Andrew Cumberland's Page

Tiny farm tales...

I have 48 quail eggs in the incubator, on day 7 now. They have about 10-12 days to go. That’s left me with four dozen eggs for eating. That’s a thought process that I mostly leave alone. I also have four or five old birds that I can tell will drop off the perch soon. I lost one on the weekend. Nature says the old must pass so the new can come on. People aren’t any different, except the span of years Is greater. 

I split a native bee…

Am I an environmental warrior or just a dirty old dumpster diver?

Some folks would probably suggest that I am a tad over obsessed with climate change and living a life aimed at helping save the environment. There's some elements of that lifestyle which I normally don't talk about for fear of being labelled a dirty dumpster diver. But you know me - I'm gunna talk about them tonight!

I reuse and recycle a lot of wood and stuff. Why would I buy new stuff…

April 2019

I have pumpkins coming in now (taking up a lot of room). I've planted spuds out too.  Lettuce seeds are growing but I'm not sure how valuable they'll be in winter - pesto sounds good.  Silverbeet are also doing well on the north. 

There's a fair bit of citrus to harvest but the south side of the yard continues to die back.  No sun.  I've slowed down feeding the fish.  There's very few eggs from the chooks but the quails are still…

Salad/veges: I've been trying to show a few pics of modest harvests each day (facebook posts). The idea is to explain that little bits each day add up. If I can make the odd meal from zucchinis then that's great. The same with eggs, tomatoes, silverbeet, lettuce or whatever. Rather than worry about making a whole meal once a week, I find it's better to contribute one thing or two to most dinners.

Fruit: tends to come in batches. I try to make jams, chutneys…