Winters ending really nearing?

It is of course still rather quiet, allotment wise, the snow has disappeared, more helped by a couple of days of rain then by rising temperatures. Those still hover around freezing point, maybe two or three degrees Celsius above during day time, but unfortunately the same amount below during nights. The predictable result is that the allotment is extremely muddy, since the upper 5 cm (two inches) or so has thawed, but below that it is frozen. The rain we had, and the molten snow have nowhere to go, and make the plot a nice mess. I would have liked to dig over a bed in preparation for some garlic, but it seems I will have to be patient. Predicted temperatures are a bit higher for the coming weekend, so there might be better possibilities soon.

The cuttings I took a 10 days ago seem to be doing fine, except one or two that show some mold, those will definitely be thrown out.

The ones outside are doing okay. I don't expect a lot here the next couple of months, I guess the key is to keep them humid enough, and not to worry.



These are inside, normally cover with some plastic wrap to create an environment as humid as possible. The are definitely sprouting, and I might be able to see some very fine roots forming (might be wishful thinking, though).


Here is the second pot I put inside, close to the heating ... there are some molds growing in here. I will eliminate those branches, and probably the rest of them as well.

Interestingly, a colleague mentioned to me they tend to graft their currents here normally onto something with a decent rot structure. That is the first time I hear about this, I have always had the illusion currants (red, white or black) can be grown as bushes. I will have to see, and if I obtain disappointing harvests the next couple of years I might need to try my hand at grafting....

Winters harvest

Little growing on the allotment right now, thought the snow is melting so I hope to be able to dig over a bed and put in some garlic. We should still get enough cold weather for them to get cloves. I might wait with part of the garlic until the end of March, or beginning of April, these will most likely end up as large single bulbs.

We do have some vegetable growing at the farm, although a bit less then other years. To my great disappointment, we didn't get around to planting kale last summer, which is one of my all time winter favorites. I'll be making sure that this year we'll plant kale both at the allotment and at the farm, to make absolutely sure I will get some next winter!!

Late in October we planted some winter-salad, though it was even quite late for them. The red variant doesn't seem to be doing too bad, but we will have to be patient for a little bit longer if we do not want to harvest the whole row for a single meal.

It seems we have had some uninvited guests eating them as well, maybe some mice which are currently quite abundant since the cats have moved over to different neighbors after some minor 'disagreements' with the dog.


The green salads are doing less well, and are much more victimized by the vermin ... I guess we will have to take our losses, they get the green salad and we will eat the red leaved ones.



We also planted less of the green salad, at the back of the row the leeks are visible. We grow a couple of handfuls every year, they are being harvested throughout spring.



Considering their size, I assume harvesting the broccoli also won't happen anytime soon.


Some garlic has already been planted. A tad bit early to our taste, we normally plant in February and actually earth them up like potatoes. It seems to be the only successful way of getting a decent harvest. A friendly family member that was visiting while we weren't there, planted some back in November. They don't seem to be doing to bad for now.


We will still plant our normal batch in February, at worst we will get a large garlic crop.

Pruning soft fruit bushes and trees

I spend quite a lot of time on the allotment this weekend, yesterday about two and a half hours for the pruning course, today about a hour to clean up a bit. I would have stayed a while longer but it started to rain, and with the temperatures around freezing, I called it a day.

Just having taken over an allotment which has quite a few soft fruit bushes and trees growing in it since a couple of years, I decided to follow a short, hands-on course in pruning them. There is certainly an abundance of books and on-line material available on the subject, but I figured that nothing would be better than seeing the actual pruning in practice and the possibility to ask questions.

The course was organized by the organization taking care of the allotments, and about 8 plot-holders, including me, turned up. It was a very pleasant surprise to learn that we would actually visit the eight plots, and the course leader would prune something on each, and give advice. Due to juniority, both in age and plot holdership, and my plot being a bit further away than most, it was decided mine would be visited last. This didn't bother me the least, since although it was cold the sun was out for the first time in ages, and I was fortunately dressed warmly.

While visiting the other plot holders sites I not only learned how to prune older apple trees and how to re-vitalize 30 year old vines, something I probably won't have to do in the near future, I also managed to pick up cuttings of black currants, red gooseberries and blue berries. With a bit of luck, I should be able to harvest from these in two to three years.

When we finally arrived to my allotment, it turned out that my vines had apparently been neglected last year. They got rigorously cut back (if there's one thing I learned it that: prune rigorously -- you might end up with a bit less fruit this year, but will profit for years to come!), I'll have to attach them soon to their support and guide them properly to get the best results. I was told that in three to four years I should expect 80-100 kg of grapes. I certainly don't have a clue what to do with that many!!

I got some quick advice on pruning my blackberries, raspberries and red currants. My tiny apple tree got even smaller, I was told not to let it grow more then 10-15 apples so that most of its energy would be directed into growth and strengthening. One of my two 'mystery' trees got identified as a cherry tree and also got the appropriate hair cut. The other tree of unknown species will probably produce damsons, though due to translational issues it could be another prune variant. Time will tell.

