Here’s the video…enjoy!
Tag: eggs
Hens, Compost and St Patrick’s Day at Bealtaine Cottage
Collecting fresh laid eggs from the hen house on the morning of St Patrick’s Day at Bealtaine Cottage.
Step inside the Hen House with me to see where the girls have laid… then over to the tunnel to check on the seedlings.
I explain how the compost toilet system is so simple and easy and essential!
Finally, walking around the front of the cottage to delight in the quickening growth of the season!
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Garden in February (Part One)
The year in the garden is now well under way, as Mother Earth awakens in a very visible way…not that she ever slept!
Coltsfoot is one of the first herbs to come into flower, for it flowers before it leafs and a very welcome sight this is!
Bronze fennel, that most vigorous of herbs and also a brilliant addition to the flower garden, starts to produce tasty leaves that can be added to early Spring salads.
Rocket has over-wintered well in the tunnel and forms the base ingredient.
Daffodils are now up and beginning to flower.
Daffodils on the hill above the cottage, around an old abandoned dwelling are in full bloom!
Reminders of Winter come and go, but not for long, sometimes just an hour or two of a light dusting of snow.
Never enough to hold back the advance of the seasons!
But beware the wind chill factor that comes with early Spring and wrap up warm when venturing out to work in the garden!
When the sun does shine, it is truly glorious and plants like Rhubarb spring into exuberant life!
A very hungry plant, Rhubarb eats up a generous dressing of well-rotted manure.
Euphorbia comes into life in the flower garden…here it shares a half barrel with a Fig Tree and both like each other’s company!
In fact, the Fig has fruited well year on year since getting a new bed fellow!
An old but treasured book is always at hand to delve into for advice on seasonal food, gardening and outdoors work!
I wonder if this little gem is still in print?
Beautiful catkins on the Hazel trees…flowers in fact!
The pond is filling with frogspawn and clumps of frogs celebrating the turn in the year as only frogs can!
Out in the hen-house the girls are in touch with the growing of the light as they come back into lay!
Mr and Mrs Fox are hungry and on the prowl! I often lay out food at night for the foxes, for the way I see it is simply this: we have interfered with the food chain by removing the animals that would have predated upon foxes.
This is my way of attempting to live in harmony as best I can…and ensuring that the girls in the henhouse are well protected!
Part Two of THE GARDEN IN FEBRUARY can be found on Bealtaine Cottage Good Life…
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You can place an order for seeds harvested here at Bealtaine cottage, from the plants seen growing here…all strong and vigorous. Click on the link below that will take you to the selection available:
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Eggs For Swap and other interesting ideas!
Despite the worst of the weather over the past two months, the raised beds planted out about eight weeks ago are producing abundantly!
Continual rain has not deterred production.
Even the grey skies have not stopped or slowed down growth…could this be anything to do with the stones used in constructing the beds and the white gravel which reflects whatever light there may be?
It certainly is a most unusual micro-climate that has been made here in the west of Ireland.
The beds themselves sit atop gravel, so are really well-drained.
They are lined along the bottom with sheep’s wool, which deters slugs and feeds the plants.
The area is well sheltered and south facing.
No harsh winds manage to invade this micro-climate area as the surrounding trees and bushes offer maximum protection.
Today’s video takes you around what is growing in the two beds.
You can click on the link at the bottom of this blog to access the video on YouTube!
I have plans to build another raised bed in this same area very soon…perhaps this week.
On another note entirely, I went along to the Boot-Sale in Carrick this morning and bought a fine addition to the kitchen, as you can see above, for a mere 20 euros!
Recycling at it’s best!
I am planning to get some hens this week and my dear friends Anne and Simon have offered me a fine cockerel to chaperone the girls.
I am making a sign to hang at the end of the lane…it will read, “Eggs For Swap” as swapping is much more beneficial than money!
I’m thinking, perhaps a bag of logs for some deliciously fresh eggs…or whatever is offered within reason…anyway, it should be much more fun than boring old money!
Hens…Raising Happy Girls!
The Bealtaine Girls…a bit like the Bluebell Girls, except they don’t dance!
I love hens.
They are social creatures.
They are inquisitive by nature and become very tame when treated well.
I have kept hens for years, even when I lived in London, I kept hens in my garden in Muswell Hill.
So, hens are familiar to me and have taught me a lot about what makes them happy!
Hens love to scratch and peck…fresh straw is great for this as they peck all the seeds left on the stalks.
Food is easy…lots of greens.
You can pick a few weeds every day and give to the hens, fresh is best.
Lots of starchy food leftovers is good for them as it provides a balanced diet.
I supplement with rolled barley, which they love!
If the girls can roam freely then this is good for all.
Mine get out for a good long roam-about when I’m working in the upper gardens.
This is because the handsome old fox lives on the hill above the cottage!
Say no more!
Hens love the berries of the Ribes, which stay on the bushes over the winter.
I have watched the girls jump up high to eat these from the bush on winter days.
Here they are scoffing the remains of blackcurrants from wine-making.
Hens are great foragers and will happily troop off on a good old forage through the bushes and woodland, emerging hours later at some unexpected point!
