Why we keep chickens
Is there a greater pleasure derived from eating than the pleasure of eating the first boiled egg from chickens that you’ve fed and nurtured yourself? Eat it with soldiers you’ve made from bread you baked with your own hands and you’re close to a perfect breakfast, or lunch… or supper… They say that life that nurtures life is a life enriched. It’s why we keep plants to cheer us up. It’s why we keep pets. It’s why Tŷ Paned got chickens. When we made the decision to keep chickens it was based on food but it was more to do with feeling closer to...
Read MoreNew Year Resolutions
The new year brings a lot of excitement to us here at Tŷ Paned. Christmas held plenty of baking projects, buzz about some new courses for 2014 and most importantly time spent with loved ones. Sharing a gingerbread ski chalet with my family was certainly one of the highlights of the Christmas break. Making time to spend a day in the kitchen with my wonderful wife with no other agenda other than creating a gingerbread masterpiece was a very special way to enjoy time together with a result that was going to make us very happy indeed! Check out some pics:- Now we look forward to what’s in...
Read MoreHalf the hedgerow jam
There’s so much wild food around at the moment, it’s impossible to collect it all and find time to do something with it all! Over the weekend the Tŷ Paned kitchen was turned into a production factory for jams, jellies, fruit leather and more jam! As you can see from the picture there’s plenty available if you know what you’re looking for. In the picture there’s blackberries and elderberries in the bowl at the top left, rowan berries at the top right, crab apples from two different trees, sloes (the purple berries), two different types of rose-hips, and haws (the...
Read MorePort eirin ysgaw a meddyliau hydref
Wel, mae’r haf wedi dod a mynd. Mae dal ychydig o gordial blodysgaw ar ôl sydd yn gallu f’atgoffa am yr haf gwych a fu ond Medi’r cyntaf yw’r diwrnod lle dyn ni’n ffarwelio â’r hâf ac yn croesawi’r hydref. Mae gan greadigaeth digon i’w gynnig i’r chwilotwr llygaid barcud. Treuliais yr haf yn chwilota, pobi a gorffen y cwb ffowls heb anghofio pythefnos yng Ngroeg! Oeddwn i wrth fy modd gyda fy mara gwymon, gwnaed â gwymon o’r traeth yn Nhrefin. Dwi ‘di taro’r hoelen ar ei phen gyda choffi dant y llew (y gyfrinach yw rhostio darnau yr un maint neu byddwch yn llosgi peth tra bod darnau...
Read MoreElderberry port and autumn thoughts
So the summer has come and gone. There’s still a little bit of elderflower cordial left so in my mind I can extend it a bit but September the first is always the day I associate with the end of the summer. It means that school’s just round the corner. The summer berries and peas are finished. It’s time to start thinking about what plentiful bounties creation has to offer during the next season of life. I spent the summer foraging, baking and finishing my chicken coop and threw in a trip to Greece for good measure! I was delighted with my seaweed bread with seaweed picked from the...
Read MoreElderflower delight
The month of June brings almost unparalleled joy to the forager. As far as flowers go, the elderflower is the absolute king. It is so delicious and so versatile. It is one of the few wild foodstuffs that is collected for commercial use, and for good reason. It produces a beautifully refreshing, summer cordial, one of the finest hedgerow champagnes, and an increasingly popular, sweet treat called elderflower delight. Thank you John Wright in the River Cottage Hedgerow Handbook for that. I won’t give away that recipe, you’ll have to buy the book for that but I will pass on my...
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