Monday, May 11, 2009

Dinners and garden/orchard stuff

I cooked up one of the ducks, just did it in the slow cooker, with some stuffing (cranberry and apple) and a little dripping, it turned out really well.
Feeling generous, we gave the other duck away to a neighbour.
On an exploration of the freezer I discovered 2 ducks from last year, so these will need eating up soon.
We also butchered (that's the royal 'we', I actually mean G..) another chicken, an old Indian Game hen. I prepared this bird the same way as the young cockarel, by slow cooking first then roasting for a short time. Again this was successful, the meat was firm but not tough and very tasty.
The next day we were given some field mushrooms, so I made chicken and mushroom pasta for dinner with the leftover meat. Then I made some stock from the carcass.

On the farm front, it's great to have the rain, topping up the water tank nicely but it has prevented a lot of jobs from getting done outside. The veg garden is now seriously neglected.
We called in at Koanga gardens the other day and picked up some Maori seed potatoes 'Urenika' and 'Kowiniwini'. I've grown these a long time ago and looking forward to growing them again, in addition to some 'standard' white potatoes, not sure which varieties as yet. Also picked up a copy of their fruit and nut tree catalogue to see about adding to our orchard. Haven't made any decisions yet, although I would like to get one or 2 pears in and maybe a couple of fig trees.

2 comments:

A Green and Rosie Life said...

I really want ducks but for some reason Simon doesn't - I think the way to woo him may be though his stomach!! Slow cooked duck with apple and cranberries sounds lovely.

Thank you for the recommendation on farmblogs. I wondered why I was getting people on the blog via their webpage. I've just sent in my recommendations so I hope there is something there of interest to you to.

Rosie x

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Rosie
These were just wild ducks from around the surrounding acreages. We are fortunate to have permission to hunt on other peoples land.
We will have our own domestic ducks soon though, working towards that goal, hopefully in Spring. Best of luck with convincing your husband! Yes often the way is through the stomach :-)
You're welcome re. Farmblogs.
Best wishes
Bridget