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The Pecking Order

We are finally in business - the poultry business!

We collected the broody hen from our friends’ yesterday and after a very uncertain start she has finally settled down on ten of our eggs and looks set to stay for the duration, (21 days apparently).

The whole process looked in jeopardy at the start as she arrived to a loud chorus from the other chickens, lead by Leicester the cockerel, and decided to join in.

Then, she tried to escape right into the path of the dogs who were waiting with their tongues hanging out…..

She eventually ended up flying over the fence and in with the other chickens, then held her own in the ensuing fight. And I thought broody chickens were supposed to be docile and quiet!

I was about to take her back home before something awful happened to her but she finally settled down and now seems back in her broody trance-like state. So let’s hope that all goes according to plan from now on.

Since moving to our little small holding and changing our lives in such a drastic way we have decided upon several ambitions. One of these was to eat an entire meal produced from our own land, and last night we did just that.

It was not only delicious but hugely satisfying to know where everything had come from and how it was grown.

The menu included one of our chickens (the annoying one who kept escaping and then pecking me when I tried to put her back in) roasted with lemon and rosemary, potatoes with mint, carrots, broad beans and runner beans. The only bought in cheats were salt and pepper.

Pudding was the last couple of oranges from our tree and some juicy plums.

It was a triumph!

Everything was organic, free range with no food miles and a fraction of the cost of the supermarket. That’s what it is all about! (Sorry to gloat)……..

The cheese I made last week is also rather pleasing. It looks, smells and feels like a good hard Cheddar type cheese. Obviously, it needs to ripen for a few weeks before we can eat it so until then I am treating it like a second child. I turn it every day, making sure it is kept cool and in an airy environment to encourage it to dry and the rind to form. I am also terrified that the dogs will get it, so I lock it up at night just to be sure.

A lot of work went into that cheese, I don’t want to loose it now!

I have been quite productive in the kitchen this week too making both plum jam and chutney. My preserves cupboard is filling up nicely.

I was hoping to have good news about Roly the pig this week as well, but somehow we seemed to have missed the opportunity for her to have an injection to bring her into season and so will have to wait another three weeks for the right time. I didn’t realise that the timing had to be so precise.

This is yet another thing that has been lost in translation. I often mention the frustration caused by things being translated just slightly wrong and can give you an excellent example.

The husband of my Portuguese teacher is very often in the classroom before the class begins and is an extremely friendly, sociable man who speaks fairly good English. I usually arrive a little early and so have regular conversations with him which invariably turn into a little extra lesson. Last week he was quoting Latin and was surprised I hadn’t heard the well known quotation from Julius Caesar ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Well, not having had a classical education I was rather baffled and was no clearer when he explained that in Portuguese it translates to ‘ chegar, ver, vencer’ – in English - ‘I arrive, I see, I win’

It was only later in the class when some said ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ that the mist started to clear.

You can see what I am up against – can’t you?

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