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From what I've read pressure canners allow you to select specific pressures, suitable to the needs of the food you're sterilising for storage ie killing the botulism, which is the baddie that matters. And books/internet sites / etc are unanimous in emphasising that you must use the correct pressures...

Thanks for all that. I've downloaded and read the Tipsheet now, which was very interesting. It helped me to visualise it more, and to realise that I'm a bit further along than I realised. I'd forgotten to take into account the 8ft Walnut tree I planted a couple of years ago, plus the edible 'hedge' ...

I've got some small apple trees, a small cherry tree, a red currant bush and some blueberry bushes + a cranberry in a large container. Most of the trees are in large containers at present, although 2 have been planted in - to be honest - fairly random positions. I also have some raspberry canes - by...

I live in a semi on the outskirts of London, so my garden is definitely NOT huge :iconbiggrin: However, I'd love to turn it into a forest garden. Does anyone have any advice on books or other resources which I could use to get ideas / learn how to set one up? I'm used to traditional fruit and veg gr...

I did really well with a bog standard mushroom kit I picked up from Woolies for next to nothing when they just wanted to get rid of their left over stock to get the shelf space for something else (I miss Woolies). So if you see one at the right price I'd say it's definitely worth a shot. I wouldn't ...

Yep, the ideal temperature is 37oC, but it's OK up to 50oC (and down to 35oC). Nowadays I use a thermomix (love it - the home farmers best friend) to heat my milk and do all the prep work for yogurt, which takes all the effort and guess work out of it. Before i had that I used to wash my hands thoro...

Some friends bought what looks like an opaque bucket for their newborn. Apparently it's meant to feel like being in the womb to baby. It probably cost a fortune but was no different from a bucket. We had one of these with our first - it's called a Tummy Tub, and we picked it up cheaply in a sale (n...

Muscovies don't need a lot of water, they like a little splash here & there, but nothing more. And no, they don't quack, they hiss!! They also roost like hens, and the eggs are very low in cholesterol. But they do like to be in a little 'gang' - we keep losing our girl muscovy to the farm next ...

Hi, it's almost certainly your starter. I had the same problem when I came to make yogurt again after several years break. The method I had always used successfully no longer worked :dontknow: Turns out that most yogurt manufacturers now tamper a bit with the balance of bacteria (ie friendly ones) i...

It sounds from your advice that our best bet would be muscovy ducks (with a paddling pool or similar) or rabbits. I don't think we're ready for a goat as yet, although we love the idea. We sometimes have to go away for a few days and rely on a neighbour to look after the animals, so we have them set...

We've spent the last few years concentrating on growing veg, then fruit, and then adding hens for eggs. We're now starting to look at providing some of our own meat. We live in a semi with a relatively small garden, and have an allotment. At the moment we have a hidden corner of the garden which we'...

Unfortunately, that was the problem with ours. Because we didn't see her straining or anything we didn't look for her being egg bound. And it had gone on for a couple of months - hence it was too late to help her.

Hope that yours isn't the same situation.

When do the cocks start crowing - is it before the 16 week eating time?

Is she heavy when you pick her up? We had one rather like this, and it turned out she was egg bound. She'd continued laying eggs, but they were still inside her, the poor thing. Presumably that's why she was abnormally heavy.

There wasn't anything we could do for her, so we culled her.

Does anyone know how to make 'normal' ham from duck or goose (or indeed anything non-pork)? I can find prosciutto (sp?) type ham on the internet, but not normal ham. I also don't really know how to go about butchering the goose to get the meat to turn into ham. And bacon, come to that. But I'm assum...