Benny

Sadly, earlier this week we lost one of our hens - Benny.

Benny having a cuddle with Em

We were blessed to have her as a pet for the time that we did - she was a real character - bright and friendly, inquisitive and docile. Out of the three hens, she was probably bottom of the pecking order, but she didn't seem to care.

Benny 'helping' me with some potting

She was very partial to mealworms and Jacobs crackers(!), and had taken to following us around the garden, even if we didn't have food in our hands. She was also the easiest to handle, and would purr and close her eyes when cuddled... very cute.

However, a few weeks ago she started behaving out of character - not laying, eating very little and preferring to stand still rather than walk around and investigate the garden with the others. At first the problem seemed to be an impacted crop. Once this was treated, she returned to something of her former self - however, she had been developing a limp over the course of the last week, and her demeanour took a turn for the worse on Monday.

After a visit to the vets later that day, the diagnosis was egg peritonitis, which is fairly common among chickens and nearly always fatal. So on veterinary advice, and given the fact that she appeared to be in increasing discomfort, we took the decision to have her put down.

It was extremely sad and upsetting - any of you that has taken a pet on a one way trip to the vets will know how that feels. After all our efforts to protect the chickens and keep them safe from foxes and the like, we were beaten by something entirely out of our control, which leaves you feeling angry and helpless.

Some people will probably say 'you shouldn't have named them; you shouldn't get too attached'... well, we took the decision to have them as pets rather than just as livestock, and particularly in Benny's case we were rewarded with a real character.

Frankie (top) and Jerry (bottom)

So, we are down to two chickens now - Frankie and Jerry. After the last few days your instinct is to pack it in - sell these two and the house, and spare yourself the pain. However, over the last few days with grief and upset replaced by thankfulness and good memories, it is looking likely that instead at some point in the future we will add to the brood... we figured, just as Tennyson did, that 'it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'.

Sticky bean rice

This recipe is one good way to use up a surplus of any type of bean. I am using runner beans as I have a lot of them this year, but really any beans or pods like mange-tout can be substituted in.

My first harvest this year of runner beans

I have quite a sweet tooth - you may want to avoid the honey part of this recipe if you want to keep the sugar content down... but your rice will also not be as sticky!

You will need the following ingredients (serves 2):

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion
100g pancetta, diced
50g runner beans (roughly 4 or 5 good size pods)
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp set honey
250g brown rice, pre-cooked (I cheat and use microwave rice)

Put the oil in the pan or wok, and set to a medium heat. Slice up the onion into half centimetre widths and add to the pan with the pancetta. Let this sear for a while so that the onions start to soften and go brown at the edges.

Add the runner beans - I have topped and tailed them, and then cut them into centimetre diamonds (or rhomboids, if you prefer!). Keep the contents of the pan moving around every so often.

Then add the yellow pepper, again sliced into half centimetre widths. Then add the nutmeg. Once stirred, cook the contents of the pan (stirring every so often) until all all ingredients are cooked/softened. Then add the honey, and stir in until the mixture is coated, giving it a glossy, glazed look.

Now add the rice, and stir into the sticky mixture - cook for a little longer to ensure that the whole dish is hot, and so that the honey has had a chance to coat the rice.

All you then need to do is plate up... and enjoy!

Holiday harvests

It seems like a long time ago since my last post... I am currently on a two week holiday from work, and the first week Em and I spent in a holiday cottage in Somerset, which was amazing. This was the sunset there the first night...

It was wonderfully relaxing, but it has been equally relaxing and rewarding being back home and  returning to some steady seedling progress and some encouraging harvests(!).

Recently we had to move the hen house from the back of the garden to the front, and so I decided to relocate my plants and greenhouse to the space vacated by the chickens. A bijou potter's paradise, if you will...

It's starting to look very promising in the greenhouse, with radish and beetroot front on the top shelf, dwarf beans and kale behind; cabbage at the front on the second shelf, fennel and spring onion behind - all growing well... I had to re-pot the dwarf beans and fennel as they seemed top heavy to me - in other words, needing a little more room to grow down under...

