Frugal Food From the Garden. (NB: We don't eat the quail, we eat and sell their eggs.)

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Photo from the old corn mill, Port William

Aside from the fact that I am constantly being distracted by butterflies at the moment, I did, eventually, manage to get around to doing some work in the garden, mainly by way of tidying up the greenhouse and sorting out the tomato and cucumber bushes. The tomato plants were becoming so leafy that no light was getting to the dozens of little fruits that were hiding among the greenery. Hopefully, I haven't done the wrong thing in removing many of the lower leaves to allow the sunlight to get at the tomatoes. I was very late getting my tomato seeds planted this year, so they are well behind some of those I've seen elsewhere.

 

I literally had to thin the coiling tendrils of the cucumbers because they were taking over the entire greenhouse and there's little enough room in there at this time of year. The closer I look, the more cucumbers I can see!

 

 

 Down in the frugal poly-tunnel, I'm beginning to wonder if I've done the right thing is leaving the pumpkins - one each side supposed to be for each of my grand daughters in the hope of having pumpkins for Halloween. They are spreading at a terrifying rate and already have tiny pumpkins about the size of golf balls on them. The cucumbers will need to hurry up in there or they'll be swamped by 'the creature' that is a giant pumpkin plant!

Comfrey as green manure

 

A few weeks ago, some fellow frugalers and I were having a bit of a swapathon. I received some ginger mint, which is doing really well, and some small cuttings from comfrey, of which I had none in this garden. It's used as green manure and for speeding up the composting process, so I was hoping to be able to harvest it before the year ends. It's looking good! The above are the cuttings planted about a month ago. I'm delighted to say that the quail eggs I sent in exchange for the plants have, since, hatched - photo courtesy of Shaz.

Da- old Japanese Coturnix Quail, (fawn x tuxedo)

The herb gardens here are still growing at a an amazing rate, supplying herbs galore for friends and neighbours alike. The newest of the spiral gardens was constructed during the last week of May but it is already filled with herbs - and some unexpected 'guest' plants in the shape of sunflowers that have grown from seeds dropped by the birds. (Apologies for photo quality, the sun had set by the time I got around to taking these photos last night.)

Hands up all of you who have courgettes to spare! I know that several of out regular readers have, so we are now organising a courgette cake challenge. Chocolate and courgettes go well when baked together and I'd like to thank Gill for linking us to her carrot and courgette recipe in my previous post.

Yet another courgette trying to break free!

The Frugaldom potato patch is in full bloom and we have already had some of the potatoes. These were all grown from past their best potatoes left over from early in the year - left to sprout and then planted. We have a major slug and snail problem here, so things do tend to beat us to it in the veg-eating stakes, but there are enough potatoes here to last a few weeks at least.

We are still picking raspberries here but the rhubarb has now all gone and the bed being prepared for winter. I need to get a load of manure and straw to cover this over until next year. The next person past my door on a horse will be accosted and a request made for the contents of their stable. :) Next to be picked looks like being some blueberries and then there should be apples ready.

Blueberries

Well that takes care of the garden update for now - I'll pick and freeze the blueberries for ice-cream making, as there aren't many of them while the bushes are establishing themselves in my 'log-man' acidic (ericaceous) bed but here's hoping they start picking up for next year. That's them been in there for about a year, now.

 

Rounding up on the £4,000 budget challenge, I have £1,137.43 remaining to last me until the new year. That's after paying this month's telephone bill and purchasing the tickets for the frugal friends' fun day out to explore Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant's Causeway during our mini cruise to Northern Ireland later this week.

 

And just for good measure, here are this morning's photos. Yes, you got it... more butterflies!

 

Small Wall Brown Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

Red Admiral Butterfly

 



I really tried my best not to include any butterflies in this post but they made me do it, I tell you, they made me do it! The above three photos were taken this morning while I was hanging out the washing.

I promise, no more butterflies unless I spot something really unusual.

Have a fun and frugal day,

NYK in Frugaldom.

Back on the Trail of the Frugal Microholding (Part 2)

Getting to Grips with Permaculture

Part 2 of 3

 

Part one dealt with the bottom half of the Frugaldom garden, where there may one day be a productive little orchard and from where we are provided with our eggs from the hens and ducks. Part two is about how things are progressing and how well we can utilise the space we have that is both productive and in keeping with the principles of permaculture. This is my blackcurrant patch and the rhubarb is along the wall behind this.

