Covid Cake - Or Make Do And Mend Cake

I was tempted to call this post Old Jam Cake, which is what's in my head when I make it, but then I thought that no one would read it, let alone bake it, so I thought I would call it  Covid Cake, in the spirit of my theme of using whatever you have to hand in these unusual times. Mr Wilkinson thinks that sounds even less attractive. But in my defence, let me say that this is a really good family recipe for normal times, but for these times it seems even more relevant, - It's easy, quick, versatile, and yes frugal.
.
Like many people at the moment I'm restricted in what shopping I can do, and have to manage with 

a) what I've already got in and 

b) stuff that has been delivered to me as "substitutes" for what I ordered, and that I don't really want. 

So if you're clearing your cupboards out don't throw away the jam and marmalade that's half used. and the fruit you don't fancy.  You really can make something quite delicious with it.

Make some Covid Cake.

 In principle this is really a kind of ginger cake as it contains no sugar, but uses  instead melted preserves/honey or syrup instead. So you can name it for whatever surplus preserves and leftover fruit you have around Marmalade and Ginger say, or Plum and Apple.  I used some plum jam that was fine but  a bit dull, and as I have lots of other lovely preserves it wasn't going to get used any time soon, so that with half a jar of marmalade that had been open a while, and the remains of some golden syrup to empty the tin. Topping was a couple of Granny Smith apples sent to me in a delivery which I didn't order and which were horrible to eat raw but lovely sliced onto the top of this cake. 


You could use pears, plums, cherries  or nothing at all. I'm sure you get the idea.  


 You end up with a lovely tea time cake, which also doubles as pudding served hot with a drizzle of syrup or honey, and cream or custard.

Not to mention the warm glow of smug satisfaction at your amazing ability to conjure something out of nothing.




















Covid Cake

Stand a saucepan on your digital scales and weigh in
700grams/1 lb 8 ounces of jam, golden syrup, honey and/or marmalade in whatever proportions you like or have available.
Add 300 grams/10 ounces of butter
and warm over gentle heat until just melted.

Put the pan back on the scales and add
500 grams  of plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
4 teaspoons ground ginger
good pinch salt
4  eggs
about a half pint/300 ml milk


and beat briefly with a hand mixer till smooth.


Pour into a lined tin, mine was 11" x8"/ 27cm x 20cm

Thinly slice Two apples/pears/plums and place gently on the top of the mixture.


Bake at 160C  for about 45 mins or until risen and firm.









NB If you save a spoonful of the melted jam from the recipe you can brush it over the cake when you take it out of the oven, to give a nice shine and then sprinkle generously with demerara sugar.

Covid Snacks - Make Your Own Healthy Cereal Bars

One of the things about being at home all the time, especially if you're not used to it, is the continuous access to the fridge. It's all too easy to think I'll just have a quick coffee, and maybe a biscuit or three while I wait for the kettle to boil....you know the scenario. Or if you're a bit bored there's the Standing in Front of the Open Fridge Door Wondering What Can I Eat Syndrome?  Or is that just me...? 

Anyway, short of installing a padlock with a timer on the fridge door, it may be worth thinking about stocking up on slightly healthier snacks than chocolate hobnobs, and kitkats.

I posted my recommendations for making your own cereal bars some years ago, -  it has been one of the most visited posts I've ever done, you can still read it here.  Since then there has been a bit of a downer on carbohydrates, so you might want to think of having some little bags of chopped veg ready to eat in the fridge as well, or maybe little cheese cubes if you're trying not to have sugar. But these home made cereal bars  can really be much better for you than commercial efforts which are very high in sugar and not so much on the seeds nuts and oats which you can adjust according to your own taste if you make your own. I would probably substitute a light flavourless olive oil for the sunflower oil I recommended back then to help keep your Omegas balanced, but otherwise I still use the same basic recipe and adjust according to what's in the store cupboard. 
Happy snacking.

Boris is picking up...

I planted Geum Borisii last year, and to be honest it didn't do much. Ok but not particularly impressive. Plenty of flappy leaves, some orange flowers.

