Selfsufficientish.com

How long are sweetcorn seeds viable for?

I know they are all F1 and don't breed true, but I've done it before and it sort of worked OK... but I have some saved seeds from 2016....

Just for reference it is possible to grow these vines in Lancashire, outside. Last year I made a cracking 10 bottles (using an apple scratter to mince them up - 3 passes - and wild yeast) - plus a little chaptalisation (tate n lyle) to bring it up to 11.5% The result was marvellous, but better whils...

Anyone growing hops in Lancashire latitudes ?

Got any tips?

I've had some random hop variety self-seeding/propagating in my garden for ages and I made some beer with them last year... now I want to grow a recognised variety.

Not constructed one, but I used to be involved with a small wind mailing list and the received wisdom there was that VAWTs were generally a waste of time. Maybe good in theory, but they never worked. Paul Gipe and High Pigott are small wind experts - it might be worth making contact with them. http:...

My bramley windfalls are still usable 3 months later - how did that happen?

left for two months on the ground in mud, then the good ones bagged and left on a patio table for another month and they are still in perfect condition !

Is it just lack of frost?

has it fermented out? use a hydrometer and check... if it is close to 1.000 you are laughing - add finings and bottle it when it has cleared

What's the secret to growing peppers? I had two years of good results then three years of "half-hearted just won't grow" in the greenhouse.

And yes - it does taste better than steamed/sterilised apple juice

previously I have used a steamer to extract juice from apples it was OK sterilises the juice nicely, but does it affect the taste? I have inherited a "juicer". It has taken a while getting used to how it works - it grates, spins and sieves. The sieve gets clogged very quickly and seems to ...

I think many commercial vineyards spacings between rows are driven my the need to get tractors/machinery between them. This summer in the Loire valley (Chinon) I noted the "goblet" low pruning method - vine plants are less than a meter apart and the rows are about a meter and the plants do...

yeah - I left some pulled onions to ripen the other day - and they got heavily soaked today

Ok - I'll try seeds next year. I thought sets would give them a head start... obviously not as simple as that

I plant onions from sets, both red and yellow, in the same bit of ground, and subject to the same weather... So why do some onions: a) grow and bulb just fine b) hardly grow at all c) grow vigorously with fat main stems but fail to bulb much at all d) go to a full bolt and attempt to flower ??? And ...

I use lighter fluid. Soak the label (so that the fluid soaks thru the paper and dissolves the glue). as soon as it appears dry, peel the label. Sometimes the label comes off nicely and leaves a sticky gluey residue - I use kitchen roll and more fluid to get rid. Waterproof or metallic labels resist ...

"Getting the recipe right took about a year."

not easy to replicate at home then?

I have made loads of apple wine and cider from my own apples. Apple juice is apple juice wherever it comes from. If you ferment the straight juice with a general purpose yeast you will get a probably cloudy dry cider, probably around 4-5%. Measure the juice's specific gravity with a hydrometer befor...