 

For some reason, blackcurrants absolutely LOVE this garden and

are producing so much fruit that I may need to develop this into something a little more lucrative and self-sustaining than jam making. These bushes just haven't stopped growing, so I took hardwood cuttings (seen right of photo)and now these, too, are laden with ripening fruit. By the looks of things, there should be both blackcurrants and blackcurrant bushes available for sale later this year. To give you an idea of how productive these bushes are, I have sufficient jam to last me the next two years plus several kilos still in the freezer from last autumn's crop. Orders can be taken now if anyone would like any. With luck, I may even still have a record of what types they are - I know these earlier cropping ones all originate from my Ben Connans.

I have a shed where I house a few quail for eggs - a delicacy that we afford ourselves owing to the fact that the birds are relatively inexpensive to keep and that I, one day, would really like to develop that aspect of the microholding further, but other things have taken priority. Alongside the shed I have this 'spare' patch of ground, bordered by more raspberries and gooseberries. This is the patch that will feature in my next blog post, as a final decision has been made about what to do here to make it as productive as possible. There's no soil, as such, and last year's attempts to grow anything in it failed miserably. All we succeeded in doing was feeding the slugs, snails and sawflies, which have completely stripped my gooseberry bushes this year, again!

You all know how much I love my herb spirals and my circular gardens - they are all just so productive, easy to build and easy to maintain, so I now have four of them! I have two spirals and two circular beds of varying sizes and each is as productive as the next. Obviously, the first one built a year ago is ahead of the others, but they will soon catch up and become self-sustaining.

On the right, you can see the first one we built last May/June. The sage has been left to flower and last year's strawberry runners are filling up the gaps nicely!

Next I have the circular beds - one large one next to the first spiral and one smaller one linked to the patio area. Both are thriving in very different ways and both have been integrated with bird feeding stations.

This is the larger of the two, planted with assorted herbs, including one of my personal favourites, lemon balm - a type of mint. I also planted a cutting of lemon thyme in this bed, a gift from a fellow frugaler, so it's a place that the midges don't tend to frequent.

The lemon balm is great for its citrus scent and as the basis for a cup of lemon tea. Even daughter appreciates fresh lemon balm mint tea. Many cuttings will be propagated from this spiral bed so I have them available for trading at a later date. Indeed, all of the herbs growing in it at present have come from cuttings elsewhere. In the background, you can see my 'bug hotel' alongside two small square raised beds. The above photo shows the newest addition - the second spiral bed is now showing signs of coming to life with mint, basil and rosemary.

This is the bug hotel as it looks now. The main frame of the structure is built from an old wrought iron clothes rail, which has been built up with bits of concrete blocks, bricks, logs, pieces of pipe, plastic drinking straws, mesh and all manner of things found lying about the garden. An old piece of felt was used to cover a bit of board as a roof for it all and this now doubles as a shelf, where I can sit the pots of cuttings.

The honeysuckle has now wound its way around the top of the frame and is beginning to bloom. The little wooden box at top left is a butterfly box, a cheap bargain discounted item bought from an Aldi store. I don't think we have managed to attract any butterflies in there yet, though.

The two raised beds were purchased new while reduced in an online sale - bought via Topcashback to give me just that - cash back that converted into Amazon vouchers to give me a further 5% value. These were used in last year's Biochar experiment but I failed to see any difference between using the biochar and not. It's still in the box at the left, where you can see that my cabbages and sprouts are needing moved. The largest patch of greenery is a rogue Nasturtium and a sunflower that must have been dropped by a passing bird. The bracken fern behind it should really get pulled out but it seems to keep the slugs off the seedlings. I really need to get these seedlings thinned out as there are carrots in there, too. On the right, are my spring onions and a row of all year round cauliflowers that will also need transplanting very soon!

Despite me saying these were only going to be temporary, my plan being to improve the beds and get back to square foot gardening this year! Now look at it - two full beds of spuds that now need banking up with even more soil and compost, mixed with whatever else I can get my hands on, as soil isn't something we have much of about here. I am already regretting having potatoes in here taking up all this space. There are more potatoes sprouting in the micro-orchard among the edible hedging after we must have missed some of the potatoes there last year!

