Chair Dog

We are in close consultation with a highly skilled dog trainer in order to ensure Jessie has the best possible upbringing.

We are advised that a key piece of equipment is The Chair.

Meanwhile, the sun continues to shine

September Rattle Bag

As the month draws to an end and we bask in an Indian Summer…

…here is a motley collection of recent pictures:

We continue to make daily harvests

and process the plenty

Wild Autumn fruits

Hens and ducks enjoy the sun

Winter waterproofing

Elsewhere

E-2

Two days from the Equinox and the temperature dips.

For the first time in many, many weeks the early morning dog-led hill climb chills the fingers.

Time to fire up the boilers

Jessie tries to slink back indoors

until we remind her she is an all-weather sheepdog.

The Three Little Maids have been exploiting a following wind

so time to trim their ambitions

All flying must now be in circles

Colour future

and colour past

Time for fungi

Part of today’s harvest

The Wind has been getting up…

Bert has heard the Wind is coming. He is building his defences

Yum-Yum (one of the Three Little Maids) has heard the wind is coming. Having graduated to the Big Ducks run and not having yet been clipped, she is looking for good take off points

We are racing the wind in a contest for the fruit. In the process, during this glut harvest, we are trying to work out what varieties we actually have. Here is the start of the catalogue

Harvest

Plus…

a Grumpy Pig (she is having her triweeklies)

and a learning Dog

In the Kitchen today…

The Last of The Aubergines

Some dinner ingredients including NOT the last of the Runner Beans

A bit or foraging…

…jellied

the tastiest of the day’s tomato crop

others roasted

bagged

Sorting plums

the best are perfect and just right for eating

And, of course, Apples

Some for the freezer

some for now

We use a (keep it quiet) bread machine. But it is sulking so we have to rescue the contents and finish off the loaf in the oven where it adopts a pleasingly non-machine like shape

Cutting your coat to suit your cloth…

… or planning your menu

to suit your harvest

We can use these every day

(although it is hard to keep up)
Some can be stored

As can some of these

This doesn’t last long

These are probably not on the menu

Nor are these

Jessie is looking at potential dinner

Dinner is looking back

A Dog and A Dinner

Dog

Collecting windfalls

Resting

Dinner

Collecting

Preparing

Savouring

Plus plums

Eating your own

When chatting to strangers about living in The Countryside with a little bit of land there are two phrases that cause slight steam to issue from ones ears. The first, by a mile, is “The Good Life” but a runner up is “Self-Sufficient”. If there is one thing to learn from John Seymour and his ilk it is that growing all the food you need is very very hard work – you are not talking vegetable beds but vegetable fields.

However…

…there is something very satisfying in preparing and eating a meal having gone out and collected ingredients from the plants

and pork mince and sausage meat stashed in the freezer from our own animals

to cut

and stir

top with an egg from today

and relish the result

More bits of harvest from today:

Drops

For weeks and weeks earlier this year the idea of water appearing out of nowhere seemed a fantasy. Now that normality is restored


We need to celebrate the drops

Meanwhile a couple of processes continue:

(1) Vine to freezer

(2) Meadow to pig

Other moments from today…