As promised I’ve added to my New Year Resolutions to blog more often.
For January I’ll be:
planning the garden
Bottling up the Apple and Damson wines
General smallholding chores
Kieran is also going to be making more of his oatmeal stour (yum) and bottling his beer.

Our Goats also got into our apple trees and killed some 12 year old trees that were harvesting really well so I tink I’ll have to shop for some new ones (BTW I’m now down to just one goat).

I’ll get the info up as we go & I’m really looking forward to a new year.

All the best,
Róisín

It’s our first time out with birds as we normally do them at home & I have to say I’ll be going back, time wise we ran over but the people were lovely & you see your birds being killed very efficiently.

The birds are killed, plucked, eviscerated, chilled and bagged much quicker than we’ve ever managed. Currently we have 24 birds in our freezer & I’m looking forward to the first Roast.

Cost of killing them was €2 each, well worth it for our lovely free range birds – we also left them get big the smallest was 2kg dead weight, which means we should get a couple of meals from them (although I try for 3, 2 main and then boil the carcass for Chicken noodle soup).

Have a lovely evening everyone – I’m off to finish feeding the pigs.

All the best Róisín

Anyhoo who would’ve guessed that moving a couple of chicken houses by myself could wreak havoc but yep I put myself out of action for a couple of months because I damaged my back – The Doctor asked me what I was doing when it happened & I didn’t think it was much until I listed what I had been up to that day & his jaw hit the floor.

He called it Gardeners Back & I was on the flat of that back for 6 weeks, stir crazy was a given & himself had a stir crazy wife to deal with so in order to avoid all future episodes I now “salute the sun” (yoga move) most days and am also trying to teach myself how to dig correctly – You have to fall forward onto your spade & use your weight to dig, mmm think I’ll root up a link & put it up.

Anyway the long and the short of it is that my blogging was neglected for a while – I did start back but haven’t got them up yet – I’m playing catch up at the moment.

I’ll head off now and get cracking

I’ve had a few people ask how did we get him interested & now currently we have our girls getting started – Our methods were simple & when you think of it can apply to anyone.

1. Start small – we gave him 3 x 10 feet

2. Use plants rather than seeds – quicker results

3. Include something fun – Sunflower or strawberries

4. Company, okay I know this is a no brainer but in case you forget, be out in the garden with them discuss how their plot is going, give them a hand where needed & lots of praise.

5. Use what they grow-Our son had the first crop of early salad potatoes in his second year & those potatoes steamed and tossed with butter and herbs were a serious delight.

That was it & for us has worked – Oh & for anyone with small people for the coming year invest in wellies, you’ll need them.

May 2011 be a productive & happy one for all…..

Woohoo, it’s time to peruse my gardening seed catalogues that have arrived in over Christmas (& look up my favourite sites).

Now there is actually a knack to this (well for us it’s more of a wierd habit… LOL but it’s fun).

1. Kids to bed

2. Roaring fire

3. Pot of tea & your best comfort food

4. Sit down with your new reading material, blank pages, biro or pencil & reference books. This is definitely a job for the kitchen table….

5. Start plotting what you’re going to grow for the coming year

The above could take a few hours (or days!!) to do but have fun…

We will be doing ours over the next week. It will be a plan for a family of 5 2 Adults & 3 Kids. Will pop it up online as soon as it’s finished.

BTW while above may sound a bit detailed there is nothing wrong with newbies starting with lettuce and scallions or buying plugs of plants to pop into the ground. The important thing is to get growing.

All the best,

Róisín

Kieran told me of a recent article/paper he was reading & talk about a light bulb moment going off in my head!! Just had to share it.

Over thousands of years we have grown our own vegetables so imagine 2 farmers side by side.
Farmer A – Uses a bad quality seed (quality being poor in Vitamens and Minerals). Less of her children survive, those that do have multiple problems.

Farmer B – Uses a better quality seed, more of her kids survive, are stronger (physically & mentally).

The variance between the two is probably small but now imagine this….

Farmer A’s passes on her seed to her children, they go and now form familys using the poorer seed. They do survive but don’t thrive…

Farmer B passes on her better quality seed to her kids (which are now more numerous, stronger etc.) And they multiply and thrive at a greater rate.

