Two hundred cabbage plants and a couple of beautiful alpacas

Today we had to journey to Llandovery in Carmarthenshire. On the way back we took a different route to normal. Along the way we found a new garden centre.

We always enjoy checking out garden centres just in case they have something new to add to our plant or herb collection.

What caught our eye particularly with this one were the two beautiful alpacas grazing in the paddock outside the garden centre.

Alpacas rock

As half our family are from Latin America we have always had an attraction to alpacas. In fact about fifteen years ago when we first moved to the homestead we almost started a herd.

At that time alpacas were very much in fashion as a new profitable venture for homesteaders. The price of the super soft alpaca wool was riding high and alpacas looked liked money machines on four legs.

We negotiated the purchase of several animals to start our herd. Then fortunate timing perhaps just before we sealed the deal the alpaca wool market collapsed. Everyone had had the same idea. The market became saturated, the price plummeted. You couldn't even give the wool away for socks.

Our alpaca plans were put on hold and we got angora goats instead.

Alpacas are back on the agenda

Now we've come full circle and alpacas are back on our acquisition list again. This time though they will not really be for making money. We want them for a bit of grazing and to provide wool. My wife is a keen spinner and knitter. And I would love to have socks from our land - 'sock independence' here we come.

These two beautiful young animals at the garden centre are Moonshine and George. They are males and only cost £250 (US$330) each - which is way, way cheaper than when we first looked at buying alpacas.

Male alpacas are generally much cheaper than females (usually around £1000 - £2000 (US$1350-2700)) unless you are looking for super stud animals. We are not.

So we are in the market for a couple of alpacas - hopefully we find some suitable animals soon.

The garden centre was quite a large one and well stocked for this time of year - autumn/fall here in the UK. With a large commercial greenhouse and a good outside area full of flowers, herbs, fruit bushes, shrubs and succulents.

Tarragon

I found a nice little Russian Tarragon to add to my herb collection. Although I have just researched and found that Russian Tarragon is much less favoured in cooking than French Tarragon which has a more desired flavour with a hint of licorice.

I will look out for a French Tarragon plant next time.

Seeds

There was also a very good range of seeds. All with a two year life but really quite cheap - generally around £1.30 (US$1.70) a packet. I picked up a selection of various seeds beginning with 's' - spinach, squash and swede. I will check out the rest of alphabet next time!

These are mainly for next year but I'll sow the spinach now for overwintering to have an early crop next year - maybe even in late February in the polytunnel.

The Tarragon and the seeds were good but the big lucky find at the garden centre were the spring cabbage plants.

They were giving them away for free !!!

I didn't want to be greedy but I have plans for them so I only took four trays of 50 plants each.

Brassicas are go

Brassicas are very much on my winter growing plans. I grew a couple of dozen last winter with very good results. Growing over winter meant they were not bothered by the cabbage white butterfly and the slugs hadn't got up and running before we harvested some excellent broccoli, cabbages and cauliflowers early last spring.

This winter I am going large on brassicas. I had already been buying a lot of cheap plants online. Together with these freebies I will have over 400 assorted brassicas in the ground this winter. Some will be in the polytunnel and the rest will be outside - this should help extend the harvesting season next spring - probably from late February onwards.

We made sauerkraut for the first time this summer and it worked really well. I think we will have enough cabbage next spring for a few more jars.

Tidying up the gardens and getting as much overwinter planting done as I can is my main focus at the moment.

We are also refurbishing and enlarging the existing raised beds in the old back garden and also building more new ones in the new pig garden.

I am really pushing my food production targets now. My aim is to reach one tonne of food a year within the next two years. I am hoping this will convert into enough to feed four families.

That's all from Pennsif's Progress - Day 880. Keep growing, keep prepping.

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[all images by @pennsif]