Spätzli

Today I was lucky enough to find something I have been trying to get for quite a while. One of my favorite local dish (although, known throughout most German speaking countries and some neighboring countries in addition) is spätzli. It is some mixture between egg-noodles and dumplings, with different recipes citing variable quantities of ingredients.

The spätzli are prepared by pushing the dough through a device above a pot with cooking salted water, and waiting about three minutes until the spätzli rises to the surface to be drained and served, or set aside for futher processing. The problem is that, with currently most people buying pre-made spätzli in supermarkets, these spätzli-presses are hard to come by. While actually unsuccessfully looking for either gardening- or cooking books in the local thrift shop this morning I passed by the kitchen section and noticed a standard, no-nonsense spätzli-press on offer for next to nothing. Less then two hours later it was being applied in my kitchen:

The recipe I used to prepare the dough:

• 500 gram plain flour (1.1 lb)
• 250 ml water (8.5 oz.)
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1-4 eggs (I used two)
• 30 gram (1 ounce) butter

Mixing it all together I got a rather sticky and though dough, adding the one or two additional eggs should make it less sticky and more fluid. After bringing a pot of salted water to a boil, I pressed the dough through the press in small portions, waiting until they were finished before starting the next portion.

I decided to make our meal a bit more fancy by dicing a small onion and fruiting it, adding in two handfuls of smoked bacon cubes, and gently frying until they start to be brown. The spätzli were added for the last three minutes.

I shamefully have to admit I lacked the patience to make a photo before lunch-time, but here is the lunch box I'll take in to work on Monday:

Some farm photos

We have been rather busy the last couple of days, but nothing interesting to blog about. I have a couple of spare minutes right now, so figured I would update the blog and add a couple of photos taken about two weeks ago while we were staying at the farm.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great (well, what else can you expect around January 1st....?), hence, dull skies and boring lighting.

One of the reasons I greatly enjoy spending time at the farm is that there's always something to do. Apart from the daily chores and 'big time projects' there are also many small tasks that normally don't get done because they are not urgent enough, but are nice to fill 15 minutes or half an hour that otherwise would have been spend doing nothing useful.

Two of those half hours were spend removing dead leaves, branches and other waste from the small pond.


It is evident that it is not ideally situated in this regards since both the leaves from the two oaks on the left and those from the walnut tree on the right drop in during each fall. The trees, however, have been there since quite a while and the pond has been dug around a small natural source that keeps it filled year around.


Although I had fished out most leaves and other muck last year around the same time, I was once again truly amazed at the quantity that had ended up in the pond. Standing on the side of the pond I used a standard hay fork, leaning over to scoop up the muck from the bottom of the pond, that at it deepest is around 1,5 meter deep. I managed not to fall in, though there were several narrow escapes!


About two and a half years ago I spend a lot more time cleaning out the pond, since over the years so much rotten material had accumulated in it that it blocked the source, and the pond had fallen dry. I dug out about 50 wheelbarrow loads of muck that we used to fill up holes and trenches all over the property. Now we can still easily identify those because the dug up material functions as a very efficient fertilizer and causes the grass there to grow higher then anywhere else.

In the old days the pond was used by a flock of geese that were relatively successful in breeding. When things were downsized due to the advancing age of the permanent inhabitant the geese were moved to the other side of the main house where the chickens were. Like this it was easier to take care of them and feed.

After an unidentified predator had a feast meal on our chickens about two years ago, we only have some geese left. Due to the lack of water they do not breed, so each spring we tend to buy two or three goslings that join the two old timers.



The source feeding the pound is definitely not the only one on the property since we have a well close to the main building. It is rather deep (14 meters) but provides a steady supply of high quality water.

On some of our pieces of land a bit further down the road we have two additional ponds, I will try to post some photos of those another day.

A cold hour on the allotment

New things are always fun and thus, even though there was not really anything useful to do, I walked down the road and spend an hour on the allotment. I was also curious to know how long it would take by foot; our first visit was by car.

Walking normal speed it is just a bit more than 15 minutes, which I consider very reasonable. I was afraid it would take more then 30 minutes, but walking there's a short-cut which is not available to cars. When going alone, I will probably take my bike most of the time. With the kids, it would be nice to be able to go by foot instead of having to take the car. If it takes me 15 minutes, we'll be able to be there in half an hour when we take them which is still fine, would it have been a lot longer it would probable have forced us to take the car to go, which would be a pity.

I spend my time there by sweeping the snow of the stone path and rummaging around a bit. We are lucky that the previous owner left us quite a few tools. There is a rather complete set that can be used while working on the knees. Not quite what I had in mind, but probably handy once the plot has been sorted out, vegetables are growing and weeds just need to be kept in check.

