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Deblyn

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Everything posted by Deblyn

  1. I hope no-one thinks I am hogging thsi to myself! I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with anyone who is interested. I make quite a lot of chutnies out of both fruit and vegetables. the best ones so far have been apple and plum, courgette (zucchini) and tomato and runner bean. I make green tomato chutney when I get them too. It is used in the same way as relish, and goes particularly well with chees, but i like it by the spoonful! It's good in all sorts of sandwiches too. Mead and beer are not the same; mead is a much older drink than "modern" beer, and has been brewed since ancient times. It is made from fermented honey; sometimes herbs were added for variety of flavour, and this is known as Metheglin, which I have not tried yet, but hope to soon. Beer is made from malted barley and flavoured with hops. Type of beer depends on the length of malting the barley and which type of hop is used. I make beer from our own hops I grow in the garden; I have four bines of Fuggle hops. They are ready to harvest end of August into September, which is a sticky smelly job, but you do get a lot of hops, and it can be done in a day. My husband enjoys harvesting them, probably because of the end product. The hops are dried and stored for use throughout the coming year. They can also be used in herbal pillows to aid sleep because of their soporific effect. That's why you fall asleep after too many beers, I suppose! I'll post my mead recipe, which is fairly straightforward) over on the stove site if anyone would like to have a go, as long as you tell me how you get on with it! Sadly Debbie, I don't have a farm, just a garden. Some people think it is fairly big, but it's never really big enough. It's about 160ft x 40ft out the back. We have planted everything that is in it, including all but three of the trees. We have the following fruit: 3 old varieties of apple (Winter Queening, Devonshire Quarrendon and Sheep's Nose), plu a Cox's Pippin, 1 Victoria plum, then damson and elderberries, birch trees (you can tap them for sap for wine making when they are mature), hazel, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, redcurrants, rhubarb, raspberries. Next year we are going to plant a hedge along one boundary and I want to incorporate greengage, wild plum, quince and medlar trees. We also have rowan trees. We have not acquired the polytunnel yet, as my husband is going to build it. I want it for winter veg and salads. I hav one aluminium and one wooden greenhouse. The al. one has Brandywine tomatoes in it, peppers and gherkins(dill pickles, I think you'll know them as) and trays of weedlings, basila dn parsley and other bits and pieces in. The wooden one is full of three types of cucumber, chilli peppers, lettuce, violet tomatillos and cape gooseberries. The cucumbers especially are doing well this year. I'm already looking forward in the garden and starting to collect seed for next year. My other great love is herbs, and I have a designated herb garden where I grow most types, with a beautiful ancient variety of pink and white striped rose in the middle. It has the hops on one side and can be pretty secluded in there, so I've put in a chair and can go and hide in there when it all gets too much for me! It's no bother at all to answer all your questions if I can! It's nice to have someone to share it with. My family all enjoy the garden, but they cease to be amazed by my wild and wacky(I don't think so!) schemes and ideas!!
  2. What never ceases to amaze me, and forgive me if this sounds really slef-righteous, but is how disorganised some people are about school clothes for their children. They rush around in panic about two days before the start of term and then moan about there being nothing of the right size, colour etc, then sit up until 3am the night before school starts putting name tapes into everything!!!Especially when they have six weeks in the summer to prepare for it. There got that off my chest! Actually I don't have the hassle of school clothes as my two are home-educated!
  3. What a timely posting! There is brown gunk coming up through the drain into our bath and the sink in the bathroom is taking an age and a half to empty, so the drains need attention. We have shared drainage with the house next door ( we are semi-detached), and I don't think they are too particluar about more than just their drains! I use washing soda crystals to clear most things in the department, but might try the vinegar and baking soda/salt for a change. I do believe, though , that the final rinse down should be with cold water, as if you use hot water, this may encourage fumes to rise up the drain and into the house. No evidence on this though. I'm off to clear my drain right now!