This is the polythene greenhouse that I was built last year. It's made from 2" x 2" and whatever bits and pieces of wood and board were left over from having the out-building renovated. I can easily walk in and out of it but anyone taller than me (most are) needs to duck down to get inside. Suits me just fine for pottering about, although it doesn't allow much growing space by the time the potting table is in it. The tomato seeds went straight into the ground but I don't know if they will grow quickly enough to produce fruit.

The green box alongside is my posh wormer, bought with my £2

 

coin savings pot last year. The worms have multiplied and I have hundreds of babies in there now, plus it is producing plenty of that wonderful worm juice fertiliser. My grand children think their granny is crazy for keeping pet worms, but that doesn't stop them from feeding said worms while here visiting!

Finally, to round off part 2 of this three-part post, this is the old aviary cage we got around 10 years ago. We no longer use it for finches, so it has been lying in pieces out in the shed at the bottom of the garden. Looking at it, I thought to myself, what better way to support the beans and peas than to get them to grow up the cage while waiting for it to become an integral part of the permaculture garden? I have several plants to train up and over this, which will also house bird nest boxes inside it to protect any little visitors from the cat! At the moment, I have beans in troughs on two sides and will have peas on the other two sides, but I am sure the Russian Vine, ivy and honeysuckle cuttings will be well established by next year, turning this into a piece of environmental art as part of our eco-arts project!

Now that we have reached the end of part 2 of these 3 significant posts, I hope you wont mind my ploughing on with the third. I think it's the most exciting part!

Frugaldom.

Sunshine, 26C, Harvesting and my Saffron Crocus Project

Another Frugaldom Microholding Update

The weatherman said showery, so we weren't expecting sunshine and the temperature soaring to 26C - but that's what we got! This was a great bonus, as my Saffron Crocus bulbs arrived yesterday.

With nowhere organised for planting the new bulbs, today's sunshine was an open invite to get out into the garden and get some work done.

The first job of the day was clearing a space. We're making this raised bed close to the house so that I can nip out first thing in the morning to collect all the lovely saffron that I'm hoping to grow. This will make a great addition to the 'Frugal Gourmet' range, as it can accompany the quail eggs.

I had 7' of space between the patio peas and the start of the herb garden, so that's where the bed has been built. It's 30" wide and about 12" deep. After clearing the gravel down to soil level, I lined the bed with weed supressant, added some rubble and then a layer of mixed sand and soil to help provide extra drainage.

Meanwhile, H began digging soil from the hill at the foot of the garden, which is gradually being excavated as the future site of a summerhouse. Each barrow load of soil was riddled to ensure all the stones and weeds were removed before it gets tipped into the bed. As you can imagine, this is taking quite some time to do, so the bulbs won't be getting planted tonight; maybe tomorrow, if the dry weather stays with us.

Another job that was desperately needing done was that of harvesting the carrots. These have grown exceptionally well here. I'm sure that it's because I sowed the seeds in a 50:50 soil and sand mix.

We've been eating carrots for several weeks now, plus there are quite a few already blanched, bagged and frozen. Today, I lifted what was left of them and filled a bucket! These now all need to be washed, blanched and frozen for using through autumn and winter.

Once I'd emptid the carrot bed, it was weeded, dug, raked and then resown with an early variety of carrot seed that should grow over the winter. I'll feed this bed with either nettle or comfrey fertiliser, depending on what's available first.

Some weeding gets done almost every day here, it has to, otherwise the place would soon be overrun. Today, I weeded around the snowball turnips and french beans, managing to pick a few for dinner while there. There were also another couple more courgettes and patty pan squash, so it made for an excellent day's harvesting. There were even a couple of the outside tomatoes needing picked, so I'll cut more lettuce for sandwiches at lunchtime tomorrow. I might even splash out and make another quail egg salad.

A few posts back, I mentioned that I had extended the pumpkin bed by doubling it in size. I'm really glad that I took the time to do this, as the plants are growing at a rate that makes me think of Jack and the giant. The pumpkin foliage has already spread out to the edge of the larger bed and there are several melon-sized fruits hiding beneath the leaves and tendrils. There's also the occasional munching crittur!

