More new girls

We traded an unwanted garden vac for 4 new pullets (good deal!) - 2 silver dorkings, and 2 wellsomer crosses. So hopefully we'll be getting a few more eggs soon.


In fact one of the dorkings has started laying - she's our first white egg laying chicken!

Bacon and Ham

This is what my bacon looked like after 5 days in the salt/sugar cure. One thing I did learn is that it needs soaking before cooking - otherwise all you taste is salt!! But after a few hours soaking it's lovely. Next time I'm going to try smoking some - but need to build a smoker...Jerry, get on with that will you?!!

My cider cured ham is also out of its brine bath too - and looking lovely! Now it's hanging in muslin under the verandah for 24-48 hours to air dry a bit. The dogs can smell it but can't reach it - torture!!

today's harvest

tonight's dinner will feature my first ever home grown cauliflower, and 3 colour purple carrots (a heritage variety)

Mmmmmmmmmmmm pork

This post isn't for vegetarians! I got hold of some very tasty heritage breed pork (from a Berkshire pig) from a local supplier , and have embarked on my first ham curing and bacon making experiment.
For the ham I'm curing it in a mix of apple juice/cider/salt/sugar/juniper berries/pepper/bay leaf from a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage). It's a lovely looking leg ham, so I hope it will tast good. It has 6-7 days in this cider brine .

L: leg in cider brine, and R: weighed down with a bag of rice!

I also bought half a pork belly, a hock and 2 trotters, and I'm salt curing them (mix of salt, brown sugar, pepper and juniper berries (again a River Cottage recipe). The belly will make what I hope will be super tasty streaky bacon, and the hock and trotters will go in lovely winter stews / casseroles to give depth of flavour (and some meat). And all I have to do is drain off the liquid each day for 5 days and rub in new salt mix. Too easy!

And tonight for dinner it's pork ribs!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm lovely.