Potatoes, Yet More Sauerkraut, Pruning Fruit Trees

Checked the 7 girls on the river for the neighbour. The new calf is well, a heifer, fast asleep after her travels into the world. Mum standing guard over her. The Springers and the new mum on the neighbours hill are well but the calf is in hiding. Went across the river and put silage out for the soon to be mothers and the newly weaned 2012 drop. Only a couple of mums are distressed at being separated.

Another bale of silage going out

The new mother on the neighbour's hill, no sign of the her calf but she is not in distress so all must be well

Planted some potatoes in the spots where the cabbages had bee harvested. Potatoes are a vegetable we use weekly for our Friday night treat of fish and chips, it is also a good counterpart to sauerkraut when served as mash. The odd potato goes into Taramasalata and a couple are used when Tortilla is on the menu. Thus we need some potatoes once maybe twice a week. But growing a consistent supply is beyond us. We always have trouble keeping them from sprouting when grown in bulk and have resorted to just planting out a few seed potatoes every week or two but not always successfully. Either very few form on the plant or the plant is slow to grow and the yields backs up to a short term glut. Growing really good large spuds is a rarity. The art of growing a reliable supply appears beyond us. But we keep trying. Maybe someone out there can provide the secret.

Commenced pruning the Orchard today. This year not cutting back as severely as past years. Saw on Gardening Australia recently that Apples and Pears should be in a pyramid shape and stone fruits in a vase. Well a bit late now as we've been pruning everything to the vase shape for years, bugger. Many years ago we watched a Gardening Australia episode which looked at an old bloke in southern Tasmania pruning his apples to a vase shape where the limbs were kept low so that he wouldn't have to climb a ladder to harvest. He being 80 plus it sounded like a sensible idea. Because we have to bag each individual fruit in order to protect against fruit fly and parrots it's much easier to keep to a vase shape and to keep everything within arms reach. Probably too late to change now. Maybe Masanobu Fukuoka was correct in the One Straw Revolution when he spoke out against pruning.

One of the Plums pruned

Each day we have been making a different sauerkraut from the recipes in Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. The standard sauerkraut with Caraway in the fridge already. The Korean (Kim Chi) is fermenting as is the Latin American. The Japanese is about to happen and then next week a taste test.