2014 – Sustainable Life Birmingham

Make your Own Mayonnaise

Yesterday I made mayonnaise for the first time and was simply shocked at how easy and simple it was. Mayonnaise is in essence just egg yolks and oil. Because of this it does last more than a week or two, but these ingredients we always have in our home so it’s easy to make as and when required. It also makes you think what they must put in commercial mayonnaise to make it last forever!

Here is the recipe I used to make mayonnaise. I have reduced the amount of Mustard in it because it was very strong but as an optional flavour enhancer you can put more in if you wish.

The vinegar will allow you to add more oil to the mixture and help preserve it a little, but careful not to add too much as it can spoil the flavour. Taste test frequently when playing with the ingredients.

Ingrediants

500ml Olive Oil
1-2 Tsp vinegar
2 egg yolks
Lemon and salt
Dijon Mustard to taste

Method

Whisk the egg yolks and mustard if using. Slowly add half the oil while whisking.When thick add half the vinegar and then continue with the rest of the oil. Add lemon and salt and store in a jar in the fridge.

Lasts for 1-2 weeks.

What does a Fertilised Egg look Like?

We now officially have fertilised eggs! When you have a Rooster in the mix, it’s hard not to treat every little difference in your eggs with enthusiasm and optimism. I got excited over every little speck on the eggs thinking it might be fertilised. It’s important to note that blood spots on the egg are normal but not an indication of a fertilised egg contrary to popular belief.

Think about it, you see those blood spots on store bought eggs – where not a single rooster is found so it’s physically impossible for any of those eggs to be fertilised.

I took a picture of our eggs today so you can see our clear fertilised egg. There were actually a couple in the mix but there is one very clear example of what a fertilised ovum looks like.

Can you spot the fertilised egg?

Make sure you also remember that the ovum looks like a small white speck on the yolk, so it’s the larger, circles we are looking for here.

F for fertilised egg!

Quince Paste Jellies

These little christmas treats are packed full of flavour and goodness. We received such a great response to these this year I thought I’d share the recipe I use.
Fruit pastes are densely packed with fruit you may otherwise be unable to eat raw (like Quince), and even better than this they store up to a year because of the sugar content. Quince pastes may be a bit sweet on their own for some people, but are excellent additions to your christmas cheeseboard or game meats.

Use baking paper or silicon mats on a tray to ensure you can easily peel off the paste after cooking.

Ingredients

500ml water
2 Tablespoons Lemons Juice
2kg Quinces
Sugar (Check method for quantity)

Method

Chop and core the Quinces. Don’t worry about peeling. Coring I found was also very tricky as the cores are larger than apples are, I ended up just roughly hacking away at the middle and getting all the seeds out.
Add to a pan of 500ml water and the lemon juice and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Cool, then blend with a processor.
Press the mixture through a fine sieve to create the puree.
Weigh the puree and add the same weight in sugar. (e.g. If the puree weighs 1kg, add 1kg sugar). The sugar is key here to ensuring preservation.
Stir the sugar in over a low heat until dissolved and the mixture is thick and coats the spoon (around 45-60 minutes).
Spread into trays and spread evenly. Allow to fully cool. Cut into small bite size portions.
If the paste “sweats” too much, further reduce the water content by dehydrating.

Store in a cool, dry place preferably in paper or foil tins.

Saving egg shells

Egg shells: whether you have chickens or not chances are you get through quite a few eggs in your household. Don’t throw those egg shells away though! Egg shells have good stuff like calcium in them which you or a friend may find very useful!

I grind up my egg shells and portion them out into small resealable bags For my chickens, as giving them back the calcium helps them create new eggs again!

Bear in mind – don’t give chickens whole eggs to eat, or you will teach them to eat Thier own eggs.

But it’s not just chickens that benefit from egg shells, here are a few more ideas for reusing egg shells:

If you keep snails in a fish tank (to eat algae) or pond, try adding some crushed egg shells when they have baby snails. The calcium supplement of egg shells will help the baby snails to grow big and hard shells and protect them from fish as they grow up.
add egg shells to chicken feed as an extra supplement to Thier existing diet.
Instead of using salt which can harm plants, sprinkle egg shells instead (crushed) and this will also keep snails and slugs away due to the sharp edges.
Add the egg shells to your compost as they are rich in good nutrients to help your plants.

