FLOWER POT KITCHEN: DAY 3 WITH THE PIGS WE ARE HAVING SUCH FUN...

24 Oct 2012

DAY 3 WITH THE PIGS WE ARE HAVING SUCH FUN...

We made their bed thicker with more straw as the weather is getting colder and as the door is staying open overnight we wanted to make sure that they had a deep bed to snuggle down in, while we were in the ark they wanted to know what we were doing and were trying to come in and help. As soon as we had finished they both had a nap.

Our Great Dane puppy is of interest to the pigs and vice versa, Lottie wants to play and they are not sure what to make of her bounding lolloping excitement in the garden

Day 3 and going really well, they are just so sweet, I am going to find this really hard at the end of the experience, but I have to keep the end goal in mind. I love sitting in the run for ages just watching them, they wander over and say hello, today they both fell in love with my pink crocks, and kept biting them and then when I got up to leave they chased my shoes lol. I am guessing that pigs see colour, as I would normally wear my yard boots but I just popped down to have a cup of tea with them and a chat and did not change my shoes as we don't have mud yet!!!

LemonGrass is a very clever girl, when Ginger whacks her with his shoulder to move her, she moves away and then does a running ram tackle at him which knocks him out of the way, Ginger is approx 1/3 bigger than her. No accidents with the electric fencing today and that includes my husband!!!

Our son Oscar is in charge of feeding the pigs and they are responding to him really well, we are training them to come to the jingle of the pig nuts in the vintage lever dairy feeding scoop my husband found, we love it as it has used histroy from a dairy farm from Penzance in Cornwall, which we love and go to every year for the Falmouth Sea Shantys.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.