You could see in the left of the wide picture the runner bean plants, which are still producing flowers higher up the canes. I took my first handful of beans from them the other day - perhaps a little undersized, but I prefer them on the tender side. They were delicious in a sticky rice I made - the recipe for which will follow soon...!

I also emptied one of the potato grow bags - the leaves were looking decidedly pale, and they were beginning to droop and go brown, so I decided to cut my losses. I was happy with the result though - about a kilo of white potatoes. Still not sure about the variety, but I used them in a vegetable curry and they were a lovely texture.

It was the first time I have emptied a potato bag, and it was like digging for treasure! I also guess that's the reason that no matter how small, I kept them all (note a few of them that are no bigger than marbles). I'm sure someone could start a business selling the little ones as 'popcorn' potatoes... seems a shame to think that on an industrial scale they may go to waste for not being the correct size...

I also took a chance on what surely must now be the last good rhubarb of the season - I last said that around a month ago... unprecedented growth from the rhubarb patch this year. I have frozen it and I am using it in a number of experimental dessert/baked recipes(!). 

This picture has an unusually soft focus - not sure why...?!

Elsewhere in the garden, the honey bees seem to be enjoying the buddleia - Em was sat nearby watching the chickens and came up with these shots... there are some even better shots  of bees taken by Sue at Green Lane Allotments.

We have two sets of bee traffic in the garden (they have been very kind in pollenating my veg, so it seems rude not to give them a mention!) - the bee top right is one of the ones from under our shed; whereas the other three are clearly a different breed... someone down the road sells honey from their drive, so I think they may have found their way along from hives there.

On the plot front, it won't be long now before I'm over there again, planting out some of these seedlings - the dwarf beans are pretty much ready, and I think the beetroot are almost there too... I'll keep you posted...

Getting stronger...

Just a brief update for you all regarding the progress of what I have growing in the garden...

First of all, a lot of action with the runner beans...! I counted the other day and I have over 50 formed bean pods from four plants, so it won't be long now before I have to think of 101 different ways to use them!

The radishes, that had taken a pounding the other week from Mr Snail, have now grown their second set of leaves, and even the ones that were mostly eaten have staged a mini-revival of sorts.

Some very promising beetroot seedlings too - the leaf count appears to have doubled in the last week. Not too sure when the best time is to plant these out...? Any collective wisdom greatly appreciated.

The fennel is starting to produce it's second set of leaves, which are those feathery tendrils - good to see! Again - not too sure when it is best to plant these out, but they seem too weak at the moment, so I'll leave them until they are a lot stronger and more established.

And finally, back to the beans!:

A grower's dream... pods in abundance!

Sweet onion relish

In the last week or so with the good weather, we have been having a fair number of barbecues. I'd already concocted this sweet relish as a filling for a chicken pitta, but it works equally well in other bread-meat combinations such as hotdogs and hamburgers.

I haven't grown onions or peppers this year, but I would certainly make use of them in this way... with my usually small yields it's good to have some recipes for things which don't need much content!

Ingredients:

1 large onion
1/2 red pepper (or whole ramiro pepper)
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp honey (optional, to taste)

First of all, cut the onion in half and then slice into half centimetre widths. Add it to a saucepan with the sugar and oil. Give the onions a quick stir to coat them in the sugar and oil, and then heat gently so that they soften.

Tip here (as seen recently on an episode of River Cottage) - for a better flavour don't stir the onions too much; just let them simmer away... apparently if you move them around a lot they shed their water content, plus leaving them to sit gives them those nice brown edges.

After a few minutes, add the paprika and nutmeg, and (very gently!) stir in. The next time you go to turn the onions, add one of the tablespoons of ketchup at the same time.

Once the onions are soft, slice up your half red pepper and add it to the pan (you can use a ramiro pepper - you will need a whole ramiro though as it tends to be less bulky than a bell pepper). Again, keep turning the mixture sparingly, until the pepper is softening too.

Then add the rest of the ketchup, and again move the contents of the pan around every so often, so that the onions and peppers char a little.

