Saturday 20 December 2014

Oat groats porridge.

oat groats. The mostly unprocessed hulled kernels of oats. I soaked them for an hour. Gave them a jolly good rinse. added them to a saucepan where I boiled them for ten minutes then let them simmer for fifty minutes. 
 I then left them overnight.
In the morning i filled my favourite coffee cup with semi skimmed milk added it to the groats, added a bit of water for luck and heated it up. I added three teaspoons of sugar (I'd added enough groats to feed two) and a handful of good raisins. I let it heat until some of the liquid was gone but not all and then dished it up. Its really nice.

Friday 19 December 2014

Its always nice when things work out.

I give you bread!!
It tastes so good!
I get the feeling I'm going to make another one very, very soon. Because this one is not going to last very long.  

I recently found a shop that sells a very rare thing.

I found a shop that sells fresh bread yeast and I'm very happy that I did. Its so much nicer than any of the dried yeasts and much easier to work with than sour-dough.


Early Christmas present.

I got this wonderful early Christmas present from my granddad and uncle yesterday. Its a yellow plum and I'm very excited about getting some lovely yellow plums to eat in the summer time. 

I had a bit of a crowd watching me when i was planting the tree. They're in their run today as its so very windy, and I don't want them to blow away. :P Its also very wet out in the garden and unfortunately they really damage my garden in this weather. After Christmas I'm going to be getting them a big permanent run that they can stay in all the time. I didn't realise how much damage they would cause. The naughty hens. 

Their little run isn't very neat. in-fact its pug ugly. :D But it does the job and is only temporary. Its maybe 9 feet long by 4 feet wide.  

as you can see they follow your every move. I had just given them sweetcorn. The tin is still on the bench.

Monday 15 December 2014

My egg factory.

Orange, Yellow

Blue.

Orange is the head hen.

This is where they are meant to sleep. (this is an old photo. The cavity is now filled with straw to help insulate them against the cold)

This is where they are meant to lay eggs. This is in fact where they sleep and they lay their egg in the sleeping compartment. Strange chickens. 

This is where they spend their days. It's still a mess and a massive work in progress. Even after the massive effort we've already put into it. But I can't afford to do anything more with it financially or time wise until Christmas is over. I'm just waiting for a little more day light. As you see the garden is small, so I'm not going to be able to be totally self sufficient food-wise. This is an experiment to see just how much I can get out of it. And still keep it attractive and with dog friendly areas.  


Sunday 14 December 2014

Cooking from scratch.

So, the cake is really good. I've eaten all of the cake that's missing in the picture. I can't help it. Its really good. Nice with custard... Better without.

I've also made a vegetable toad in the hole. using the last of my home grown turnip and swede, a couple of my parsnips, some shop bought carrot, sweet pepper. And of course a free range egg from one of my chickens. 
Its a really quick and tasty meal, perfect for the end of a busy day. But don't forget the gravy.

For starters.

Ok. As this is my very first post on this blog dedicated to my self sufficient exploits, I feel that the first thing I should state is that I am nowhere near self sufficient... Yet.

These are my plans to bring me as close to self sufficiency as I can get in my current house. It might take me two years to reach my goals, it might take me five.

As this is December and I have moved house not too long ago I don't have anything in the ground at this moment in time. That is except for a couple of rhubarb plants and raspberry canes that I seem to have inherited, and some overwintering onions. The rhubarb will be removed to make space for my potatoes in the spring. I will hopefully replant a rhubarb plant at the bottom of the garden when the mess has been cleared. A couple of the newer raspberry canes will be kept but the rest will be removed.

I do have some plants remaining in my dads garden that I planted before I moved. Namely, a globe artichoke, three purple sprouting broccoli plants, three kale plants, half a dozen parsnips and one sad and lonely savoy cabbage.

I currently have three 3 x 4 foot raised beds (one of which has over wintering onions in it) and plans/space for four more raised beds three more 3 x 4 and one 5 x 5.
I have a large soil boarder that will house flowers, broad beans, (I have the toilet roll tubes waiting) kale, globe artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, chard, hopefully an achocha vine growing up the fence and maybe some dwarf French beans if I can squeeze them in.

On the other side of the garden I will be training cordon apples, plums and pears. And I have an 8 x 6 greenhouse in which i will put tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and hopefully an achocha and melon.

In the raised beds I'll have Chinese cabbage, spinach, potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beetroot, swede, squash, sweetcorn, french and runner beans, peas. Leeks and shallots.

In the garden I also have three rescue ex-battery hens and plans to hatch a few more in the spring-time, I am very wealthy in Chicken manure and I think I will be able to produce plentiful amounts of garden compost over the next year.

In the front garden I hope to plant flowers with some cabbage, cauliflowers, kale and Brussel sprouts inter-planted amongst it all.

I know that this will not be enough to make me completely self sufficient in food. I will have to buy more veg in the winter and spring. I'm a vegetarian so meat won't be a problem although if I hatch any roosters I am prepared to dispatch them (in theory) and eat them. My boyfriend does not feel the urge to join my self sufficient exploits and will be buying his food from the shops, although I am sure he ill help me eat the rooster.
 I will obviously have to buy in flour, sugar and dairy. Although I am searching for a field on which to keep a cow or some goats. I am also looking into making flour out of sweet chestnuts. I have had my name down for an allotment for the last six months although I bet I'll have many more months or years to wait before I get some more growing space. I have amaranth seeds in my mighty seed stash so I could grow a tiny amount of my own grain, but probably not enough to make it worth it until I have more space.

I try to bake as much as I can from scratch including bread, pastry, cakes and cookies. I try to make much of my food from scratch, although I am guilty of having some frozen quorn and vegetable pies in the freezer, and some supermarket foods in the fridge. I like to make different types of home made wines and I have two sour-dough starters in my fridge that I use regularly.




Some time in 2015 I will be investing in a wood-burning stove to reduce any Gas central heating needed. I am hoping to build a small cob oven in the garden which will help reduce the electricity spent on the indoor oven. I will be having solar panels installed on the roof and finally I walk almost everywhere I need to get to so petrol use is not going to be a problem for me at this point in time.