Potting good time

I have spent two days in the poly tunnel potting up Scots and Norway Pine saplings for Christmas in two/three years time, it was brilliant, there is nothing better than getting back to nature and helping her along. Roz has been fantastic and has given up her Sat and Sun 8-10 sleeping times to help me pot up 500 laurel saplings, this is the best selling shrubs on the nursery!

I hope that the bare root tree stock will arrive this week, it is grown in Wisbech and the fields have been frozen and are now flooded, just like our gardens. We have a new shrub delivery also expected this week weather permitting.

Simon has spent the last two days in the pig pens, the Tamworth piglets are having a great time breaking out of their pens and fighting with the Large Black piglets. He is now putting extra wires and electric around the pens and also has decided to split the dreaded 6 as they are working like a street gang including midnight food raids. It is a good job that we have good stock proof fencing on the perimeter of the pens and do not rely on electric fencing only.

I will soon have a lot of Tamworth pork for sale!

Take care and enjoy your garden or local walks.

Poppys World January

What a lovely place to play all day, it has been white most of the time and she who must be obeyed has not been very happy with the white stuff. I love rolling in it and covering my mussel then jumping up to give her a kiss. The Master is much more fun he likes to roll the white stuff into balls and throwing them for me to catch, although most seem to land on my head but it is great fun.

The children who go for a walk in the Millennium woods have had a great time playing in the white stuff and coming to see me after their walk. They always bring their Mummy’s or Daddies and sometime their dogs, I like it when the dogs come to see me, sometimes the Mummy lets them off their leads and we can go running around the back field among the trees, I think they all think I am very lucky.

She who must be obeyed has been doing all sorts of things in the plastic tunnel, she seems to have a lot of the plants in there, she calls it “protection” I don’t know what she is trying to protect them from, the rabbits don’t come near them, I have made sure of that. The Master has been playing with the water pipes he has wrapped up the ones in the pig pens with lots of foam and bubble wrap, I can see it through the fence.

It is not that I am afraid of the pigs they are not the trouble it’s the wire that is all around them, it bites if you touch it and I can’t find its mouth. Houdini one of the Tamworth piglets seems to have learned how to go through the wire without it biting her, she loves to help the Master feed the other pigs, although she does seem to spend most of the time with her head stuck in the spare bucket. The Master just laughs at her, but I can see that the other piglets are not very happy with the arrangement, I am waiting for the day they all think that they can get passed the wire and it will bite them as well as me.

Pork Chops has been a bit naughty and the Master and she who must be obeyed are not very happy with him, he was a bit fed up with being in his pen so he bit a hole in his stock fence and went to play with his piglets in the pen next to him. The Master called she who must be obeyed and told her to get down to the pens and help him, Pork Chops will do anything for her and she called him to follow her and he did, back into the pen he came out of and the Master mended the fence. They then moved all the piglets into different pens, the Master was not happy as they had to close the front gates for a few hours on a Sunday morning and our visitors could not get in. I don’t know how long Pork Chops will be staying if he keeps up that behaviour, she who must be obeyed has a lot of patience but the Master does not!

The boys are coming back for lunch I must just see who has a little something for me.

Frost on the pond

The temperatures have dropped to -4 and it has made the Stackyard Nursery look like a scene from the 'Snow Queen', it's magical.

This is a picture of the Hawthorne tree overhanging the frozen pond, it's berries have frozen in the ice.

Medlers and what to do with them!

These are the fruits of the Medler tree, many people ask what to do with them.

You can either let them blett on the tree, this is so they start to go very soft, cut the top off and scoop out the pulp. The other option and I must say my preferred method is to make a Medler Jelly. The recipe below is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, I also add some crushed Cardamom in a muslin bag, and remove it at stage 2.

Medler Jelly

Ingredients

• 1kg medlars (quartered but not peeled)
• 500g Bramley cooking apples
• About 650g granulated sugar

1. Quarter the medlars. Peel and chop the apples and tip the fruit into a preserving pan, or any heavy-bottomed, deep, wide pan, with just enough water to cover.

2. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30-45 minutes, until the medlars are soft and pulpy.

Tip:

If you have freshly picked, unbletted medlars, remove any leaves from them and place them in one layer in a shallow bowl and leave them in a cool place until they turn brown and soften slightly.

3. Strain through a jelly bag on a stand set over a large bowl. Don't be tempted to poke, squeeze or force the pulp through the bag or you'll get a cloudy jelly, just leave it to drip over the bowl for several hours or overnight. Don't discard the pulp though – it’s perfect for adding to ourchutney.

4. Measure the juice, pour into a clean preserving pan and bring to boiling point before adding the sugar (for every 1l of juice, add 650g of sugar). Stir, in one direction only to reduce foam, until sugar is totally dissolved then boil rapidly for 8 minutes or until the setting point is reached. If you have a preserving thermometer, it should read 104.5°C; if you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little jelly onto a saucer which you have chilled in the fridge. Let the jelly cool for a minute then push it gently with your finger. If it crinkles, it has reached its setting point. Remove from the heat and skim off any scum using a slotted spoon.

