Well, it's tattie picking weekend and wouldn't you know it, I've picked up a bad cold from the playgroup beasties. So an already hard job is now extremely hard work.
I can only work at about half my usual pace and feel as if I've working at three times my usual, plus I keep getting dizzy so have to sit down every few feet. Well, that's my excuse anyway.
I've just come in for a cuppa, but will be out again shortly - on my own this time as the OH has to get her two hours of study in as her assignment is due in a fortnight.
On the plus side, we've got an excellent crop of potatoes - good yields, good sizes (including some monsters) and very few spoiled (so far). Just hope the sunny weather lasts a bit longer as the job is going to take longer thanks to this ****** virus.
Pics to come later.
Phew!
Hang in there mate, but don't kill yourself trying harvest the food!
Nev
Nev
Garden shed technology rules! - Muddypause
Our website on living more sustainably in the suburbs! - http://www.underthechokotree.com/
Our website on living more sustainably in the suburbs! - http://www.underthechokotree.com/
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Stonehead
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First loosen the soil...
Then use the fork to lift with one hand while throwing the tatties with the other...
Then leave the tatties in the sun for an hour or so, before turning and leaving for another hour. When they're dry, carry them away in buckets, baskets or sacks for sorting and storing.
We've got 50 kilos from the first row, 60 from the next and another 28 or so rows to go...
Note that we turn the potatoes from one row onto the empty ridge from the previous row. That's why we have the sacks at the top - they're keeping the tatties off the wet ground.
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Stonehead
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But tonight I get my reward (no, nothing like that! 
)
Roast pork (Saddleback)
Roast potatoes
Fried cabbage and onion
Carrots
Apple sauce
Cider
Baked apples
Egg custard
And it's almost all ours - only the milk in the custard, the lemon in the apple sauce, the brown sugar on the baked apples and the vanilla in the custard aren't!
Heaven.
)Roast pork (Saddleback)
Roast potatoes
Fried cabbage and onion
Carrots
Apple sauce
Cider
Baked apples
Egg custard
And it's almost all ours - only the milk in the custard, the lemon in the apple sauce, the brown sugar on the baked apples and the vanilla in the custard aren't!
Heaven.
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Millymollymandy
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- Location: Brittany, France
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Stonehead
- A selfsufficientish Regular
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- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:31 pm
- Location: Scotland
- Contact:
Reasonably good soil, lots of organic matter, regular manual weeding out of ragwort, bracken, dock, thistles and nettles (with the latter three, they're not cleared from the margins and non-grazing areas), a good cut of hay, and then just enough showers of rain to keep the surface damp (below the top two inches it is very, very dry).Millymollymandy wrote:How come it is so green there if it is so dry?
Haven't seen green like that since, well, April!
The result is a very good pasture with a rich mix of self-sown grasses, clovers and other plants, a lot of insects, birds and small animals, and some very envious neighbouring farmers who spend a fortune on machinery, seed and chemicals trying to get similar result (although in their case only two or three types of grass). And if you want further proof, you should see the number and size of earthworms we dig up when working in parts of the field - the hens love it!
I believe that if you keep the soil rich in organic matter, don't rip it to bits with machinery every year, and graze it back hard every few years to encourage the leafier, shorter plants you'll get a good surface that will help conserve what water there is while also providing good feed for the livestock. It's certainly given us one of the best fields hereabouts in terms of pasture.
About the only additional thing I'd like to do would a light harrowing after the hay has been taken off. This would clear out the thatch and encourage even more growth.
Oh, forgot to mention we do some re-seeding but only to follow the pigs or chickens, and even when we don't re-seed (as with the potato patch) we've had huge regrowth of grass even from "bare" soil. In fact, grass was one of the biggest problems with the potatoes - it kept threatening to choke them out.