Poultry auction today

The poultry auction was at Holywell Row, near Mildenhall in Suffolk. There is a weekly sale at the same venue but this was a quarterly auction of pure-breed poultry, as well as pigeons, waterfowl, quail, parrots, and some equipment and hatching eggs. No, I didn't buy anything!! There were hundreds of entries and the auction went on and on and on - there were two auctioneers, Fabian Eagle and his brother (I'm told) both selling as fast as they could draw breath. The prices were good, I think, and I particularly wanted to see what the Buff Orpingtons went for - a pair sold for £46, and then a pen of three hens went for about the same, so it seems to depend on the birds as well as demand. It was a very interesting day out, and the FH and I enjoyed it, but the girls were bored with the waiting and watching.....

On the way home, we stopped at a roadside stall and picked up some beautiful veggies - bunches of new carrots at 50p each and cabbages as big as footballs, also for 50p each. I got two bunches of carrots and a cabbage, and I am really looking forward to eating those carrots - they are the best! They smell wonderful - fresh and earthy like a good carrot should.

This evening we have had Uncle J over to tea and he has brought his bounty again to share with us - Monarch plums, runner beans, blackberries, pears, tomatoes, cooking apples and some more Laxton Fortune eating apples. The harvest just keeps going - but the freezers are full! I jokingly said to the FH that we would need a third one and he said that I should find other ways of preserving the food........mmmmm...apple butter might be a good way for the apples as that has been very well received; the beans will get eaten in the next day or two, the tomatoes can be eaten and some more pasta sauce made as I should be able to squeeze a pot of that in somewhere but that leaves the plums! I can't make more jam, I just can't!! Plum crumble will be on the menu, and maybe stewed plums for breakfast too. I am just so grateful to be given it all that I shouldn't complain at all.