Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Montegriffo]

The latest steak and ale pie (in its raw form) to arrive at the farm.
A day old in this pic.

[C-Mag]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

Glad to hear it.

It is a steep learning curve. Nothing at all like Bloomberg fantasied about. Where you just put a seed in the dirt and cover it up and boom you have food.

Best of luck.

[C-Mag]

The latest steak and ale pie (in its raw form) to arrive at the farm.
A day old in this pic.

What breed of cow is that ?

[C-Mag]

Update from the Homestead

Lots of activity late Winter and early Spring. Last Winter I made about 100 lbs of sausage. Breakfast, Kielbasa, Garlic and Summer Sausage. The smoker I built is working well. It's about time to make more. Seems like a lot, but I give a lot away. I refer to it as my Christmas baking. This batch was made about 2 weeks before Christmas.


I was handed down the family cabbage slicer. A real heirloom. Probably close to 125 years old.

I took it apart and refurbished all of it. The heavy steel blades had about a 1/8" belly in them from slicing untold pounds of cabbage. I was happy to find out the slicer was made of Cherry, I treated it with a 50-50 blend of beeswax and mineral oil I made up.


With the slicer I received the 20 gallon Redwing crock. We made a 35# batch of Kraut.

That was mid March. It's still percolating. Plan on having brats and fresh Kraut for the 4th of July.

[C-Mag]

The wife has been on me to get chickens. It happened in late February.

Actually just got done building a coop in the barn.

Springtime brought branding at my brothers.

Due to COVID concerns the typical crews weren't available. So it was strictly a family afare like the old days. It was good. Calves and cows separated, calves vaccinated, branded, and castrated.



Then the calves are put back to pasture with the momma cows


In all we branded almost 450 calves.

[Montegriffo]

The latest steak and ale pie (in its raw form) to arrive at the farm.
A day old in this pic.

What breed of cow is that ?

Suffolk Red Poll.
It's an old breed, apparently you have them over there but they're not common. They're a pretty hardy breed, never need the vet. Lots of them around here.

[Montegriffo]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

Glad to hear it.

It is a steep learning curve. Nothing at all like Bloomberg fantasied about. Where you just put a seed in the dirt and cover it up and boom you have food.

Best of luck.

Farmer Paul is still mulling over the best plot to use. He's not a man to make rash decisions. He thinks the spot where the muck heap was is too dry.
I keep nagging him but he'll decide in his own sweet time.
The farm shop was giving away giant sunflower seeds so I'm going to start with a few of them in pots and plant them out next to my truck. Come September I can collect the seeds and use them in the soda bread I can make with his flour. There's a local dairy which makes unpasteurised cheese that I can get the buttermilk needed for soda bread from.
I made some with his low gluten old wheat variety flour last week and it came out very nice.

[Montegriffo]

Did a full day threshing yesterday, we threshed about 5 tons of straw and only have one stack left now. I was exhausted. Moving 5 tons by pitchfork is hard on your arms and standing on straw stacks while you are doing it takes it out of your legs as you have to constantly keep balancing yourself. It was my forearms and fingers which hurt the most by the time we finished around 6 o'clock.
The last remaining stack is outside the barn and the owner of the steam engine ''Monty'' that we used at the Henham Steam Rally last year is keen to come over and power the threshing drum for it.

Monty made by Marshall, not sure what date but somewhere between the wars I think...

[C-Mag]

The garden is coming along well. Potatoes are up, had a really good germination and sprouting on the corn. Onions are going crazy. Every is doing pretty well except cucumbers. Peas, several varieties of squash, tomatoes, herbs all doing well.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Finally planting all our sprouts this weekend. We got seriously drowned this spring. Everything went gangbusters under the grow lights though, so we’re off to a good start this year.