packed off to the farm.

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend with Stuart's mum, Tanya, who lives on a farm. It's a small farm but great in many ways. Here's why :

...the farm is known as The Old Nags Head.

For a long time everybody called it that and I thought that was what they referred Stuart's mum to as, rudely and affectionately, including Stuart himself.

Until I saw the mail and that is what it is called. Officially.

...it's an old crooked wooden frame house.
None of the wooden beams are straight, yet the house is more sturdy than the brick one Stuart lives in.  And everything in the house is really old.

The crooked house.

Part of the Kitchen.

Pots, Jugs and various kitchen utensils hanging off the kitchen ceiling.

The chest is straight and upright. The floors and the walls, not.

See how much it leans to the right?

The room I stayed in.

Has a tiny little corner.

The Pantry.

Jars and jars of homemade stuff.

Lots of interesting things to find.

...I can eat off the land.

And there is so much available - I can munch on tomatoes, beans, berries and whatever else there is. Going out for a bite takes on a new meaning.

Snow peas.

Raspberries.

Gooseberries.

Red currants.

Stuart came back one day with a butter tub of these.
They are called sweet peas for a reason.
Unbelievably sweet when they are fresh.

Potatoes were ready, so we dug them up.

We cut up some french beans from the garden.

Minced beef, garlic, onion - all from the farm.
And some homemade fruit wine. 

This was our dinner.

Pears and apples about to be ready soon.
Can't wait for harvesting.

We are going to send the apples to be pressed into apple juice
but there will be lots more left.

Plums are ripe and ready now.

Yellow plums.

...I am surrounded by even more food books, some of them as good as the ones Stuart has and some of them older than I am.

Part of her bookshelf in the kitchen.

Her books have covers like this.

And ads like these.

And model housewives who looked like this drawing.

And gave other housewives advice like this.

Reading about how things were done in the past was nice.

Cookbooks don't come like this anymore.

This was me reading one of her many Elizabeth Davids outside the house.

...Tanya makes really good fruit wine which I just cannot get enough of and the stash is there.

3 of her numbered and dusty bottles I managed to get away with - for now.
The white one is made with apples and the dark ones are berries with parsnip.