Better pancetta

What a delight to be eating our own delicious pancetta! The mystery has left the process - it is actually very straight forward:

-a nice piece of pork belly rubbed over with salt, sugar and spices
-check that it's still covered with the mix every day or so, and turn once or twice
-wash off after a week, by which time the meat should be firm, almost leathery
-pat dry, and hang somewhere cool and airy. A shed seems to do fine at this time of year.
-after a month cut a thin slice to enjoy immediately in the raw, then cut little cubes to fry up at the start of almost any dish - a pasta sauce, casserole, soup, stew etc.
-keep in the fridge for as long as it lasts...

This is such a simple and satisfying thing to do, and could once again be common knowledge. Your meat is not only cured such that it will keep without freezing, but has also become intensely delicious, such that a very little goes a long way. Give it a go!

The Cure

Since the last post another pig has been 'processed'. A fresh and keen new team appeared over the weekend to help with the job, and on the whole all proceeded smoothly.
The actual slaughter was done with a .410 shotgun this time, and a much better tool it is for the job - more powerful and certain in its effect than the .22 rifle. I am confident that the pig moved from this world to the next with the minimum possible fear or pain - a most satisfactory result, given that the deed was to be done.
I wrote about the next stages in my last post, so suffice to say that things generally went more smoothly, but that having got the scalding water too cool last time, this time it was too hot and we set the hairs rather than loosening them. While I could conclude that too cool is better than too hot, the real learning here is to be sure to take the temperature of the water before you put the pig in it.
After a couple of long days of butchery we now have lots of belly being dry cured, some of which will then be smoked and dried, and some frozen. A whole leg is also packed in salt and being pressed by rocks to make a parma-style ham. Three brine crocks are full of exciting bits and bobs being given a Wiltshire style cure, which involves alot of beer, salt, sugar and spices. The shed will again be billowing smoke next week following the success of hanging the last lot of hams and bacon in there. I can't wait to sample these delicacies...

Unburdening the gilt?

The time finally came for me to bite the bullet, and recognise that the pigs have reached a certain size. Actually, their appetite began to suggest that the time had come - they have always eaten well of course, but had recently become insatiable. Buckets of food were just disappearing, and the insistent grunting would soon recommence.
So I assembled a team. Or rather it assembled itself, as such teams do - a pig killing is not everyone's cup of tea. Folk began to arrive on Thursday morning, some obviously unafraid to get their hands dirty, others less so...
Tempting one animal away from the other turned out to be tricky. We took a section of the electric fence down, and despite their not having eaten for 24 hours, neither was keen to cross the line. After 20 minutes or so of rattling the food bucket, one of them began to make slow progress out of the pen and down the path. I dropped a pig nut every foot or two, slowly, slowly down the hill towards the waiting hoist, hanging ominously in the barn like an executioner's gallows. But we never made it that far. Clearly she was anxious being off her turf (or rather lack of it), and kept turning back. And there is no pushing them around; with pigs it's all carrot and no stick. So after playing this game a while I decided to get the job done. Close your eyes at this point if you are sensitive to these things.
Actually all went pretty smoothly. Having made an imaginary cross between eyes and ears I held the rifle just off that spot, held my breath and pulled the trigger. The gun went click - the safety catch was on. Having released it and taken aim once again I slowly exhaled and squeezed again. The pig was down, suddenly on her side a great hulk of an animal. A second bullet to the same spot made sure the job was done. A few moments later I stuck her (that is, pushed a sharp 10'' knife blade from throat to heart) to get the blood flowing. Some we collected there, and the rest once we'd dragged the body down to the barn and hoisted it up by a back leg. A mistake was not to stir the blood sufficiently after putting the salt in, so that some turned to jelly. We still had enough, however, for Hannah to make several pounds of beautiful boudin.
The next job was scalding to loosen the hair. A wheely bin had been filled with (scalding) hot water, and the pig was lowered into it - all most undignified for the poor beast. After 5 minutes or so of holding down those hams that were otherwise not quite submerged we hoisted it out and began scraping away. It was a semi-success, and we went for a second scalding. This stage of the process is hard work and not simple - we'll get it better next time, but the trick seems to be to get the water really scalding (70ºc) and scrape like mad when the pig comes out.
Gutting was next, with the pig still head down from the hoist. The insides surely took after their name - offal, or off-fall.
Then the better (in my opinion) bits of the offal (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys) were put in brine before being frozen. Except, that is, for enough liver to be fried up fresh for a well earned slaughterers' supper.
Apart from a fairly lengthy clean-up (where's Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe when you need him?) that, in short, was day 1. Day 2, butchery day, will have to wait for the next posting, as we had to wait overnight for the carcass to cool...