Almost done - however, get a bit of onion and pepper on a spoon and taste the relish. I like mine quite tangy and sweet - if the flavour isn't quite there for you, I've found adding a teaspoon of honey gives it that extra body and rounded flavour. Remember - it's an accompaniment to other food, so it's OK if it is a little too sweet on its own.

You're then good to go - serve it up as a filling for a pitta or burger, or even have it as a condiment... I suspect it would work well as part of a ploughmans type meal, although I haven't tried that yet...!

Fantastic Mr Fox?

6am Saturday morning, I was up, and having let the chickens out of their house and into their run I was settling down to my morning routine.

About half an hour later I could hear a little noise from the chickens, but this is not uncommon when they are laying. Em however, who is far more observant when it comes to the various noises they make, was stirred from sleep upstairs... the next thing I knew, Em shouted 'MATT! FOX! IT'S A FOX! GET OUT THERE!'.

Benny chicken - one of our three hens

I remember when we first got our chickens over a year ago, we were super aware of the threat posed by foxes; but as the year has passed, we had not seen any nearby and believed that because we live in the middle of an island of houses whose gardens back onto each other, that a fox would not be able to reach our chooks... we know better now.

After Em's alarm-raising shouts, the fox cleared three low fences along our row of houses and disappeared. I didn't see it myself, but Em said it was a big one - it looked as though it had already caught something and was making off with it... thankfully all our chickens were left slightly startled, but unharmed.

So - a plan of action was required! We decided that we would move the chickens from the back of the garden (which is more overgrown) to much closer to the house. Our garden is about 60ft long, so they weren't that far away - but our hope is that foxes will be far more reluctant to come right up close to our house.

We have a really decent chicken house with built in run that we got from Flyte So Fancy, who also supply the egg boxes that we use to sell the chicken's eggs outside our house 50p for a box of four (shameless plug I know, but it's a great price!). However, wherever you place the house and run, the chickens scratch and tear the floor to pieces - a lush section of grass is reduced to bare earth in around a week.

Moreso, once the chooks have scratched down to the bare earth, they then start digging to the sides of the run, effectively scratching away at their own foundations... another side effect is that holes start appearing through which either chickens could escape or predators could get in.

The 'concrete bowl', dug and laid into the lawn

So my fairly foolproof method to prevent this is to create a 'concrete bowl', using paving slabs and bricks to create an impregnable base which is impossible for them to scratch through downwards or sideways - we then cover the concrete base with wood chippings, in part to soak up the mess, and also to give them something to scratch around on.

The hen house and run, re-sited on top of the foundation

So after a couple of hours of digging, lugging bricks and paving stones, a vertical hen house lift over a short fence involving four family members, and the attachment of various extra locking safeguards against lupine visitors, the chickens now seem content in their new position.

Jerry, Frankie and Benny (l-r) safe and happy

We have not seen anything of Mr Fox since - long may that continue...

Seedlings progress

Just a brief update on the current goings on...

I went over to the plot yesterday evening and it's not good I'm afraid. The only things that are really growing are various types of weed; I've identified one carrot seedling, a few measly rocket stems and the very last beetroot seedling which survived a partial devouring, but hasn't done much since.

Still, ever the optimist, I thought I would show you how the seedlings back home are doing, which will replace what I've have sown currently at the plot...

The radishes, having survived the advances of Mr Snail are doing really well now, with the second set of leaves starting to develop.

This is the first time I've see what fennel shoots look like(!), as the packet didn't have a picture (as is usually customary for Johnsons seeds). I've since had a few more poke up through the soil after some recent doses of nettle water.

In fact, all the seedlings have benefitted from the nettle water, which is providing some much needed sustenance - I'm waiting for these cabbage seedlings to harden up a little and develop into the next phase of growth.

The beetroot seedlings are coming on too - these are already looking much healthier than the single half-eaten one I have at the plot.

And finally, a nice angular shot of the runner beans, which are on the home straight now... last time I grew them the flowers were quite sparse - but not so this year... I have five or six clusters of flowers that are developing pods. Looks like I will have to work on a variety of recipes in which to use them, as they are looking like my only bumper crop this season.