spuds

Good news post.. I've never had much to do with growing potatoes, partly because I'm a growing novice, partly because occasional contact with spud plots have generally involved pulling up blight ridden rotters. However, this lot have not only been lucky with the weather (ie sun and rain at the right times) but have also been easy, psychedelic*, and delightfully edible. They also serve as a nugget of permaculture - expressed way better than that.

So, this is what happened, and what can happen again..

• You find a spare bit of land (not dug or weeded or any of that tiresome nonsense), ideally next door to some chickens.and lay old cardboard boxes (flattened) on it. (If you don't have a garden or allotment but have a tiny bit of spare yard, try to procure some old tires, stack on said bit, and pretty much follow as below).
• You then chuck some old hay that the rain got last year (or grass cuttings I guess) and put as much as possible on top (in our case about a foot high), pulling it apart if too condensed for growths to push through.
• You take several varieties of potato 'seeds' that someone else has kindly got and left in the sun to start chitting. You nestle them in towards the bottom of the hay near the cardboard, making sure they're covered. You leave them, hosing occasionally if it's unusually dry and sunny. You wait and wait, adding more hay/straw replete with chicken poo from the chicken area next door (or from friendly purveyor of ditto; compost might be a good alternative if this also not an option).
• You then get very excited when you see your first baby leaves popping through, hopping happily, singing sweet praises; or you might just nod sagely.
• You carefully add more chickenpoohay up and around the fledgling leaves.
• You wait, water, wait more, marvelling at growth of potato crops and entire absence of weeds around.
• There's comes a time when stems are thick and leaves plenty, and you fancy some mash or a jacket. You go down to the bed, pull up some hay around a plant, have a quick rummage, and hay presto, there's some spuds. Or if you feel really adventurous, you can just delve in blind, feeling for the big'uns. And there's one of the joys, you don't have to dig up the whole plant with all its fruits at different stages - you just pluck medium or ginormous ones, and leave the babies to keep growing.
• You gobble up, delighting in taste, shape, and - if you decide to grow 'blue' (actually purple) varieties, the *psychedelic look of your mash.

Here's the benefits:

• use up 'waste' materials (cardboard/hay/grass/poo etc)
• no digging
• no weeding
• no piercing of prime spuds with orrible garden fork
• no wastage of tiny potato foetuses
• no washing off heavy soil (you might still like to rinse them!)
• you can have Easter egg hunts in the summer, with loads of free eggs; and not feel too silly doing this as an adult
• you have millions of delicious organic versatile veg for almost no cost
• you're out and about in the rain and sun

Colourful...

...but nothing compared to 

the rainbow chard next door

More appetising than it might look!

All home grown, apart from cuc & tom

(growing in the poly, should be ready soon),

and the camembert (maybe one day)

Togethernesses (2) - together

So, following on from the last piece about quiet sickly aloneness, here's a load of photos of happy times over the last few months doing things with friends and neighbours at the community here. All fairly random, and in no particular order (my head's still not working very well!) but thought I'd at least splash these out there..

Clare and Margot's birthday



 

 Painting the kitchen

 

 

Easter / Spring Equinox and Charlotte's amazing shrine

 

Not sure how shaving Cadno's chops fitted into the ceremony, but seemed a good idea at the time

 

Walk to 'The Strangles' 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lizzie & Andy's housewarming - which coincided with Earth Hour, hence the glowsticks..

 

 

The Port William at Trebarwith Strand

 

Wee Gillen's silly faces after his first pint

 

Ollie & co building his den

 

 

 

 

Felix the Landy in action

 

 



 



New way into the wood, which avoids the old mudslide

 

 

Good impression

 



 Workgang smashing stones

 

Game from a beat and pork from the farm, lovingly used

 

 

Extending the chickens' home

 

 

 

 

 

Margot's housewarming and the spitty forehead game

 

Can't remember the occasion, but will never forget The Artful Ollie

 

Thought I'd end with some non-human togethernesses, both at Trebarwith 

 

Love is in the air..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is springin on the farm! Woop woop!!

