Bwyd

Had our first "harvest" yesterday -- if you can call it that -- rhubarb and nettles! I'd been meaning to do something with nettles for ages (well, like, since last year) but just never got around to it and I suppose I was vaguely afraid. (And my fingers are still stinging this morning which is making typing this post slightly uncomfortable!)

First I picked a bunch (about half a carrier bag full) and just washed them and then tossed them in a pan with some butter until they wilted -- like spinach. They require more butter than spinach or kale, but I can tell you that when they are cooked they don't sting any more and they are quite tasty!

Then I got a bit more ambitious and I made a quiche -- and I am particularly proud of this quiche as I know where almost all of the ingredients in it come from...

Butter -- from an organic dairy cooperative about 35 miles from here
Rapeseed Oil -- from a farm in the Cotswolds, about 150 miles from here -- if anybody knows of anybody in Wales making oil, please let me know!
Onions -- from the Coop supermarket in town, but they are organic and according to the label, were grown in Cambridgeshire, about 230 miles from here -- we have got onions starting in the greenhouse now, so I should have my own next year! :)
Garlic -- grown here last year
Nettles -- picked from the patch growing on the edge of the driveway
Cheddar -- Welsh cheese, made about 100 miles from here yn y Gogledd
Teifi with Nettles -- Welsh cheese, made about 25 miles from here
Wholemeal Flour -- stone ground at a mill in Powys, about 70 miles away
Eggs -- from the hens
Milk -- from the farm next door
Salt
Mustard Powder -- but it did occur to me the other day when buying some prepared mustard that really I should just grow mustard and harvest the seeds and make my own -- so it's on my list of things to plant this week
Worcestershire Sauce
Tabasco Sauce -- I have been using this same bottle of Tabasco sauce for so long now -- I think I brought it with me from America -- which would make it the item in the quiche with the most food miles!
Paprika -- purchased (locally) by Greg's parents when they were on holiday in Hungary...

I also picked some rhubarb which I soaked in water with a couple spoonfuls of bicarbonate of soda before cooking -- this takes away a lot of the acidity and I only needed to use one spoonful of honey to sweeten this whole batch!

We also opened a bottle of the rhubarb wine I made ages ago -- and it is quite drinkable!

In other wine news, this is a bottle of pear wine that I started back in the summer. I racked it about a month ago and it was quite tasty at that point, so I think I am just waiting for it to clear. But how clear is clear? Can I bottle this yet?

We put the little lamb back up the field with the rest of the flock yesterday morning and are now (with a bit of difficulty) bottle feeding him up there -- it's nice to see them all back together again...

Left to right: 2nd ewe lamb, bottle fed lamb, 1st ewe lamb, pink nosed lamb. There is one more ewe who hasn't lambed yet -- she's got until 28th April, but she's not showing any signs yet.