Rural Life

The right kind of chickens

With our aspirations to self-sufficiency and high quality foods, we have shared our garden with chickens for the last 3 years.  The first lot we had, we nurtured up through the summer and then as the clocks went back, dispatched, plucked, jointed and ate them.  They had a good life, and a clean death and we knew where our food had come from.

The second lot we hung on to for two years, and they have had a good life, and when the clocks go back, they will have a quick, clean death.  I know that we have done our best by them (warm feeds when there have been frosts, a good mix of layers ration and treats, ample slugs and worms), so I feel no guilt.

The problem is their breed - each time we have gone for the beige jobs - see below.  These are bred we understand to populate the battery houses of Europe, and are incredibly efficient at producing an egg a day for a year.  There is precious little meat on them, even with trying to fatten them up, and after a year they show their age, so that now our remaining two are grumpy old ladies.  It is totally driven by their breeding, which seems rather unfair to us.

When we restock next year, we will not be getting "beige jobs", we will have something a bit more refined.  They won't produce so many eggs - we know that - but they will keep going longer and will have a bit of meat on them if we get peckish!

Autumn Strikes!

No - not the unlimited number of public sector strikes across Europe, but weather and seasons!  Autumn is here and the first frosts have struck.  The wayward Sucrette pumpkin plant that decided in the middle of September that it actually quite liked the soil it was planted in and started to try to colonise the whole of the border is now shrivelled and black.  The big Vif d'Etampes feral pumpkin plant has had all its extremities nipped back, though the old leaves around the vast fruit are still OK.  We hope there is enough left in the root stock to ripen this mammoth of the potager.

Tonight I will have to pick the last (5) aubergines, the last (6) green peppers and the final courgette for a final blow out of roasted home grown vegetables before the parsnips come right in another month or so.

We fear this period of frost will have also put paid to the wild mushrooms - not that we have found many this year.  Talking to a friend who's husband can normally bring back a couple of kilos when he goes out foraging, she said he had been out for a whole morning and came back with one slightly chewed bolet.

This year I think we will have to be content with the nut harvest!

Goodbye fleas?

After 4 flea free days, this may be a bit premature, but I think we have the flea issue sorted.  The mix of Program, an aerosol spray (yes, evil things but in this one case I am a fan) of furniture protector and a new and highly powerful vacuum cleaner (thanks for the advice, Cicely) have combined to help us win the battle.

As the vet said, it shouldn't be rocket science, but somehow I feel he has a cleaner and a wife to sort these things out for him!!  It mightn't be rocket science, but it is hard work.

Anyway, Maigret and Poirot would like to demonstrate their flea free status in a wider arena - see below!

 

Walnuts

As I have said before, this is a good year for "free" and not quite so free food.

Here we are in the middle of the walnut season.  In past years, we may have flirted with buying the odd kilo or two from market stall holders, but have always remained faithful to those supplied by our next door neighbour, who gets them from his son's farm at Montivert.  They have always been sweet, tasty and good keepers (at least until we have scoffed the lot), and so we always get a few kilos from Roger.

This year we have had more scope for seeing what other people's nuts are like - not least as they do a bit of damage to the lawn mower, so have to be raked up and bagged before mowing or strimming can commence.  Alan's nuts are small but sweet, Gordon's are prolific and very tasty, Peter's big ones are a bit tart for me still, though his small ones are nice, Jenny's are very good too.  So in this year of exceptionally good nuts, how do Roger's stand up against the competition?

Montivert nuts are still the best!!  It's a pity the local wild boar feel the same and have been scrumping them.

Shaggy Ink-caps

Autumn is a favourite time of year for me for "free" food.  We have done well so far this year with chestnuts (see previous posts), walnuts and hazelnuts, but the mushrooms have been slow.

Last year was a bumper year for wild mushrooms, particularly cepes and bolets of many varieties.  This year we have yet to see any in our wood - we hope it is because the conditions aren't right yet, but thieves cleared the wood 5 times to our knowledge last year, so it could also be a problem with the mycelium.  Cepe development is apparently a mystery even to the experts, so we wait and see.

Today John did find a few Shaggy Ink-caps however, which he brought home for our lunch.  Once picked, these lovely mushrooms have a shelf life of no more than about three quarters of an hour - fortunately he found them quite close to home!  Gently fried in a bit of butter, they made a lovely lunch, and have fired our enthusiasm for seeking out more.

That crumble recipe

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would reveal the secret of my savoury chestnut crumble - here it is!

Take 2 ounces or 50 grammes each of lightly cooked chestnuts, flour, freshly grated Parmesan and salted butter (yes, frightfully unhealthy, but saves adding salt).  Either rub them together if you are a hands on sort of person, or whizz in a food processor with the sharp attachment if you aren't, and there you have it.  Add more salt, pepper or herbs to taste.

It takes about 20 minutes minimum to cook with whatever filling you are using at gas mark 5.  Enjoy!

How to peel sweet chestnuts

This is an excellent year for sweet chestnuts - there are lots around and they are big and plump and luscious.  Even trees that don't normally produce any are dropping a few of these fabulous nuts.  There are so many in our wood that we could only eat them roasted if we set the brazier up every night from now until Christmas, and of course by then, some will have sprouted, some will have gone off, some will have been eaten by mice, so what to do with the surplus?

There are lovely recipes for stuffings and soups, but they all start with "first peel a pound (or other quantity) of chestnuts".  Then they tell you how to do that more easily - slit the top of the nut and boil variously for 5 to 10 minutes, then pop them out of their shells and inner casings.  THIS DOES NOT WORK.

The way to do it is to take off the hard outer shell while the nut is in its raw state, but leave the tannic inner membrane on.  When you have enough, pop them in a saucepan and cover with water and boil for 5 minutes.  At this point the membrane does come off quite easily and you can even get nice whole nuts to do marron glace with.  Chestnut soup is very nice but very very rich!!

It's not easy getting rid of fleas

Tell me about it!  Since Maigret and Poirot came into our lives in July, the daily flea tally is the main topic of conversation in our house.

The girls have Program in their food, the house has been sprayed with products that kill fleas for variously three, six and twelve months and we spray the cats with Frontline whenever they aren't looking, and we still find at least 15 a day on them.

If anyone has any ideas short of a flame thrower, let me know!