Monday 24 October 2011

The Visitors are Gone.

Lovely having visitors who are so familiar that it is like having family around - no rush, no standing on ceremony -just a nice relaxed chatty time.

For lunch on Saturday I bought a piece of Belted Galloway Pot roast rib. By the time the farmer came to carve it it was so tender that it just fell apart, so we had a pile of bits of beef of a plate on the table and helped ourselves. I cooked it in red wine so the gravy was delicious too. A pile of Yorkshire puddings on the table and a large dish of roasted root vegetables meant that the meal had been very little effort. We had more Swiss chard out of the garden and I found that all the local ladybirds had chosen it as their winter hibernation place. I finally had to go outside and shake it well to try and evacuate them. If we ate any steamed ladybirds we don.t know about it. Somehow steamed ladybird doesn't seem so unpalatable as steamed maggot!

For pudding I tried Rosemary's recipe (Share my Garden on my side bar) for Pear tart. If you fancy a nice easy sweet go to her site for the recipe.

Then we walked at Thorpe Perrow arboretum. The autumn colours are so slow in coming I really think they are going to be non-existent this year. But the walk was lovely. There were hundreds there but the place is so large that we hardly met a soul. We walked round the Bird of prey centre - I find something very sad about these majestic birds caged when they should be wild and free. Maybe a bird feels differently about it - but I don't like it at all.

Today on the farm the giant muck-spreader has arrived and the loose-housing is being cleared and the manure spread on the fields. Cats have been disturbed and are not happy - spending time by the back door demanding milk in recompense (and volubly at that). It is a damp, dreary day and the fields are getting wetter underfoot by the day - so the cattle will be in shortly. Twenty seven in-calf heifers are destined for our housing - coming into nice, warm, clean straw any day soon.

In the field the belgian blue heifers are well in-calf and one looks near to calving. The farmer hopes that it will go 'home' before the day arrives as Belgian blue heifers often have a difficult calving. She has to wait to go home until the Tup Sales are over.

The road into our little market town is closed all this week for re-surfacing work, so any trip into town means a long way round. We we dreading an influx of traffic being diverted down our lane but so far this hasn't happened. We are just not used to traffic noise and would find it very intrusive.

It would be nice to see the sun today but in spite of what the weather-forecaster said yesterday, at present it is well and truly hiding behind a blanket of thick, misty cloud. Message to self - keep all doors and window closed as any time now a sweet smell of manure will begin to drift towards the house on the west wind that is blowing. Wonder how the remains of the Belted Galloway will taste to a background of that!

15 comments:

Gwil W said...

my mouth is literally watering after reading that first part of your post

steven said...

hello weaver! the muck-spreaders were out about two weeks 'round where i live. cats are moping about in the chill air. sometimes they sing for snacks but most times they skulk and run when i get close! steven

mrsnesbitt said...

Mmmmmmmmmmm! I bought some beef skirt this morning - I buy frozen sliced onions + peppers by the ton, so will add to the beef + stock + tinof chopped tomatoes + plenty of black pepper and leave to slowly cook for the rest of today. Lunch is a hot bean + chilli + potato soup - winter warmers eh Pat?

rkbsnana said...

I am so glad I found you in your world so far from mine. I am enjoying your posts so

MorningAJ said...

Love the sound of that beef - and the fact that you know what breed it was. I do go to a (relatively) local farm shop but I never think to ask what kind of beef/lamb/pork/whatever I'm buying. It's always good though.

Elizabeth said...

Delicious beef meal.
Quite mouthwateringly yummy!

Reader Wil said...

Thanks for sharing all things around you! I can almost feel the atmosphere of your house and farm. You describe it so wonderfully! The cows in my hometown are still out in the fields. The weather is sunny but a bit nippy!

Pondside said...

Your meal sounds delicious - lucky guests!
I love your posts about the goings-on around the farm. Written by someone else they could be simple calendar notations, but they are lyrical from your keyboard.

Heather said...

Your Saturday lunch sounds delicious and I hope the ladybirds have forgiven you for evicting them.
A bit of good healthy farmyard pong is a small price to pay for living in the countryside!
Hope the road resurfacing doesn't take too long and you have your road to yourselves again soon.
Dull but mild here - but still no rain.

Rachel Phillips said...

Nice meal by the sound of things. Nice also to see skirt mentioned in the comments. I always get laughed at when I say we are having skirt and kidney pie as not many people today seem to have heard of skirt as a cut of meat,.

Here on the east, very east, true east coast, we are having gale force south easterly winds. It is dry so far. And no muckspreaders.

John Going Gently said...

It's time, me thinks of getting a second mortgage out and buying some beef!

angryparsnip said...

Your lunch sounds wonderful. I don't know what a Belted Galloway Pot Roast Rib is but it sounds so fabulous ! Must look that up.
I have made Yorkshire Pudding but I made it in a pan, I like the idea of a pile of Puddings !

Happy you did not eat any ladybirds sounds rather awful...

Love that the cats are not happy and demanding compensation !

cheers, parsnip

Crafty Green Poet said...

I agree, it's sad to see birds of prey in cages,

Pear tart sounds nice, I should try that recipe!

H said...

In my mind I have a picture of the Belted Galloway (with her two gorgeous little rough haired calves) which was trying to lick the skin off my hand during our recent walk...

...but I'm not going to get all sentimental and slushy! Farming is a business and I love the taste of beef as much as anyone :)

The Weaver of Grass said...

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