There is also what is needed in normal tools that can be used standing upright, but 3 or 4 of those have their shafts broken. Either they have been accumulating over the years, and been replaced by tools that have been taken away, or the earth must be a bit harder to work with than I hoped. It is certainly hard to say now, everything is frozen solid.

French King Cake

A couple of days ago it was the Epiphany, and a French tradition calls for a delicious type of cake to be eaten around this time of the year. It consists of some layers of puff pastry and frangipane in the center.

Although I do like most of the different aspects of cooking and baking, making puff pastry is not part of my skill set, hence I bought some pre-made one that keeps for a couple of days refrigerated and, as experience has demonstrated, gives great results.

The frangipane, on the contrary I do make myself:

• 100 grams of almond powder (3 1/2 ounces)
• 100 grams of castor sugar
• 1 egg
• 25 grams of butter (1 ounce)
• 15 grams vanilla sugar (1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp rum
• 2 or 3 drops almond extract

Mix the butter with the sugar until it is homogeneous, then add the remainder of the ingredients and mix for a couple of more minutes.

Take a little less then half of the puff pastry and role out into a circle of 23 cm (10 inches); roll the remainder into a circle of 25 cm (11 inches). Put the smaller pastry circle into an oven dish, add the frangipane in the middle and distribute until 2 cm (1 inch) from the edge of the pastry.

Add the remaining pastry circle on top and use a fork to seal it all around to prevent leaking of the filling. Streak the top with some egg yolk and put at a cool place for 15 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 240 deg C (465 Fahrenheit) and bake for 35 minutes after making a small hole in the middle to allow the steam to escape.


Smells wonderful, tastes even better!!

I've got a plot!!

Yesterday was the big day, allotment wise. We visited the organization that takes care of the local community gardens here in Zürich, and went with them to a rather large site with allotments. They must at least have a couple of hundred there! There were just two available to choose from though.

All plots are roughly 200 square meters (600 sq. feet), so size wasn't an issue in the choice; they are also virtually all facing the same direction, no difficult decisions to make there either. The main point is the shed that's present on the allotment. Apparently we do rent the plot from the organization or the city (I didn't get quite which of the two it is in the end); the shed however, is property of the allotment holder and needs to be bought by the next person. The community garden organization (familiengartenverein) decides upon a price, the seller doesn't have a lot of say and the buyer gets to say 'yes' or 'no'.

The first plot we got shown had a very fancy shed that looked nice and solid and has without doubt been made with a lot of love. The second plot has a standard shed which is at least 15 years old and not too solid anymore. An added advantage of the first plot was that there's a lot of fruit bushes and trees already growing, which means that in that respect the first seasons will be a bit more productive.

Here is an areal of the allotment we choose. We didn't quite get to see it like this since there is currently about 20 cm of snow covering it. Previous owner apparently spend a lot of time on the plot, but got severe heart problems during last summer and had to give up the plot. There's a small 'tomato house' at the bottom end (in green). It is covered on top and on three sides .... which seems a bit weird to me; for sure they'll suffer less from wind, but I guess they need to be watered every other day. Fortunately it is one of the few allotments which actually has running water.

There was a bed with strawberry plants, somewhere under the snow. There are blackberry plants, raspberries, redcurrants and grapes. I also noticed one apple tree, there are others on neighboring allotments, so that should work out as well. There are some more trees and bushes, but the persons showing us around didn't know what they were, or details got lost in translation.

The necessary papers will get signed soon, and then once the snow melts and the temperatures rise (probably those two will be somewhat associated) I know what to do with my spare time.

Garlic will to into the ground in February here ... definitely will have to do some preparation work for that! I'll keep you up to date.

Back home

After a rather long trip, I am back home now. Fortunately, traffic wasn't too dense so the voyage was uneventful. We have spend the last two weeks in France with my in laws, and have been lucky enough to spend a couple of days here and then at their country side farm. It is quite remote and I truly love being there and doing the odd jobs that need doing.

Since the current sole inhabitant is in her mid eighties, the last couple of years we have cut back on the size of the garden and live stock. There used to be sheep, rabbits, geese, chickens and even further back one or two milking cows. Currently, there are some geese -- not too much work and the rewards in form of a dozen or so geese eggs per year and the main part of the Christmas dinners.

Apart from cutting down two dead trees in our small forest, most of the weekend was spend hauling sheep manure from one of the outlying pastures and spreading it over the garden. As we do not need the pasture currently one of the local farmers uses it occasionally and put a 'bit' of sheep manure there for our garden about three years ago. We used a bit last year, since it was already nicely rotten then, but this year we made a serious attempt.



This is the state of the pile after we we took about 60 barrow loads to the garden. Fortunately we have a small tractor, so that we didn't have to use real wheelbarrows.



Here is an image of the manure in the garden. We managed to get a 100 barrow loads into the garden, and then had the 'joy' of spreading it evenly around. Although it was -5 °C (25 °F) we had to take of some layers of clothing!


I made quite a few more images and will be posting them over the next couple of days, with the associated explanations and stories.