The henhouse is very spacious, with two floors and a long perch…and, you’ve probably noticed, very light too.
This is because it has a perspex roof, so all the sunshine and moonlight can brighten the inside.
In this way, the hens continue to lay eggs all year round as the light induces this process.
I built this on site and positioned the roof on a slope towards the south to catch as much sun and warmth as possible.
Trees are planted around it for maximum shelter, especially from the wind.
It works!
The hens even laid eggs on Christmas day.
Hens will lay for years and live for over 7 years and more.
Permaculture Cottage ~ The Pantry
Sweetcorn harvested over the weekend…this is the native American corn, called ‘Painted Mountain,’ and is very colourful!
I will save some of the corn seeds for planting next year…
Heaps and heaps of windfalls… planting apple trees is cheap and easy and all you do is wait for the windfall! Ha! Ha!…I love it. Simple, easy and so very permaculture!
And more apples in the pantry…buckets of them…free food, good food and not a corporation in sight!
Free-range eggs with deep orange yolks and pumpkins in the pantry today…it’s starting to fill up as the harvest comes in…
Bountiful Blackcurrants…waiting to be turned into jam, chutney, wine et al, rest in the freezer in the Pantry.
Permaculture Cottage ~ Not enough food in Ireland…
Tea after Enniskillen and a shopping expedition for another camera.
Recycled of course!
A great book shop up there also and by the looks of the cars in the car park, most of the population of North Roscommon and Leitrim were shopping there too!
What a relief! It rained yesterday and rained really heavily overnight. All the water butts are spilling over and the tunnel has had an early morning drink…6am! I love the way that the rainwater is held in jewel-like drops on the Ladys Mantle!
A tiny Oak seedling being nurtured in the tunnel. This will be ready to plant out next year. It will be potted on once more before then.
Pumpkins continue to set in the tunnel and around the garden.
These have been late this year, but hopefully there will be an Indian summer and easy ripening.
Pumpkins I grew last year stored really well and I was able to use them right up until just recently!
Another bumper harvest at Bealtaine Cottage, Ballyfermoyle!
Successive harvests this year have been excellent!
Earlier there was a great crop of Blackcurrants and before that, Rhubarb, as well as the other crops in between.
It’s a shame that so very few people in North West Ireland bother to grow food.
Much of the complaint is that the land is not good enough for that purpose…well, it would appear to be far from that, don’t you think?
It is a fact that if the supermarkets closed their doors tomorrow, people living in the countryside in Ireland, would be very hungry indeed, so little food is grown here!
Eggs, jams, chutneys, potatoes, fruit, vegetables and all other home grown and home made produce has given way to poor quality supermarket food.
Country gardens in this area and beyond consist mainly of suburban type lawns, prolific use of weed-killer and a few chosen plants.
This is normally put into place, at huge expense, by the local garden centre.
The disconnect with the land is a sad reflection of today’s society.
Permaculture Cottage ~ A Summer Feast on a Wet Evening
Lots of Parsley and loads of eggs…yes, it’s summer and the food is in plentiful supply here on this Permaculture smallholding.
An easy way of preserving food for the leaner times is to use it to cook and freeze, or bottle or…anyway, you know what I mean…just don’t let it go to waste!
Here is one of my favourite fast foods, devised by Rose Elliot, my favourite Vegetarian Cookery writer…Parsley Burgers.
I made these on the Cook and Dine Evening I hosted on Monday evening at Cleen Hall, Knockvicar, and, they were very well received!
Anyway, here’s the recipe…
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2 eggs / 6 heaped tablespoons of breadcrumbs / 1 small onion, chopped / 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley / salt and fresh ground black pepper / oil for shallow frying.
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Add the breadcrumbs, onion and parsley to the beaten egg and season to taste.
Pour oil into pan to cover the base thinly and heat.
Spoon the mixture into the pan and fry for about 3 minutes on either side, until crisp.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve with salad or baked beans!
As they freeze really well and there is a glut of all the ingredients here at Bealtaine, I have made dozens of them to freeze and save as a fast food…
AN UPDATE ON THE GRAPEVINE…I planted outdoors…it’s doing really well, so far!
It had over-wintered at Bealtaine and endured being frozen in its pot for weeks on end, survived well and is now set to be a successful outdoor grape…
A Forecast for the Winter Ahead…
Lots of logs continue to be stockpiled for what is going to be a very cold winter indeed.
Seriously, now is the time to prepare!
If you live in the British Isles, try to get hold of a wood burning stove now and start your woodpile.
Ash can be burned without seasoning!
The Wren at Bealtaine…Biodiversity in Permaculture, Naturally!
Can you see the little bird nesting in the corner of the hanging basket? I think it’s a Wren and it has made a nest here in the shelter of the veranda.
I waited util it had flown and quickly snapped some pics…and was really surprised to see these tiny eggs in the nest!
Looks like there’s five eggs…I didn’t want to hang about snapping pics as I guessed Mother Wren was eyeing me up from nearby!
She’s in the fifth basket along from the left, on the inward side of the basket, so very sheltered and safe!