So I kind of forgot about Borisii and it got a bit overgrown with creeping buttercups, to which it bears a superficial resemblance, so I was surprised to find it coming into flower a few weeks ago, around the time the lockdown started. It was doing ok actually, but then there were a few sharp frosts and all those overwhelming weed issues, and it started to look a bit sick. 

Very sick in fact, so I carefully dug it up and put it in a pot in the Intensive Care Unit by the greenhouse. It looked a bit dodgy at first, I don't think it liked being moved, but I watered it every day, looked after it as best I could, and I'm pleased to say it has picked up nicely and is starting to look like it might be ready to go back into the border quite soon. where hopefully it will make an impressive show. All of which has made me think that maybe I should spend a bit of money on improving the Intensive Care Unit, so that, comfortingly, one could rely on it being available whenever it might be needed, it as I'm sure Boris(ii) would be the first to agree.

Just to be clear,this is Geum Borisii of course,  not the Johnson cultivar you may have been thinking of.

Small Luxuries in Troubled Times

I thought I would do a blog post, which I haven't done for ages although I'm always meaning to do an update, stuff just gets in the way, you know how it is. Well now with this Covid 19 business I'm finding a bit more time on my hands than I'm used to, and having almost caught up with the weeding and planting, I'm moving onto baking (anything to avoid cleaning and dusting...not to mention bleach spraying everything that keeps still long enough to within an inch of it's life....)

So here's a nice recipe for Shortbread that most people will have the ingredients for in the house. And simple as it is, you just can't seem to buy proper shortbread any more, if you ever could. You just have to make it yourself.

When I say proper shortbread I mean the kind that melts in your mouth, and has a buttery richness even though it's just a plain old biscuit. I don't like a massive amount of crunch in shortbread, some recipes call for added rice flour or semolina and so on, but I demur. Simplicity is the word here.

You can cook this in a big round in the traditional way, marked into triangles and stabbed with a fork but I think it comes out best if you can be bothered to roll it out and cut shapes, they need to be fairly thick, it's shortbread after all, and it's easier to get an even bake that way.

For about 30 generously sized biscuits

300gr 10oz Plain flour
50 gr 2 oz Cornflour (Cornstarch in US)
250gr 8 oz Butter
75 gr 3 oz caster sugar
half teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar - I use a stand mixer, -until light and creamy, or cream with a wooden spoon, and elbow grease.


Add the flour and cornflour and continue mixing gently until roughly combined
Turn onto floured board and form into a dough, roll out quite thickly and cut your shapes.


Bake for 20 minutes 160c 300F or on the lower shelf of the Aga with the cold plain shelf above. As always with biscuits, don't over cook them, you want the merest trace of gold, certainly not brown, and then take them out. Cool on a wire tray.

They also freeze really well and so are handy to have in for unexpected visitors, as they defrost almost instantly, certainly by the time you've answered the door, and said Hello Vicar do come in, lovely weather isn't it, do have a seat, would you like some tea and biscuits.





And with the bits left over you can either re-roll for extra biscuits or use as the base for a Millionaire's Shortbread for which I make no apology for revisiting my old recipe here

I also make these as an accompaniment for strawberries and cream, maybe rolled out a bit thinner,  and as such they add a nice home made touch. Makes an ordinary bowl of summer fruit and cream seem like you've gone to a lot of trouble, when you haven't really.  And in troubled times small luxuries are well, a luxury. So win-win.


Stay safe, stay home, bake something.

Egg Pinny

I've got an Egg Pinny! I saw a post somewhere ages ago about an apron with lots of little pockets that you can put eggs in when collecting from the hen house. I thought it was a brilliant idea - I can't tell you how many times I've put an egg or two in my pocket and by the time I get back to the house I put my hand in my pocket and find a pocketful of broken eggs, yuk! Even worse, if you forget they're there and leave your coat hanging up for a day or two....

So anyway I thought the idea of this apron was rather clever but sadly my stitchery skills are not up to the job so imagine my delight when I received this in the post

 It's made by my very clever friend Jan, who used to be my neighbour when our children were children, but who I now don't see often enough because we live  in different parts of the country.

