Living The Dream in North Devon
This year we are ahead of the curve. Taking advantage of a few dry days, we have managed to remove crops that have finished, weed, mulch and cover the beds in preparation for the spring. The brassicas all had club root this year (NOT good)! So this bed, we are going to make into...
Continue reading
Freshly plucked from the soil, these carrots and leeks are going into tonight’s sausage and bean casserole! The Veg patch has been quite good this year. Apart from the May frosting of the beans, courgettes & pumpkins. These were resown, then the beans were eaten by rabbits, and resown again! The freezer is packed...
Continue reading
It’s that time of year again! The apples are coming off the trees and ready for so many recipes, including Christmas pudding! All the ingredients have been gathered. This year I am adding the following homegrown/made ingredients. Apple Brandy, Apple Wine, Sourdough bread, Apple, Oranges, and Lemon. Unfortunately, the seedless grape harvest was poor...
Continue reading
Our new chickens are settling in well. This year we decided to buy in six from Moonridge Farm in Exeter, www.MoonridgeFarm.co.uk @moonridge_farm, the stock is always looks healthy and well looked after. We have bought ducks and goslings from them in the past who have thrived into adults. I would really recommend. We normally...
Continue reading
It’s been a nightmare this year! Frost killing the beans and pumpkins. Crows and magpies eating the eggs. Foxes eating the livestock. What next? We’ve now had an invasion of rabbits eating the crops! So this is where the dog comes into her own. Yes, she is a good mouse, mole and rat catcher,...
Continue reading
This year we have had the chance to net the strawberries properly. I built a fruit cage from some galvanised pipe and blue water pipe. Its proved to be quite affective. The peasants pace up and down outside and this year the crop loss has been low. We have been picking (or rather Barbara)...
Continue reading
Just had a lovely delivery of cheese from The Fine Cheese Co @thefinecheeseco. www.FineCheese.co.uk. Saw a promotion on Jamie Oliver’s Instagram @jamieoliver about supporting British Cheese producers during COVID ….. and going forward! A beautifully packaged box of delicious cheese turned up today! Lovely hamper of cheese which included a cool pack, so the...
Continue reading
Barbara makes the family Sourdough bread and has been making bread for for over 20 years. I won’t say “I can’t remember the last time we bought shop bread”, because we can, and regret it every rare time we do! One of the challenges we have found with lockdown, is being able to buy...
Continue reading
Spent much of the day moving wood-chip around on the tractor. Got the kids shovelling it into dumpy bags, then moving it to the veg patch. We all had a great day and tractor 🚜 rides too!...
The little softies raised in the greenhouse now need to get hard. So we issue each of them a flick knife before they’re planted out into the wild. Well, not exactly. Over the past few days the first lot of vegetables and bedding plants have been coming out of the greenhouse onto benches for...
Continue reading