A visitor to the garden

It's been a long time since I've seen one of these little fellows alive and well, but it was nice to see him wandering around the garden doing damage to the slug population.

Phil.

The Admiral, the peacock and the painted lady.

It's been a wonderful year for butterflies and the 3 which seem most prevalent are the red admiral, the peacock and the painted lady. So nice to see such a wonderful display of colour from mother natures palette box.

The Red Admiral

The Peacock

The Painted Lady.

Phil.

Home made wheat flour.

No matter where I've been lately, along the coast, hedgerow or mountainside I seem to see wheat growing everywhere, I've been noticing it more and more over the past year or so, so I thought I'd have a little trial just to see how easy it is to grind my own flour. I'll do it on a small.scale first then increase the production later.

Wheat stalks with kernels dry and ready to harvest.

Just to show the kernels ready before winnowing 

4 heads produced this much wheat, I gathered more but I'll keep it for later.

I'll start with a little at a time in the pestle and mortar 

Doesn't take too long to grind it up

Didn't take too long to grind it up. The flour is still a little coarse but I'll grind it further. I've another 6oz of wheat to be milled, when I've done that I'll try making something with it. I'm happy with it so far.

Phil.

Unusual coastal forage finds

I was out along the coast recently prepping for a walk and was expecting the usual saltwater type plants to appear, but as chance would have it I came across some really unusual finds;

Tomatoes in flower! Loads of these

Wheat, been finding this everywhere too

What I think may be marrow leaves

And possibly sunflower.

I just couldn't believe these were in the sand just above the high water mark and doing well, I hope anyone else who finds them will allow them to grow fully and if so I'll report back with pics.

Start of foraging season again.

It's my favourite time of the year when nature's larder really starts to produce, from fruits and nuts to roots and seeds and fish and meat, it's time to take advantage and start to prepare for the dark winter ahead. My first haul of wild apples this year isn't too bad, 14lbs, that should be a start for jams, chutneys and puddings to come.

Phil.

A stark day on the rocks

I'd heard that the shoals of Atlantic mackerel were in around the coast so I thought I'd see if I could track some down. Not a great day, windy and overcast with quite a few heavy showers, I did manage to end up with 2 mackerel and a coalfish, not a complete waste but hopefully a sign of better things to come.

Phil.

First one of the year!

Puff ball and Bacon

Was out on a forage recently and found quite a few puff balls. Most were the usual fist size but I found two quite large ones probably about the size of my head, we split them between the three of us so two thirds of the big ones each and the others were left to grow on a bit.

This was the biggest one, a bit slug eaten on the outside but perfectly edible still.

This was one single slice from my portion and it nearly filled a 14" skillet!

And what a feast fit for a forager, the rest was preserved for future use in casseroles or stews depending on what mother nature brings my way..happy foraging everyone.

Phil.