Deblyn

About 6 weeks - I'll put the kettle on......................

My father always made his own beer, so I thought I would carry on the tradition. It is also obviously a lot cheaper than buying it, and the main thing is that you know exactly what goes into it. Everything that goes into my beer is nutritious and healthgiving. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The hops flower during the summer and are ready to pick in the middle of September - a dirty, sticky smell job, but worth it!

The hops are then dried; I bundle them up in an old net curtain and hang them on the clothes pulley above the Rayburn for a few days, then they go out into the shed for storage.

Beer is basically composed of water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Other things are aded to make different types of beer, but I just amke the basic as that is what we like, and it usually turns out well.

Not having enough land to grow the barley (roasted barley grain = malted barley), I have to buy malt extract, but have now found a source of organic extract which is very good.

Basic Home-brew

1 lb malt extract

1 lb sugar

1 oz hops

1 gallon water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yeast (special brewing yeast is available, but I just use the ordinary bread yeast)

Dissolve the malt extract, sugar and salt in the warmed water, then add most of the hops and boil for 1/2 an hour. I put the hops in a muslin bag, as they are a b****r and a half to get all the wee floaty bits out afterwards, and they get stuck in your teeth when you drink the beer! Add the remainder of the hops about 5 minutes before the end, just to boost the hoppy flavour. It is the hops that bive beer its "bitter" flavour. Place into fermentation vessel (I use big 6 gallon buckets), add previously activated yeast (ie frothed up with sugar and warm water), stir it in and cover, but not too tightly. Fermentation is finished when there is just a tiny little bit of froth in the middle of the top; usually about a week or so in a warm place. Rack the beer into another vessel, add another 2 ounces of sugar, stirring it in thoroughly. Bottle in strong bottles, and it will be ready to drink in about a week - 10 days, but improves with keeping.

I'm brewing today, actually - maybe I'll get Mr Lowie to set up a digivideocam thing - Beercam! Then you could watch me do it!!

Putting a posting on beer over in the wood stove.

Here is a photo of part of my hop harvest which I started picking today. Bet you wish you had smell-o-vision!!

That is the title of a little column in the current issue of Sainsbury's magazine. And it goes like this.................

Yak?Yuk!

The hairy, hardy Himalayn yak, favourite fare in tibet and Nepal has made it on to American menus. There are already some 30 small yak ranches in the US, producing low-fat meat that fans say is juicier, sweeter and more delicate than beef. Yaks are docile, thrive in high, rocky places and eat less than other cattle. But, for the moment, the meat costs more than double the price of beef. And then there's the image problem..........

A Lychee Story

Traditionally confined to a role between chow mein and fortune cookies, lychees - all 2 million pounds of them - are now being widely offered on supermarket shelves in the US. Farmers began growing them to replace less profitable crops after Hurricane Andrew devastated Southern Florida in 1992, and this year has brought the biggest-ever harvest.

Can Do

Just as we were getting used to screw-top wine, here comes wine in a can. Marketed as Aussie wine, a four-pack of Cabernet or Chardonnay, the equivalent of a bottle, sells for about 6 pounds. A top-secret can lining prevents the wine from tasting tinny.

Doing (less) porridge

Cash-strapped US states are trimming prison diets. That means two daily meals instead of three in Virginia, one dessert choice instead of two in Iowa and jelly instead of fruit in Minnesota.

For richer, for poorer...

Wedding cakes cost twice as much now as 10 years ago - about 2.60 a slice. It's not quite Martha Stewart, but to help couples economise, bakers now offer a cake that is mostly ornately decorated styrofoam, with just a top tier that is real. After the symbolic cutting ceremony, it disappears into the kitchen, re-emerging as pre-cut slices - from a tray-baked version.

So, that is how Sainsbury sees the current trends in American food!

Thanks for the answer on dried cheese - I was going to ask, as I've never seen anything like it over here. Is it ordinary full-fat cheddar type cheese you dry, or is it processed cheese? It is a good idae, and would be good and quick for sauces, etc.

Yes Deb - apparently I can't spell picture!!!!

I knitted this for something else, and thought you might like to see a oicture of it. I can give the pattern if anyone would like it (it's one of mine):

S'OK - gave me a bit of a laugh!! Excuse me for having a British sense of humour......................!!!!!! I really must think of something to post in reply ti HB's question now. May take some time!

Seldiesgirl, when I said I can't follow that one, I didn't mean follow as in understand. I have known Debbielee long enough to well understand her post! What I meant was that I couldn't think of any post to follow her post that would have quite the same impact as hers............

I can't follow that one...................

I think it would be better in the New Year - I get easily confused! I would hate to lose track of what I have to send where, and want to get it right; I'm involved in a couple of other exchanges as well. It would also give us time to get the fabrics together, not to mention saving up for the postage!!