The Mighty Quinoa!

The quinoa heads have turned wonderful shades of yellow and orange, signaling that the harvest is ready. They are cut and wilting, ready to be threshed in a few days. The plants grew taller than I could reach with an upstretched hand and the heads would make a sensimilla grower swoon, though of course we hope these are very much with seeds. I have also been collecting poppy seeds and drying broad beans, and leaving some of the French bean pods to swell. Pumpkins are finally swelling and tomatoes turning red, and even from two plants we have a serious courgette glut.

Much of the excess garden produce I am preserving through lactic fermentation. This is an ancient technique, the discovery of which some have suggested to be on a par with fire and even language in our development. And yet it is virtually unknown today, at least in this country. Elsewhere the tradition continues, as sauerkraut and kimchi, and a host of pickled vegetables and fruits, notably Japanese umaboshi. In Japan pickles are served little and often, with almost every meal in fact, as is best for you and your digestive fauna. I find it sobering to consider that our own cells are actually outnumbered by those we carry symbiotically in our guts. All benefit enormously from our eating lacto-fermented foods, and not just because they are so delicious. These foods are alive, rich in enzymes created by the cultured lactobacilli, which actually increase vitamin levels and digestibility, as well as creating antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. The process is very straightforward: put your vegetables in a jar, add herbs and spices if you wish, cover with brine, and wait. If you are interested to give it a go, go here: http://awesomepickle.com/

Wasps are raiding the new beehive. I think we do have a laying worker - several eggs are being laid in some cells, and as we know a queen is not so careless. I had thought that since there are grubs, that would suggest the presence of a queen, but I now understand that laying workers' eggs will develop, but only into drones. I am now expecting to find many of those goggle-eyed malingerers in that hive, who will be failing to offer any defence to the yellow raiders. The other hives have many less attackers, which certainly suggests a weakness in the new colony. The weather having turned decidedly autumnal I have given up much hope of any honey this year, and we will hope to start next year with two happily overwintered colonies both raring to go.

Another sign of the changing seasons: rabbit and mushroom casserole tonight!

feed the bees!

A swarm of bees was hanging from a rowan tree over the mill pond when we returned from a family outing today. It looked large and quite settled to my untrained eye, and it seemed that the bees we have been meaning to keep had found us. I called David, the local expert, who came directly - armed with two protective suits and a swarm box. The tricky bit was to get this potentially angry August swarm from its branch over-hanging a steep drop into a small plywood box, and then swiftly close the lid on them. The latter was David's job, having dangled the box precariously out over the empty pond, which had been  hurriedly secured in my old landing net. My job was to climb up the tree, lean out along the branch, and lop off the bit from which they hung. I was most thankful for the suit and veil, though actually I'm sure I would not have been stung without it. The task was completed successfully, if without much elegance, and we were pleased to see the bees quickly settle into their new temporary home. At the gloaming David returned. Meanwhile I had set up the hive he kindly lent us, and we took the swarm, now a wonderfully calm though voluble and weighty buzz in the box, up to the top of the garden - me carefully carrying, David just behind, and my Mum, Dad and pyjamaed niece Claudia bringing up the rear.
So the swarm has now been shaken into it's new (hopefully) permanent home, the top floor being a feeder loaded with a gallon of sugar syrup to help them settle in. We are all very excited and pleased with the new residents, and hope they remain happy and hard working for many years!

Have you ever seen the rain?

Wonderful wet walk around feeding the animals this morning, with that old Creedence tune running around my head. The burn is up and raging, over the dam but still following the bypass round the hydro intake, which is now basically complete and ready for an initial testing. Quite the conditions for this - a baptism of fire? It should be fun letting this kind of flow through the sluice, and then slowly turning the wheel to close it up. I will wait for wait for Jonathan the Wwoofer to appear, and we can enjoy putting our work to the test.
The black hen is not proudly leading her new brood around today. They are all tucked into the back of the broody coop, with the older chick from the last brood, 'the teenager' as Polly calls it. Actually I think she is a hen rather than a cockerel as she is already displaying some impressive maternal protective behaviour, seeing off the brown hens three times her size! Of course everyone is enchanted by the five little chicks: two silvery yellow, one black and two ginger. All will be some mix of Light Sussex, Buff Orpington and Marran.
I now have the treadle pump up and running. It needed to be drawing water from higher up the burn (so not raising the water so far), to be fully air tight, and to be generously greased. It now fills a large butt just above the polytunnel, and so into a hose. Water seems such an easy commodity now after months of carrying sloshing buckets up the hill. Although the pump requires treadling, it makes pretty quick and easy work of it.
And as Lou so sagely sang, always back to the rain...

