Back From A Week In Holland! Eurocamp with A Twist!

 We'e got back form our weeks holiday. A bit different this year - no Wales for us for our full holiday (although we did have a weekend there a few weeks back), this time we went to the Netherlands. 

This meant getting the ferry - the first time for the youngest two children (eldest had a school trip to France earlier in the year). 

Bee Inspection from few weeks back

I filmed a whole hive inspection with my daughters the other day. It's probably more for myself than anyone else, but I enjoyed it. 

 

Wasp traps

I know they're part of the ecosystem, but around here everything is out of balance. We're surrounded by big fields of single crops, The wasps seem to love it here, and there is just too many. 

They stripped a whole tree of fruit, so I took action. 

Some wasp traps. 

 How are your wasps this year?

Blackcurrant Pie

 In last months newsletter I posted a recipe for blackcurrant pie that my daughter made. I had a few people last weekend ask me to put the recipe on the blog. 

Ingredients – Pastry – 225g plain flour 100g cold butter (supposed to be unsalted but we just use salted) 25g caster sugar 1 egg yoke Pinch of salt (no need if using salted butter) Splash of water if needed   Filling – 400g of blackcurrants 100g caster sugar 1 tbsp of cornflour 1 tbsp of lemon juice

1.       In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until it’s like bread crumbs. 2.      Stir in the sugar, then add the egg yolk and water. 3.      Don’t work it too hard, shape it into a ball then wrap in cling film and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. 4.      For the filling, heat up the blackcurrants, caster sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over a low heat. 5.      Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, then roll out two thirds of the pastry on a floured surface, enough to cover a pie dish around 20cm in diameter. 6.      Prick the base with a fork and trim any excess. Line the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. 7.      Blind bake for 12 minutes, remove the beans and parchment paper, then bake for another 5 minutes until golden. 8.      Pour the filling into the pie, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover, sealing the edges. Cut a slit in the top to let the steam out. 9.      Brush with beat egg and sprinkle with sugar 10.    Bake for 30 minutes 11.     Cool for about 15 minutes, then slice and enjoy with fresh cream.

Entering The Village Show

So we decided to come across all River Cottage and Enter the local horticultural show. We all looked through the program and decided to enter a few different things. 

I entered just two categories, Stoned fruit (5 in a dish) and soft fruit. I picked some plums from the tree trained on the back of the container, but they all had a few bits of damage on them. Instead I went for the beautiful little gages.

And the soft fruit was Japanese wineberries. 
  

The youngest entered a picture of his favourite flower (snap dragon). 

Eldest entered scones, a Victoria sponge and a trio of tomatoes (I said I wouldn't feel right if I entered them as she's done all the work. 

Middlest entered a Sunset photo and a Victoria sponge - a bit of competition between my girls. 

I got second on the soft fruit and third with my gages (out of three lol!).

Youngest got first for his picture, Middlest got for her Victoria sponge, Eldest got first for her Victoria sponge and second for her scones and First for her tomatoes. 

The Horticultural society were lovely as well as they invited me to have a stall there for the afternoon. It was great fun and loads of people I knew were there, Middlest helped with the stall all afternoon as well. 

Good fun and a proper bit of village life. We'll have to enter more next year! 

Scythe Over Strimmer

 It's been a few years now, and I still prefer the scythe over the strimmer. But I must say there are a few things to consider that could make it harder. 

When you damage your scythe edge, you need to deal with it straight away. this can be very annoying when you just want to knock down a few weeds. I'm tempted to have a spare blade ready to go. 

Sharpening has to be right - if it's not then it just doesn't cut very well. You need all the tools to get this right, from peening to the stones

Setting has to be right, this can be annoying. I probably don't use it enough to be able to tell at a stroke of the scythe if it's set right or not, I end up messing with it quite a bit. 

Storage - you need to keep it in good condition. The blade's shape makes it hard to protect without making something yourself. 

But being able to use this in the cool of the evening or early morning is still glorious as it doesn't make the noise a strimmer does. You're far more likely to come across and notice wildlife this way as well. 

A harder tool to learn, but one that will make you feel like you're doing the right thing.