31st October - Quail Eggs and Mint

Wild Mint

It was dark and damp as I stepped out this morning, not quite raining but a measured dripping from the chestnut coppice almost had me fooled. Working in the dark is something that must be gotten used to again, for despite the clocks going forward it won't be many weeks until my morning rounds are always done by torchlight. The quail are an exception because in their plush new winter quarters a time activated light comes on three hours before sunrise and then again for another four hours after sunset. The idea is to simulate summer daylight hours which due to a link between egg production and day length, results in eggs throughout the winter. I gave up fiddling around with boiled quail eggs a long time ago and sell them instead instead, which pays for most of the pellets we buy not only for the quail but also the other poultry. In fact, as goose eggs sold in the spring pay for most of the wheat we buy (in bulk at harvest time) our poultry operation largely pays for itself and provides us with eggs, meat, broodies (for hatching eggs) and pedigree birds to sell for profit. I mention this today because after the quail’s two month break from laying I picked up half a dozen small mottled eggs this morning. Not many from forty Japanese quail, but it's a start and soon I will be making regular trips again to supply the farm shop. A couple of hens are also resident in the quail emporium (Em’s nick name for it) and as the outside flock stops laying, they should provide us with two eggs a day throughout the winter months.

The unseasonal warmth has meant abandoning the 4 to 6 day hanging (depending on temperature) that I would usually afford my pheasants. I tried, but wherever I hid the birds, bluebottles sort them out to lay clustered eggs between their gaping beaks. Like most sportsmen I pluck relatively few pheasants but unlike most, I take care to cut out both the legs and breast when I peel back the skin. In this way only a potential stock is wasted and the ferrets have a carcass, still full of intestines and offal to feed on (ferrets like innards, always eating them first as a matter of preference). Em has imposed a rule concerning game which forbids me from putting a single piece in the freezer. It's a good idea really as it forces creativity in the kitchen and saves the otherwise inevitable stock piling of pigeon, pheasant, duck and rabbit which quickly clogs the freezers. Our dinner is mentioned below, but G, despite his tender age is not exempt from pulling his game-consuming weight and happily pheasant, carrot, parsnip and potato casserole (whizzed up) is going down very well.

We don't see much in the way of sunsets from the cottage as our western boundary is thick with trees, so a family jaunt down Bunny Lane this afternoon afforded us a pleasant change. We went for the wild mint which grows along the verge, plucking the unseasonal new growth which is a result of the warm autumn. Exactly what sort of mint is hard to say, perhaps a natural hybrid between water and peppermint but regardless of species it makes a fine cup of tea and the small basketball collected today, once dried, will last us through to spring. Picking complete we walked on. At our backs loose cloud drifting below a solid blanket of grey glowed ruddy with departing light and before us lay its source. Between leafless boughs of poplar, the horizon could be seen, stacked with streaking cloud strata fractured by orange light which melted to purple tones above. From the sunken double gates, we took it in, G gurgling from the gathering dark around us and admired the tumbling formations which broke the horizontal lines and a lone high cirrus which still burnt with the Sun's brilliance.

Dinner

Wild boar and pheasant pie with red cabbage casserole. I would love to take this opportunity to brag shamelessly about my wild boar shooting exploits of last month, but now is not the time. The pie was superb, aided as always by Em's fine pastry and the sweet, vinigery red cabbage casserole (left over from last night) made a perfect companion.

Wild boar and pheasant pie

Ingredients

short crust pastry (50/50 lard to butter)

wild boar mince (not too lean)

pheasant meat (diced)

celeriac (grated)

swede (grated)

carrot (grated)

onion (finely diced)

sage

time

rosemary

flower

seasoning

Method

• Line a pie dish with pastry.
• Mix meat with grated vegetables, herbs and seasoning.
• Stir in enough flour to bind the mixture slightly.
• Sprinkle flour on pastry base.
• Fill pastry lined dish with mixture, and put on pastry lid.
• Glaze with beaten egg.
• Cook in a medium oven for three hours.