26 Dec - Christmas Post

This is the last post of 2015 and I thought I'd finish on Christmas lunch. I'm still not brilliant at planning ahead for growing vegetables throughout the Winter though I am getting better. Looking around the site there's really only three of us who have Winter veg and one of those has really planted for early Spring crops. 

I've currently got leeks, kale, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and swede on the plot. Unfortunately I forgot to sow savoy Winter cabbage which is always welcome in the depths of Winter. Of course there is still a fair bit in store; pickled beetroot, potatoes, garlic, onions by the bucket load, frozen beans both runner and broad plus a few Winter squash. So, there was a fair bit of allotment food on the plate for Christmas lunch, not forgetting the Yorkshire pud made with eggs from the chickens on the plot too. 

A word about the chickens; I've had some up and downs with them since I started with poultry keeping. I began with four rescue hens but I've leaned my lesson with them, they really seem unsuitable due to their poor health. Yes, one or two will do OK but generally the majority of them will simply die due to their poor start in life. At the time of writing I have one left from my original four and my neighbour has two left from his original four though he's had them a shorter time than me. I'd love to be able to recommend getting rescue hens but I can't, in my experience they just don't work out despite being pampered. They all came to me with issues and, despite being wormed and having a suitable diet, those issues never really went away - in some cases they directly contributed to their deaths. I'm afraid it's better to get some young birds, just before 'point of lay' so they can settle in before starting to lay.

At the moment I have five birds, the last of my rescue hybrid hens who pops out the odd egg but is generally semi-retired; I've a Light Sussex who lays most days; a mad Rhode Island Red who is both massive and very loud, she lays virtually everyday too; then I've two young Cream Crested Legbars, one of which has started laying lovely blue eggs on the 9th December - I'm just waiting for the other one to start. So, I'm getting three eggs from five chickens most days so that's pretty good given that we are at the darkest time of the year.

Well, that's it for this post, the next one will be my seed list for the upcoming season. See you in the New Year.