Real Beer Battered Mackerel & Chips!!

This ain't mine but you get the gist :)

Just to kick-off the blog proper and after a busy day working on the 'estate' (I'll tell you about that in a bit) we thought we'd celebrate with a 'special' dinner, beer battered mackerel fillet and chips - all home-made!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been bumping on about alternatives to cod for a while now, and since 'nice' white fish is pretty hard to track down in Bulgaria I decided to have a go at filleting fresh Mackerel and making beer batter using 'local' dark beer (тъмна бира), Kamenitza.  The chips, from our spuds, were deep fried the traditional way - Job done!

Verdict - pretty fishy and one fillet is enough but YUMMMMM!!!!  You should try it.  Leave a comment and I'll send you my method.

The 1st Tyre Keyhole Bed in hand

Compost Bin
(all reclaimed timber)

The 'estate' is looking pretty tidy now after repeatedly having to repair the tiller to keep it going.

The strawberry tyre keyhole beds are taking shape, a project I'll post later, the first of two keyhole beds is in the process of being built yet another project I'll post later.

The compost bin is filling up nicely and we should be able to reap the reward next year.

Leaf Mould Basket
(the net from the old chx coop)

The leaf mould basket is filling up too .... not really surprising after the winds we've had, and plans for a small worm farm are in the offing, to be detailed later.  The Mk1 Methane Generator wasn't tested properly but Mk2 is in the design stages as I write ..... we will have free cooking gas .... trust me!

Main crop Garlic & Onion Bed

The main crop garlic and onions are planted and mulched ready to overwinter, and now it's time to consider what we will plant next year.  I intend to pad this out by having a 'Gardening Year' post which, with Jackie's photo at the beginning of each month, I will set out our gardening plans for the period.

All this while I continue to refurbish the previous 'refurbishment' of our house, install an inside stairway, manage the flow of rainwater away from the house and progressively re-build the summer kitchen, all little projects I may put up here for the record at some point.