Rodent-induced Activities

Again, there’s not been much activity on the blogging front of late. Every autumn tends to be busy at work, but this year is particularly hectic. It’s nothing that we can’t handle and everything is more or less under control. That said there’s not been much free time to chronicle my epic tales of gardening fails. However, this weekend the local mice decided to create a fail that practically blogs itself.

Over the past few years we (as an allotment site) used to put down rat poison, with emphasis on the “used to”. We’ve since become worried that the local cats might be ingesting the poisoned mice. This is clearly not a good thing, so from now on we will just have to live with the mice.

Part of living with the mice is NOT LEAVING LOADS OF FOOD IN A SHELTERED PLACE WHERE THEY CAN NIBBLE AT THEIR LEISURE!!! I had, up until this weekend, been storing my squash haul at the allotment on the dance floor. I figured it was cool and dry there, so all would be good. That was a terrible idea. I had even placed everything on bricks so that it would be nice and dry under the squashes. That was an even worse idea. Basically they just sat hidden underneath, nibbling until they broke the skin and then they crawled inside to gorge themselves on my squashes. Little b@&%^!*s.

 

Both of my ukichi kuris are gone, which of course was the squash I was looking forward cooked asap. The only thing the mice left unperturbed were my mystery crookneck progeny squashes. I do hope to put together a proper post on these later. For now, this was an extremely prolific volunteer plant but I don’t have high hopes for them taste wise. Figures

Looks okay from the top…

but not so much.

All this from one plant.

No use crying over spilled milk, so we’ve made the best of it. One crown prince has been transformed into a very rich but tasty pumpkin lasagna. This only used up a quarter of the pumpkin though, so the rest has been bunged in the freezer for later.

Plenty for later.

Must clean the oven…

Then we turned to the rouge vif. First there was a debate about whether it was salvageable. Even uncooked it smells extremely sweet, so it seems a shame to just let it go to waste. I maintain that once it’s cleaned out properly and roasted for an hour any rodent-based contamination will be either removed or sterilised. Am I weird for thinking this? The Enabler thinks yes, definitely, and has vetoed any attempts at salvage.

The next best option was to make a jack-o-lantern. Instead of carving out the top I opened up the hole that the mice had started on the bottom. I then sat it on a brick that doubles as a tea light holder. The pumpkin itself is a little flatter than a typical carving pumpkin, so I was a bit limited in carving space. Still though, not a bad effort and seasonally appropriate. Happy Halloween to all, even the mice!