Yesterday we took Sol down to the beach to celebrate his 9th Birthday
and a successful year of retirement for him, he had a great time
in and out of the sea and chasing his ball.
He was one very tired dog last night.
While on the beach we collected some cockles
this is all that was left of them
after Martin added a load to the risotto he cooked for dinner
there was enough risotto left over for him to take a portion back for his dinner tonight
there was enough risotto left over for him to take a portion back for his dinner tonight
Saturday one of the cockerels was culled
roasted for dinner on Sunday, there was a lot of meat.
after a lovely roast dinner, meat was added to the risotto
and Martin has taken the rest of the meat back for one of his meals this week.
The carcass was put to use as well
cooked up to make a lovely chicken stock.
We still have another two cockerels to do.
This week I will be setting some eggs for hatching,
Cockerels will be for the table and hens will be kept for layers.
we are still selling off our eggs and could do with adding some more laying hens
we don't have enough eggs to keep up with demand.
Next I have to look around for some more ducks,
I have a supplier for some geese and turkeys to rear again this year.
The goats now have a whole paddock, plenty of space for the little goatlings to run around
I will try and get a video done of them at some point this week
Martin has built them some play apparatus to climb on.
The other day I did some more yogurt leathers in the dehydrator
all cut up into chunks, a nice tasty treat.
Bread making yesterday, this time I did french sticks
I haven't really done any for a long time,
The baking rack for them I bought from Lakeland a long time ago,
It has a mesh bottom to make nice crunchy bread
I don't know if they still do them.
That's my news for now,
I am trying to catch up on a few blogs each time I come down to the village to use the Internet
will get round them all again soon.
great to see you are still smashing out some amazing posts even without an internet connection! I hope normality resumes for you soon
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely, busy time Dawn. Just love reading what you get up to and hope to do half as well as you when we get started. I keep thinking we should have done more but when I think we have only been here since September, only been in the house since the end of October and we have got through Christmas with the house finally being ours. The garden needs clearing before we start and Jon only has the weekends so it is taking longer than we would like, but we are getting there.x
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Sol. You sound to be doing really well with keeping food on your table from your smallholding. Well done. We used to get offered cockerels for the pot, and always said yes until we got some which were Transylvanian Turkey Necks - they were bonkers birds, and too small to make much of a mouthful. After that we always asked what sort they were!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that your eggs are in much demand and that you are looking ahead to Christmas already : )
Wow Sol does look the spitting image of Buddy as you say! Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to be doing our cockrels later in the year. Do you need to rest the meat before you can eat it?
Sol looks very happy. Its lovely to hear from you and that its all good in Wales!
ReplyDeleteDawn - that exquisite cockle risotto has me sitting here drooling - how marvellous to be able to collect them, take them home and eat them on the same day.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Sol. Your food always looks so good. And fresh cockles. Oh my! Would so love to be near the sea.
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