A Winter Week Without a Salary, Odds and Ends and Home Farmer Magazine Review

I've just realised I have new followers on Bloglovin'. The numbers went down 2 and then up 3 so welcome to Tannia, Helen Roasty and Loraine, thank you for reading my ramblings.

I went to Saxmundham this morning for milk and a few bits and the final voucher for a Christmas pressies. Came home and wrapped up the present and then realised I had 2 more things still to sort and wrap which took me to the very end of my Christmas wrapping paper. I shall need to look out for some in the January sales, I don't think I have bought any for several years. I quite fancy getting some brown paper and printing with potato prints or something similar but in reality I know I'll never get round to it and it would probably end up being more expensive anyway.
We had a very nice hand made card in the post the other day and I said to C that I really ought to make more cards other than the few I make for my Penny Pinching Pen Friends. He said the same thing - that it's probably more expensive to make them than to find some cheap in the sales or at car boot sales. ( The thing he doesn't know is that I probably have enough of a stash of card making bits and bobs to make several years of cards!).

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I'm in trouble again for correcting a mis-quote on another blog. The problem was because it was misquoted it changed the whole reason for the quote and it gives me the heeby jeebys to see something in print that I know is wrong. I think when I'm even older and crustier I shall be one of those grumpy old women who write to newspapers and Points Of View to correct mistakes - Oh what fun!

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Once again a copy of Home Farmer Magazine has arrived for me to review. As always it's filled with interesting articles. The food bit in this January edition features Norfolk recipes, marmalade, porridge and sausage making.
John Harrison writes about rhubarb and Sara Evans-Charrington has recipes for home made cleaners.

I was very tempted by an offer of a free book just for the price of postage until I remembered that I had them both! Sometimes I forget just what we have got - too many books perhaps? No, that's impossible!
Another good offer is for 5 packets of seed for greenhouse growing worth £10 for £2.95 and a bigger collection of £32.75 worth of various seeds for £15. ( I still haven't done our seed order yet so I need to check out this offer)

There is an interesting bit about Comfrey and comfrey "tea" for fertiliser. We just bung a mesh bag of it in a water butt however John Butterworth has built a special pipe contraption which could be better and avoid some of the smelliness.

My favourite features as usual were smallholder Dot Tyne's diary from her welsh smallholding and the pages of short news items of interest to smallholders and gardeners.

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And Finally - a couple of times in the summer when our income from self employment is good I've done posts about what we earn, how we earn it and how we save some for winter.

This is why we need to save  - here's  a weeks income from December

Thursday 4th Dec - Eggs £8
Friday 5th Dec - Eggs £7
Saturday 6th Dec - Eggs £8
Sunday 7th Dec - Eggs  £13. Cs pay for working at our neighbours £12.50
Monday 8th Dec - Eggs £9. Hay £5
Tuesday 9th Dec - Eggs £6
Wednesday 10th Dec - Eggs £15. Hay £5
That makes a weeks income of  £88.50. So it's a good job we paid off the mortgage all those years ago, don't have any debts and have put money away during the summer months.

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Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and a special thank you message to my penfriend D from the States - kitchen pressie arrived safe and sound - I shall be good and save it to Christmas.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Review of Home Farmer Magazine

What a horrible grey nasty Sunday.

We did almost nothing except cutting some wood and watching Gareth Malone's Children In Need celebrity choir thing, which we didn't see last week.
Therefore nowt to write about so it's handy that  the very nice people at Home Farmer Magazine seemed to have put me down for a regular subscription which is a surprise as I was only expecting one copy to review. However  I shan't complain and it gives me something to blog about once a month. ( And I apologise to any fellow bloggers and commentators who  don't like people reviewing free things on their blog posts.)

The December copy arrived here two weeks ago but what with one thing and another I only got round to having a proper look yesterday.

As usual lots of articles on many various subjects of interest to smallholders, gardeners and anyone interested in " doing their own thing".

There are two more cheese recipes to make at home, this month Camembert and a Creamy Lancashire Blue and to go with them some recipes for various crackers which look very tasty. ( Has anyone else noticed cheese making kits for sale everywhere for this Christmas?)

The magazine often features small scale food producers and this month have visited " Totally Fudged"  who make what sounds like very delicious Fudge in West Sussex.

For gardeners the Author John Harrison has a piece about choosing what vegetable seeds to buy for the 2015 growing season. There is a very handy chart showing how long seeds will keep. Most are viable for several years, so don't chuck them out just because you didn't use them this year. The only things I always buy fresh each year are parsley and parsnip. As John says " the fun bit is settling down with the seed catalogues ( or computer) to see what they are offering."

