Bringing in the harvest down at Jimmy's

Jimmy Doherty is an absolute hero of mine. We went to Jimmy's Farm a few years back when Matt had bought me a tour of the farm and lunch with Jimmy himself and he is such an inspirational chap. So, imagine our delight when we discovered that he was hosting a food and music festival.

In case you don't know who Jimmy is, this is he (holding his month old baby in a carrier...aaaah):



We booked tickets months and months ago before we knew the line up so I was soooo excited to discover that my favourite band (The Futureheads) were playing. The music was brilliant, of course, and the atmosphere fantastic:




The food was also brilliant. On the first night I had dinner from Wahaca, the Mexican "street food" restaurant set up by Tomasina Myers who won masterchef a few years back. I've been to the restaurant in London a few times and it never disapoints - it's just my kind of food! On Sunday we had some Greek-style salad from the "farmers market" area, and a pasty from Jimmy's shop. Being such a small festival it was a great place to just see people. We watched The Hairy Bikers do a cooking demo and they were jolly funny and just as entertaining as on TV:


(a speeding biker)


(bikers in action)

Last, and by no means least, my gardening guru, Alys Fowler was there! Matt said I was all red every time I saw her and I saw her lots - she clearly wanted to be my friend because she queued next to me for breakfast and sat behind us at Wahaca:



She talked about wild food and some unusual ideas for preserving and pickling, which was fascinating, and we even won a prize from her of some walnuts that she had collected on her drive down from Birmingham. Brilliant!

I was a bit of a loser and asked for her autograph (I never do that, but I just couldn't not!) and talked to her about flea beetles, a very important subject I'm sure you'll agree.




Finally, a visit to Jimmy's Farm wouldn't be complete without a mention of the pigs. We had a lovely talk from a pig expert about the different breeds and they all came out to show themselves off:

Gloucester Old Spot

Large Black

Tamworth

Wessex/Saddleback

I thought this chap was an Essex but he's clearly not so he's nameless

Middle White


It was just running around pigs that kept us amused either, there was plenty of piggy to fill our tummies (Katy, don't scroll down)...














Pass me the apple sauce!

Morris Dancing, Ostrich eating and plenty of potatoes

What a busy week we've had again so plenty to update on...

This weekend we went to "Puzzlebury" - which is a mini-festival run by my friend's mum in the Forest of Dean. We went last year and it really is so much fun. She has the most amazing house and garden - it's an old mining house and has a big plot of land with it - complete with lake!



She puts on such a good party - there's a big water slide down the hill, a swimming pool, lots of lovely food and drink (the cider was a little too potent and I had an unfortunate run in with a bramble patch and am still removing the splinters!). We had a visit from some morris dancers on the Saturday who taught us some moves. I don't have a photo of us dancing but this is the troupe (The Widders):



There were also bands and DJ's on the Saturday night as well as a bonfire and, although we were boring/hungover from Friday and went to bed early a good time was had by all! One of the highlights was the Ostrich which was roasted in a pit with hot rocks all night and served up for lunch on Sunday:



We also had 6 Ostrich eggs, which took two people with a drill to get into:



Sadly, we had to leave before the scrambled egg was ready but I'm told it was delicious!

We came home on Sunday afternoon because I had a job interview on Monday morning. I haven't actively been looking but this would be a part-time job which would make my PhD (which starts in a month - aaaah!) more do-able so I thought I would go for it. I now really want the job but have to wait until Wednesday to find out. I think they've got 2 other strong candidates so I'm not thatg hopeful but we'll see! Fingers crossed!

We had already booked Monday off it did mean that we got to spend the day doing house stuff. Matt dug up some potatoes, which Hythe very kindly decided to give him a hand with:



As well as their pesky garden antics the girls are also determined to get into the kitchen at every opportunity:



So, I have this afternoon ordered some temporary netting to fence them into a little area of the garden so that they can run out when we're at home without making a nuisance of themselves!

We also managed to do some things in the house today, including clearing the spare room to a be a sewing/craft room. It's a difficult room to photo but this shows the new mirror on the wall and furniture layout:



On the garden front, we are still getting a good crop of raspberries, and have just dug up our second lot of potatoes. The first harvest made a delicious cottage pie and this lot are doing to be fish cakes with plenty left over for the rest of the week and into next.

The allotment site, which we have now started clearing with a vengeance is also starting to take shape. The group are meeting on Wednesday to discuss next steps and I'm going to encourage them towards dividing up plots so that we can all get going in time for Spring!

So that was our week. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for this job so I really hope to have good news for my next post.

Busy July and a sad goodbye

It seems like such a long time since my last post. July, as always, is proving to be a very busy month indeed!

The weekend after my birthday we went to Latitude Festival, which was our first full weekend festival experience and it was so lovely! Nicknamed "Latte-tude" because it's a very nice middle-class Guardian-reading type festival, which was pretty much us to a T! Not only were there some big music stages, they also had a theatre and comedy stages, literature and poetry tents, a stage on the lake which had mainly opera and dance as well as little stages in the woods with everything from shakespeare to early 90's dance music. Plus, loads of quirky little touches like multi coloured sheep and a childrens arena which loads of fun looking things in it (I was very jealous!). We came back feeling very chilled out and not very enthusiastic about going back to work!





Then, this weekend just gone, my mum and her partner, Nick, came to visit. Nick and Matt went off to the War and Peace show at the Hop Farm just down the road. Not really our kind of thing so my mum and I went to the antique fair at Detling. Sadly we didn't getg anything apart from this brilliantly tacky tin for my buttons. It has a picture of a boy collecting stamps with his pet rabbit. Totally bizarre and utterly brilliant!



Then, on Sunday, we headed off to Ben and Jerry's Sundae on the common in Clapham with some friends. Sadly it was a bit rainy and much busier than in previous years so not as good as it could have been but we scoffed plenty of free ice cream and I got to see The Futureheads, who I love.




(The Futureheads)

Our weekend sadly didn't end very well. When we got home on Sunday night poor little Dymchurch was lying in the run, having not been able to make it up the ramp. Luckily Matt saw her first and brought her inside into the box that she's been staying in which we've been nursing her. She's not been well for a while and we had tried everything that we could think of but to no avail. On Monday morning she'd given us and gone to the big chard patch in the sky (chard was her favourite food). So, we are now a two chicken household and we have vowed to pay extra attention to Hythe and Romney and try to learn from our mistakes but we are very sad to lose our little Dym, who was our favourite. At least she had a happy 4 months of life since she "escaped" the farm.


(our little Dymchurch)

Strangely enough, Tinyholder, whose blog we are avid followers of, also lost one of her hens this week and my mum and Nick lost Apple, one of their ducks last week. Not a good week for poultry it seems.

I have also been doing some arts and crafts this week. I made a pencil case for my mum's birthday and I have to say i was jolly proud of it. I forgot to take a photo, but I will definately be making myself one for when I start studying again.