August 2011

News from the Sanctuary.

I make tofu. It is good.

You make tofu from soya beans and nobody ever grows them in the UK. Word on the street is that you can't. Hmmmm......... Nothing like a challenge to grab my attention!

So I took a handful of the hard little dried beans and slung them into a pot of water to soak for a day or so them poked them, unceremoniously, into some compost. I really didn't expect much, given the sharp intake of breath and head shaking from anyone that I told, but they pretty well all germinated and I was smug.

Up they came and I duly re-potted them and still they grew, so I put them into bigger pots again and they were thriving, even beginning to produce little baby beans. We were very excited. It was novel and fun and we were even talking about how we were going to eat our edaname beans which was a laugh as we would probably only get a couple each – but they were soooooooo expensive in the shops!

Well, I should have known better. I got them down from the chicken house roof on which they live to water them and set them on the ground. I gave them such a good soaking that they were too heavy and I couldn't get them back on. I asked Mark to put them back – but he forgot, he was busy and it was quite understandable. Still, they should be safe, I thought, as they were shut in a fenced off area so all was well. Well it was not, as Leroy hopped over the fence and ate the lot!! Some of my poor plants were scalped to the ground and others just look embarrassed by their lack of leaves. They stood like potted, wannabe mini totem poles, stripped of their branches and anything green.

Oh, well, you think, that's what deer do, being wild animals. So how come when I went in the house I found him lying on the settee, chillin, having generally messed a few thing up? He's not a regular deer at all, he's more of a, 'Oh dear!'