This beautiful weather continues. We were thankful for some good heavy showers the other day though. Crops are coming on well - beans swelling, more mange tout seeming to appear overnight, lettuces superb. I've heard complaints about slugs this year, but no real problems here - they can't be liking the dryness. In the polytunnel the pumpkins and squash are starting to take off (so to speak), and it's becoming ever more obvious that they are far too close together. I will have to bite the bullet and take plants out, painful as it will be.
Everything else is also growing away fast. We got a good crop of hay in last week, and the trusty scythe slashed through hundreds of nettles, thistles and docks this morning. The pigs are putting on the pork too. We will home slaughter and get bloody in July. Black hen's broody again, and is sitting on a mixed bag of 6 eggs from a neighbour with a fine cockerel and a variety of hens.
Much to do - a quince, a mulberry and some shrubs from a plant sale to go in just now...

Tunnel of Love

I had that song swimming around my mind the other day as I went about planting up the polytunnel, and failed to notice the connection until some time later. It is strange how we can be one step ahead of ourselves like this, and I suppose the lesson is to trust in your intuition, as it is sharper than you are.

So, naturally acting intuitively, we began the merry task of designing and planting the tunnel this week. For the main path we have a broad sign wave blending into a spiral at the top end. Perhaps not that practical, but it is beautiful, and I want the space to be pleasing, relaxing and meditative as well as productive.

The north-west side is planted with the three sisters: sweetcorn, the oldest, beans, the middle one, and squash, the youngest. These plants have been grown together for generations by some Native American people, who, incidentally, have apparently expressed a preference for being known as 'Red Indians' - better I suppose to be named after the invaders' error, rather than the invaders themselves. The three plants are good companions for each other. The nutrient hungry corn enjoys the nitrogen fixed by the beans, while providing them with something to climb. The squash provides a living mulch, covering the ground with its broad spiky leaves, keeping it cool and moist, and deterring pests. The produce from the three plants is also compatible, each providing vitamins and amino acids lacking in the others.

On the south-east side is a bank of tomato plants with parsley, cabbage, coriander and basil nesting around. In the middle is the achocha (exploding cucumbers) with a lattice of woven bird cherry for them to climb. I am determined that one door of the tunnel will not be visible from the other, so that as far as possible one can get lost in there. The yakon, a tallish South American root crop, should help, as will the sunflowers and french beans.

Around the doors I have planted onions to deter rabbits and insect pests, and asters to attract pollinating insects. Marigolds will follow.

It is such an uplifting time to be outside with the world spring up all around. As Jack Torrance so wisely said, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", so I guess for everyone's sake I'd better get back out there...

May we have some warmth?

If the last time I posted it felt like summer, well it's winter again. Persistently cold, and dry. The burn is low, the soil dusty. So unsurprisingly growth is slow - much of what has been planted out (peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, greens etc) is just sitting there, apparently shivering. It's mid-May for goodness sake!
On the livestock side, the two Tamworth gilts are happily digging, munching and growing. The last of the cockerels has finally, finally been 'dealt with'. He had taken residence in a garden in the centre of the village, and could not have been better placed to annoy more people, or to be harder to take out. Thankfully he decided to come crowing back here on Thursday afternoon. Asking for it really.
I collected 6 point of lay hens on Tuesday. I'm not exactly sure what point that is, as we have yet to see a single egg! I expect they will come. On the positive side the black hen has now a tiny chick, we think a guinea fowl. Quite enchanting it is.

Sunshine

What weather! It feels like summer, and remembering last year, maybe this is it. Time to be making the most of it.
Of course we have been busy planting seeds and planting out seedlings these past two weeks - lettuce, beans, peas, kale, tomatoes, chillis...
The polytunnel is nearly built now. Having managed to mismeasure from the word go I am lucky to have got away with not having to undo anything, and have ended up with a bigger tunnel! Thankfully, able help is on hand this week from Vivian, a Chinese wwoofer. She has been great both physically and with her ability to quickly understand and problem solve this giant puzzle of many parts.
I'm away now to visit the school garden and see if anything still lives there.