5. Decant carefully into a warm jug and pour into warm, sterilised jars.

© River Cottage

Poppy's World December 2010

Poppy’s world
What a lovely day, I started with a walk around the big field with her who should be obeyed, she has this thing about checking the trees, I don’t know why they all seem very happy to me. I saw a few rabbits but decided that I would play hard to get and ignored them for the time being. The leaves are falling on my head and it is fun to bounce around in them, I found some small mice asleep in the log pile and work them up.
The Master has been in with the pigs for a very long time so I decided to remind him that I was waiting to play tractor girl, he told me to be quiet or he would send me to my bed AGAIN! He was very interested in the piglets and stood counting them again! I keep telling him that there are 50 left,
they seemed to think that the man from Woodbridge with the cheeky little girls would like 6 of the ginger girls, I tried to tell them that their mummy’s would prefer them to stay. The girls were lifted into the wooden crate on the tractors forks and they were moved out to the middle gate. I stayed with them for a while but then I decided that the pigeons in the old oak trees needed to be reminded who was boss. She who must be obeyed was telling the Master which of the pigs were going on their holidays, something about Christmas time and customer orders, the Master decided to move the pigs around so I decided that I would investigate the new netted area.
The boys have not been around for a few weeks and I have missed playing with them, they also when she who must be obeyed is not looking give me treats, so I was very pleased when we went on a road trip and went to see them. The house where they are now playing has a Jack Russell that comes to visit so I told her that any treats were mine, she told me where to go and went off in a huff. I was able to play tractor girl with the digger and dumper for a while, they had the picture that she who must be obeyed drew and were talking about it. The man in the lovely house said he was very happy and brought us all a cup of tea.
When we got back to the Stackyard I was very good, the man from the butchers had been and delivered meat and as a special treat some bones for me and my friends, Harry came by and collected his, I tried to kiss him but he seemed more interested in the bones. I have found a very good place on the side of the pond to dig a big hole, although it did take a few holes to find the right place to hide my bone. She who must be obeyed was very good about the holes especially as I also caught a mole. Now where to bury it!

Karon's thoughts 4th December 2010

Hip hip hurray it has started to thaw, the snow and ice on the polytunnel roof is sliding into large piles at the sides. Poppy is fascinated, she has been sitting watching the icicles defrosting and I am pleased to say keeping out of the way when a large slab crashes to the ground.

Simon has spent the morning sorting the electric fences in the pigs and trying to get the water flowing, although he has just been up for another container of water for the sow and 5 piglets, it looks like it is going to be a long day for him, his only comment is “This is depressing”.

I am loving  not being wrapped in great thick layers of fleeces and jackets and braved the cold and washed my hair this morning, it’s the Stowmarket Golf Club Dinner Dance tonight and I don’t want to be late so I hope it stays relatively mild and I don’t need to put my hat back on!

I have just been told by a customer that the temperature tonight is due to plummet. I have checked both UK weather and the BBC and both say 0 degrees tonight but -5 tomorrow. I wish that we could guarantee the weather.

Karon's thoughts 3rd December 2010

Well I hope you are all warm, we at the Stackyard Nursery are keeping warm in the office. The Mike and Tim are at home and the only one happy with the snow is Poppy our dog she is jumping, playing and loving it.

The customers that we have had this week have been very brave souls, but as we are so close to the village most have walked. Simon braved the roads on Tuesday to go to East Harling to pick up our Norfolk Horn lambs from the butchers, quite a trip but worth it. We have put a heater in the farm shop to keep the temperatures correct for the fridge and freezers and it has make it feel quite cosy. We spent Monday and Tuesday ripping out the old shelving and installing new, what a difference all comments are very positive. Thank you!

We have been carrying water up and down to the pigs, we insulated the automatic drinkers well, but the bowls are metal and the water has frozen! I spent two hours on Tuesday when Si got back picking at the ice with a screw driver and managed to get the water flowing in all the pens but the temperature has dropped since then to -6 at night and -2 throughout the day so not a hope of them defrosting for some time.

The piglets seem to love the snow but the Mamas are keeping their heads down and snuggling up in their arcs. Pork Chops our boar is developing a lovely thick coat of hair to keep him warm and he is no longer lying across the arc door trying to keep his ‘wife’ out, typical man, I hope she has cold trotters to but on his back.

We took advantage of the ground being hard and moved a few thousand saplings into the wind proof holding area on the back field, so if you are wondering what all the green netting is, it is the sapling area where I hope they will not be blown over by the wind. We needed the ground to be hard as the tractor and mud make a dreadful mess, not a pretty site. Tim did a great job but after a day of sitting on the tractor and carrying the saplings he gave up at three and went home for a hot bath. Mike battled on welding and getting a job ready for when the weather breaks, but after an hour yesterday morning decided that he would go home to his new wife!

I must admit to loving the site of the sun coming up and reflecting off the ice crystals it’s like living in a fairy land.

Just a reminder that we are open 7 days a week 10am – 4pm

Take care

Karon x