Fur and feather and sugar. Sugar???

Now when Nanny Southwellski, Coco and I moved to Grandpa Southwellski's Garden we had the notion that being self sufficient was the direction we wanted to take.

It would be a gradual process, growing a few veggies, recycling more, wasting less, trying to produce our own energy and who knows one day killing and processing our own meat.

The meat side of it would have to be a very gradual process as we are both a bit soft around animals.

Well that all changed in 24 hours!

2 x brace = 4

As you know we have the team in doing some landscaping works, and a very lovely team they are too.

Roy charges around on the digger and Mike basically clears up behind him whilst Richard the designer comes and moves the soil around to match the drawings. (He also charges around on the digger but only when Roy isn't here!)

Roy shoots and offered to bring us a couple of brace of pheasants, and true to his word he turned up with them on Friday morning.

Soon have these feathers out!

So with much gusto and bravery we made a cup of tea and watched the shooting times video clip online on how to prepare a pheasant.

We followed the instructions to the letter and eventually had feet and wings strewn all over the worktop.

It was when we got to the removing the skin bit that we finally gave in and I trundled down the garden to ask Roy to show us what to do.

Having very diplomatically congratulated us on 'having a go' he proceeded to prepare the other 3 birds (and finish our attempt) in about 6 minutes, with our blunt knives.

"I don't mean to be rude but my penknife is sharper than this knife" he said.  I should have asked why he didn't use it.

All this done and without the need to gut or behead them and left us with breasts and legs ready for the pot.

Here's the veggies darling!

Nanny Southwellski turned two of the birds into a casserole with a rich gravy enhanced with her cherries in brandy.

Served with mustard mash and spring greens it was amazing!

Auntie Angela was wowed by it and had to be warned about her language in front of young Coco such was her excitement.

Our second encounter with all creatures great and small and deceased began on the Friday when on the field next to us we saw the lights of a truck and heard gunshots.

Being good neighbours we phoned the farmer who told us his brother was shooting rabbits, well not one to miss an opportunity I asked if there was a chance of having a couple.

They duly arrived the next morning and by tea time I had skinned and cleaned them like a pro, a very slow and uncertain pro but a pro none the less, and armed with my newly sharpened knives and a copy of John Seymours 'New complete self suffiency' book I ensconsed myself in the utility room.

Nanny Southwellski turned the first rabbit into rabbit pie and it was delicious, but I have to say it tasted like chicken!

So what next here on the frontier in Hockwold?

From our paddock we can see the sugar beet factory at Wissington and as I stood looking one sunny afternoon as the factory pushed clouds of steam up into the atmosphere I recalled seeing in John Seymours self sufficiency a short piece on making sugar.

One of a bagfull.

A quick phone call and before you could say " Give us a couple of sugar beet and we will feed you a pheasant casserole" Uncle Robin had supplied a bag full of beet.

So Sunday morning Coco and I washed 2 of the beet, peeled it and chopped it into manageable pieces which we juiced.

We weighed the beet and started off with just under 5kg of beet, once peeled and cleaned this went down to 4.2kg.

Beet'le' juice

After juicing we had about 2 litres of juice and so the process began.


John basically says in his book boil it to infinty and beyond, so we did.

Now local people will know the pungent aroma of the beet factory, we reproduced it in our kitchen!.

 Our creamy white beet juice quickly turned to a grey frothing ooze and after reducing the liquid by boiling we have managed to recover about 200g of syrup from the two beet.

Its now crystallising as we speak and so will we become  a threat to the future of Wissington? No, probably not.

Vegetable lasagne al la Kirsty

Our daughter Kirsty 'Parsnip' Southwellski is back home from abroad, Somerset is abroad isn't it?

As part of her having to work for us to pay for her keep she has been doing a bit of culinary creation in the kitchen and this Pumpkin and Greens lasagne is a total hit.

Parsnip has also been staining some timber, always a good idea to redo the stuff that's already been done first I think, right Parsnip?

Mice snacks!

Another culinary hit has been the broccoli seedlings Coco and I sowed a few weeks ago, but not with us.

We have a rogue mouse somewhere in the potting shed and he/she has taken a liking to our seedlings.

We rescued them before they all vanished and moved them to the utility room before we shift them out into the polytunnel.

Blossom the blur!

A few days ago, out in the chicken run Nanny Southwellski spotted a rat searching for some fallen chook food.

Blossom, Monty and Scarlett were sent to sort it out.

Monty dug holes, Scarlett wandered around looking pretty but Blossom got straight onto the job and was still hunting a good hour later.

Rat?  I'll just dig a hole.

The rat did make another appearance just before dusk, running across my fot followed by Blossom who despite getting her teeth on it couldn't hold on.

Shame, it would have been her second 'kill' in a week.

Now, Nanny Southwellski and I are not anti animal in any way shape or form. We would never kill anything for the sake of it.

But anyone who has chooks knows what a pain rats can be if you don't store your food safely or keep your coop/shed secure.

Since Blossom's foray we haven't seen any signs of rats, just the pesky seedling eating mouse, so we are hoping that she will keep them from returning.

 And finally, with the gardening works in full swing we have a few heaps of soil around and well they just have to be climbed!

Whoa Grandad it's very high up here you know.