If you have a poly-tunnel there is a timely article about First Aid for getting the tunnel through the winter. You may remember what happened to one of ours last year!

It needed more than First Aid!

The second part of "Diary of an incompetent smallholder" is at the end of the magazine and once again it is full of stories of things that shouldn't happen if you are more careful than Mr Barr. I was horrified to read about his sheep escaping and eating rhododendron leaves. A good shepherd checks boundary fences every day and I didn't find his description of his sheep foaming at the mouth very funny. Sorry HF editors but I'm afraid items like this "don't do what I do" are not amusing.
'More money than sense' comes to mind when I read bits like this.

Completely opposite to this is Dot Tynes diary from her Welsh Smallholding - they DO know what they are doing.
For crafters there are pieces about making bird boxes and a rag wreath.

All in all lots of reading with few adverts and this months special offer is for a free book - choice of chicken or pig keeping- you only pay postage. Bargain!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

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Review of November issue of Home Farm Magazine

Thank you to Ruth and Paul, the editors, for sending me another copy of  HOME FARMER MAGAZINE  to review on my blog.

As usual lots of different topics are covered, not too much on any one subject. I found there were only a few things that I was really interested in this month. I think we've been smallholding too long!

I was keen to look at the article on making a Stilton cheese. Because we kept goats for almost 20 years I have had many tries at cheese making. Soft cheese was usually successful and I made lots of Panaar or Paneer cheese but every attempt at hard cheese ( and yes, I had all the kit at one time) ended in failure. I'm not sure if it was me, the milk, the recipe or my small kitchen which was the cause of all the failures.
As well as step by step instructions for Stilton there are kits for sale which include everything you need. Cheese making is not a cheap hobby and I don't think saves money in comparison to buying it from a supermarket if you have to buy the milk ,but very satisfying if you can get it right.

The second thing I read was Dot Tyne's Smallholding Diary, looking back to August where they entered shows, sorted out the sheep flock and did something I always wanted to do years ago - went to The Annual Ryeland Sheep Show and sale. We kept Ryeland sheep for several years, they are lovely placid  sheep with faces like teddy bears!

Next I turned to a couple of pages all about the demise of rural Post Offices. We lost Post Offices from both local villages over the last 10 years so it's too late for an MP to say there have been fewer  POs closing recently. Then last year we even lost the local post box, when it was demolished and stolen. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we lose 6 days a week delivery in the next few years.

I turned to the back to read an article titled" Diary of an Incompetent Smallholder" by Norfolk Smallholder Richard Barr. He starts by saying  "We had the idea that our smallholding could help us to become self-sufficient with shelves full of honey  and freezers brimming over with vegetables, fruit and legs of lamb. However because of lack of money, time and skill things have not gone to plan. My message is: don't do as we say or do".
My thought was why are you smallholding then? We had a lack of money and time here but still managed to grow things, keep sheep and goats without dozens of disasters. We just got on with it, learned how to do things for ourselves and all without spending a fortune. I assume this is the first in a series of amusing tales from the smallholding.
( I'm a cynical old bag! but I'm sure some people invent mishaps just to enliven their writing!)

The other features in brief,

There is a very good piece about planting trees and another about pruning.

Some good ideas for what to grow during the winter in a polytunnel.( We've got lettuce, salad leaves and beetroot in ours)

Tips on creating a garden that will sustain wildlife during the winter. I liked the list of fifteen of the best things to grow for wildlife. For fruit eaters:- Cotoneaster, Holly, Crab Apples,Hawthorn and Rowan. We have all these around the smallholding. For Seed eaters:- Sunflowers, teasels, Scabious, Knapweed and Clematis. Oh dear, we have none of these. For nectar and pollen during the winter:- Primroses, Ivy, Winter honeysuckle, Mahonia and Winter heather. We have plenty of Ivy and primroses, a small Mahonia  but not a winter honeysuckle or heathers.

Digging a pond on a low impact plot ( by hand and hard going!)

Foraging in November. ( wish we had mushrooms but it's always too dry in this part of Suffolk)

Orpington chickens and Native British  geese.

I skipped over the article on bees, but it is about increasing colonies.
 Pickles through the ages by food historian Seren Evans-Charrington was  interesting

There are a couple of pages of unusual Potato recipes; Potato and Spinach souffle, Potato and apple casserole, Potato scones and Home made Potato Crisps.

 This months reader offer is 20 Tulip bulbs just for the cost of postage

There is a step by step guide to building a brick oven for your garden, I skipped over this too - not something we want to do.

