Jonathan Richman - Everyday Clothes Live - YouTube

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Facebook | My Photos - Animals

Facebook | My Photos - Animals

Fava bean dip

http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/saladsandsidedishes/r/Bessara_Recipe.htm

Whitey on the moon

Isn't you tube the best

Don't count your chickens

Ten allegedly fertile eggs were purchased. Nine were successfully transfered under the broody hen, Michelle, one was broken in the process. Two live chicks hatched and seem to be doing well. One dead chick was found partly out of it's shell and six turned out to be duds. I opened each one and apart from a really bad smell of rotten eggs there was no sign of any thing resembling a chicken.

Michelle is becoming very protective, even aggressive in her defense of her hatch-lings. When I tried to put more food in her coop today she puffed herself up and jumped out of the door attempting to peck me several times. She spends all day training the youngsters in the ways of hens apparently if you are a hen you should first scratch the ground vigorously with your claws then peck at the scratched ground.

Michelle's baby

Some time ago the new black hen, Michelle, went funny. She stopped laying eggs and retired to the nest box to incubate the plastic dummy eggs that were in there. Each day she would appear for around 20 minutes or so and then go back to her sitting. It was apparent she had gone broody. I purchased 10 fertilized eggs and last Saturday morning we found the first hatch-ling.

Kraut

Before and after images of the Sauerkraut.

The sauerkraut has been a success. My German wife has eaten it and pronounced it acceptable. I've been making Reuben sandwiches and the next batch is now fermenting in the hall cupboard. Now that I have pickled cabbage I'm looking for my next conquest, look out courgettes.

Fishing Rods

The clump in the Japanese garden turned out to have both white and pink flowers. Still going strong on Christmas eve.

Sauerkraut

For once I have managed to grow some decent cabbages, but now in the height of summer the last thing I feel like eating is cabbage. 

The solution is to make some sauerkraut. Apparently fermented food has health benefits and tastes good as well.

 The process is very simple all that you need is a large plastic container, salt (3 tablespoons) and finely chopped cabbage. I added some caraway seed (2 tablespoons)  as a flavoring.  The cut salted cabbage is placed in the container with a plate and a weight to press it down. The cabbage releases a lot of liquid that covers the cabbage. The lacto-bacteria do there magic in the absence of oxygen so the weighted plate helps keeps the cabbage covered by liquid and the good stuff happening. 

 The fermenting cabbage is in the hall cupboard as it is the coolest place in the house at the moment. Apparently four to seven days is all that is needed until the kraut is ready to eat.  

Baa

Long drive today to pick up a couple of two tooth weathers. These will be paddock mates for Whistla now that the young horses have gone. 

The two weathers are a cross including some merino and the funny colour is supposedly part of their charm. Barbara has been researching training sheep on the internet so I guess these two can look forward to some serious bossing around.
They also mean a lot more work for me as I make the fences sheep proof to protect the garden. 

Calves Grown Up

The grass is  so long at they are hard to see especially if lying in the paddock.

The three white face calves are finished their childhood.They have eaten the last of their calf pellets, we have wrestled them to the ground and given them ear tags and today we put them in together with the 14 month heifers in the paddock across the stream.

 

 

Fairy fishing rods

The flowers are white. From first seeing the flower spikes until they opened has taken several weeks. 

I quite like how a single flower opens each day or so which means they should last in flower for about a month. The fishing rods are almost 2 meters tall and sway very nicely in the wind. I have not been able to make a photo that does them justice but you will get the general idea. 

Growth

The three heifers we purchased in September have done what they were purchased to do. They have grown bigger!

We don't have scales big enough to know for sure, but they look to have at least doubled in size in the three months we've had them.

Vege Garden

The Potatoes are going for it. This season I have planted Agria's again. Last year it was Rua's and a red skined variety. They went well but just didn't have that lovely floury consistency when roasted, boiled or baked.

The Broad beans are being harvested meal by meal. I think i agree with Hugh that they are the best vegetable. We are having them in a cabonara style pasta and with avocado and new potatoes in salad I'm also going to fry some with crispy bacon pieces and enjoy on toast when I next cook for myself and don't have to cater to the vegetarian.

This year we are only growing sweet 100 style tomatoes and they will be staked, mulched and have their laterals removed regularly. To much of our previous crops have been rotting on the ground covered with rampant uncontrolled growth of out of control tomato plants.

Fairy Fishing Rods

It looks like the fairy fishing rods will be in full flower before Christmas. Over the last week some of the tillers have thickened up and now flower spikes are emerging. 

No sign yet of what colour they will be but I think we will know by the end of next week.

Hens

Of course the new chicken is called "Michelle". Her arrival coincided with the results of the American election and if she was a rooster her name would be Barack.

Fowls

We lost the hen known as "Wing" a couple of weeks ago leaving one lonely hen. Our neighbour on hearing this turn of events was kind enough to drop down a replacement Hen, a beautiful black bird with glossy green highlights in her feathers.

 She lays large pale brown eggs that are smooth like pearls.

Calf Drama

On Friday I collected three feeder calves from a Greytown dairy farm. They are Hereford Fresian cross bulls, black with white faces. The next morning one was slow to feed and as the day went on he became weaker and weaker. We managed to get him drinking a little bit but he was going down hill fast. 

The next morning it looked like he would die so we packed him into the horse float and off to the vet. The vet didn't sound to promising but gave him three injections of various stuff and gave us a tube to feed him electrolytes directly into his stomach. By Sunday evening he had completely turned around and could stand on his own accord and drank a litre of milk. 

The photos show him rejoining his mates after his near death experience. I can see why people avoid calf rearing as a stressful activity.

Sourdough Bread

They canceled this mornings flight to Christchurch and the weather is shocking. An ideal day to make bread. 

The sourdough bug is called "Mother". She was born in February 2008 and lives in the fridge. Mother is very low maintenance requiring feeding only when diminished by her contribution to the birth of a new loaf.

Around 250 grams of Mother, 50 grams gluten flour, 100 grams rye flour, 10 grams salt, 7 grams caraway seeds, 1 Handful kibbled grain, 400 grams strong flour, a pinch of dried yeast, sufficient water to make a soft and giving dough.

The crust is a very important feature of a Sourdough and these little babies were painted with a wash of egg white whisked together with olive oil. Sprinkle a little more caraway seed on top and make a slash with a sharp knife.

New Friends

On Monday we got three new heifer calves in a range of designer colours. They came pre-named and are between 9 and 11 months old.