Wednesday 12 August 2015

Harvest all around us and local butchers

The crops in the fields around the house and village are starting to be harvested. On the way to suss out a local butcher in the next village that was recommended we noticed a couple of fields had been scalped by combine harvesters. Later as the sun set a harvester appeared across the road from the house. These fields are fairly small and we gather are small plots owned by a variety of local people like workers in the general farming industry who have inherited some land and grow a few crops themselves. Hence they are often ploughed, sprayed or harvested at the end of the day.  Behind the house are very big fields which are "industrial scale" farming. This year it is corn instead of potatoes and our neighbours tell us when the big harvest begins it will be very, very dusty.  In the distance is a field of potatoes which were recently sprayed, this is usually to kill off the tops before they are harvested. We will expect a lot of lorries when they get going as it is amazing the tonnage from these large fields.  Meanwhile we passed several trailers heaped with gladioli in bud - bound for a supermarket near you in the next few days!

the butchers turned out to be a great find, well priced, very fresh and a line in home made pies! Spent £35 for 1kg+ chicken breasts, 1 kg very good streaky bacon, 1 kg diced pork, I kg lamb mince, 6 thick slices of ham, 6 fresh sausages, 1 large pork pie. Which should last over the weekend and feed us and our guests. I squeezed some into the freezer, not a lot of room and those wretched broad beans are taking up all the space.  I am not sure when I will have room for any ice cream!




5 comments:

  1. Butchers sounds like it's a good find. I love crispy streaky bacon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. our little village is surrounded by grazing but one field out and its wheat and the dust and bugs are maddening , plus the endless tractor and harvester traffic day and night , for 4 weeks its like living on the side of a motorway . we now have the horror that is biofuel maize harvesting october time

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were harvesting a few fields along till after midnight!

      Delete
  3. You can't beat a good butcher, far nicer meat than from the supermarket.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The ham is exceedingly better than the horrid packaged stuff from the supermarket.

      Delete