  4. Thnks for the info. Not a lot of people bottle their fruit and veg over here any more, they all seem to freeze it, but I prefer to bottle if I can. Bottling is what we call canning. Cannning to us is in metal tins, and very costly to undertake at home due to the price of the equipment, and the safety aspect. I don't have a pressure canner - will the water bath method or the oven method do? I know about the root cellaring idea, but have never used it. I will probably try the potatoes more out of curiosity than necessity; in an ideal world I would like to eat fresh all the time from the garden just what is in season and what happens to be out there on the day. Maybe one day. Can't do much without my stove at the moment anyway!
  5. i read somewhere of canning potatoes, which I had never hears of before. Is it worth doing? Is it safe? How is it done? Any suggestions welcome, thanks.
  6. Whoops! Forgot about the snow! We do occasionally get snow here in Dorset, but not very much and it doesn't lie on the ground for long. Where I was brought up in Scotland we used to get snowed in quite often in our village (no school!), but that doesn't happen here. The people down here aren't very used to the cold and the snow and they don't half moan! They wonder how I can go around in sandals and shirtsleeves in the winter without a coat, but I am quite hardy! The village does look very pretty when it has snowed, before it all melts - the thatched cottages and the old church and all the fields. Quintessentially English!
  7. Hi again Debbie, I'm glad you like to read my oral ramblings! The Rayburn puts out a lot of heat, and heats most of the house. We have an open fire in the sitting room for winter, which burns wood and coal, and there is no heating upstairs apart froma small electric heater on the landing to take the chill off in the winter. The warm air rises from the Rayburn and the fire, so that is all the heat we need. If we get cold at night (the winter never gets too cold in the south of England) we just put extra blankets on the bed. I'm not a fan of double glazing and fitted carpets as I don't think they are very healthy either for us humans or the house itself. My windows are open all year round for fresh air. Yes, we have four seasons here, roughly: spring is Feb March and April, summer May June July, autumn is August, September, October, winter is November, December, January. They do blur into each other according to the weather, though. Some people's ideas of the seasons don't quite fit with mine, eg spring is March April and May, and so on from there. I don't have a favourite season in itself, but like the time just as one season changes to the next, there's such an air or anticipation as to what the new season will bring, what will be ready to plant, harvest, cook, what the weather will be like, etc. It gets quite hot here. The weather has been hot for the past few days, about 80 -85 degreesF - I'm not very good at celsius, so can't work it out - I'm not technically minded and am hard pressed to read a thermometer! We haven't had rain for about three weeks now and the ground in the garden is beginning to crack and the plants looking a bit sad. I will post some of my recipes on the Cooking site if you would like. I like unusual ones that give a good use for things that otherwise might get wasted as there is a glut of them. At home, I make bread, bake, make wine, beer, mead, pickles, jam, chutneys, liqueurs for christmas, bottle (can) fruit and vegetables. I also like to make butter and cheese, but I need a good source of bulk quantities of organic milk, so don't make it often. I am working on that problem, though, so will be off on the dairying trail again soon I hope. I am trying to make room in the garden for goats, but we have decided on a polytunnel first in addition to the two greenhouses, so that will probably be the next project - AFTER the kitchen, I hope! See you soon.
  8. I'm trying to learn to say no to taking on new things, but find this very difficult! Have de-cluttered most of the house now, so have very little junk left, which is good. Can't get rid of all my wools and fabrics, but they will be useful in the future. I have started new routines for housework which I quite enjoy, once the clutter is out the way it is much easier to clena dn keep clean. This has helped me enormously, including psychologically. I'm much happier with the sate of the house recently, making the houswork much simpler and easier to keep on top of.
  9. I have the following at the moment: 17 chickens of various kinds, including three cockerels, 14 ducks, of various kinds, a mix of ducks and drakes, some layers, 1 rabbit, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 budgie, 1 gerbil. I am hoping to make room for a couple of small milking goats, but we will probably get a polytunnel next. I wanted more children, but my husband said no more children but maybe a goat, so I am going to take him at his word! A polytunnel is a poor substitute for either of these! This weekend we are going to get some more chickens; we have found a lovely new place that does rare breeds of hens, but I know I will have trouble deciding which to get, and will come home with far too many!!
