and start incubation. The fragility of Tallulah's eggs are just not up to it so they all get broken. As for the Sussex, they have just given up laying for the moment.

"I shall incubate, whatever!"

Harriet continues to be the bane of my life really. She is more stubborn than a stubborn thing. I even constructed a open-bottomed nestbox to put her in but then I went all forgiving (or nesh as they say in Cheshire) as I thought it was a bit cold to put her in there! Revenge would be to give her an ostrich egg to incubate.......

So, slow world for chickens, slowing down for the garden as cold grips and nothing from SE23 for the next couple of weeks are we are away to warmer climes for a holiday. The chickens, dogs, house, fish, plants and frog eggs are all being cared for by Angela, what a brave woman. Stay warm and we'll be thinking of you, beer in hand watching hummingbirds whizz by in sunshine (remember that?)

"Why can't we come with you on holiday?"

TBC

TBC - That Bloody Chicken!

Am I also now starting to think that we have had the worst that winter can throw at us and spring is truly on the way? It's somewhat wet and mild, today in London the grey clouds cleared and we had a beautiful sunny day.

It all sounds lovely and of course with all the girls in full egg production TBC Harriet aka Princess Ping Pong has decided upon broodiness.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.........we need eggs - those girls don't get pellets, corn, lettuce, sweetcorn, mealworms and treats galore just to sit on their backsides!

Harriet trying to look coy and cute but it won't work this time.

Harriet being broody then triggers Tallulah, which in turn means Ruby who has only just got over her long moult since her last broody spell. Saturday and we start an anti broodiness campaign. We can normally, with work, get the other girls out of it but Harriet? She is the queen of sitting on her hennish bum and sticking it out.

I know we are not going to win but watch this space...................

Eggs and junior chicken wranglers

Cyclamen coum

Such great promise this weekend with lots and lots of jobs planned but Saturday just rained, rained and rained - so you get the feeling we were somewhat damp. Sunday was somewhat better so managed to get lots of tidying up done, did some major repotting of our three Actinidia deliciosa okay, kiwi fruit (I was just trying to be flash) and got some celeriac seeds sown. I do feel that we need a major weekends work at the allotment but if it's wet all you do is get covered in clay and come home again without having done anything apart from make a paddy field. You do look a bit trendy with clay leg weights stuck to your wellies I guess.

Loads of lovely eggs

We have had quite a few comments on which cockerel to get - Reginald seems to be an outright winner at the moment. We have had two days this week when all 4 girls laid, they really are getting the idea that spring is on the way. Tallulah, despite all our efforts is still laying such thin shelled eggs that one occasionally breaks in the nest as they all decide to lay in the same nestbox. Indeed the eggs are so fragile that sometimes they can get a dent in just by gently picking them up. All the other girls lay incredibly stout shelled eggs and in truth the diet has all the correct elements, they wade through mountains of oystershell and the amount of snails they eat with accompanying shells should be more than enough so I think its just Tallulah.

Chicken handler of the year

A few other updates which might be of interest. To the left is a photo of our godson Ferdie having a "chicken" experience out in the Philippines. The good thing about having adventuring parents and a mother who is a world renown marine biologist is that you get to visit some very funky places, you know most aquatic species by the age of 2 and your godfathers and grandparents make sure you know all the domestic ones.  Our god-daughter JJ manages to do all this and wear glitter as well - we are so very proud of both of them.

I know that Christmas has now gone and I must say that due to events it really does seem to have been a blur however I have for a few weeks been meaning to mention a wonderful gift we received from our lovely neighbours and occasional chicken sitters, Rob and Isobel. We got a chicken, but not a chicken in SE23 but a chicken bought for an abandoned disabled child in Thailand. The chicken is for a brand new project called Eden Farm which will bring in finance for the abandoned children and also teach them vocational skills. It's a fantastic project so why not log onto www.4lifethailand.org and click on the Current Fundraising section. You can help the project by purchasing a range of items as simple as seeds, to of course chickens and even pig huts and you know your money is going to help some very disadvantaged kids and giving them an opportunity of a better life.

That's about it for this week. As ever, any feedback is always welcome.

Cock or not - that is the question

Spring has seemingly sprung. If you read this blog you will know I think this is a false spring, I'm expecting another arctic blast before winter is over - however miserable git old me, I hope I'm wrong. Still Mother Nature is enjoying these relatively mild temperatures and lots of rain, with buds, bulbs and shoots aplenty though after a good delve into some protected pots we have lost some prized dahlia tubers and we await to see if the bananas managed to survive the big freeze.

As I said the girls are now in fine fettle, laying well and looking great apart of course from Harriet who continues to believe she is a rare Lewisham Mud Silkie, indeed a rare subspecies!

I'm also keen to have some chicks again this spring we do have a couple of routes to follow. My aim would be coronation Sussex bantams but not sure how realistic that will be merely because of their scarcity. Option two is getting in a cock silkie!! Eek I hear you cry, a cockerel in the city.........well. There are several spare boys at work which we could have on a short loan.

Questions to be raised

• How noisy are silkie cocks?
• How would the neighbours cope? (even if it is only for a short period)
• What is the secret of keeping your cockerel quiet in the early hours? (I know, there isn't an answer but worth asking)

And finally who should we go for..........if that's what we decide to get one.

 Reginald

Stan(ley)

I look forward to comments and suggestions - maybe even set up a voting panel!

PS..........

A quick note from the update yesterday.

Don't they look fantastic!

Firstly a couple of pictures from Ros who purchased Sebastian (now Boris) and Doris the speckled Sussex bantams we hatched in 2009 - they are now stunning birds as you can see from the photo. Also very jealous as she has chicks already. Thanks Ros for the update.

Chocolate Orpington and silkie chicks as hatched by Ros - I'm so envious

Secondly as a non-proficient user of this blogging medium I just found several comments posted by kindly folk, some just commenting how they like the blog but others with questions. My apologies for not responding however I found your comments by accident in a spam folder? I have now clicked various links and the comments are now attached to the relevant blog entries.

Thank you for taking the time to add to the blog especially Tammy (and I hope you got the response), Mr John Gray who I hope is still doing well with his chickens and allotment (truly John, you can't be more behind than we are this year!) and Lou, did you get your chickens?? Now I have hopefully sorted this, please comment away.

A grey and wet morning here in South London, the girls are staying in the run today - me thinks that Harriet would be straight out there for a mud bath.

Have a happy Thursday folks, the weekend isn't far away at all.