Small Plot? No Problem!

I know, I've been horribly remiss about updating this blog over the autumn and early winter, but I haven't been gardening either. What with the nights drawing in, the annual chaos that is NaNoWriMo and the overdue project at work sapping my remaining energy, I just haven't been to the allotment or even been out in the garden except to feed the bantams. However I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, really I am!

My guilt was piqued recently when I spotted that the lovely little squash we grew and harvested had started to go mouldy around the stem. Urgent measures were required if we were to enjoy the fruits of our labours! So, tonight's dinner was venison sausages with puree of buttercup squash :)

I had to cut away all the mouldy bits, obviously, so what was left was only enough for two. However once boiled and then mashed with cream and a little wholegrain mustard, it was a delicious accompaniment to the sausages: lighter than potato and not too sweet. Yum! I hope 2009 is better for squash-growing...

We have rats in the garden.

Two and a half years of chicken-keeping, and this is the first time we've had a problem. I don't know if it's because we no longer have an outdoor cat, or because the council cut back all the shrubs and bushes in the spring and deprived the rats of natural sources of food and shelter, but they've decided to make a new home in our garden. I wouldn't mind - I'm a zoologist after all, and few beasties bother me - but rats carry salmonella (and worse), and my poor girls are too scared of them to sleep in the eglu. This means war!