Glanbrydan’s Weblog

As well as our 4 chickens we have a duck, known as Donald. He is a Muscovy duck, which are tree ducks and are not so keen on swimming. They are very big compared to the Mallard family and we don’t get any quacks from him.

Until recently Donald shared his life with another Muscovy duck known as Ethel , she died of old age and since then Donald has not been himself. He has become very sedentary and given up washing!

 They used to bate the dogs, something they loved to do. They would walk up to the dog run and stare at Vickie and Bertie who would go mad running around, jumping up and down, barking and the ducks would just stand there watching.

Last year Mummy duck tried to start a nest in the Field next to our garden. She chose a patch mixed up in all the brambles and it took us a while to work out where she was going and block the fence. She was, to coin a phrase, a sitting duck out there.

Donald has moved in with the chicken, refusing to use his own house and happy instead to make a big mess of theirs. He will never come up to you but has never been aggressive in any way. He is always happy to be put to bed and enjoys the odd bit of bread.

I think we are just about ready to trade atthe September farmers market in Brecon.

I’ve written the cheque for membership and the first months stall fees. The first ever company cheque was carefully torn from the pristine cheque book and filled out. I’ve even put all the details in the stub, except the remaining balance as the account is at £0.

I’ve purchased my market traders insurance for the year and I’ve photocopied my food safety certificate. All these and my membership form are now paper clipped together and sealed in an envelope for the post tomorrow. I shall even put 2 first class stamps on just in case it’s over 5mm in thickness.

I’ve practised my pasties and vegetarian tartlets, we can only trade in savoury goods at Brecon for now but I hope over time to add to the list of home cooked foods we can sell there.

Brecon farmers market is held once a month on a Saturday and the next one is 13th September.

We are currently going to sell

Moroccan lamb pasties  – these are spiced lamb which is flavourful but not hot.

Beef and red wine pasties – a rich tomatoand red wine sauce with chopped beef and vegetables.

Traditional lamb pasties – a known and loved filling of chopped lamb, carrots, potatoes, turnips and onion in a tasty gravy.

Ricotta and egg tartletsfor the vegetarian option –  Filled tart cases with a tasty combination of egg, ricotta cheese and onion.

I am working on another two options but these all seem to come out consistently. All our encased in a short crust pasty and cooked in our kitchen. We have had the EHO out to give us a look over and I’m working on my HACCP book to make us all legal for the day of launch.

I am planning to contact Llandovery farmers market and see if we start trading there once a month. Life is very exciting!

p>How much money do we spend that we don’t need to?
I’ve no idea but after a trip to M & S where I spent £120 on my Autumn work clothes (note the work clothes justification I needed to add) I am feeling very guilty.
OK we have been saving money up to now but last week was a bad week for spending. We ate lunch out 3 times and I cannot even remember why.
This is a new week and so it’s back to tightening the belt. I took a pack lunch for my one day trip to the office and my own teabags. They do free tea but it’s yuk whereas you can buy PG teabags for 25p each. I am lucky enough to work from home the rest of the week so we can cook up a lunch.
I didn’t even get my latte on my trip home. That’s about a £6 saving today.

Generally we’ve stopped doing big shops at the supermarket and buy a bit every day. We cut our food bills considerably and best of all we are throwing less away as we don’t bulk buy so less fresh veg and fruit is going off.

So what next?? Lets get inventive and if anyone has a good idea let me know.

I’ve had a couple of hours to myself this afternoon as Wilf has gone off with a friend of ours to see what he thinks of fishing. I couldn’t think of anything better to spend the time doing than baking a sponge cake.

This was after cleaning out the chickens and washing down the dog run. Watering the greenhouse, tidying up a bit……….oh well. Don’t worry I did wash my hands thoroughly before I started cooking.

It may be insulting to you to include a basic sponge recipe here but I found this one only recently. You go by how much the eggs weigh not the usual 225gsm of flour, butter, sugar and so on.

I’ve had much more consistent results with this method.

You need:

4 eggs, shells on (makes a good deep 2 tin 8inch (20cm) sponge)

butter or marge suitable for cooking (it took me  a lot of looking to find a marge you could actually cook with so do read the side of the box)

Caster sugar

Self raising flour

a pinch of salt

a lemon

Your choice of filling; whipped cream, jam, lemon curd, butter icing.

Oven to 180 degrees/Gas 4 and shelves in the middle

Grease your two cake tins with marge or butter and I use a couple of rounds of baking parchment to protect the base of the tins. I like tins where the base pops out best for cake making.

Weigh your eggs in their shells and make a note of this amount. Put them to one side and weigh out the marge or butter to equal that of the eggs with their shells on (the weight you made a note of earlier)

Beat the Marge/butter until light and fluffy. I use a hand electric mixer with balloon whisks on for this. Then weigh out your caster sugar to equal the weight of the eggs with shells on. Sieve in the caster sugar and beat this in well.

Now weigh out your flour, again to the same weight as the eggs with shells on and add a pinch of salt.

Crack open an egg and add this to the marge & sugar mix. I add a teaspoon of the flour each time I beat in an egg. Then beat in the egg with the mixer. Do this with the other eggs adding a spoon of flour with each egg.

The mixture is very creamy and should be light and fluffy. Sieve in the rest of the flour and gently fold it into the cake mixture until combined.

Grate in the zest of the lemon and squeeze in a table spoon of juice. But mind you don’t add any pips.

Give it a final stir and transfer to the two 8 inch cake tins as evenly as possible.

Pop in the preheated oven and put the timer on for 25 minutes.

After this time use a skewer to see if the cake is cooked. If not give it another 5 minutes and try again.

