Category Archives: Allotments

My Little Porkie: Sausages

Well, the day came when Ethel was converted into joints of pork. She’d had a lovely life at Samphire at Sycamore Farm, so we don’t feel bad about eating the end product.

A couple of days before she arrived on our doorstep, we had a message from Karen Nethercott, who runs Samphire, to tell us that “Ethel was quite a big girl”. That sent us into a minor panic, since although we thought we’d cleared plenty of freezer space, we hadn’t bargained for a larger than average pig.

We made some backup arrangements, but we shouldn’t have worried. The pork arrived immaculately butchered, boned, packed, and labelled.

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Chicken and redcurrants

No, not a recipe!

We’ve inherited a few old fruit bushes on the part of the allotment where we keep the chickens. We kept the bushes because the birds love to shelter under them. They’re lovely and cool and shady in the summer. We don’t give a lot of attention to the bushes, pruning them rather crudely, and let the chickens have the fruit. But this year there were so many redcurrants that we thought we might take a little share for ourselves.

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Ethel the Little Porkie

We finally went to see Ethel, our little porkie, who is being raised on our behalf by Samphire at Sycamore Farm. You can see a video about the farm and My Little Porkie here.

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Fruit and some veg

Mostly pictures on this blog entry. Jean has been in a frenzy of planting out, and I’ve been doing a bit of strimming and cultivating (with much more to do, I know, I know). But the damp warm conditions have been ideal for seedlings, so we’re optimistic for this year. Here’s a walk round our allotment sites:

The "new bit" is almost fully planted now

The “new bit” is almost fully planted now


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Tidbitting, then death in the afternoon

We’ve often observed the apparently gentlemanly behaviour of the cockerel in sharing treats with his flock of hens. I’ve only recently found out (hat tip to @Hetty’s Hen House) that it’s called tidbitting.

Here he is being offered a gooseberry:

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Allotment planting is under way again

After our brief absence on our Suffolk jaunt, Saturday’s weather remained kind to allow more tilling and planting. The chickens benefited from the uprooted remains of the purple sprouting broccoli:

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The asparagus is showing

The title says it all, really. The first shoots of asparagus are just coming through. This is year 4 for our asparagus bed. Last year we got a reasonable crop. This year, who knows? But there’s always an optimism at the start of the season as the fruit trees flower, the seedlings are planted out, and the artichokes and asparagus start to make new growth!

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Planting out at last

It looks as though the threat of frost has been lifted for the next ten days at least, and the waters of the spring monsoon have receded somewhat. So we’ve made a start on planting out the broad beans, a mixture of a modern variety called Greeny, and some heritage seeds swapped with our friends at Allotments4All.

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Cleaning the coops

Today was cleaning out the henhouses day. We use a product called Aubiose for litter. It’s intended as horse bedding, but it’s absolutely brilliant for poultry. With an interim top-up, it means we only have to do a deep clean once a month.

We start by cleaning the house out thoroughly and checking for red mite, especially on the roosting bars. If we find any, the bar ends are dipped in creosote, and we also creosote the entire house every year. No problems today, I’m glad to say. Then the house is given a good scattering of diatomaceous earth, which also acts against mites.

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More allotment prep

The weather has been kind to us. A little bit of rain just to wet the soil, followed by dry breezy days. We’ve made rapid progress on our new half allotment.

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