With Autumn’s cooler days just around the corner, I’ve been thinking for a while about our dogwood problem. It’s like a monster that we hack back every year, and it just grows like billio, threatening to invade the whole Smallest Smallholding with it’s annoyingly persistant runners. I don’t really want it here, the only reason that it’s stayed is that it gives us some privacy and also provides the birds with a glut of berries come Autumn. But it’s getting far too big and out of hand.

But as we have a multitude of pyracantha bushes all over the joint now, I think it’s time to start thinking about removing the dogwood. It’s just far too difficult to manage, too thuggish and not really that useful. So I was thinking perhaps I could replace it and make better use of the whole area it swamps (quite large, as nothing grows underneath it apart from it’s own runners and bindweed) with a coppicing area. I would like to grow hazel that I could regularly harvest, season and use for firewood. Given that it would be grown in an area with a lot of trees, a renewable resource, and it would heat the whole downstairs of the house from the fireplace, I think it’s a pretty environmentally-friendly sort of approach, don’t you?

But with futher reading, it seems like on such a small scale it might not be viable. This is because it could take 7/8 years for regrowth for any other than ‘faggots’ - smaller 2 metre bundles of hazel around 300-400mm thick and tied in three places. Faggots are used for things like fencing and riverbank erosion repair. But to me, they look like good kindling. I’m just not sure though. I suppose you could always shove it through the chipper and use the wood chips as fuel too? In fact, I suppose you could do this on a small scale with willow too. I have a feeling willow is much faster than hazel. Perhaps a mix of both? Worth looking into.

The other great thing about hazel coppices is that they’re brilliant for wildlife. The stumps from which the new growth grows is like a miniature wildlife habitat, with old wood, leaves and soil offering food and shelter.

The point is that I want something renewable and fairly fast growing that I can harvest year upon year. We need to reduce our central heating usage in the winter, given the rising costs and our responsibility as consumers. I’m going to make curtains this year for the winter to replace the blinds downstair, as our old sash windows are draughty and not very efficient. An open fireplace will actually draw in draughts, so I need to think of ways to maximise the energy output of our fireplace, especially if we’re to grow our own fuel.

Ian at Farm Blogs From Around the World recently featured the Smallest Smallholding:-

http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/08/smallest-smallholding-england.html

The idea is (in Ian’s own words): “At Farm Blogs I am trying to gather in one place the very best of global blogging about farms and farming... My posts are made up of the blog recommendations from farm bloggers and I also post regular stories about world farming.

All blogs have been recommended to me by other bloggers or identified by me during my occassional browsing... I have a pretty broad definition of farming - if you’re producing food, you’re a farmer, to my mind at least. So blogs range from ranches to part-time smallholders, and resources for them.

Once recommended, I add them to the blogroll and then contact the bloggers asking them to send me a few words about their farm/small-holding and their blog and, critically, to recommend their favourite farm/farming blogs.

And so it goes and grows.”

You can visit Farm Blogs From Around the World at http://farmblogs.blogspot.com

We have a Victoria Plum tree here at the Smallest Smallholding. It’s a proper old, knarly tree that we think was here as part of the original market garden that the land was once a part of. The remnants of the market garden include said plum tree, a damson and perhaps the crab apple. There is another cooking apple tree but unfortunately for us it belongs to next door now (yes, I am quite bitter about it).

The problem with our plum is that every year the plum moths come along and lay their eggs there. So you never quite know when you slice open the plum with your fingernail whether you’ll be met with nice, juicy plump flesh:

…or not so nice plum moth larvae and their excrement:

Needless to say, I don’t have the pleasure of being able to pluck a plum from the tree and take a big, juicy bite from them. It’s not worth the risk, seeing as most of the plums are riddled with the plum moth larvae. Now, you could say it’s my fault for not killing the moths in the first place. Well, call me an idiot, call me sentimental, call me what you like, but I don’t like killing things. It’s just not the sort of person I am (although, I do dispatch fleas quickly and efficiently. Where’s the difference? I don’t know, I don’t even feel particularly easy about killing fleas. Ridiculous? Maybe.). I especially HATE and detest those sticky pheromone moth traps. They’re indiscriminate and dangerous to other wildlife, and I don’t particularly like the thought of something dying a long, horrible death like that. I’ve also read stories about blue tits and other small birds getting trapped and dying on them. I just don’t go there, it’s not part and parcel of my ‘green’, wildlife friendly ethos. You might think humanise things too much, but to me suffering is suffering. I’m all about me doing the hard work rather than just killing things so I can get the most out of them.

But of course I want to be able to eat my plums. So what do I do? Well this year obviously I’ve missed the boat on this one. But next year I’m going to road test a preventative, non-killing sort of method. I haven’t worked it out yet, everything I’ve googled goes on about plum moth traps, so it make take a bit of research. I’ve read lots of things about peppermint and mint keeping a whole host of insects away, so perhaps that will work.

Besides, I’ve nothing to lose really. If the plums aren’t got by the plum moth then a wasp usually comes along and has a feast on them anyway!

But one can dream… so here’s a recipe I might have used had I had a decent crop of plums to make some preserve with. Perhaps you’re luckier than me and have a crop, so why not give it a go and make me green with envy?

Plum Preserve Recipe, ‘Plum Pot’ courtesy of my WI Jams, Pickles and Chutneys book*:

Makes about four 450g (1lb) jars
Prep time: 20 mins + standing overnight
Cooking Time: about 45 mins

Ingredients:
1.3kg (3lb) plums, washed, stones and chopped into large pieces
450g (1lb) raisins or sultanas
2 large oranges (175-225g/6-8oz each), sliced and chopped into small pieces
1.3kg (3lb) sugar

Method:
1. Put all the fruit and the sugar into a large non-metallic bowl. Cover and leave overnight.
2. Next day, transfer the mixture to a large preserving pan and heat slowly until the sugar is dissolved, stirring al the time.
3. bring to the boil and then simmer until the mixture is fairly thick - about 30 minutes. A knob of butter can be added during cooking to reduce any scum.
4. Pour into cooled, sterilised jars and seal. Label and store.

*Best Kept Secrets of the Women’s Institute Jams, Pickles and Chutneys by Midge Thomas
Simon & Schuster UK, 2002

In addition to my post below,we also have a small spattering of the other sort of corn - err, corn. Field corn? It’s been growing under the crab apple all summer. I thought it looked good, especially as we have lots of poppies growing close by. It’s also been a handy place for wildlife to shelter, and I took a picture of one such resident:

I have been wondering if I can do anything useful with the corn though. I can’t really see myself grinding it down by hand with a pestle and mortar (partly because I don’t own one). So my little project is to find out harvest corn, how to mill corn by hand, and how much you need to do something decent with. Corn chips, anyone? Does it make flour easily? Am I completely on the wrong track? It’s actually quite embarrassing that I’m so baffled by the whole thing.

Anyroad, I’m not totally opposed to the idea of having a mini corn field here next year. The only problem is the chickens and cats have a tendency to sit in the middle of it and flatten it…more investigation needed me thinks.