Self-Sufficiency in Style
july 2002 diary
Nettles
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Self-Sufficiency in Style july 2002 diary
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Nettles |
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July is when the self-sufficiency year changes dramatically. Suddenly things are very different. The work-load seems insurmountable. Things don't get done. Exhaustion sets in, but it is year since we began this diary and, looking back, we have achieved a lot. |
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The place becomes overgrown: nettles, thistles and rusty tin.
It is not helped by our lack of pigs. The paddocks so carefully created for them are now rank and thick with weeds. There is so much animal disease here now, that we are too nervous to restock and when you remove a vital part of a self-sufficient lifestyle, everything loses its balance. The sow should be preparing the ground for next year's potato plot. |
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But the potatoes look good, last year we had blight. |
The emphasis has suddenly shifted from planting, to harvesting. To
preparing the great abundance for storage.
The days start at 6AM with milking and opening up the greenhouses and continue till past dinner with milking again and watering the greenhouses. The middle of the day is occupied with a thousand tasks, that left undone will be regretted later. Naturally, we get tired and sometimes talk of other lives. But we know, from experience, that things will quieten down later. |
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And not everything is behind, we have all the logs for the winter already
in and stacked. Three sheds full, enough for the whole winter.
Although we can and do produce some of our own, we got a deal. It is always best to buy logs early. They will be dry and can be stored dry...something that gets progressively difficult as the year draws on. |
£800 to warm the house for a year. Comparable with gas or oil, cheaper than electric and looks and smells better than any. |
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Then, as so often in life, the unexpected happened to lift our spirits. We took advantage of a rainy day for a trip to the supermarket - Britain's biggest grocer. We needed to buy a few things like tea and coffee that we can't grow ourselves. We also needed the writer's medicinal whiskey, that is illegal to produce ourselves, not that that bothered his grandfather, who had his private still on the mountain-side. Anyway, we had run out of our own lemons, so be bought a pack, organic as that was all that was available. A pack of peaches were added too. We know the supermarket ones are not that tasty, but they are in season in the northern hemisphere. We used a couple of each when we got home and put the lemons in the larder and the peaches in the fruit bowl in our cool drawing room. Two days later, both lemons and peaches were completely covered in grey mould. There is something badly wrong with Britain's food. I think we will stick to our own. Our citrus last for months and top fruit for weeks. |
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Onions galore! |
We might have been a trifle over enthusiastic over onions. At a rough guess we have 500, plus a lot of shallots and garlic. It does take a lot of time to work out exactly what you will need. We do eat a lot of onions, but not that many. |
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The tunnels and greenhouses are in full production. The tomatoes are still
not as healthy as we would like, but, at least, blight has not struck.
We are storing these for the winter by drying and various other techniques. |
Tomatoes galore! |
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Indisputable Evidence |
Every gardener mislabels plants. It is part of the natural order of things. Few can manage with the style of the writer. His surplus plants have been supplied this year to the local church for sale outside for some charitable project. His tongue is a little in his cheek as he likes to baffle the lady gardeners that swoop on the offerings. Yellow, white and green tomatoes - anything a little unusual. This year Okra (Ladies Fingers) and African Horned Melon were among the plants. Somehow the labels got a little mixed and the Canon, a keen gardener, didn't actually get, a Horned Melon, as a present from his sister. We wonder what the Canon is actually nurturing so carefully in his greenhouse? |
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Towards the end of
the month, Mrs P starts to get very sneaky. The springtime gardening hero becomes a pest, constantly arriving with a fresh bucket of produce to be cooked, bottled, dried or frozen. She groans and looks pretty unimpressed. She has started to give it away. Each Sunday we take a car laden with vegetables to our daughter's. Her five kids probably blanch at the sight of us coming round the corner. "Not more vegetables, Nan?" She has also taken to visiting the neighbours usually with a plastic bag of some goodies. The trouble is that they often give us some produce back, which simply adds to her problems. I keep telling her, whiskey is fine, but she rambles on about a roadside stall. She doesn't really mean it - I think. |
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| Who can complain at this? |
Shining Produce |
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...and she doesn't.
Together with red and yellow tomatoes, everything is washed sliced and ready for the dryer. |
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The results will be bottled in olive oil. It is just a question of waiting
until they are dry enough.
You can dry lots of fruits and vegetables - grapes for example to produce currants and sultanas.
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The Dryer |
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"No chance !" said Mrs P.
"I've other plans for the grapes, and you can do the bottling." |
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Actually, they are too good for drying or wine -"Black Hamburgh"
and nearly ripe. They will be used as table grapes with our own cheese.
The white Muscat will also be used the same way. |
The spelling is correct - "Hamburgh" - although on many visits to that city, there were no vineyards in evidence. |
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Natural sun drying continues in the greenhouses.
Large quantities of onions and shallots are everywhere.
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The birds have been giving trouble again. We lost the cherries and a good
part of the strawberry crop to a pair of blackbirds, so something had to
be done.
The raspberries and blueberries were next on the list, so a couple of panic fruit cages were erected. They were expensive, but will be movable from crop to crop as the season progresses. |
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Originally grown as a flower. |
The runner bean crop is in full production. Too many as usual, and they
are at their best young and fresh. Although they can be frozen, they never
taste the same.
So we give them away, if we can find anyone that hasn't already got their own supply. England almost sinks under the weight of runner beans at this time of year.
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As each crop is finished, farmyard manure is barrowed up and spread, ready
for replanting with something else.
A lot is written about the value of well rotted manure as a fertiliser, but it also suppresses weeds and improves the texture of the soil. We are lucky, having animals, we always have plenty. |
Black Gold |
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Towards the end of the month, the most important crop of all takes centre stage. We begin watching the weather forecast and worrying. This year, we are late, very late. |
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Gladys is curious, what's the tractor here for? |
The first of the two grass jobs is an annual attempt to keep the thistles
and nettles under control without using chemicals.
It needs care. Too much off and we won't have enough grass left for the cow during August. Cows like longish grass. We save a couple of small paddocks just in case we have a dry month. The sheep are not so troubled. They can manage with short grass - and we have other plans for them, as you will see. |
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Hangman's Cottage had been overgrazed by horses, for many years, before we
came here four years ago.
Horses destroy grazing land, but controlled grazing by cattle and sheep, with some judicious cutting will bring it back to good heart. But it is a long job taking several years and a lot of patience. |
Just a large lawnmower with the blades set high. |
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Hay, grass and water. The essentials for livestock. |
The second grass job is one that has been done every year since man first
kept cattle and sheep in temperate regions.
Haymaking! Without hay, you could not keep animals through the winter. Now although there are substitutes including the grass based alternative of silage, we still like the hay. Without hay we have to go and collect and buy a supply. We will need to compete with the horse owners on price. Despite all the alternatives now available, hay is still important. One field has been left ungrazed for haymaking. We now need good weather. |
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The first stage is cutting.
We look at the weather forecast and make the biggest decision of the year... CUT! |
...and we cut |
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The die is cast. There is no going back. If it rains we have problems. We
could lose the lot if we have a spell of wet weather.
We return to the house, switch on the television. "Dry and hot especially in the East. Temperature up to 27 degrees C." The same on Sunday. We rejoice. "It will be hot again on Monday." We are ecstatic. "...but there may be thunderstorms in the afternoon..." |
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Damaging prospects at the forebodingly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
