Processing the Harvest

I am off in a minute to catch a couple pogies and then to feed the fish and chickens. I worry my pond is at optimum fish biomass (Lots of small fish now, and then my big goldfish) so will go out looking for somewhere to catch a couple more bass to keep the little ones eaten. Balance is everything in small water eco-systems. Brim (the fish you see me feeding pogies) are stunted when too crowded. If you remember how little they were when I introduced them - this picture is Jan 1 when I put in about 18 warmouth brim total in over a wile as I would catch them in a tiny local pond - and this one was one of the biggest ones. They are much bigger now - and will be dinner sized by next spring. The ones they have spawned are now big enough to eat the small pelletized food I throw so now the pond is pretty much an aquaculture feature - my guess based on reading, water volume, and surface area, is it can produce 20 3/4 to 1 1/4 pound fish a year. Basically 10 to 20 fish meals for two depending on if they are the solely fish, or had with some shrimp or crab. So say one good fish meal for two a month.

The little ones coming up will keep replacing the big ones eaten. The small ones now range from 3 to 7.5 cm, 1 to 3 inches - the ones introduced spawned in March and that is how fast they grew in the warm water with feeding. The biggest introduced are big enough to eat but I want them really nice. This kind of fish only gets about a pound normally - which is good sized. Brim are extremely tasty and meaty. Fantastic fish. The world record warmouth brim (in Florida) was 2 pounds, 7 oz. (1.1 kg).



The down side is you have to swim in shirt and trousers as they nibble bare skin if you float still - which is very annoying. But then it is so hot during the pond swimming season your clothing is wet anyway if you are working outside - so just go in. They do not nibble fabric.

 

Colne,
do you know Pomfret? That's a lively fish when done over charcoal with Indonesian spices. Had it in HK and never forgotten the taste,
Jenny

 

I believe we had ponfret a couple times from the Persian Gulf as a child but in the Gulf of Mexico we have a fish called pompano which looks just like it but is not related - those I have caught and eaten.

the most memorable fish meal was again a child on the banks of the Tigris in Baghdad where the traditional masgouf is cooked over open fires at night. It is a city passion and families and groups throng to the riverside open air restaurants, and the fire pits and gas lights for this traditional grand meal.



(web picture, but way back in some box I have a family one of this)

 

Oi, don't you go anywhere mate, haven't finished writing my book about you yet

 

Hi zigs, thankyou
This is my favorite dessert of all - and with the help of a couple posters here I developed it. (And I have dessert every day) This is blueberries from a friends organic garden.

It is composed of the round cake which is 8 eggs separated, 100g of self rising flour, 100g of sugar, dash vanilla, pinch salt. (makes 16 cakes) Then fruit is sugared for an hour to overnight - I really like nectarine, apricot, strawberry, all berries, cherry, - poured on top, and covered with whipped cream. (I add a tiny pinch salt and dash vanilla to the cream after much experimenting)
And you must remember my excellent blackberry crop. Here is a frozen one gallon bag (US) of them, I think I got 6! And that off my 3 kioa bushes (The Kioa berries are the biggest blackberry fruit, see the size of those berries) - so big the birds cannot carry one off, so thorny the rodents cannot climb to get them; but still I have to pick them before they get sweet and soft or the birds pick them to pieces. These were picked purple, but being under ripe they turn red after freezing. So syrup and jam made - and also for sugaring with other fruit. (Froze 2 gallons of blueberries too - but given those, or bought.) I keep some blackberry syrup on the table for adding if wanted.



And this is just to show my youtube clip. I forgot to say 'self rising flour' but too late now.



We love them anyway, I remember someone saying they did not care for such an eggy thing, and it is - but I suppose one could leave the yolks out - only I think it all comes together well like this. And us chicken keepers have to use eggs, and hopefully like them.

Tonight will be blackberries and nectarine sugared - I will do it now, 9 hours before using so it can marinade in the sugar. The berries are sour - but the flavor still comes through.

 

Hi Colne,
I "trade" my wholemeal malted crunch loaf with an orchard owner and his damsons are ripe and ready to gather. Going , with a loaf, on Wednesday morning to pick 6 lbs. 3 lb for spiced Damson and Ginger Chutney and the other 3 lb for Damson Jam whichi divine in thw depths of Winter. A lovely colour and perfume - very nice on a slice of toast with Cornish Clotted cream on top. Well, we need a few naughty things to get us thru' the dull damp days,
Jenny
nb - it was me who found the sponge too eggy....