  10. We had the fourth episode of Frontier House last night, the one with the haymaking, keeping cattle off the gardens and the Clunes sneaking off to watch MTV and barter for elkburgers! The children enjoy this series. River Cottage is not on video, but there is usually a huge reponse to the programmes, and as this is the last one he is going to make, they may put the whole lot on video then. He recently publishe the River Cottage Cookbook, which is wonderful. A friend and I wnet to a talk by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at the local agri college, where he did a demo on sausage and salami making. I throughly enjoyed it, even though I am vegetarian! I bought a copy of his book there, which he signed for me, with a little message in it. he is a lovely person, and completely genuine. He is the same on TV as in real life. River Cottage obviously gave him a tast for the good life, as he has left thesmallholding and bought a small farm in west Dorset, about 30 miles or so away from here. Maybe I'll bump into him somewhere!
  11. Hello from Dorset! I'm still here! The kitchen floor is veeeeeeeeerry slow, but no matter. It's baking hot here, so it's quite nice not to have the stove out, although I do miss my baking, and hate having to buy bread, biscuits etc. The cooker is a Rayburn, which is a range cooker, a smaller version of the Aga cooker from Sweden. It was in the house when we moved here, and was one of the many reasons I wanted the house, along with the original 1940'50's wooden draining boards and white china sink, the original larder, proper windows with wood frames (not plastic double glazing!) etc, not to mention the garden. The house had been empty for about a year and a half, as it needs a lot of work, re-wiring and plumbing, and the garden was "too big" for most people. How strange! It's not big enough for me! The Rayburn has been shunted back into position, but we need more plumbing bits to fit it back in. It heats our hot water and provides heat in the winter. Because of the water heating it is on all the time. It is the only cooker I have, (no electric, gas cooker or microwave) and runs on solid fuel, which is wonderful as you can burn alsmost anything! I make "logs" out of dampened newspapers in a moulding machine which burn well. It burns a lot of rubbish too. It can be temeramental at times (can't we all) especially when it is windy. I reckon about another week or so before I can use it. The baby cow has not been seen for a day or so, so I assume it was a bull calf. the filed next to us is very small and is the field they use for all the calving cows. The farm is very old, dating from the 1600's; apparently it used to be used as a nunnery of some sort, while the pub opposite our house (very handy!) was owned by monks who did all the brewing, in the 1600's as well. Parts of our village are very ancient. It is nice having the farm next door as it is unlikely they will ever be allowed to build on it. A public footpath runs up the side of it, along the boundary of the garden, so groups of walkers and hikers often stop to chat when I'm working in the garden, or stop to ask about the chickens and ducks. It's a good place to live, especially for the children. I would like to move somewhere quieter, though, although the village only has 368 people, it is on a road. I would like a small cottage on a hillside with a few sheep, but I won't hold my breath!
  12. I grew sweet banana peppers last year, but have only had success with one plant this year as I was givens some very old seed by a friend, but one is better than none. I tend to pick mine slightly on the small side, about 4 - 5", which encourages the plant to keep cropping. I did buy a brigh purple pepper the other day at the farm shop, and the children were very taken with it, so I will grow purple ones too next year!
  13. I love reading. I have read a couple of books by the Nearings, but am looking for more. I am getting into the homesteading books, and have a huge wish list which I would love to send to Amazon on the net, but the list added up to about £600, so that will have to wait! I acquired several books on meditation yesterday at our LETS meeting (local exchange trading system - a bartering system which I run the local group of - do you have LETS over there?) so will be dipping into them soon. I am not a fiction fan, but enjoy reading what I can learn from. My latest acquisition was Carla Emery - what a book! Have read quite a lot of it, very inspiring! I also like books on women's issues, and one of my current themes is American cookery books, of which I have gathered up quite a few now. I find them more intersting and inspiring than a lot of British books.