I would be more than happy to take part in January, as it was such a success. Have a break , Snowmom, put your feet up!

I think it will be a bit like spaghetti squash. I grew them because I once saw a picture of them and thought how nice they looked. I didn't realise how big they would grow. That is a large hen's egg in front of the larger one to give some idea of the size! Angel hair wine sounds a much better proposition - I'm on the job this afternoon.....................!!! What a good idea!

You are such a tease.................!!

We can always rely on Deb, can't we?!!! Cock = short for cockerel = any old poor chicken that had died of old age (or possibly something else) and was not to be wasted so they put it in the soup. Not in my house they don't............... A long time ago they used to put dead chickens into barrels of fermenting beer to add "body" to it, and they used to put rats into Somerset cider to do the same. And people wonder why I brew my own!!!

The prunes just give extra flavour, yes, slightly sweet. I think they were cheap and plentiful and easily obtained, and it was an extra way of getting fruit into bodies without the expense of buying the fresh fruit in the winter months. They swell up with cooking in the liquid, and add extra colour too.

It's a jam made out of this particular type of gourd; the flesh is cooked several times over (takes 3 - 4 days to make) and goes like strands of hair. I've never tried it and I think it will be very very sweet. I'll probably give it a go as I don't know what else to do with them - they are HUGE!!!!! Angel hair jam by the bucketful, anyone? Please?!

I grew these in one of the greenhouses over the summer; they can be used to make Angel Hair jam - but how much Angel Hair jam does one woman need?!

This is a very old traditional Scottish soup, and great for warming you up in the winter. I don't eat it with the chicken, but like the rest of it!

Make leek and potato soup, and add prunes and shredded or diced chicken towards the end of the cooking time.

It's very nourishing and filling; my granny used to live on it for days at a time!

This is how I make mine; as usual, no exact recipe and precise quantities!

Put some oil and a dod of butter into a large pan; add one medium onion, chopped finely and one small clove of garlic, chopped finely too.

Take about three large leeks, wash well to remove any grit and shred, but not too finely; add to pan. Take about five medium sized potatoes, peel and cut into chunks; add to pan. Add stock of your choice and simmer until vegetables are tender.

You can put it through a blender if you like, but I prefer it as it is.

Cream and black pepper are nice added when serving.

The soup freezes very successfully.

I like the gardening/cooking ones too. One of the best in recent years is Fork to Fork by Monty and Sarah Don; lovely photos, great recipes, all out of their garden. Another good one of this ilk is by Christopher Lloyd, whose garden is at Great Dixter. His book is called Gardener Cook and is more upper crust than Monty's book. It is a good read, though, and I find his writing very good. The River Cottage series is good, too; Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall took on a gamekeepr's cottage for a year (not far from me, here in Dorset) and turned it into a small holding - grew veg and fruit and kept livestock. He's a great cook, passionate about local and "real" food. He has his own website at www.rivercottage.com which is very good. If you go there, you will probably see my name in the forums! I met him too - he's a lovley bloke. I went to a lecture on sausage making at the lcoal agricultural college; he was selling his latest book at a discount rate, so he signed my copy, which is lovely!

Thanks for the explanation - I though it sounded like the title of a particularly bad science fiction film!!

Leeks will stand a lot of frost and are completely hardy, so you should have no problems. I usually sow them from seed as it is much cheaper. This year I bought some seedlings from a speaker who came to the garden club; he had some spare ones going quite cheap, so I got a couple of pots of those and lined them out. Another advantage growing them from seed is you get to choose the variety. A lot of the commercial ones are F1 hybrids, which I try to avoid in the garden. I like growing heritage varieties. One of the nicest ones I grew was a very old French variety; when the weather got cold enough the leaves went from green to a dark shade of purple - they looked lovely, especially in the frost.

If the ground freezes hard, you won't be able to dig the leeks; what you can do, though, is dig up say a dozen or so every couple of weeks and heel them into looser soil, so you can get at them. The soil keeps them fresh and you can still get them more easily.

The mobile didn't have The Handmaid's Tale, but I did find The Red Tent! So I will read that one first, and go in tomorrow to the terrestrial (!) library and get the Handmaid.

The Red Tent sounds completely different to anything I would normally choose to read, so that should be interesting!

The postal workers were balloted and have narrowly voted in favour of NOT coming out on 8 one day strikes between now and Christmas. So, I should be alright to get the christmas ornaments off on time!!

Yes, I like goats and am trying to find a place to fit them in our garden somewhere, but hopefully it will be nxt spring. I would rather have more children, though. They are better at washing up and putting out the dustbin......................

This is similar to the post Dee put up in the Sunporch about word perception. Did you find something like it at the same time?

btw, Mr Lowie says my mind is a strange thing, but I wouldn't know, I don't go there much - too scary.