Search found 702 matches

by Zech
Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:39 pm
Forum: Fruit and Nuts
Topic: How to solar dry blackberries?
Replies: 7
Views: 9088

Re: How to solar dry blackberries?

Blackberry and apple fruit leather works well, and I have managed to solar dry that, after boiling the pulp for a while to reduce the liquid by quite a lot. So that's not really solar drying all the way, but I would have boiled anyway, however I was going to dry the leathers afterwards.
by Zech
Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:53 pm
Forum: Fruit and Nuts
Topic: How to solar dry blackberries?
Replies: 7
Views: 9088

Re: How to solar dry blackberries?

I've never tried drying blackberries - I'd have thought they'd be far too juicy. Mind you, I'd have thought that about plums, too, so that just shows what I know :lol: One thing I have noticed about blackberries, though, is that they seem to go mouldy faster than anything else. I wonder if maybe you...
by Zech
Tue Aug 11, 2015 3:09 pm
Forum: The ish Local - (Chat)
Topic: What happened to everyone....
Replies: 20
Views: 17175

Re: What happened to everyone....

Recently, camping holiday.

Longer term, mental health problems leading to severe reluctance to be sociable. Sorry guys, it's not you, it's me. I'm sure it'll pass. I hope.
by Zech
Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:33 pm
Forum: 101 Uses For
Topic: For saving money around the house!
Replies: 42
Views: 92780

Re: For saving money around the house!

I confess to falling for corporate tricks this week. I signed up for a loyalty card with the supermarket recently and they sent me an email the other day offering me £10 worth of points if I spend £70 in the next five days. Now I usually spend around £100 as I do the big shop once every six weeks. I...
by Zech
Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:32 pm
Forum: Tomorrow's World (Computing and Tech)
Topic: Laptop problems
Replies: 8
Views: 19690

Re: Laptop problems

Yeah, mine's getting noisy again, too. I think I may need to take it to bits and pick the cat hair out of the fan, again. I can't remember exactly how I did it last time, but apart from being careful in case of accidentally pulling on delicate wires, I don't remember it being too difficult.
by Zech
Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:45 pm
Forum: Herbs and Vegetables
Topic: List of perennial vegetables and other food plants
Replies: 21
Views: 14016

Re: List of perennial vegetables and other food plants

Ooh, I've just been thinking I'd like more perennials in my veg garden. I like the sounds of several of those, and I'll be interested to see what else people come up with. I'll add a couple of traditional ones (neither of which I've managed to grow, I have to confess. The slugs and caterpillars got ...
by Zech
Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:57 am
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: can I make vinegar from sugar?
Replies: 6
Views: 7269

Re: can I make vinegar from sugar?

Cheers, Green Aura. Maybe I'll just stick it all in a jar and see what happens.

Doofa, I believe that icing sugar will go up with quite a bang all by itself, but that wasn't quite the effect I was aiming for!
by Zech
Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:47 pm
Forum: Allotments, Veg Patches and Container Gardening
Topic: What are you harvesting atm?
Replies: 108
Views: 123229

Re: What are you harvesting atm?

Not harvesting much here yet apart from ground elder, and there's plenty of that :lol: I had hoped for asparagus this year, but hardly any of it survived the attention of the slugs :?
by Zech
Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:24 pm
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: can I make vinegar from sugar?
Replies: 6
Views: 7269

can I make vinegar from sugar?

I know that all vinegar comes from sugar, ultimately, but do I have to turn it all into alcohol before I start on the vinegar, or can I get both processes happening at once? I've had some success with making vinegar last year, and I have a blob of jelly that I'm pretty sure is a vinegar mother. I al...
by Zech
Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:12 pm
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: How did the Romans or old French farms dry & store chestnuts
Replies: 17
Views: 14295

Re: How did the Romans or old French farms dry & store chest

I've had my chestnut flour stored in a jar in the kitchen cupboard for the last eight months. I made a batch of biscuits with it last week and noticed that it's starting to lose its flavour. The biscuits were fine, just a little less chestnutty than when the flour was fresh.
by Zech
Sun May 24, 2015 9:19 pm
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: What i'm brewing at the moment
Replies: 356
Views: 235453

Re: What i'm brewing at the moment

Inspired by the post on our front page, I've got some nettle beer on the go. I say 'inspired by' - I don't really do recipes, so it's not quite the same. I filled a two gallon bucket with nettle tips, moderately pressed down, also some sorrel (quite a bit, for acidity, as I didn't have any lemons) a...
by Zech
Fri May 15, 2015 3:09 pm
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: Hey! bread heads
Replies: 9
Views: 10278

Re: Hey! bread heads

Hmm, well I hope no-one's planning to follow this trail, because the blazing isn't going too well. From my gallon of mush, I obtained - with much effort - a litre and a half of cloudy liquid, which I put in three PET bottles with half a teaspoon of sugar in each. More than two weeks later, the bottl...
by Zech
Thu May 14, 2015 9:14 pm
Forum: Mushroom and Fungus Identification
Topic: St. Georges Mushroom??
Replies: 2
Views: 7865

Re: St. Georges Mushroom??

I don't know St George's mushrooms very well (I've only found them once, and then I wasn't sure enough to pick more than one), but those look a little small to me. Have you done a spore print? I found some recently that I thought might be St George's, but the piece of cap that I left on a sheet of w...
by Zech
Sun Apr 26, 2015 4:18 pm
Forum: Welcome New People Say Hello
Topic: Hello from Birmingham
Replies: 9
Views: 7902

Re: Hello from Birmingham

Hi Tom :wave: Are you in Birmingham, UK or Birmingham Alabama? I'm guessing the first from the description in your blog (do they even have terraces in Alabama?) but maybe Doofa was thinking of the other one :lol: Not a brummie myself, but my husband is, though we've settled in Wales now. Good to mee...
by Zech
Sun Apr 26, 2015 4:15 pm
Forum: Home Brew and other Country Skills
Topic: Hey! bread heads
Replies: 9
Views: 10278

Re: Hey! bread heads

I had a load of dry crusts sitting around waiting for me to turn them into breadcrumbs. I'm not very good at getting round to this job, so I had a lot of them. I followed the instructions (sort of - I'm not good with instructions) on this site: https://sites.google.com/site/yankeeharp/breadbeer , cu...