Quince Marmalade

 I have got a few Quince fruits from a friend and decided to make marmalade from them.

I would love to have a few Quince trees on our farm so I took some seeds which I will plant soon because they need cold stratification.

Yummi :)

Is Mono-crop Agriculture Killing the Bees?

Hallo friends,
for all of you who care about the future of our children and future generations as well as all other living beings sharing this planet with us I beg you to actually see this short but highly insightful speech by bee biologist Marla Spivak. Bees are in deep shit all over the planet and its time we understand why that is. Marla explains it well.

I'm afraid its come to the point to totally abandon our "american dream" kind of life style and adopt a more sustainable one, which is based on "less is more".
Mono-crop agriculture is the original sin of human kind. Because of it pesticides are developed, biodiversity is destroyed, insects are disappearing, birds are disappearing, ... Lets not fool our selves! Our modern day consumerist life style will be our doom. Each time we choose to buy food from supermarkets which is grown on mono-crop fields we are killing our childrens future. It matters little if you buy organic food made in same mono-crop fashion. Mono-crop agriculture remains Devoid of Biodiversity! Bees can't survive on one pollen source which is in bloom for only couple of weeks!

Our politicians are short sided; they only think as far as taxes. Maybe its time we stop waiting for them to change their minds and take action into our own hands.

I hope you take Marla's talk seriously and if, share with as many people as you can. And dont forget to plant flowers for bees. Each flower count!

Look what I've found in the bush

Actauly it was not me but my dear dog Bailey who found something in the bush. I saw him going often to one bush near the cottage and looking under it and then looking at me ... looking under the bush and again looking at me ... I knew he had found something so I went there to inspect and guess what?!

He found 8 eggs!!!

I have noticed our Hens not laying eggs lately. I thought it had something to do with the colder Autumn weather but now I see whats going on; they stopped laying into the coop nest but found a new nest under the bush. Why is that I wonder? Any way since we are feeding them with organic food which cost money I cant afford loosing those eggs to Foxes or else, and I sure don't want to search for eggs around our cottage every day since there are hundreds of bushes they can choose from.

I think I will have to reinstate an old custom called "closed in the chicken coop until noon" and after they have laid 2-3 eggs I let them free range. This worked before when they started laying eggs all over the place, even on the road and on our stairs (yes they would break and they would then eat them).

I checked the eggs for freshness by placing them into a bucket with water. All eggs sank to the bottom, which is a good sign. Eggs which are too old float and aren't good for consumption.