A Drink From Blighty-'Cheers!"

We went to a scrapyard (car dismantlers) in Tralee in County Kerry on Friday.  They are really friendly and helpful for parts and a chat.

Then we went in an off-licence in Tralee that sell beers and wines and spirits from all over Ireland , the world, Europe and even England and co.  I hate it when news presenters say "the UK".

Then we went to a row of shops where Argos just closed down and Iceland were only selling stuff out of the fridge.  Apparently they've  got bankrupt in Ireland.  Wifey got me my Heinz beanz'n'sausage.  No more Vimto or Hollands pies.

It's starting to look like Brexit wasn't a very good idea!

Eh Boris?

Polytunnel Swede Bed.

 Did you see them on the 'Organic' stage at Glastonbury?  They were acoustic, wore sandals and cycled from Scunthorpe to play.

Did you watch Glastonbury on the beeb?  I went in 1989 and the music was a lot better then.  All about Eve in particular and it only cost me 28 quid for the pleasure and no sleep for 4 nights.  Happy days but not happy nights!  Any tales about Glastonbury?  I have a few funny ones!

Swedes growinga bit erratically due to the flickers devouring some of them.  That's why I adopted my plastic bottles and jam jar (thanks JayCee) method to the indoor polytunnel raised beds.

Once again I half filled the raised beds with freshish stable manure and raked and few inches of soil over them and planted our Brassicas that we grew from seed which we purchased at our German garden centre and beer providers and supermarket recently.

I thought I heard the Swedes singing : " I'm doin' fine now" by The Pasadenas.

Are yours neeps and tatties growing well?

Hotbed Broccoli Harvest.

 Do you remember in March when I filled an old plastic barrel (drainage holes) with fresh stable/fym manure?  Then shovelled in a few inches of topsoil?

Well we grew some Brassica plants in them and yesterday we harvested them with more homegrown new potatoes.  They were delicious.

I have been experimenting with fresh or not so fresh stable manure in raised beds in the New  polytunnel. 

I half filled them with stable straw manure and covered them with a few inches of raked topsoil.  This is a great planting medium and we planted beetroots, cabbages and swedes.  None of them have burned up from the fresh manure and its a great source of nitrogen and other beneficial growing additives.

Anyone else experimented growing with fresh manure in their veg plot?  Hot beds were used by Victorian growers and we can do the same in the twenty first century.

Repurposed Plastic Bottle Cloches.

 The flickers (slugs, snails, cabbage whites, mice...) , have been having a good scoff devouring my small and tender Brassica plants.

Wifey spends time spreading slug pellets and I have my slug pubs filled with pop.

Yesterday I decided to make some plastic cloche plant protectors out of some plastic bottles that were destined for the recycling centre in town.  We pay 3 Euros for the recycling of cans, paper and plastics.

I just cut the bottles in half and used the bottoms and necks for cloches.  They are like mini green houses or polytunnels.

It's good to repurpose plastic and protect our vegetable plants.

Even More Piglets!

 Mother pig went outside her arc/k for a feed that we had brought her and I took a sneak photo of these new piglets born in the night yesterday.  

I counted ten of them in total.  We only moved the homemade pig 🐖 ark the night before.  

The last litter to be born are now very active and running about and following their mother around.

We are not Organic but we are Free Range.  They roam about like the ones I have seen in the New Forest in England and like ancient times when pigs traditionally foraged for apple windfalls in the country estate orchards.  

When it was the Irish Monsoon season early this year and the end of last year.   

The pigs lived in a shed in a straw bed on a concrete floor.  They did have a yard for their ablutions and exercise But now it's Summer they live outside in the fields and root and shelter from the sun and rain in their arks.

There's a lot to be said for free range pork and bacon and for happy piglets and weaners to breed.

I like the idea of Organic but it's too expensive to buy Organic ration for them.  Plus Organic regulations say that you can only buy Organic animals  from a Organic farmer not ordinary farmers or smallholders like ourselves.  

Anyone got free range pigs or thinking of getting some?  I could even sell you some weaners if you have a pig number?

Chilli Fudge?

Chilli Fudge.  No not a indie band playing the hot and spicy stage at Glastonbury this weekend.

I was given them for a Father's Day gift last Sunday.

Me being a humble northern English lad with Irish ancestry on my dad's side of the family.  I was brought up with weekend after pub take aways from Thursday until Sundays.  

One would walk into a Asian kebab house and be offered a mild, medium, or hot doner kebab.  We always went for hot or medium and I knew folk who would warm their kebab up in the microwave next morning for breakfast.  Like you do. 

Over here you order a doner and there is more spice in a portion of chips.  Spicy food is much too hot:

What do you think?  Anyone for Chilli Fudge?  🌶   I rather like them  and they are made in Scotland, home of Iron Bru and made from girders I do believe!

Beetroot Leaves.

 Apparently they are edible?

I was going to feed the newly harvested beetroot leaves to the pigs and poultry and I had read somewhere that red or purple (can't  do shades of colour) can be toxic.  Rhubarb leaves for example.

So I Googled beetroot leaves and apparently they are nutritious and if you went in one of those Yuppy pubs like the Slug and Lettuce you might get served a beetroot leave salad and a "gloss of whine".

Any road there's no chance of it doing any harm to our ducky wucks and piggy wigs so it's good enough for us.

What do you do with your beetroot leaves?  Smoke them?  Eat them, compost them, make soup?  I suppose you could even eat the beetroots?