31st August 2011

It seems one of the recurring features of this Diary is the weather, and this summer has given us plenty to comment on!  Apart from a few very light passing showers, we had no rain since the end of February, which made the concept of ‘managing grassland’ a bit of a joke!  For optimum nutrition we aim to have a sward height of about 6-8cm for the growing lambs, which means regularly topping excess growth to stop the pasture getting ‘stalky’ and allow light in to encourage new growth.  It also means moving the stock onto fresh grass as it reaches the right height, and allowing the previous pasture to recover.

Thankfully, the last two weeks of August brought a few good downpours and our parched paddocks quickly went from the colour of sand to lush green, just as we were about to break out our precious store of hay to feed the sheep and horses.

It’s been quite a difficult year in the vegetable garden, and we’ve had to water the plot every day, which makes me wonder how sustainable traditional vegetable growing will be if the overall climate really does get warmer and drier in the future?  Having said this, we’re again having to come up with some interesting and original ways to deal with gluts of courgettes, cabbages, French beans and all the root vegetables which seem to have made an extra effort to grow down to find water!  Incidentally, I devised a cunning strategy this year to avoid the ‘overgrown’ courgette syndrome: I planted twice as many plants as usual so that there were always several small ones ready to be picked – this avoided the ‘it’s not quite big enough to pick so I’ll leave it for a couple of days’ … by which time it’s grown into a monster!



This year has also been another bumper one for orchard and wild fruits, though this seems to be matched by the number of wasps that are invading our orchard.  Plums and damsons are amazingly prolific this year, and you might like to try this recipe for Damson & Port Wine Jelly.




Even having given loads of surplus produce to friends and family, we still have plenty left, which brings out my squirreling tendencies!  This is my pickling time of year – anything that can’t be successfully frozen, made into jam or bottled – gets pickled: cucumbers, onions, cabbage (sauerkraut), and – best of all, carrots with chillies – delicious but lethal!

In the true spirit of self-sufficiency, I decided that we really should make the most of the wild food on offer in our countryside, specifically rabbit.  It’s a very lean and healthy meat, freely available and delicious – and we are overrun with them!

Our favourite cameraman, Dave, is equally at home shooting a high-powered air rifle, and within less than a half-hour had bagged two nice fat rabbits in our ram’s paddock.  I really wasn’t looking forward to the next bit, but, following instructions and with a very sharp knife managed to ‘paunch’ and skin both rabbits.  It’s recommended to soak them in lightly salted water for 12 hours to remove any bitter taste, then casserole slowly with lots of herbs and a good slug of brandy!