  14. Is this the same programme as The Frontier House? It's just started here in Britain, and we've just had the third episode, the one with the wedding. I like Nate and rudy, but find the others moan too much and are too confrontational instead of just getting on with things. I had hoped to learn something from this series, but haven't learnt much so far. We have a series on channel 4 here called River Cottage, where one man, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (wonderful name!) takes on a smallholding in rural Dorset in the south of England. Lots can be learnt from it, and it whos all his disasters as well as successes. At the moment his sheep are lambimg, and he does cooking in every episode using what he has grown or caught or bartered for. We had the 1900's house and one from WW2 as well, which were quite good. I don't think people today realise how hard it really was in these various eras. Hardship won't do them any harm - at least they get to go home after only five months. It might knock some of them into shape a bit!
  15. Thanks for that, Cat, I suppose I am one, got it from my granny!!
  16. Cat, what is a packrat?! Please let me know what I am!! I've made several ragrugs, but on a peg loom, although I have had a go at a workshop on a lot of different types, one of them being the knotted one that you are describing. It's a great way of using up all sorts of scraps, and quite relaxing to do. I've on waiting to have the ends neatened so I can put it down on my side of the bed to keep my feet warm in the winter. It's in shades of blue and pink and reminds me of Monet's Waterlilies. I want to try a braided rug next. It would be wonderful to see some pictures of the finished rug; I'm always interested in what other people are working on. Remember to let me know what a packrat is, won't you?!!
  17. Just when I finsihded typing up that last post my sone came in and told me another new calf had been born in the field beside us. I went out to look; it's no more than about five minutes old, the wee thing. the thrill never gets any less for me!
  18. Hello to you JuneBug from the south of England, Happy posting!
  19. Hello Carla from the south of England. I hope you enjoy this as much as I am, and I've only been here about a week or less, but feel quite at home already! Settling in nicely. It's a wonderful site.
  20. Westbrook, APRONS! What a good idea........ off I go again.
  21. Could be a rag rug? Knitted rug? Knitted bag? Tie-dyeing? Braided rug? Hammock? Better stop there, as I'm giving myself ideas, and have more than enough on the go at the moment!!
  22. What a good story. I agree with Lois about people off-loading animals when they get fed up with them. Animals are a great responsibility. When we go away (infrequently for lots of reasons!) one condition of those having a free holiday in our house is that the animals stay in their home too. We put Dixie in kennels twice a long time ago and wouldn't do it again. He was thoroughly miserable. Now he is getting older and has quite bad problems with this back legs ( the vet says it happens with older dogs of a breed with long backs; he is a crooss labrador/basset hound) we couldn't entertain the thought. We have acquired our rabbit, budgie, and several of our hens and ducks from people who thought it would be nice to have them, then get fed up with the commitment and time required, so look for womeone else to take them on. Usually me! I don't mind, though; everyone gets a good long life here!
  23. I'm always interested to know what projects others are working on. At the moment I have just started on the first of six children's sweaters for Christmas from a friend who doesn't have time to knit them! My other thing on the go is carding three flecces ready for spining and dyeing; if only t remove the pile of fleece from the bedroom! I also have several other smaller things on the go as usual. What are you working on?
  24. All of the above, plus my children and having even just a little time to sit and do nothing if that's what you want to do, and books ofcourse. Getting my stove back will be a real pleasure (husband is laying floor in kitchen), so we can bake bread and biscuits again and not have to buy them, and the smell of the huge pile of sheep fleece in my bedroom waiting to be spun!
  25. Don't know if this is the right place to put this, but I will anyway! I came across Mrssurvival via another site, and have registered with you. I gather from what I've read so far there have been some problems, but it all seems to be up and running agin - good luck and long may it continue. I live in the south of England, and am a married mother of two. We haven't had internet for very long, and I'm still getting used to the way it works - lots of stuff posted twice, losing stuff into the ether and all that. I'm looking forward to taking part in all the forums and have put the site on my favourites list to get there quicker. Look forward to joining in!
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