Good morning . Grey and miserable here. Made all the worse by being Very low in oil. I've switched the heating off so we still have enough for hot water. Next deliver " by Friday " . Hope the sun shines to warm the house a bit .
Hi @Pat E ... they’re using the whole bird ... the main market is for the oil and skins, the meat and offal is becoming more and more popular and they’re developing new markets for the feathers and carcass.  They also sell eggs for cooking/catering and even the blown shells for carving into decorative ornaments.Â
As well as talking about the emus (they have to have a licence to farm them as it’s a national park) ... we had an audio tour of the area which they said had been used for sheep farming in the past ... we heard that at the moment the grass is very lush and looks ideal for cattle and sheep but because of the increasing risk of drought that’s no longer practical.Â
The emus don’t eat grass ... they eat seeds and berries, insects and lizards and even mice if they can get them, and they love the salty tasting leaves of a fire resistant bush that grows in the area ... I didn’t catch its name.Â
The meat is a dark meat with a much higher iron content than beef. It’s all leg meat ... there’s no breast meat and the wing of an emu is smaller than a chicken’s wing. Fascinating.Â
The second generation farming family were working hard to find a way of farming in that beautiful area in an increasingly difficult climate. I hope things work out for them.Â
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Keep your hatches battened @Busy-Lizzie ... hard hats on!  Hope the donkey's fencing stays intact and that your internet escapes without problems. 🤞  It looks as if it's going to be gorgeous today ... I have left two layers off and just have a long-sleeved tee shirt and a checked cotton shirt on with my jeans ... and today is a 'sandals day'! Toenails have been paintedÂ
I think it's going to be too sunny to put the toms, squashes and beans out onto the terrace, don't want them to scorch, but the big sliding door is open ... I might put some fleece over them at midday just to keep too much sun off them. Â
The main task today is direct-sowing some half-hardy annual seeds ... the semi-shade bed has become a sunny bed since the ash tree was pollarded, so we'll try something a bit different there amongst the perennials.
The other job will be prepping potatoes, parsnips and broccoli to go with a small piece of roast beef this evening .... it seems an age since we had roast beef but OH brought a piece home from Wrose on Friday together with a jar of horseradish sauce 😋
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Morning all ... @D0rdogne_Damsel... my zinnias are not so much small as microscopic and keeled over. In spite of my general ineptitude at gardening I am starting to think the seed compost i bought ( levingtons) might be to blame. Everything i germinated in a hotchpotch of old MPC and cheap new MPC and grit has done fine , its only the stuff i tried to mollycoddle with the seed compost that germinated fast but basically died a week later. Happened to my dianthus ( twice now , only one surviving seedling from each batch), and the zinnias are the same. Marigolds ( tagetes not calendula)Â and nasturtiums seem to be surviving ok. Sorry , i know this isn't supposed to be a detailed what's gone wrong thread. Hope others are doing fine, looks bright but still a bit of wind out there.
Still feeling fairly terrible, starting to think it might not be the vaccine, but a flare up in my general ill health. Need to organise some blood tests.
Just been sat near the pond [ well hidden ] and watched whilst a Heron caught a small Trout.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Posts
Grey and miserable here.Â
Made all the worse by being Very low in oil. I've switched the heating off so we still have enough for hot water. Next deliver " by Friday " . Hope the sun shines to warm the house a bit .
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000vy0t
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
There is an orange storm alert from this afternoon, very windy now. If I don't come back it'll be the electricity or the Internet.
It looks as if it's going to be gorgeous today ... I have left two layers off and just have a long-sleeved tee shirt and a checked cotton shirt on with my jeans ... and today is a 'sandals day'! Toenails have been paintedÂ
I think it's going to be too sunny to put the toms, squashes and beans out onto the terrace, don't want them to scorch, but the big sliding door is open ... I might put some fleece over them at midday just to keep too much sun off them. Â
The main task today is direct-sowing some half-hardy annual seeds ... the semi-shade bed has become a sunny bed since the ash tree was pollarded, so we'll try something a bit different there amongst the perennials.
The other job will be prepping potatoes, parsnips and broccoli to go with a small piece of roast beef this evening .... it seems an age since we had roast beef but OH brought a piece home from Wrose on Friday together with a jar of horseradish sauce 😋
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Still feeling fairly terrible, starting to think it might not be the vaccine, but a flare up in my general ill health. Need to organise some blood tests.
Just been sat near the pond [ well hidden ] and watched whilst a Heron caught a small Trout.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border