We had a ‘lottie meeting’ this evening. We packed up some crusty bread, cheeses, charcuterie and plonk and trundled off to the lottie to plan for the coming weeks. We hoped to sort out what needs to come out of the beds, what is being harvested and stored, what needs to be planted to overwinter, where each of our crops needs to rotate to next season, what soil treatment each bed needs etc. There is a lot to think about as we come to the close of our first growing season and it is all a bit bamboozling. I have to say it doesn’t feel a whole lot clearer after polishing off the plonk – but we did have a lot of fun! We also spent about half an hour gathering more blackberries. I weighed our haul when I got home and we’d picked about 3lb between two of us. I also pulled up some spuds because hubby was mortified that he had to buy a couple of taters for his lunch today – buying anything from the fruit and veg aisle these days kind of sticks in the craw! We’re still using our second earlies, dug fresh from the earth, and have a whole bed of maincrops that will be due to be lifted and made ready for storage in the next couple of weeks.
I needed to do a shopping order when we got home. I checked the price that Mr Tesco is charging for blackberries – a whopping £13.27 per kilo!! So, in about half an hour we’d gathered almost twenty quids worth of blackberries! Un-be-freakin-lievable. I can’t believe people will pay such a princely sum for something that is readily available, free and fresh right on their own doorstep. Mother Nature provides a veritable bounty of berries ripe for the picking at this time of year.
So then it got me thinking about eggs again and how much I resent paying nigh on £3.00 for a dozen free range eggs when I could be gathering those from my own hens (in a pretty wicker basket looped over the crook of my arm, of course.) Oh how my little chicken-mama heart yearns to ensconce Hennifer Lopez and all her feathered friends in a coop in our back garden. As I type this I’m looking at a little sign my mum bought me that’s pinned on the corkboard above the computer. It’s got a picture of a funky chicken and declares ‘This chick rules the roost’. Oh yes, those chickens shall be mine, muahahahaha!
Hennifer Lopez!! ROFL!!!
I want chickens too, but my landlord would never have it.
Not even in return for the odd box of freshly-laid eggs? Our problem here is lack of space. I’d want room for them to free range properly and not just be confined to a henhouse with a small run attached.
I’ve a whole raft of names for the girls when they finally arrive (I’ve been wanting these chickens since I was three years old!!) Hennifer Lopez is my undisputed favourite though!