We said goodbye to two wonderful wwoofers this morning, sorry that they could not stay longer to see the polytunnel put up. Their help, humour and conversation will be missed as we complete that task without them. Tom and Angelika spent much of their week with us digging over the area and picking out couch grass roots. It was tedious and laborious, and we were all greatly relieved when the final row was finished. We have created an enormous pile, perhaps 3 cubic metres of solid couch grass! Of course as we then began to level the site those roots still popped up everywhere - I suspect they will for some time yet. Yesterday we marked out the footprint with pegs and string, and got two posts cemented in. Now we await Ron and his John Deere to lift the ton of sand up the hill, and so save us alot of back-breaking haulage.
Today was a day of rest, other than planting seeds, cleaning out the chicken house and hunting the web for a human-powered water pump. I like the look of the treadle pumps popular in India, and various bicycle powered pumps, any of which should do the job of bring water up the 5 metres or so from the burn to a reservoir above the tunnel.
Our first eggs began appearing this week, first duck eggs left all over the place, often in the burn, then lovely brown chicken eggs left in the nesting boxes by our otherwise errant hen. Maybe she can stay after all. The cockerels have been hunted almost to extinction now, bringing a quieter life (and a tasty casserole).

Polytunneling

It's arrived - piles of galvanized hoops and rolls of polythene, plus a plethora of other bits and bobs. It's like a giant mechano kit - hooray! Tom and Angelika arrived last night to wwoof for the week, and are currently in the sunshine digging out the couch grass roots that the pigs left behind. And there are alot of them, especially up the latrine end - those tidy Tamworths were careful not to dump and root in the same areas. So, one more going over and it will be time to build the frame.

There are suddenly a thousand other things to be getting on with now the spring has finally arrived. Amy, another wwoofer planted a good many seeds last week (lettuce, cabbage, beans, sprouts, some flowers) but there's more to get going now. We also got most of the trees planted last week - two sweet chestnuts, the wonderfully named hawthorn 'Ellwangeriana', a Shipova (a cross between a rowan and a pear, with a plum-like fruit), some honeysuckles and a fuchsia with edible berries, a holm oak, and optimistically, an almond. In fact I am being optimistic in planting many of the above at 225m in central Scotland, but with our favourable micro-climate, and a bit more global heating perhaps we'll get some exotic fruits for a while before meltdown.

Other jobs include finally ridding ourselves of the last of the roaming feral cocks, who's competitive adolescent crowing begins a little after 5am now. No neighbours have complained as yet, but I can't help but think someone must be grumbling angrily over her porridge.

The holding is alive with life - buds are bursting, birds are singing, and I'm away to be a part of it all.

Another bright cold morning found the six young cockerels AWOL as usual, crowing away in a neighbour's garden. So now there are five, and the others will soon follow. What use a wayward cock?

Spring is certainly in the air now, all be it sub-zero much of the time. Actually it is frustrating having such beautiful weather yet being able to do little. I am finding a window of opportunity for digging over the new vegetable patch (initially cleared by last year's pigs) between 3 and 6pm, though yesterday the ground remained stubbornly frozen all day. I will order the polytunnel tomorrow, and we will then have to finish the digging and removal of couch grass roots before it arrives. There is an impressive pile of these roots which I understand will make a nutritious and mildly licorice flavoured flour, and a rather rough bread. Perhaps with Hannah's breadmaking expertise we will create some tasty loaves. It's worth a go anyway.

With Gabriel the wwoofer we have been cutting, splitting and stacking firewood from the two ash trees I felled just before the winter solistice. Gabriel enjoyed swinging that axe more and more, and developed great strength and accuracy. My tennis elbow seems finally to be disappearing, so I am able now to pull my weight a little more, especially aided by a renovated chainsaw which makes quick work of even the thickest logs. It is such wonderful wood - I have left several longer lengths where the grain looks straight for later building and bodging projects. Ash is strong and flexible, and though it burns very well some say it is a shame to do so.

Now I will go and test the ground. Polly is off to play on the swing I put up yesterday - it has a nice chunky lime seat, and sits in view of the kitchen in the garage doorway. I expect to have a couple of hours to plant peas and greens before the digging begins...

With ice and snow still laying over the driveway, we are still trying to defrost pipes to the cottage. Alkathene has been unearthed, and heat applied, but as yet to no avail. In the house colours are being applied to the master bedroom walls - soon it will be no longer the Lulu, Her Deep Dark Pinkness. Long live Pavillion Blue! Finally, and thankfully, dry wood has been procured, and the house and home is warm once more...

Camnacar Cottage, Main Street, Kirkmichael