I read an article that suggested slitting the stalks on the top of the pumpkins to ensure enough water is absorbed, but I have not attempted this. Nor have I cut out any of the extra pumpkins, as recommended, to enable only the best two or three to develop. I'll leave them another couple of weeks to see how they grow, then I'll decide from there. The biggest and best will have tiles sat under them to prevent their sinking into the soil and, hopefully, help prevent them from rotting.

Across from the pumpkin bed I have raised beds with brussel sprouts, leeks, cabbage and broccoli. This is the first year that I have grown the sprouting variety, but it seems to be coming along quite well, despite my continual war against the dreaded cabbage white butterflies. The caterpillars have hatched in several places, but I simply didn't get around to sourcing enough netting to cover them all. I'm trying my best to keep on top of the problem and the hens are helping by enjoying pecking their way through all the leaves I keep removing in a bid to rid the plants of their pests. 

The first lot of quail chicks that hatched out in the incubator are now ust over 3-weeks-old. They are already feathered up, out of their brooder and into a large cage, wher they have fun running in and out of their little wooden 'houses'. It's still very difficult to tell the sexes, as most are colour variations, but the speckles have appeared on one of the normal coloured chicks, so we do know that it's a female. This first lot of hatchlings are due to be sold with the first prospective buyer expected tomorrow.

Moving further down the garden, we arrive at the micro-orchard. This is where all the ducklings are now happily out and about with Phoebe and Joey, the adult pair of white ducks.

We're still not 100% sure how many ducks and how many drakes hatched, but there is definite quacking coming from at least half of them.

These youngsters are now 6-weeks-old, are almost fully feathered and aren't much smaller than the adults. (That's Joey preening himself by the side of the pond.)

To the rear of the ducklings photos you can make out the row of late potatoes that I planted. I can hardly believe how quickly these have grown! H has had to earth them up several times already, yet they've been in the ground for less than a month.

Here's how they are looking as of this afternoon, their stalks and leaves reaching almost a metre high! Hopefully there'll be some potatoes forming beneath all that foliage, otherwise we're going to be really short of potatoes this year.

At the bottom of the micro-orchard is an old Victoria plum tree. This has served us rather well, as I've already had about 5kg of plums from it, most traded out through the local LETS group, plus others eaten or stewed down and made into crumbles. As you can see by the photo, the bulk of the fruit has still to be picked.

Many thanks to Nicky for collecting me an extra 6kg of sugar while she was in Stranraer. This means that the next lot of plums can be picked here and made into jam without worrying about having to pay £1.15 per kilo for sugar. The Tesco offer works out at about 57p per kilo, so it's a huge saving for the likes of us, at less than half the price of the local store!

Jean, if you happen to read this, I got the new blackcurrant bushes planted this afternoon and also managed to make space for the turnips.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we might be able to get the rest of the crocus bed filled with soil and get the bulbs planted. Can you tell that I'm looking forward to growing these? Let's hope that by planting Crocus Sativas bulbs, they lead to crocus satisfaction here in Frugaldom.  :)

Quail hatch in progress - STOP watching, GO and pick dinner!

Japanese Coturnix Quail Chicks in Assorted Colours.

Yes, this really is the second blog post of the day, but I need to keep certain people up to date with the hatching progress.

First of all, I find it very difficult not to sit watching proceedings but the eggs were left in the incubator this time, as opposed to being transferred into the hatching box, which has a viewing window. This means I've been unable to peer in, so had to keep myself otherwise amused for most of the afternoon.

Bread has been baked, freezer has been repacked to fit in today's order and numerous cups of tea have been enjoyed on the patio.

Some weeding got done, the duck pond got topped up, more eggs were collected (and sold to neighbours) and then it got really hot outside, so more sitting about on the patio. By that time, I could make out at least 7 chicks bumbling around inside the incubator, but I daren't open the lid at that stage as the sudden drop in temperature and humidity can affect the rest of the hatch.

Outside, I cleared and swept a small space under the kitchen window, repotted some plants, planted the first of the strawberry runners into individual pots, sowed another row of peas (can but try) and then potted up all my herb cuttings.

From left to right, I don't know what the first plant is, the second one grew from wildbird seed, the third is Thai Basil, next it's the parsley seedlings and then the rosemary, which I rooted from sprigs I bought reduced to 10p in the supermarket.

