MORROWS WORLD
MORROWS WORLD
DIARY FROM A FAMILY FARM IN ULSTER
I APPEAR to have changed jobs. Monday to Friday I am now a full-time cook – cakes, soups breads, chutneys, you name it – I am making it and whats more, Im talking to customers all about recipes, the true flavour of home-cured bacon, the advantages of one type of sugar over another in jam-making…
When did I become an expert? I just put on my apron and stood behind the counter of our "new improved farm shop and tea-room" and everyone presumed I am one. What is worse I am behaving as if I am, giving advice right, left and centre. If only they knew the times Ive had to scrape the cake mixture back out of the tins because I forgot to add the baking powder, or how the "creamy vegetable soup" would have been broth if Id remembered to put barley in.
My niece Katie and I are job-sharing this new role, she shows a school round while I am in the tea-room, shes in the tea-room while Im at the cash-and-carry or market and so on. It works quite well really as I have been known to panic a bit while she tends to be much calmer and can serve a family with two toasties and a ham sandwich without needing a Valium afterwards. I am getting better though and managed by myself all day today while Katie was over at Leeds for an interview at the speech therapy department there. She is hoping to secure a place for entry in 2001, as she is off to see the world for a year first. But how am I going to cope in the tea-rooms?
As an offshoot of this new job I am now feeding my family entirely on left-overs and the standard at meal times varies greatly. On Friday night we had delicious fried sirloin steak and mushrooms, tonight we had bananas and bacon. The girls never seem to tire of the "gone slightly soggy" carrot cake and Johnston manfully ploughs his way through pots of coleslaw which are only just over the sell-by date.
I am nearly scared to say this, but it looks like we are going to have a decent strawberry crop this year. After a number of seasons battling against a nasty little root disease called red core, we seem to have got the problem under control and the rows of plants are looking really healthy between the straw that Johnston is putting out tonight. We have a rule in our house – no strawberries until our own are ready and then they taste extra-delicious when you pop the first one in your mouth straight from the field.
Sadly there are a large number of crows that also like to sample the strawberries. It wouldnt be so bad if they would eat a whole one but no, they just have a little peck at every ripe one they see. And sadly they are a very clever and no scarer that we have tried keeps them away for more than the length of time it takes them to work out that the strange noise, or the flashing light, or the funny looking balloon is not going to hurt them.
Well, their luck is about to change as we have just got a shotgun and have every intention of making sure it hurts them a lot. So far we have had no fatalities, as they seem to recognise Johnston from about 200 yards and immediately fly off, so to date it is a slightly more humane method than we meant it to be. Anyway the pick-your-own customers will be arriving any day and they are the best scarecrows of all – and they pay us for the privilege.
The strawberries are looking good this year and Judith is exploring new methods of keeping the rooks at bay until the pick-your-own customers arrive.