When it’s done take the cake out of the oven and holding the tin above a solid surface drop the tin so the cake base hits the work surface. This is supposed to let the steam escape from the middle and stop it sinking. I dare you not to do it now I’ve told you about it!!

Leave the cakes for a couple of minutes to allow them to cool and contract away from the tins edges.

Turn the cakes onto a wired rack and allow to cool.

Now to complete this I’m making a lemon butter filling and a lemon syrup topping.

I simply cream a couple of ounces of butter or marge and feed in sieved caster sugar until I like the taste & consistancy or I’ve run out of sugar. I then add a bit of grated lemon zest and use to sandwich the cakes together

For the topping use the rest of the lemon juice and a three tb of granulated or caster sugar

Heat them gently together in a pan until the sugar is dissolved and you have a syrup, allow this to cook for a couple of minutes to help it reduce down. Pour this sticky mixture over the top of the cake and allow to cool.

Store in an airtight tin as all good cook books say.

Enjoy – we intend to have sausage sandwiches for tea followed by a bit of sponge cake  – naughty and yummy. We made the sausages ourselves and the bread is done in the bread maker so I feel really pleased with my efforts.

Today will go down in history as day one of a very wet weekend in August. Global warming is not delivering sunny warm hazy August days, just wet ones.

Tonight we had chick pea curry to finish off so I made my rich tomato base and had a go at making chapatis I ended up with my rich tomato base sauce and flat breads.

This rich sauce normally accompanies pasta but is very useful when you need to stretch a curry dish.

you need

a splash of oil and a blob of butter

An onion and a clove of garlic chopped up. (these were both from our garden I’m proud to say)

A tin of chopped tomatoes and or the same fresh (not from our garden, blame global warming, not my tomarto harvest)

A tablespoon of tomato puree

To make

Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan until foaming.

Add the onion and garlic, fry for a minute then turn down the heat to low and leave for 10 mins. The onion should be floppy by then. Add the tomatoes and tomato puree and turn up the heat until it bubbles.

Turn down the heat and leave for 45 mins just stirring every now and then.

You should now have a thick mass of tomato, if not leave it for another 15 mins. It should be much thicker and sweet to the taste.

This is my basic tomato sauce for use with pasta, pizza and left overs.

We  have four chickens at the moment. They live at the top of the garden in a wooden chicken house along with Donald the duck. Donald has his own house, next door to the chickens, but he decided that theirs is much superior in some way and so has moved in.  They all live in the same run which so far, cross fingers, has beaten the foxes.

Most days, when we are here, the chickens and Donald are free range. We have a reasonably sized back garden in which they are free to wonder. They sometimes wonder into the lane next to our house and scratch the road surface and dredge the ditches. The other day we opened the front door and there was a chicken expectantly waiting to be let in. I told her ‘no chickens allowed’ but I still had to pick him up and deposit him half way up the back garden before he got the hint

The chickens are a constant source of amusement to us and get into all sorts of things. Sometimes I need a bit of time after the event to see the funny side of things. They have been known to pull up my vegetable seedlings just after I planted them, knowledgeably waiting until I had disappeared back into the house for a coffee. When I went back outside, about 15 minutes later, all trace had gone of every plant and the chickens had moved on!! Now even slugs aren’t that quick.

We have been naming the chickens for ages. This has been done with the aid of Amy, our 6 year old grandchild and Abi her little 2 year old sister who believe pink is a good name for one of them. The others were named over several evenings that involved red wine and older family and friends.

So in no particular order we have Pink, Chardonnay, Chelsea and Peaches.  I’m surprised they still lay eggs for us with names like that!

I started the blog and then went on holiday also before I went on holiday I threw some turnip seeds in a plastic tub with some compost. My friend came over every few days and diligently watered my tomatoes,and other greenhouse occupants including the turnips.

I read on the back of the packet that I can get a winter crop if I plant now and as they are 5 inches high and all crowded together they need to be planted out. I’m worried however that they will get munched by the slugs. I cannot put down pellets because of the chickens and Duck. I don’t have the time to do a daily slug pick so what do I do?

I think I’m going to try cardboard collars on the plants or some sort of protection and some egg shells. I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Chick pea curry.

I have been trying to pursued Wilf that he would like a vegi meal each week and the results so far have not been encouraging. That is until we had chick pea curry last week made by his own hands.

We sometimes have this wonderful recipe at our friends house and she does it with a mixed veg curry dish and rice.

I went off for a very long day away working and left the recipe with his lordship, having put the chick peas to soak the night before in cold water. He phoned me at lunch time asking what meat he should put in -ha ha!

When I got home, tired and ready for my tea, he presented the curry. As he was serving I asked where the rice was. ‘rice?’ he enquired. ‘that wasn’t on the recipe’

Never mind as I have to say it was delicious.

Well done Wilf……….

and here is the magic recipe.

1 cup dry chick peas

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp cumin powder

half a tsp turmeric powder

2 tsps salt

2 onions minced

3-4 pegs garlic

1 tsp chili powder – we used a mild chili powder

14 oz can tomatoes

4 tbs oil

soak chick peas in cold water overnight.

Boil for between 45 mins and 1 hour until tender.

Grind garlic and fennel seeds and mix with the other powdered spices.

Heat oil in a saucepan and add the minced onion, fry until golden brown (ours wouldn’t go golden as we used a food processor to mince them but they did cook down to a soft mass).

Add the spice mixture and stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes and salt.

Cover and cook until the sauce is quite thick and the oil starts to separate.

Add the cooked chick peas and boil for 10 minutes.

Serve with or without rice.