Another Approved Food Order

I placed another order with approved food the other day. This one was much smaller and I managed to use some credit I'd earnt through recommendations so ti didn't cost too much. 

 Really I was just interested in bread flour as we were out of the cheap stuff we bought last time and I haven't been to Lidl in a while. the flour above was limited to 9 bags per customer but it worked out at 33p per kg and it's not even out of date (march 2016). After this is used up I might bulk buy from FWP Mathews as their 16kg bags work out quite cheap for organic flour ( and not to far from the mothering law so she can save me some postage).

The other thing I stocked up on was spice mixes. A really cheap way to buy spices as these were either 3 or 4 bags for a pound, and sealed up like this I can't see them going off very quickly. We love peri peri and it doesn't have to be on chicken, rabbit or cheap cuts or pork work just as well.

If you're going to buy from Approved food use this link top earn me money off my next shop - I'll be most grateful!

Marks On The Drive

The other night I had a shock as I was getting firewood from the wood shed. Someone had put a white cross on the drive. Now we're some way from the road but we are on a public footpath.

 The worst things crossed my mind first. I instantly thought of the supposed marks that thieves leave to mark somewhere with something worth taking, marking a driveway or a gate and then coming back later. 

I went down onto the road and found this mark at the bottom of our drive. I wasn't happy. I scrubbed the marks off, leaving no trace whatsoever along with other marks leading away.

I have since found out that these marks were left by a group of ramblers that like to follow a trail to a certain goal. 

I'm sure they'd say they had the right to mark my drive because it's a public right of way but I disagree. They can walk on it but not mark it in my opinion and I hope I don't catch anyone in the act, it could have really upset and older person who was more paranoid than me (and I can be pretty paranoid) and I think it's irresponsible not to ask a landowners permission first and explain what it is. 

Hopefully they were rambling for quite some time that night. A little evil streak in me wanted to lay a trail going somewhere else completely, to the middle of a pond or something! 

Fruit trays

I got given some old fruit crates the other day by a guy who lives near to where I've been working. 

 They're lovely old crates but have seen better days. they have some woodworm that needs treating although I don't think I'll be able to keep apples in them if I do. 

I have started to make some new ones up in the workshop, some for myself and maybe some to sell. I want to make practical things that people will use to aid with food storage and keeping fruit and veg longer is a great thing. 

The old guys who made these in the past knew what they were doing and these were the best way to store certain produce before the invention of refrigeration.

Last Years Lambs

Now I haven't mentioned what's happened to the lambs from the ewes last year in a while. 

Unfortunately they hadn't put on enough weight by the autumn and I had two options. Either fatten them up over winter or sell them as "store lambs" which means someone else fattens them up and makes a profit on them. 

The price was at a low when I was thinking about selling them as stores so we decided to hold on to them for a little while longer to see what the market did. 

Covered in Briar's 

 The market is a little better than it was (in fact last week was even quite good) but when I got the lambs in yesterday I could instantly see they hadn't put enough meat on. One or two could have gone for fat (meat sale) but the rest didn't have enough when I felt their backs. 

It's been wet for a few months and it's pretty hard for them living out in it the whole time, not much extra energy for growing meat. We've been giving them some extra corn (wheat and oats) but I think it's now time to up their rations and hope the weather improves to allow some easy living. Hopefully in a months time I should see some improvement and have plenty to sell.

Looking a little better but they still need to grow some more meat on their bones

 One of the reasons I think they didn't put on much meat last year was a lack of minerals, something must have been lacking from the grass. They seemed to get to a stage and then not move on from there. With this years lambs I'm going to creep feed them (give extra feed) early on and try to have them sold by the end of the autumn. I don't want to have to winter lambs again if I can help it. 

A steep learning curve with these animals, I think the 8 years I spent away from sheep I forgot more than I realised. Having focus in other areas hasn't helped this first year and I think I should have been more organised and I got rid of some lambs in the summer when they would have graded but the price was low. 

I'm also planning on killing two lambs myself for home and butchering them here, but we'll see if I find the time for that (best laid plans and all...). 

The ewes are looking good though, great condition, just need to find somewhere to lamb them in April. Currently thinking a quickly erected poly tunnel for a month might be the answer! 

Buying Chilli Seed

Last year I grew quite a few different chilli plants and I've realised that my tastes are getting slowly hotter. A cayenne would have been far to hot for me a few years ago, now I want a whole one chopped up on a few slices of pizza, loving the kick it gives me! 

So the other day I decided to buy some new seeds and add to what I already grow. It came as a package from a Devon chilli farm and included:

Jamaican Red Saina

Apache

Space Chilli

Naranga

Orange Jalapeno

Tabasco

Pencil Cayenne

Thai Bird's eye

Not sure if I'll plant them all yet or not but the idea of growing some Thai chillies really takes my fancy as I'm hoping I can make some spicy dipping sauce of my own. 

This year I want to be much better at separating them off to ensure they've not cross pollinated for seed saving, I'm thinking about using different windowsills in the house for different varieties but we'll see how that goes, I'm not great with house plants for some reason! 

I think I'll dig out my heated propagator and maybe sow them this weekend to get he longest growing season possible from them. 

When does everyone else sow their chilli seeds? 

Do you use grow lamps early in the year to speed them along?

What's your favourite type to grow?