Here we are many years ago, dressed up as pirates for some reason or another
Anyway I digress...















 This should save me dozens of broken eggs apart from looking very beautiful as well.


When it comes to gardening I have this romantic image of myself  meandering gently around on a balmy summer's evening in a floaty dress, wicker basket in hand, perhaps to the delicate strains of Mr Wilkinson performing his daily harp practice, sniffing the roses, snipping off the occasional dead head, as opposed to what I know of course is the reality of gardening and entails rather more dirt, sweat, and manure than my romantic imaginings. But one day.....

 Similarly with the chickens rather than stomping about with a shovel and a sack of wheat, I can now see myself floating down the garden to collect the eggs, in the same floaty dress, cue harp music....the eggs of course  will of course be pristine clean or they won't be allowed in the pinny, so watch out you hens with the big muddy feet.....

And then of course it's always useful for accommodating the occasional orphan chick... (see previous post)

Thank you so much Jan you are a star!!
        *****************

Scorchio

It seems barely five minutes since I was plodding in the back door soaking wet yet again, standing wet boots by the aga to dry, and wondering if it was ever going to stop raining - well it has stopped, and as they say, be careful what you wish for, it hasn't rained for weeks, the grass is brown, and this year's hay crop which has barely landed in the barn will be coming out again for feeding in short order by the looks of things. Mr Wilkinson says that farmers are never happy, it's either "flipping raining again" or  there's "no flipping rain again", and that there's always either not enough grass, or too much grass! Well he may be right, but we could really do with a prolonged spell of warm summer showers here.

I've just got back from a week in Harrogate where we go every year. It's normally a pleasant break from farm life for us, - we can get to shops and restaurants on foot and everywhere is easy to get to. I wouldn't want to live in town but it makes a nice break to get away from livestock and garden concerns.


However this year due to some miscalculations I had a single chicken hatch out on the day I was leaving for Harrogate
and so I had no real alternative but to take it with me.

So off we went up the M1, dog on the back seat and chick in a box on the front seat. It lived happily in a box on the kitchen worktop, but because it had no chums it needed constant attention when it was awake, so I ended up taking it with me more or less everywhere I went.





I found a dog friendly coffee shop which also turned out to be chicken in a handbag friendly too as well as serving excellent coffee and cake,

and you do have to be pretty good in Harrogate because there's a lot of competition!

So I highly recommend Hoxton North Coffee if you're in Harrogate and in need of a good coffee and you happen to have a dog and a chicken with you. (Well probably not a massive big chicken, only a tiny two day old chick that fits in your handbag. If you're carrying a full grown chicken around in town with you then you're even more eccentric than I am)

Anyway as I said we're back home now and I have aquired some little chums for my chick and they have settled in happily in a box on the counter top (for now), though as you can see from this pic the chick is very tame and jumps up  for every photo op.

I Can't Stand Sheep

There comes a point every year when I decide I can't stand sheep. Not that you could tell from this picture of the two lovely lambs that arrived last week, when all was well.  But sadly this idyllic scene was fairly swiftly followed by three dead lambs, for which I could find no real reason. One ewe was a first lamber and rejected her lamb even though she had a plentiful supply of milk, and that's really annoying. Well there are still three more to go so let's hope for an easier time with them.

On a jollier note I came across this Australian Permaculture music thing, aimed mostly at kids but great fun for anyone. Not at all the usual let's all plant a seed together type of thing, but much more edgy and fun.

 My favourite is My Dad's Dunny, (you have to explain that Dunny is Australian for toilet) and No Such Thing As Waste, both of which have great videos to go with them. Highly recommended.

Spring has sprung!!

Well according to the Met Office it may have been the start of Meteorological Spring last week, (when we were knee deep in snow) and it may not be the Vernal Equinox until the end of the month, but for me, the first lambs to arrive mean that Spring is finally here in Ashleworth, especially as the snow is all but washed away, and the sun is putting on a halfway decent performance as well.







