Farming Friends

I planted some red onion sets a few weeks ago and the shoots have just started to appear.

The TopVeg website was able to provide me with excellent onion planting information. 

Farming Friends & TopVeg have now collaborated to create a How To Grow Onions growing card.

Click on the image to enlarge and if you wish to print off this growing card, right click on the enlarged image and then click print picture to print out a copy.If you would like this document as a pdf, just contact farmingfriends and I will email you the document. 

I intend to print off copies and then laminate the sheet so that I can use the growing card in the future.

Teachers, children, vegetable growers and anyone interested in growing onions are welcome to print off this growing card for their own use.

Other growing cards we have already created;

• How To Grow Garlic.
• How To Grow Lettuce.
• How To Grow Summer Radish.
• How To Grow Beetroot.
• How To Grow Broad Beans.
• How To Grow Parsley.
• How To Grow Sage.
• How To Grow Tomatoes.

If you have any other growing cards that you would like Farming Friends & TopVeg to create then please leave a comment and we will be happy to create it for you.

Are guinea fowl eggs a speciality egg or just a small egg? I have been pondering this thought recently as I have decided to sell some guinea fowl eggs for eating at the farm gate. As I made the decision to sell my eggs, the next question to answer was how much to charge?

I did the usual search on the internet and checked all the major supermarkets to see if they were selling guinea fowl eggs but couldn’t find any. After a discussion with my husband I decided to sell 6 fresh, free range guinea fowl eggs for £1. With this price chalked up on the chalk board at the farm gate, I had decided to market my guinea fowl eggs as a speciality, free range egg. I think that guinea fowl are a speciality breed as they are not widely found in the UK. My guinea fowl free range daily and I have noticed that the yolk is a rich yellowy orange colour with a superior taste to other eggs purchased from the supermarket.

A family member however, pointed out that the guinea fowl eggs are small and that they need to use 3 guinea fowl eggs for every two ordinary hen eggs and that the price of hen eggs is cheaper, so buying my guinea fowl eggs would not be cost effective for them.

I can see both sides to this debate. What are your thoughts on guinea fowl eggs? Do you think that they are a speciality egg and therefore worth paying more for or are they just a smaller egg and therefore more are needed for baking and eating and therefore should not cost as much as the free range hen egg? Let me know your thoughts.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Last week I planted some tomato seeds.

The TopVeg website was able to provide me with excellent seed sowing information. 

Farming Friends & TopVeg have now collaborated to create a How To Grow Tomatoes growing card.

Click on the image to enlarge and if you wish to print off this growing card, right click on the enlarged image and then click print picture to print out a copy. If you would like this document as a pdf, just contact farmingfriends and I will email you the document. 

I intend to print off copies and then laminate the sheet so that I can use the growing card in the future.

Teachers, children, vegetable growers and anyone interested in growing tomatoes are welcome to print off this growing card for their own use.

Other growing cards we have already created;

• How To Grow Garlic.
• How To Grow Lettuce.
• How To Grow Summer Radish.
• How To Grow Beetroot.
• How To Grow Broad Beans.
• How To Grow Parsley.
• How To Grow Sage.
• How To Grow Onions.

If you have any other growing cards that you would like Farming Friends & TopVeg to create then please leave a comment and we will be happy to create it for you.

I have harvested my first radish this week and I have to say that it was delicious. Thanks to the excellent growing advice from Topveg I have now been growing radish for the last two years successfully.

Farming Friends & TopVeg have collaborated to create a How To Grow Summer Radish growing card.

Click on the image to enlarge and if you wish to print off this growing card, right click on the enlarged image and then click print picture to print out a copy.

If you would like this document as a pdf, just contact farmingfriends and I will email you the document.

I find that radish tastes better when it is harvested young and has not had time to get woody and have a bitter taste.

If you have any recipes using radish then I would like to hear them, so please leave a comment - thanks.

Parsnips are a Winter vegetable but parsnips are generally planted in March and April.

Farming Friends & TopVeg have now collaborated to create a How To Grow Parsnips growing card.

Click on the image to enlarge and if you wish to print off this growing card, right click on the enlarged image and then click print picture to print out a copy.

If you would like this document as a pdf, just contact farmingfriends and I will email you the document.

I intend to print off copies and then laminate the sheet so that I can use the growing card with my school gardening club in the future.

Teachers, children, vegetable growers and anyone interested in growing parsnips are welcome to print off this growing card for their own use.

Other growing cards we have already created;

If you have any other growing cards that you would like Farming Friends & TopVeg to create then please leave a comment and we will be happy to create it for you.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix a table spoon of salt or sugar with every five eggs.

If you are going to use the eggs for a sweet dish or for baking cakes, buns or merginues etc then add a tablespoon of sugar for every five eggs.

If you are going to use the eggs for a savoury dish, or as an omelette, scrambled eggs then add a tablespoon of salt for every five eggs.

Put the eggs in a plastic container with a lid and freeze. The eggs can be frozen for up to 12 months.

Thaw the eggs in a refridgerator and use immediately once thawed.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Last week I made pork brawn and was unsure of the results but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. 

Ingredients

• 1 pig’s head
• a couple of trotters - preferably back trotters as they have a little more meat on them.
• 1 bay leaf
• mixed herbs
• mixed spices
• 1 onion
• lemon juice

Method

Here is my method which I have adapted after reading Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s recipe.

1. Cut the head and trotters into smaller pieces so that they fit in a large pan.
2. Cover with water (salt can be added but I decided not to add any to my brawn).
3. Add bay leaf, herbs, spices and pealed/chopped onion.
4. Simmer the content and for the first half an hour remove any scum that floats to the top of the pan.
5. Simmer the contents for about 4 hours.
6. Remove the head and trotters - at this point I decided to just use the meat on the head and trotters and not the ears, skin, eyes or nostrils. I did use the brains which require you to remove the outer skin.
7. Mix the meat and brains together and place in a dish.
8. Add a dash of lemon juice and some parsley.
9. Strain the stock and then boil up until the stock has reduced.
10. Spoon a couple of spoonfuls of the stock over the meat and then refrigerate until set.

Eat the brawn cold with mustard or chutney.

My husband and I ate the brawn with toast and damson chutney and English mustard.

The brawn had a strong pork flavour and the sweetness of the damson chutney mixed with the strong mustard taste made the meal very enjoyable.

In future I am going to cook a belly pork joint and add that meat to the brawn to increase the quantity of meat.