The close up look at how to darn socks and turn up work trousers will be very useful for people new to frugal and self-sufficient living.


And finally in Next months issue which is in the shops on November 2nd
John Harrison looks at what's new and 'trending' in the seed catalogues.
There are instructions for making a gingerbread house
Potted food as they did in Georgian and Victorian times
Making birdhouses
And OH YUM - Making Fudge!

 Back Tomorrow
Sue
And a PS. Welcome to BCandIKB on Google friends (another Suffolk resident) and to Sue and retireewannabe on Bloglovin'.

Home Farmer Magazine Reveiw

After buying a copy last month and mentioning in a blog post, I thought I would ask the friendly folk at Home Farmer Magazine if they would like me to review the magazine on my blog and  much to my surprise they said yes and  sent me a copy!
So here goes , this is what I think.

The magazine started a few years back and I was quite excited by it and subscribed ( and made a few small contributions) for about 3 years until I got fed up with all the articles being done by just two people who were also publishing books with exactly the same information in them. Since then those two people have left and the Magazine is much improved in the care of Ruth Tott and Paul Melnyczuk.

 I usually pick up a copy if I'm in the right place ( only WHS in this area) at the right time, however with a subscription now including  the book 'River Cottage Everyday Cookbook', I might be tempted to subscribe again ( or not!)

In my  opinion Home Farmer Magazine is unique as it touches on lots of subjects of interest to people who want to live a simpler, self sufficient type of lifestyle. There are a couple of Smallholding magazines on the market, dozens of cookery ones, loads of gardening magazines and even more crafting ones.But Home farmer is the only one that covers all these AND does it without hundreds of annoying adverts and without an overload of any one subject.

This is the October issue which appeared in the shops at the beginning of September ( I've never quite understood why magazines are often a month ahead of the rest of us , but there must be a reason).

This issue has a "Bold New Look" but comparing it to Septembers issue the only thing that seemed different is the Down to Earth tag line at the top of the cover has gone and they've added in a weird font which looks as if someone has dropped ink all over the top of each feature.

One of my favourite bits are the first few pages where they catch up on items of news connected with smallholding. I find this really useful because unless you listen to Farming Today at quarter to six a.m on BBC Radio 4 much of this news/legislation/information could be missed.

I enjoy reading about other peoples lifestyles so Dot Tyne's smallholding diary ( their website is Viable Self Sufficiency ) is   a good read. She always seems to have more hours in her day than we have! There is also a feature about a young couple who run a dairy selling unpasteurized (raw) and pasteurized but non-homogenized milk from their farm and on-line.Gazegill Organics. Apart from dairying the farm also sells edible herbs and flowers and organic meat and cheese.( Very Expensive, as you would expect)

There are several articles about fruit growing in this months issue.The quick guide to planting apple trees made me smile - "Bear in mind the size of the adult tree in five, ten and twenty years' time when allocating space" Mmmm  easier said than done methinks as all our trees are much too close!
You can also buy a Redcurrant and Blackcurrant bush ( worth 15.90) just for the cost of postage ( £5.65)

A regular monthly feature covers what to do in your poly-tunnel and this month there is even an opportunity to enter a competition to win an 8ft x 10ft tunnel from Ferryman Poly-tunnels. ( as we have 3 tunnels  already I don't think I will enter that!)

Crafty Gifts is a special guide for ideas for presents ( Christmas or otherwise).

Other pages cover geese, bees, hen rescue, Co-operative Land Share schemes and seed bombing        ( wild flowers in derelict areas).

Last but not least there are lots of recipes for autumn including Hugh F. H s' Squash recipes, a pumpkin pie and ideas for comfort cooking for chilly weather.

In next months issue ( available 2nd October) there are features on making your own Stilton Cheese ( who knew you could do that?) building a pond, vintage pickles, winter wildlife, building a brick oven, Buff Orpington chickens, foraging to make liqueurs and several pages of other  recipes too.

I suppose you could call this a sponsored blog post which is something I never thought I would do but it's been an  interesting experience ( and filled up a day while sitting around recovering from  pneumonia).
This sponsored post thing will NOT become a regular feature as I'm not keen on blogs that seem to be always advertising something. I hope all regular readers won't stop reading in a huff!

Don't forget if you want to enter my book giveaway you need to leave comment on 1st Septembers post before Thursday night.

Back to normal tomorrow when I really must do a proper diary post to catch up on what's happening here.

Thanks once again for all the comments and get well  wishes.

Sue