After about 15 months of rain and wind and hail and rain in the 4 months we've now lived here - oh and daily mist on the windiest way to work imaginable outside of the Pyrenees - I now understand deep pagan reverence of the changing seasons. That first splash of sun on that first clump of snowdrops... sorry if I sound like an overexcited punter on Gardeners' Question Time (I still can't stand it), or an overzealous Imbolc celebrant (might be closer to that)... but Aaach, how Fine!

The last week or so has been brilliant. Valentine's Day was truly lovely - picnic in a dune surrounded by blues of sky and sea and estuary; ambles and scrambles in secret coves; crab from the local bay. But it's also been lovely to spend 'normal' weekends at our amazing  shared place, just doing stuff with our friends and neighbours, invigorated, together, positive, happy, cheesy..

Last weekend everyone seemed to wake to the rising sun and sap and whatnot, and start digging the veg patch - and start not-digging mulching (some of wet last summer's hay coming to great use finally) - with a peaceable vengeance. Forgot about the camera that time. So here's a sample of some of the goings on at Trelay this weekend...

 

In the Cornish Hedge by our cabin

Below our reed beds..



... a good sign that the reeds are doing their job
filtering out (eco) detergent from the laundry room's outlet..
Should get a few frogs out of this lot!

Fixing fencing for the return of Mumma Pigs post weaning

We're in Cornwall, so must be Pirate FM.
And we knows what's in our meat ere..

Roger preparing digging out cable for the hens'
new place - bigger space, grass instead of
quagmire, and next year's veg patch;
but requiring electric fencing  for now.
Their old spot near the 'village'
will become a garden

Ollie building his treehouse / army HQ.
Useful for supervising some of us
making the new hen enclosure below.
Also to spot any enemy / pirates

Perfect weather for Cadno and his buddy bach, Gareth, to dry out our
winter soggied yurts...

... and to re-oil the frames,
and reassemble ready for the new season!

Click here if interested! :)

Weaning time for the two sows who've farrowed so well.
Twinkle's led from the barn back to her sea views..

..reacquaints her self with Maggie..

.. and is then reminded who's boss.
Or at least told not to sniff bums. Pigs ain't dirty

With mothers safely away, a new task to be done..
Marie went from pig and hen fencing to ear tagging
the piglets with Ash and James coming away from
their flooring / tiling of the remarkable Old Stables
renovation to help Christine pin the 20+ not so wee babies
against the wall.  Very difficult operation, ear-piercing
to humans as well,  but  here's some results...

..proudly displayed!

Have I mentioned that we've got ourselves a Landy?! Here is our
very own Felix. After much ebay drooling, we finally found the
workaday beast of our dreams, within our communal budget
(helps when lotsof people can chip in a bit and then all
share the larks). He's missing an eye, but hey, it's pirate
country; and no need for MOT etc as we're keeping him
on site for shifting stuff - wood from the woods, and..

..no, not a third cabin, but spare chicken coops
that are still really heavy!
We are trying to be green, honest.
That's me driving our landrover by the way..

And another one down there, hearty lifters all. 

Clare and Marie lovingly carrying the hens down to their new home.
(Not quite so lovingly the cockerels)

A well-earned quick pint at the Wainhouse, and then back for another
fantastic Cadno roast from a previous offspring of dear Mama Maggie

Cheers to a good day

Next morn on Marie's daily sheep check (and now feed, given sodden fields
and impending Paschal Feasts), we noticed that one poor ewe couldn't run
over as she couldn't see - her wool felted over her eyes in one mean dread.
The one in front's now got a not so cool ball cut, but seems happier.

After that, I attacked brambles by the cabins,
exposing more snowdrops and clearing 'curtilages'; and
then relaxed in the hammock for the first time this year..
before its wire relaxed and dumped me to the floor.
Need to find some good rope for that end..
It's getting chillier and will be bitter yet, so good to have
one last load of wood (possibly maybe the last ever
delivery now we can harvest our own woods more??)
Marie, Jackie, and Christine all somehow appeared separately,
as everyone in so much else this weekend,
to get tasks done more easily together.

Polytunnel
(Margot's away for the weekend, but her convening spirit is there now too),
sheep,
sunset..



.. over Bodmin Moor and Tintagel way..

.. and lighting up the other way.