Overnight Delivery

You couldn't make it up....

After arranging Asia's room, building a nice door (complete with magnetic key lockable cat flap), varnishing Peggys airfreight box and mounting an electric heater on the wall, Asia has had her kittens. In between Me and Mrs VL, in the middle of the night, in the middle of our bed.

Asia has learnt to operate the switch on the cat flap, and had obviously decided that she needed her hand held through this procedure. It was great to be present at the births of the 3 brown spotted kittens, probably girls but the resident vet is not going to commit to that yet.

What wasn't so great was the timing. Asia woke us at about 2 a.m as she clattered open the cat flap and joined us in bed. We organised the bed with an old shower curtain and some towels before the first delivery at around 3:25 (106gms), the second (again 106gms) came at around 04:50 and the third (90gms) shortly after.

So all in all, mother and kittens are doing well.

Strange ingredients

Part of the planning process for the 150 odd kilos of pork meat that we will soon need to deal with involves working out what we are going to make and what we need to do it.

Our recently purchased 400 Litre chest freezer, which should be delivered tommorow can only freeze 22 Kg of meat in 24Hrs. So there is a need for some clever logistics, and hopefully meat that is already nearly frozen due to the temprature in the barn where it will hang for a couple of days.

On way of ensuring that we do not have to freeze all of the meat at one go is to cure some of it. The idea of bacon and hams lying in salt for a number of days does no daunt me too much. On the other hand, Air Dried prosciutto style Ham and cured sausages are, I consider, among the most risky and ambitious things we are attempting.

Mr Fearnly Whittingstall assures that for him making Salami and Chorizo were an unqualified success. Our attempts seemed to be doomed before a single sausage skin was filled. One of the ingredients called for is "acidophilus" a bacteria/start culture, that apparently sets the desired mould growing process under way. Given the availability to the general public of uncommonly used ingriedients in this sparcely populated land our hopes were not high. However, today, 2 phone calls and I have 2 different start cultures suitable for salami and other cured pork sausages winging their way through the post to me. So, as long as they turn up, we'll have the ingredients, we already have the mincer, the eqiupment to fill the sausages and real sausages skins. Looks like theres no excuses and no backing down now.. Don't know if I'm glad or sad.......

If any of you out there have experience in Salami or Prosciutto curing, please share them in the comments.......

The Pigs leave(s) us soon

The pigs have, as you can see, enjoyed their life up until now. However, now that the autumn seems to have been and gone and it has been below zero for extended periods, caring for them has become more difficult.

Last week we had a lot of heavy rain leaving the whole of the pigs area a little of a mud bath and today it has not risen above freezing once, making the use of the hose pipe for water impossible.

The pigs seem to be comfortable and warm enough in their house with deep straw bedding, but there food intake is around 10 Kilos every day.

All in all it is time, so after some debate and waiting to find out about work travels, the slaughter date is set for Wednesday week, 2nd November. As long as the weather doesn't take another turn for the worst, we should manage to keep them outside for the last few days. Lots of planning to do then in the next week then.

Turku, Finland.

After Saturdays 10 hour drive over to Stockholm and Saturday nights ferry crossing, I find myself in Turku, Finland.

The primary purpose of this visit is not pleasure. The next 11 days will no doubt be long and tiring, as we will be seeing to the finishing pre-commissioning touches of Scanships (my employers) installation onboard Freedom of the Seas, which will become the worlds largest cruise ship when it is delivered to Royal Caribbean late spring 2006.

Yesterday though, was a day for recovery and relaxation and after our arrival to Turku at around 9 a.m also offered plenty of time for exploration.

This is not the first time I have done this journey and had a free Sunday in Finlands oldest city. The last time I was delighted to find the presence of a large fish market, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Yesterday, I had the company of a college, leading to a more in depth exploration and the realisation the most, if not all, of the cities many museums are open on Sundays.

Our tour first took us to the Cathedral, completed in the late 13th Century. A spectacular illustration of the durability and wonder of early architecture. Given that it was Sunday Morning, we did not go inside for fear of disturbing those with holier things on there mind than sightseeing. Maybe, I will return one evening this week.