 

Make a video of doing the loaf - and the chutney! It is so easy, do not even bother to edit really - I do not because that is a pain. Just film in short sequences turning off 'record' between clips so they are separate clips - instead of using 'pause' - go to windows movie maker, click select videos, go to your downloaded folder - (the one you just put your camera content into)

select each short segment (click first one then hold 'ctrl' button on keybord and click on the additional ones, then click 'open' button at bottom and all are dropped into movie maker in order.) Then if you want use 'edit' function at top of movie maker screen to trim the beginning or end of each short clip, (clipping out the middle parts is a pain so use short clips and it is completely easy to clip their start or ending by using the 'start here' end here' button that appears when the movie maker 'edit function' is used. (Just pause the clip where you want - say 20 seconds in, and click the 'start here' edit function and the 20 seconds are ignored.) Cut beginning or end, or not, of any short clip - then it all will turn into one video minus the edits when you save it - or 'upload' it.

Then hit the 'youtube' button on the home section of movie maker and the whole mess of short clips - minus the deleted endings and ends is downloaded to your youtube account as one video. Takes minutes - then takes an hour to download to youtube, just walk away and come back later in the day and it is done.

 

Someone said it was hard to download from Flickr - it is easy, here is Jack picking a book for me to read on the Middle East



if anyone has trouble with that let me know.

 

I am up from a short night sleep, and will go back to bed for a bit - but spent a few minutes re-reading Daniel Hannan from the telegraph where he states the 'Game of Thrones, like everything is a muffled echo of Shakespeare.

I actually became intrigued by that last night so had my first look at GOT last night before sleep - watching a few Youtube clips (I had never seen any of it previous). I had been thinking of what to think - Shakspearingly - of my Tax nightmare that has consumed my last couple days, and last nights sleep.

Having almost no income, yet a very complex tax situation, I have been going back and depreciating some rental property by amending past years tax returns, a deduction I found I had missed, for three past years, in an attempt to reconcile a little - very odd sourced - windfall with my tax liability; to minimize how much I have to send them. I tried ignoring it all hoping it would go away but Saturday got a nasty letter from the IRS - and Thursday another one from a different source asking for a financial clarification.

So decided on Falstaff

To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of
a man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying,
when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true
and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valor is
discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my life.

And so I process my harvest. With Ford Prefectian book keeping, and tackling what I have shirked for too long.

 

The tax man cometh Colne! Somebody none of us can escape unfortunately.

 

Hi Colne,
a bit of alternative viewing to take your mind of the Taxman.
Went to the Orchard carrying home made bread and fudge to exchange for damsons and apples to make Chutney this evening.
the damsons

quite a good harvest

a view down the valley and up the other side ( North) towards Battle

a row of cooking apples ( Bramleys) - good for pies and crumbles and chutney


and a red apple - I'll ask him what variety this is

and the preserving pan of chutney. It is still not reduced enough - maybe another half an hour or so

Jenny namaste

 

And appropriate music:

Jenny

 

Hello jenny, Sheal, Shiney

I have been off in politics sites blemming off into space with my theories and biases.....

And have neglected the garden terribly, although I do often think of the nature of life and suffering, and joy and aesthetics - and spend a good amount of time sitting out on a bucket on the shell point behind my house with a rod out; although with the water being in the peak of fecundity the bait is so thick it is unimaginable - and so fishing is poor even though the predators are there. I got a nice big flounder for tonight though.

And I sit under my umbrella watching the chickens, and at my pond watching my flowers, masses of huge and gaudy dragonflies, frogs everywhere! and my fish - the gold fish grown very big in the hot 90f (33C) water. Metabolism of cold blooded things doubles with each 10C so all are on a mad growth and activity level. The Goldfish have such long, wispy, tails and some with scarlet and some shocking orange bodies with brilliant white patches and bellies - gorgeous as they swim amongst the now big warmouth brim for the twice daily feeding. The Tiny brim just spawned this spring are now big enough to take pellets themselves so it all is a wild dance amongst the water plants - just so pretty.

from Vergil in The Aeneid

Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi;sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Solve metus; feret haec aliquam tibi fama salute.

("The world is a world of tears, and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.")

 

Nice to see you here again Colne,
welcome back,
Jenny