Just because you don’t see them, don’t pretend they’re not there. If you keep hens or have ducks around, sooner or later you’ll get a visit from a mustelid pest. I’d never seen a live stoat or weasel around here, but we’ve caught quite a few over the last few years. Nothing for months and then this female stoat appeared in a our DoC 200 trap near our pond, baited with a hen’s egg. The only good stoat is a dead stoat. I was so surprised to see that I’d caught something , I nearly forgot to pick the watercress I’d gone down to collect from the stream in the first place for watercress soup.
The mouse traps continue to snap shut around the garden but some of the broad bean seeds have survived and their shoots are just pushing through the ground. Still time to sow broad beans and garlic. You can sow winter salad in pots too – mibuna, mizuna, claytonia, komatsuna, rocket, chicory, endive and corn salad will all do well in the colder months.
The wholemeal ginger slice was very successful from Jo Seagar’s Jo Seagar: The Cook School Recipes book. I’ve also enjoyed reading the beautifully written and very English biography ‘In the Blood‘ by Andrew Motion, formerly Poet Laureate in the UK.