There's nothing quite like a ewe with her new lambs, in this case twins, one boy and one girl, to make you feel that winter is at last, if not over, then on the way out.

 This ewe is a Wiltshire Horn, a traditional old breed that sheds its fleece  naturally so needs no shearing, which I'm hoping will mean less work for me in the summer.

Being pretty hardy types they can lamb outside with no assistance, which is what this one did as I found when I went out to feed them this morning. I will put her in the barn tonight as the forecast is for frost and maybe some snow, but they seem good strong lambs and I think they will do well.

Fame At Last! - Home Farmer Magazine Article

I'm afraid I'm very pleased with myself this week. Having never been in print before (well there was that incident back in the sixties, but we'll draw a veil over that...) I find myself featured in this month's edition of Home Farmer magazine. Amazing! Well, me and my cow Rosie that is. The nice people at Home Farmer have kindly reprinted an extract from my blog back in 2014 when I first got Rosie, when I wrote about the trials and tribulations of learning how (and how not) to milk a cow. 

So I thought it would be a good idea to put up a few pictures of Rosie, who is still with me, and due to calve in about eight weeks time. She's been an absolutely lovely cow to have, and has put up with my often bumbling efforts to care for her with the kind of patience and stoicism that only a Jersey cow can. She has a very calm temperament  and endearing personality, and I always say she would come in and watch TV with us if we let her! 

Anyway it was great to be featured in a national monthly, even if it's a somewhat specialist readership, I feel quite proud that they thought my ramblings would be of interest to readers.  Home Farmer magazine is a great little publicaton  for people interested as the title suggests in smallholding, small farms, gardening, cooking, preserving, wildlife and other related subjects. It's presented in a down to earth no nonsense kind of way, with contributions from experts and amateurs alike (hence my inclusion!)

I was asked to produce some higher quality images for the piece so we went out with my trusty phone camera, and got loads of shots of the wall, the cows feet, my feet, cowpats, and sundry other stuff before we managed to get a couple of decent shots. Cows just won't stand still when you need them to! Here's one  of me in fits of laughter with Rosie's last calf  Daisy photobombing the shot at the back.

Home Farmer magazine can be purchased at good retailers or to see what's in this month's issue click here. That's me on page 42 by the way...

Storm Doris

We have, or rather had, an old disused milking parlour down at the end of the field. 

The roof was already off when we came here, and although I  have harboured thoughts of  restoring it, I was assured by everyone thatlooked at it that it ws beyond hope, and the recent storm Doris has finally  put paid to any such ideas. This is what remained after the storm

The makings of a nice brick path somewhere in the garden I think.

 There was though, the remains of three galvanised milking stanchions, which we have removed and will try to install in the poll barn

There was a bit of tree damage as well - this lovely apple tree has been more or less halved, it had way too much misteltoe on it's branches which I think may have contributed to the damage because of the weight. So some nice logs for the fire, some applewood sawdust for the smoker, and some tidying up to do.

Bird Flu

Since the announcement of incidents of the latest strain of Avian Influenza in the UK, Apha, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, have been issuing details of recommended ways in which poultry should be protected from contact with wild birds. For large commercial producers this isn't too much of an issue, as the birds tend to live in enormous hangar type buildings anyway, but for small poultry keepers like me, it's more difficult. I can't just conjure up a building to house my chickens, so we have had to be a bit inventive. So we have made an enclosure with some old Heras fencing, the type of thing normally seen on building sites, and covered the top with some polyester netting, again the type normally seen on scaffolding on building sites (because it's cheap and readily available)
Chickens however, are very quick to find any gap in your defences,and although i though we had everything covered, it wasn't long before they found this easy exit through some broken bits of fence

 and they were all out again. So I've patched it up, and hopefully all will be ok again for tomorrow. We will of course have to move this arrangement around the field at regular intervals to make sure the birds continue to have access to fresh grass.
We all fervently hope that this latest strain of bird fly will be short lived and we can go back to our normal free ranging as soon as possible, especially now that the birds are coming into full lay. I've even had a couple of goose eggs in the last few days!