Starting work on this year 's crop

This year's crop will be mostly fruits. We've decided to expand on our strawberry production by using two beds for them in stead of the one we had last year. We bought a few extra plants, but most of last years' plants have survived through the winter. I hope they will produce many many strawberries this year that will be even sweeter then those of last year.


The blueberry bush is already blooming and growing like mad. Even the redcurrant is starting to sprout green stuff. This rather surprised me as during the winter it was basically nothing more then a sad bundle of sticks. I thought it had simply died off. Guess not.


Remember the pumpkin I carved last autumn? We saved the seeds of it and we'll be raising up two of them inside the house and move them to one of the beds this year. See what happens. We've also got tomatoes, zucchinis and pickles to fill out the remaining beds. And some pepper seeds that we will be potting. Those will be staying in their pots though.


This year we will also be trying out something else. We hav ebought some cherry tomato seeds and we are going to try and grow them upside down, hanging from a pot. Just to see if we can. It would be a great way to save ground space.


Aside from all the backyard farming I hope to get back on track with myy wood carving. I have a nice walking stick project going and I'll show it once it's finished. One of these weeks I will also finally try and get around to setting up that batch of mead. And as for the sausages, that will take me a bit longer. I'm too bloody busy as it is ;-)

Just a quicky

Here's just a quicky update. No, this blog is not dead, it's just been hibernating for a bit. I've been brooding on some plans for the coming year. The backyard farm will most probably go the fruit way this year. Having fruit bearing plans in the garden makes it easier to keep an eye on them. Also, the cats and dogs make sure that there will be very few birds coming in to snatch our harvest.


Another thing is: We might be allowed to use a plot of land belonging to some friends of ours. We are still deciding wether or not we want to take up the offer or not, so there might be a 'not so backyard' farm added to the repertoire.


As for further projects, due to circumstances my woodcarving has gone on hold for a bit. I have however decided to set myself up with a brew of mead. Supplies still need to be bought, exact recipe to be chosen but then its on to some home brewing! I will ofcourse document the process to the best of my abilities. This first batch will be a sort of test batch, after which I hope to start creating my own brews. The first task is to find a recipe that might seem nice, then make it to confirm that and then work up from there.


We also picked up a meat grinder some months back and that still hasn't been put to use, mainly due to time constraints. That will change. I plan to make some traditional dutch dried sausages called metworst. And maybe some of the braadworst types. With these I will also be looking for a starter recipe and after a succesful test batch I will start experimenting with different herbs and spices to create my own 'brand'.


So, that's it for now. Sorry about the long hiatus.


Oh, and happy new year and all that jazz!