 The herb cuttings are an assortment of three types of mint - common, lemon balm and grapefruit - two types of thyme and several cuttings from my hardy curry plant that survived the -10C winter last year.

If I can get all of the above to develop into healthy plants, these will go into planters and get sat out on the little cobbled yard at the front of the house.

Dinner time arrived, so I did the frugal act of pulling some carrots and picking some peas. I also brought in some lettuce, a couple of courgettes and an onion, as I was desperate to see how these were doing.

As you can see by the photos, the onions are doing really well and are quite huge, considering how late the sets went in and the fact that the person who gave me them thought they'd be past their sell by date. Not in the least! These are growing great guns! I can hardly wait to pull them up and get them dried for winter use. This one will be going into tomorrow's spicy stir fry along with the courgette and some homegrown chilli peppers.

So, has anyone tried to count the quail chicks in the photograph? I can see 12, so am really happy that we've managed to achieve over 40%  Even I am surprised at how many of these eggs are hatching, as they were neither stored correctly, nor turned daily prior to being incubated. These were simply surplus to requirement eggs that I decided to set in the off chance that a couple of them might be fertile. :)

Nice result, so far.

A Day Out at Wigtown Agricultural Show

Even Frugalites Have Day Trips

Yesterday, 3rd August, was Wigtown Show. It's an annual event that has been running for the past 200 years and one that we try not to miss. Son was home to hold the fort, so we had a frugal day out. £15 for 2 adults and car parking isn't that much, in the grand scheme of things, is it?

This year was the bicentenary and, to mark the occasion, HRH Princess Anne attended. It's the agricultural community's biggest event of the year, so it is always very well attended. We are normally treated to a shower of rain but this year the sun shone throughout the day and a great tme was had by all.

HRH took the time to wander around the showground, chatting to many of the locals and stallholders. Things about here are usually of an informal nature and yesterday's event was no different. It's seldom you find many false airs and graces around these parts, most refreshing, albeit a little disconcerting for some of the visitors.

This year's poultry show was every bit as well supported as last year's, if not more so. There were hundreds of hens, ducks, geese and turkeys, several I hadn't even heard of, let alone seen. However, for sheer 'aaaaw' appeal, this little bantam with her chicks stole the show for me.

Judging the 'Champion of Champions must be a huge burden on the shoulders of whoever has that unenviable task because I really don't know how anyone can compare a horse to a cow to a goat to a sheep to a donkey to a goose!

I had picked out my favourite, a Black Galloway bull with the rather undeserving name of Nancy Boy. He was rather docile, I have to admit, but I'm sure his name won't endear him to his future suitors.

Now that I come to think of it, do cows even bother to exchange names? Perhaps Nancy Boy won't have to deal with that sort of problem afterall. LOL

The feature act of the day was a performance by 'Jive Pony'. The team had travelled many miles to appear and the crowd seemed to appreciate their performance, particularly the audience participation part. The young guy concerned was escorted into the ring, dressed in a pink tu-tu and then legged up onto the Highland pony for his first ever riding experience. He did really well, considering the ribbing he endured from his friends.

We were also lucky enough to see one of the world's smallest owls. I'm guessing it was some sort of pygmy owl, but I didn't want to pay £3.50 for a photograph, so you'll need to do a search to see what it looks like. Maybe I'm just mean, but £3.50 is about half a bag of hen feed, so not an amount I was prepared to pay for a photo on the Frugaldom blog.

 After the show we visited friends and shared a late afternoon cappuccino and chat on their patio. While there, I was able to take some cuttings (thanks, J) of an assortment of geraniums and some grapefruit mint. I'm thinking that an assortment of mint would be an ideal addition to the front 'garden' where each type could be planted in its own pot. This grapefruit one smells lovely.

It was then time to collect our new bantams. There are six in total, four Light Sussex X hens, one blue Pekin hen and a lavender Pekin cockerel. At the moment, they're beng quarantined in a 2m coop and run. In a couple of weeks, we'll let the X bred bantams out with the others but will need to keep the Pekins in the run so Billy Gruff, my blue cuckoo Silkie cockerel, doesn't attack his smaller counterpart.