After a tour of the wide streeted town and a spot of lunch it was time to hand over some of our hard earned cash to enjoy presentations of the areas history in local museums.


We mutually decided that the shipping museum Forum Marinum was a good place to start. At first it appear that our 7 Euro's entrance fee was not going to go all that far, but as we took our tour of the museum, it became apparent that this was one of the largest collections of shipping history I have come across. The museum comprehensively covers Turku's shipping and ship building history. Including freight vessels, warships and equipment, pleasure craft large and small and so on. Particular impressive for the petrol head was the room with rows of outdoor motors mounted on both walls. Must have been 8 motors high by 20 motors long, from the earliest engines to the most recent.

I can recommend this museum to anybody, especially those with an interest in shipping and things mechanical in general. If you happen to ever be in the situation that you are a couple of hours early for your ferry from Turku, don't sit in you car like lemons, take advantage of the close proximity of Forum Marinum. Great for old and young alike.

The other museum that we visited was Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova. A combination of the ancient city and a collection of Modern art.

After handing over our 8 euros, we found ourselves directed to a flight of stairs down which, quite literal, we descended into times past. The history of Turku, it seems has been preserved in the soil, and some of those clever archaeology types have spent an awful long time with their teaspoons to unearth it again. So you find yourself exploring part of the old medieval city, where it stood, as it stood. There are, of course, signs of strengthening and repair here and there, but it is amazing just how much was uncovered and found intact. You look into peoples basements, and walk down cobble streets, all now enclosed by modern concrete and steel. Absolutely fainating. Educating, enlightening and fascinating.

The modern art exhibition was entitled ars Iberica. Some of which was, in my opinion, of the "is it really art", "I could have done that" league. However, to find a number of Pablo Picassos in the middle of all this was a pleasant surprise. All of which illustrated why Picasso became a household name in the "contemporary" art
field. The Picassos certainly had something that the others did not.

So, Turku, A compact city, full of history. Come here in the summer, I would imagine that the winter is quite bleak, I will find out soon enough..... I hope to publish some pictures of this beautiful place, but you will have to wait until I am back on Norwegian soil.

Mice, Very Stupid or Very Clever?

It seems that now winter is coming the local population of mice is coming in from the cold and beginning to organise cosy places to build nests for itself.

One of these cosy places was on top of the pig food in it's sack in the wood shed which makes up part the bottom of the barn. Imagine my surprise when I opened the top of the sack to extract the pigs breakfast to find one of the little sods now trapped and trying desperately jump out of the now high edges of the open sack. Pretty much directly at me. Can be a nerve racking business this small holding lark you know. This problem is now solved as the food is now stored in a big barrel hopefully out of the reach of even the most mountaineerous mouse. Knowing my luck next it'll be one of the 3500 mink releasees.

Anyway, that lot is just an aside. Here's the real story.

From the currently distant land of Norway, I have been informed that the cat chalet is showing signs of little visitors during the night. Specifically their excrements in the food bowl obviously after licking out any residual cat foody goodness. So, it seems it's a case of Tom and Jerry. Now, my personal opinion is, to make you home in a house which is clearly regularly occupied by the arch enemy is pretty stupid. However, to live under the floor and to only come out when the enemy is not home, making use of anything he leaves behind, is pretty clever. No doubt, the presence (or otherwise) of a little mouse carcass one day will answer this question.

This unplanned experiment in animal intelligence will no doubt continue for a time. You will be kept posted of any development.

Culinary Uses for Marrows and courgettes #5

Courgette and Slow Roasted Garlic soup

Well, just to show how far behind I am with certain aspects of this blog I had actually made this soup before Irene's comment suggesting courgette soup on my previous related post.

This recipe came from Septembers edition of the excellent Kitchen Garden Magazine.

Roast you garlic cloves in the oven on a lowish heat for some 20 minutes. Meanwhile proceed to sweat your thinly sliced courgettes down to a mush. Add the garlic to the courgettes, plus some stock. Simmer for a while season and blend to desired consistency.

I can imagine that the options for courgette based soup are endless. I will try Irene's suggestions in the near future and report back. In the mean time, I need to catch up as I am at least 3 Courgette/Marrow recipes behind.