Fun with fungas!

A  great couple of days fungus hunting; Two bags full on both days and consumed deliciously with the surplus put to dry in the solar dryer.  On the walk on Saturday we saw a pair of Marsh Harriers, a sparrowhawk, three hares, voles and a weasel.  We also picked a large bag of blackberries (late but still good!)

With Rebecca & Steffen our WOOFers

Processing chestnuts?

We have had a good harvest of nuts this year, almonds, walnuts and chestnuts.  Has anyone any good techniques for processing chestnuts - removing their inner skins etc?  The warmer weather in October has given us a boost in the vegetable garden with runner beans particularly having a new lease of life.  The bees to have been very active, working on ivy flowers for nectar and Hawkweed for pollen (I guess).

Autumn Sowing

I am well into my autumn sowing now.  Have sowed 8 different salads in the polytunnel, carrots and Feltham First pea, outside have sowed onion seed.  At the end of the month I will put in broad beans, onion and garlic sets.  I have just bought two great books, The Winter Harvest handbook by Eliot Coleman and Small Scale grain raising by Gene Logsdon both American books I am afraid but still full of good relevant information.  last night we went to a Food Day at old hall community, we traded some seeds for apples watched some interesting films from the transition group at Wivenhoe which were powered by two bicycles (I took my turn peddling!) and had a delicious meal provided by the community from the food grown on site.

Green Woodworking workshop in Essex 24th October

Last few places left on our workshop in our 8 acre wood in October, contact me for details see http://www.ecodiy.org/green%20woodworking.htm

Taking my life in my hands!

yes, I have lived through the night!  After going on a Fungal Foray last week (42 species found only one edible!) I have started eating the autumn fungus the total so far:  Field Parasols, ink-caps, horse mushrooms (by the side of the road!) All after a ridiculous amount of time looking at books and pictures on the Internet - perhaps not an economic success but very satisfying (and delicious) anyway.

Horse mushrooms

Harvest time in full swing

We are busy harvesting and processing to have food to eat in the winter months.  This year there are amazing blackberries and we are cooking them with (traded) windfall apples to make jam and crumble fillings to freeze. yesterday we harvested the Almond and walnuts (yes we beat the squirrels this year!) see photo for harvesting with a rake tied to a long pole!  We gathered about one and a half three gallon buckets of walnuts (a good harvest) in their green overcoats.  Also busy processing seeds; Spinach and spinach beet, rocket, lettuce, melon, leek and onion,celeriac and celery, beetroot (red and white). Busy, busy,  busy!

Summer Roundup

Here at last is a (rather guilty) post.  Somehow the summer has gone by in a flash without my making the time to catch up, sorry.
This has been a good productive year in the garden and with the bees.  Three months of drought in the main part of the summer led to my spending an hour a day watering the vegetable plot from the reed bed and well (managed to avoid the use of mains water)  The forestry commission came through with their permission to carry on coppicing the wood and plant more trees to fill the gaps (all winter work)  I gave/sold 9 lots of bees to beginner beekeepers and go into the winter with 13colonies (I will have to sell some of them in the spring).   We had over 60 peaches on our 3 year old tree in spite of having peach leaf curl in the spring.
The chickens have reared 17 chicks at least 9 of them cockerels (a few not big enough to tell yet!).  One high point was our open weekend last weekend with 152 visitors.  This followed a major interview with BBC Essex radio (now on our website) which brought a lot of people in.  The harvesting and processing goes on apace.  bottling fruit, freezing beans and tomatoes etc.  A good treatment for powdery mildew from the Internet was spraying the leaves with (dilute) baking soda mixture.
Anyhow I will try and make time to post now as the days grow longer
happy equinox (nearly!)
Chris