 

That brings us back to what's happening in Frugaldom. Last night I was sure I heard a small squeak coming from the incubator. Today is day 17 for the quail eggs, so I shouldn't really have been surprised to come through this morning to find the first chick hatched and bumbling about in the incubator. Since then, a second has arrived and several of the other eggs are rocking and rolling, with the tell tale cracking sound of tiny beaks on shell.

Any chick from this lot is a bonus, as the eggs were all collected from my hens the week after they were seperated from the males. With no way of knowing how many, if any, would be fertile, I stuck 32 eggs in the incubator and crossed my fingers. 3 were removed shortly after that, but 29 remained. I wonder what percentage are fertile? I think we've reached 10% now, as I can see a beak pocking out of an almost open egg.

 

I'll update with photos as soon as I possibly can. For now, the incubator is remaining firmly shut. You can follow the updates by reading the section amed 'In the Incubator' on the free forums, which is where I normally upload the photos.

Frugaldom now has a new project to add to the list of many - we need to build an aviary to house some Diamond Doves that we are rehoming from the same person who gave us the bantams. He's leaving the area in a few weeks time, so we'll need to get organised soon to ensure we can house these new birds. There are a few others comig too, mainly zebra finches and bengalese, but we already have those species, so they'll mix OK after their quarantine period. The Diamond Doves, however, I'd like to see outside in their own space. More on this at a later date.

In the time it has taken me to edit and upload this post, quail chicks 3, 4, 5 and 6 have arrived! We've already passed the 20% mark. :)

Spring Equinox, Gardening and Poultry

Longer days mean more eggs.

As the winter slowly passes, spring will soon be here. The spring equinox having been and gone means that the days will gradually be lengthening and the hens will soon be in full lay. The girls have produced enough eggs to keep the household going through the winter, but there haven't been enough to warrant any regular sales.

We've only got one pair of white ducks remaining with us, for the time being, but I'm already planning on having a couple more as soon as we get settled into the new house - probably Khaki Campbells or some more Indian Runner ducks, as I like both. Our solitary duck, Phoebe, is laying an egg every morning now, but I don't want to incubate/hatch any of these, as there would be no point. We need some nice new ducklings for spring, completely unrelated to Joey, our white Aylesbury X drake.

Preparations for moving house are underway. We are digging up everything that we planted; it's a bit like un - gardening! Fruit bushes, apple trees, plum trees, pear trees and cherry trees - the entire mini orchard has to be moved. The crab apples have already been transplanted into large pots, as have most of the gooseberries and tayberries. There's an entire row of raspberries still to be dug, along with the blackcurrants. If the rain stays away, we should get them into pots this weekend.

All of the vegetable beds have been dug over, so the hens and ducks have now been given free access to these areas, in the hope that they'll root out anything we've missed. Our miniature white Silkie hen, however, prefers to dust bath in the damp soil, so she is constantly filthy!

The sleepers that surround the deep vegetable bed are being rehomed. The soil from the original square foot garden will be ideal for filling in holes after the fruit trees have been removed. It will mean raking and rolling the entire area, but I'll get some grass seed spread on it, just as soon as the hens and ducks have all been transported to their new home.

The grape vine seems to be surviving relatively well, as is the Russian Vine. Not a very popular species, I know, especially for anyone with a small garden, but it will be kept well trimmed. I'd not long put an arch across the garden gate and planted honeysuckle either side, so it all needs to be carefully removed and transplanted before the plants fully recover from their winter hibernation.

Bird boxes along the fence should be removed, but I've already seen bluetits flitting in and out of them on a regular basis. I have no intentions of disturbing them and am prepared to forfeit a few bird boxes in order to encourage them to continue breeding here.

My longterm plan of cultivating willow had just been newly implemented when we received notice to quit this house, so I'm hoping that the withies that were planted won't mind too much if we move them again. I'm determined to have a mini willow plantation somewhere, so the next garden should be the place to start again... without fear of any landlord asking us to move.

Most of what is in the greenhouse will be composted. Only the trays of lettuce seedlings will come with us, although I am desparate to get a few more seeds sown. Trouble is, we don't, yet, have an exact date for moving, so the greenhouse needs to be dismantled in readiness, as does the garden shed.

