In the winter, our place is wet. It is not just normal wet, rather super wet - up to pigs' ankles wet! This makes farming and gardening somewhat unpleasant at this time of the year.
Our philosophy has now completely changed with regard to how we grow things. We had been leasing another 10 acres across the road but the owner put it on the market so we had to bring the cows home. This meant a rethink of a) what we were doing and b) how we were to do it. On our own 6 acres we were suddenly over-stocked. The largest of the cows had to go, as did several sheep and a few goats. Another cow has gone to live with pig-raising friends - this is an ideal relationship - they have a bull so Devonshire will get in calf, we get the calf to hand rear and they get the milk for their happy pigs. But, we still had to think our way through where and how everything was going to work. We currently have two donkeys, one cow (Little Miss Gentle) and a couple of calves from January, ten sheep, ten goats, three rabbits, about thirty hens, thirty ducks, two sows, a boar and two piglets, five dogs and five cats. This is a large number of animals on a relatively small piece of land. In order for this to be close to sustainable we have to be able to feed the animals as well as ourselves. Every bit of the land now has to be doing something, either growing food for ourselves or for the animals.
Our citrus grove had started to produce significant quantities of fruit in 2013, and in the winter of 2013 we started planting new fruit trees there, to replace those that have drowned in our main orchard. It was still planted in a traditional way, trees at 5m centres. Then a friend started talking about Food Forests. Suddenly, we started to question our planting ideas. Why do we have such wide avenues between the rows of trees? Why do we have lawn that we still have to mow? Why have we got a huge orchard, a citrus grove, a strawberry garden, a currant garden (45 currant bushes) and a very large vegetable garden, all in separate places and all requiring watering, weeding and generally looking after? So we made a plan. In the words of a long-gone hair shampoo advertisement, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen. Already we have replanted two strawberry beds, moved several red and black currant bushes (and taken cuttings for many more), moved ten rhubarbs, eight gooseberries, the hazelnuts, some cape gooseberries (that will now seed forever), planted a thyme bed, a coriander bed, six blueberries and continued to plant fruit trees. Some of the citrus trees have been under-planted with shallow growing vegetables and the con-centric rows of citrus trees (three circles at 5m, 10m and 15m centres and 36 bushes in total) are now being joined up with lower growing plants, straw and lots and lots of well-rotted manure (our animals are very good at providing us with this.)
We still have to contend with constant flooding. We have planted many many flax bushes and gum trees to suck up the water in the winter, but no sooner do we get one area less wet, than the water seems to pop up somewhere else. Today we planted another thirty poplar trees, partly for stock food and partly as water suckers. In the summer, many parts of the farm benefit from this deep watering but right now it's awful. Truly awful. The pigs are in mud all day unless they go into their houses, and we are desperately racing against time to build a barn for them to get them out the mud. The barn itself is built, but the concrete floor needs to go down and the fences finished and we can't do this until it stops raining. We plan to build another one for the cows, and keep them out of the worst of the mud too. We will follow Joel Saletin's ideas on this - lay straw, put the cows in, feed them, then as they create manure, lay more straw, feed them, lay straw and so on. But, at the same time we have gardening to do and animals to tend to and it continues to rain.
The only farm dwellers that really like the rain are the ducks, of which there are far too many. We don't seem to be able to breed up hens or geese, but we can sure breed ducks. Before this season's ducklings arrive we have to cull a few out. They eat a huge amount of grass and make rather a mess. Because they free range in the orchard the ducks are living the good life but it does mean that they tend to be not particularly fat (as in chubby) and quite like wild duck to taste. Kent's recipe for duck soup will make any scrawny duck superb.
Duck soup with duck legs KB
Two ducks, plucked and dressed. Remove the legs (keep them though) and save the kidneys, the hearts and the liver.
The soup:
Add the carcase and the breast meat to a 10 L stock pot and saute in a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil. When the carcase has browned a little, add
1 cup celery root
1 cup chopped leek (white part)
1 cup carrots, chopped in largish dice
2 onions, chopped in half
4 bay leaves (I use fresh and crush them before adding)
1 cup parsley stalks
10 black peppercorns
1 allspice
20 coriander seeds
10 cumin seeds
Keep the heat up and stir with a wooden spoon.
After a few minutes, add 50g flour, whilst still stirring.
When the flour has cooked a little, add
200mls sherry
100mls dry vermouth
1L red wine
Turn the heat down and simmer for two hours.
Strain the soup, retaining the vegetables and the meat and chill the stock.
To cook the duck legs
Heat the oven to 160 deg C and melt a small quantity of butter in a cast iron pan. Dust the legs with flour and saute the legs until they are golden and sealed. Remove from the pan and deglaze it with 50 ml of gin and quickly add some of the saved stock. Replace the legs and add sufficient stock to cover them. Add some fresh rosemary, some sliced garlic, freshly ground black pepper and 10 juniper berries. Place in the oven and cook for 3 hours, making sure that the legs stay covered in stock.
Remove the legs from the stock and shred the flesh off the bones coarsely. Mould the leg meat back around the bones into their original shape. Wrap in pig's caul (our local butcher in Greytown sells this if you ask him) and set aside. If you absolutely can't get this, then skip this step and leave the legs as they were.
Form the cast iron pan, remove al the meat juices and any remaining stock, add the remainder of the chilled stock and boil until the volume is reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place the legs on a baking tray and bake at 260 deg C for 4 minutes.
Apple wontons to serve
Core one apple and place it in a small pan with 1 teaspoon of apple tea (or water), a shot of brandy and a little salt and pepper. Squeeze a lemon over the apple and add 20g of butter. Simmer for 10 minutes with a pinch of chilli until the apple breaks down into a rough paste. Take a wonton sheet and brush the edges with beaten egg. Add a tablespoon of the apple mix and shape the wonton to your favourite shape. Fry all the wontons in a small pan with a little grapeseed oil. While you are doing this, place the duck legs back in the oven for about five minutes to reheat (no more than 5 minutes).
Reheat the soup slowly.
Now, place a leg into each bowl, gently pour over the soup and garnish with an apple wonton.
Enjoy!
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