Farmer A & B are a quick view of probably what happened over generations. At some stage (because we are a community based creature) the seed of Farmer B was probably shared with the Farmer A desendants.

Through more and more of these wee branch offs and improvements both the seeds and humans themselves would have improved and become what they are today.

Modern Seeds have none of these important links with us & what you buy in the supermarket is concerned with uniformity and quick growth only.

Modern Open Pollinated seed are the best that there is although they are not longer as closely associated with our success (we have access to food now that we no longer grow).

I really would like to see someone doing research on the food value of different seeds. I’m sure there must be someone researching the vitamin and mineral content, so if anyones does know please drop us a line.

Brings a new meaning to You are what you eat.

Take a few twigs and train your plant into a circle (more accurately a spiral) as it grows curl it around itself using the twigs to keep the lead runner going the direction you want. Just place the runner were you want it and peg it using your twig. (don’t make it too tight – your plant could break)

Pictures are worth a thousand words so here you go:

Japanese Burdock (you cook the roots, this is our first year trying them – will let you know what they are like).

Mixed Oriental green (cut and come again for small leaves & we leave some grow bigger for heads for stir frys).

Summer & Winter Salad Mix’s – Cut and come again.

Kale (red russian)

Spring Cabbage

Land Cress – We love this in sandwiches but what really endears it to me is that it’s a tough wee plant that seems to thrive with little or no effort from us.

Lambs Lettuce – I am growing this again, I don’t like this but the rest of my lot do so it’s made the short list.

Scallions – These are a Greenacre staple, not only great in sandwiches & salads but really tasty in Champ (left over potatoes mashed with warm milk & chives, add some real butter to this too)

Beetroot, don’t know if they’ll form a bulb but if they don’t I’ll pick the leaves (Old tesco bought seeds & don’t know if they’ll come, but waste not want not)

Carrots – Get earlies in Now for a late crop

Early Potatoes – We should have done this at the start of the month but here goes, we are going to try roughly 25 sqm.

It’s amazing how much can still get in the ground this time of year – but the real purpose of this is to get your plants established before the temperature drops as plants stop growing but a lot will “keep” well in the soil for picking over the winter. I have other greens to get in too like Mizuna, mustard, coriander, parsley -  that will be next week now though.

Well we planted Garlic last Autumn – It’s now harvested and we got a really good return. The cold weather last winter didn’t affect it at all, it’s actually an advantage, they require a certain amount of time below zero to help with bulb production. The picture on the left shows them drying on a large frame covered with chicken wire (this also doubles as a movable fence in the chicken runs).  I must say that this is a simple & great addition to any Garden, please have a go.

Here is what we did:

How much to plant? – Well we are a family of 5 & do use a lot so we bought 2KG of bulbs, which you split and plant out the cloves individually. There are 6 to 8 Cloves per bulb and 13 – 18 bulbs per KG, conservative estimate of 156 cloves. Over 52 weeks of a year averages 3 bulbs per week.

Variety: Vallelado (Organic)

Spacing: 4” Centres

Total Square Footage: 30 Sq Ft

Expected Return on Harvest:

156 Bulbs

Beginners Yield on 30sqft – 20lbs/9kg

Intermediate Yield on 30sq ft – 40lbs/18kg

Expert Yield on 30 Sq ft – 80lbs/36kg

Actual Return on Harvest: We got 18.5kg

Okay what to do with your Garlic other than the norm: I have small kids, this means a lot of colds and sniffels. Garlic in my house is regularly made into soup.Not a small ingredient but actual Garlic soup roughly 4 cloves per person (I have been known to use 6 pp) – NB You do NOT under any circumstance want to meet anyone outside of your own family the following day, you won’t get a warm reception.

Why this works – The active sulpher compounds that are antibacterial & antiviral are released by the body through the skin but also by the lungs, which puts the compounds in a perfect position to attack infections. (Normal disclamer – I’m not a doctor, always seek their advice).

A couple of our bulbs “blew”, these you just use straight away. They can sometimes burst or “blow” if they are harvested too late. See picture below:

I Braid & hang our Garlic to store I will pop up a post about how to braid these at a later stage.

Where to get this Garlic for planting: We get ours from Fruit Hill Farm & have always had a good return from our Garlic/Onion/potato’s see www.fruithillfarm.com for more information. They deliver to your door.