19th October - Hey Diddly Dee, A Riddler's Life for Me

 Free pigs eating free food - the perfect system

Our brand of self-sufficiency is essentially about spending as little as possible. In this way we hope to have more time to pursue those things which we personally consider worthwhile and less time simply earning money. Of course producing all of your own vegetables, meat, firewood, alcohol…you name it - takes a phenomenal amount of time, but thankfully being outside living an active hands-on-life is something I’ve always wanted.

Every three or four years we experience a tremendous acorn crop from the numerous mature oaks which grace the countryside hereabouts and this year is, without doubt a mast year to remember. One of the meats we produce is pork and currently we have two pigs living in and around hopper huts opposite the cottage. I don't believe in buying food for pigs (which doesn't mean I'm not forced to do it from time to time).  They eat vegetable scraps, bread waste from local bakers and whatever I can get hold of, but this week (and all weeks in fact when available) they have mostly been eating acorns. My early research into feeding pigs acorns gave stark predictions about feeding too many. However my experience is that they can eat their fill day on day without any adverse consequences. Having traditional breed crosses and the fact that I always try and feed fruit and vegetables with the nuts may have some bearing on this.

Before I embark on the fascinating subject of acorn riddling, I can't resist mentioning that the pigs themselves represent what is most likely my single most successful foraging session. For months pigs had been periodically sited roaming free up near the main road. Every time this happened the phone would ring and I would be asked if my pigs had escaped. On a certain day about a month ago this happened six times and I gauged from this repetition that no one really wanted to claim the pigs (as original owners must have been aware that they had escaped by now).  So accompanied by my long-suffering friend C, we went up the lane to try and round them up. People must have thought they had driven into Anglo-Saxon England, with the sight of two scruffy bloke's herding three even scruffier pigs along the tarmac, and indeed the faces of passers-by were a joy to behold! The operation was unexpectedly successful and my wife was as surprised as anyone to see the pigs trotting down the lane, through the gate and into our pen. We turned the largest one straight into sausages as it must have already weighed at least 200lb and the other two are still fattening up nicely.

Several large sacks of acorns are already in store after C and I did a Blitzkrieg nut raid on the local lanes, sweeping and shovelling the acorns into bags where they had fallen on the tarmac and then been conveniently pushed to the edges by passing cars - needless to say more funny looks. For the pigs’ daily ration however I take to the woods which merge seamlessly into our garden and sort the generous layer of free forage from the leaf litter. It's a simple process which I must confess has been improved somewhat by C and his contribution to the setup - a rather large and ramshackle sieve. With a shovel I scrape the acorns into piles which inevitably also contain leaves sticks and other debris. This mixture is then tossed up onto a large, gently sloping sieve of small gauge wire which allows small particles to fall through as the larger bits, including the acorns role to the bottom. Next the acorn debris mix is put on a larger sieve which allows the acorns through but leaves the worst of the leaves and sticks on top. Is a slightly laborious process but in 20 minutes I can gather a wheelbarrow full of reasonably pure nuts and with pig feed at around £8 per 20 kg sack it’s well worth the effort. Acorns incidentally have a similar feed value to barley, which means about 12% crude protein, lots of carbohydrate and a little fat which makes them good food for slow grown pigs.

                                                             Heavy acorn crop

                                                                  C's big sieve

                                                           Removing large debris

                                                            The finished product

                                 

When you only eat your own vegetables, the maturing of a new crop is always a little bit exciting. Last night we had our first brussel sprouts and another first was rabbit for our six-month-old son G. Last week I poached a young rabbit until the meat flaked away from the bone then froze it in ice cube trays. After whizzing a cube up with some courgette it went down a treat.

Dinner


(Sometimes I can barely remember what I cooked last night yet alone last week or month, so I've decided to keep a note and include recipes of those things which I've made up and then really enjoyed. Apologies - I always cook by eye, so there won't be any quantities given).

Slow cooked mutton chops with tomatoes and borlotti beans. This is one of my favourite dishes and something I often cook in the autumn when the new borlotti harvest is in and there are still a few tomatoes in the garden.

Ingredients

Onions

Garlic

Mutton chops

Passata

Pre-cooked borlotti beans

Bouquet garni

Seasoning

Method

Fry onion until transparent

Push onions to one side and brown chops

Add all other ingredients, season to taste, cover and put in a medium oven for around three hours, checking periodically that it has not dried out.


Apple pie with butterscotch custard.Thanks to my wife being the finest pastry maker in the world the pie was fantastic, made with gleaned bramleys from the orchard through the woods. The custard is what I really want to mention though. It isn't extravagant like most butterscotch flavoured concoctions, but still complimented the apple superbly.I know the salt is a strange addition, but without it the flavour is nothing.


Ingredients
milk
granulated sugar
cornflour
salt

Method
Bring milk to the boil in a large saucepan.

Put the sugar with a flick of water into a hot pan. As it begins to melt stir briskly until the liquid sugar has turned to a dark amber colour.

Whisk the caramel into the hot milk being careful of the frothing and boiling which will result.

If lumps form, whisk until they dissolve.

Thicken flavoured milk with cornflour.

Sweeten with more sugar and add small amounts of salt a until a deep butterscotch flavour is achieved.