The next step is to sell the surplus quail so we can dismantle their run. Japanese Coturnix Quail are very hardy little game birds! They have lived outside in a corner of our garden all year round and we're still getting a few eggs. I was amazed they survived the -16C temperatures during the hardest part (so far) of this winter. At that point, their eggs were freezing solid before I could get out to collect them in the mornings. It's still dipping below zero here first thing, but a few of the hens have continued to lay throughout winter - not bad going for what is traditionally thought of as a migratory bird.

I'll probably keep about a dozen quail hens and three of the best cockerels to take to the new place, then start incubating / hatching new stock as soon as we're orgaised enough to safely run an incubator and brooder. Pity this variety of quail are known more for their laying ability than their interest in breeding!
There isn't a great deal more we can do to prepare the garden for our next big move. All I can do is hope that it will be our last for many years, and that we can reliably call it home. I'm glad we didn't set down too many roots here and am now looking forward to beginning again - a whole new frugaldom project and the creation of the new microholding.

Rest assured that the entire process will be well photographed and documented, once again. I now have three full years' worth of this project, including two false starts. 2011 needs to be our final startup! Wish me luck!

An Eggs-cellent Frugal Business

January Sale Now On



I'd like one of these, please!

 2011, year three in Frugaldom and we're still pursuing the debt free, frugal living, frugal business, frugal blogging plan but now incorporating a frugal business plan for the future. Afterall, we still need to earn a living in order to pay all the bills.

There's no such thing as cash free living, no matter how much we want to believe it exists. In a nutshell, it doesn't!


Not wanting to carry all my eggs in one basket, making Frugaldom self-sufficient in all things, including cash, means diversification from ground level. There are no employees, there are no doors to be opened to allow the public access and there are no lengthy meetings or negotiations to fit into my day. What I do have is a small poultry flock that needs caring for from dawn until dusk, literally.

If you have any plans for keeping and rearing poultry or deriving part of your income from them, you'd probably be safest registering via Defra from the outset, get your flock onto the GB Poultry Register. At the moment, registration is voluntary for small keepers, but it is compulsory as soon as you reach 50 birds, including quail. Registration is completely free and it can be done online, so there's no excuse for not meeting minimum legal requirements once your flock is built up to a productive level. You'll also need to complete an annual questionnaire to confirm and/or update the numbers. This can also be done online.



Freerange eggs

Being of a frugal nature, keeping hens means that eggs become part of the staple diet. It's not just hen eggs we eat, there are also the duck and quail eggs, so there are always plenty on the go, especially once the better weather gets here. Birds usually need around 14 hours of daylight to produce eggs, but there are always a few appear through the winter. We've been really lucky in that we've managed to have an average of half a dozen per day right throughout the worst of the winter weather. The main problem was collecting quail eggs before they froze solid - something for which the cat was extremely grateful, as she got all the defrosted eggs.



Homemade Lemon Curd

 Spring will soon be creeping in and then egg production will soar. If the household can consume 40+ eggs per week then what happens when we're getting 100+ duck and hen eggs and another 100+ quail eggs?

There's a limit to what we can sell, especially as the law dictates eggs can only be sold directly to the consumer. There's all sorts of legislation governing eggs and egg sales, so best stick to selling directly to friends, neighbours, family and colleagues. Quail eggs, on the other hand, are a delicacy that can be traded retail or wholesale, to the consumer or hotels, restaurants and wholesalers.

Here in Frugaldom, I breed and rear Japanese Coturnix Quail mainly for eggs but it's the surplus eggs from the hens that get channelled into my small scale lemon curd production. I'm still tweaking the recipe to give it that 'something different' but feedback, so far, has been very positive for both the lemon and lime curds. I even make meringues and coconut macaroons in order to use up all the extra egg whites left over from using the bright yellow yokes.

But before you jump for joy and rush out to start making and plying your wares, one word of caution: In order to make and sell food, it is mandatory that you have a valid and current Food Hygiene Certificate. Your certificate needs renewing every 3 years. On the plus side, it costs only £25 and you can do the short course and sit the exam online within a few hours. As long as you are only making small quantities when you have surplus eggs, this project shouldn't need further certification for the premises. This is a handy publication (downloads as a .pdf) about starting a food-based business.

In the long run, I'd love to be able to build a Log Cabin and live the good life, but let's not try to run before we walk. In the meantime, if anyone has a scrap of land available for sale, please get in contact.