Day 5 – Digging and Setting up Compost Bins

Another 2 hours at the allotment and I was able to get some more digging work done and clearing some dried bramble heaps. Not only this however but we also dropped off 4 pallets of varying sizes found in skips around the neighbourhood.

Day Five

A good square of land was carefully dug with the removal of roots, rubbish and pebbles as I went. It’s tough going to get through the solid ground but steady progress has been made none the less.

I then managed to construct one and a half compost bins from the pallets by using the fencing as main support and tying the bins together at the corners with twine. I am going to need more pallets to complete this section of the plot to create front panels and build 3 compost bins in total.

Compost Bin One

General weeds and other unusables that time a long time and/or a lot of care to produce compost that could be used. Or as storage throughout the year until a bonfire can be made (allowed on our plot every november).

Compost Bin Two

Compost to be used on the plot in the next year when it is ready. This year’s compost will be added to this bin but not used. To be rotated with compost bin three.

Compost Bin Three

Compost to be used in the current year (not applicable for the first year of the plot). This compost will have been breaking down in the previous year. To be rotated with compost bin two.

Day Four – A Quick Hours Work

Sometimes when you are looking after an allotment or garden, you only get one or two hours here and there. With so much going on, it can be hard to find the time to go the plot, but even if you can only go down for 10 minutes do your best to do so because chipping away at it a little bit at a time will help you tremendously in the long run.

So today, Day four at the plot, I only had time for an hours work and here is what I did…

Day 4

First of all I got to work clearing the dried bramble cuttings from our last day of clearing and piling them up in the main weed pile at the front of the plot.

This only took a short while, so I got out the spade and started digging up the ground at the front of the plot. I thought I would start and what looked like the easiest section of the allotment but the ground had lots of clumps of wire, plastic, glass and rubble as well as the standard weeds.

It wasn’t long before the sun’s heat was too strong for me and I was tired of pulling up debris so I had to call it a day after only doing a small corner, but I had to get back anyway so it wasn’t a loss.

Fuchsia Berries and Flowers for Foraging and Permaculture

Name: Fuchsia (that’s ch-s not s-ch)

Location: Mostly gardens or public garden spaces

Months: Flowers and berries in summer/Autumn

Edible Parts: Flowers and Berries

Non-Edible Parts: Leaves, Stalks

Fuchsia is a great flowering plant to have in your garden or allotment. For one thing the BEES love it! So if you are adding it to any area, bear this in mind and place it away from seating areas and preferably in the middle of crop plants to encourage the bees.

There are lots of different varieties of fuchsia – some have large flowers, and large berries and others are light pink or purple or fuchsia coloured! However, none of them are poisonous. Each different variety has it’s own flavour and sweetness so try them out and taste for yourself what kind of berry they produce before you buy to make sure you get a strain that suits you. Some are super sweet and some are a bit bitter and have an after taste.

I purchased this plant here for my new permaculture allotment because of the following key reasons:

You can eat the berries fresh or make them into jams etc
You can eat the flowers or use them as food decorations
They attract bees to your plot
They look pretty and add an extra edible dimension to a standard plot

Chicken of the Woods – Mushroom

Name: Chicken of the Woods

Location: Oak Trees

Identifiers: Semi circular brackets, velvety upper surface, zoned bands of bright orange/yellow.

Months: Usually spring to autumn

Edible Parts: All flesh

Non-Edible Parts: The hardest part where it was attached to the wood

As with all mushrooms you gather do not pick unless you are absolutely sure. The chicken of the woods also does not agree with everyone and can cause tummy upset if not properly cooked through. Always try a little first to see if your digestive system likes it or not. The great thing about Chicken of the Woods is that it is quite meaty – like chicken – in texture. Chicken of the Woods is not hairy, so if you see a yellow lookalike that is hairy leave it alone.

Day Three – BIG Permaculture Project Helpers Day

On my third day of working on the allotment I asked for helpers to come along to the plot to help out and drink some alcohol with a facebook event. We had a shaky start as one of our helpers had previously hurt his shoulder and was therefore mostly supervising but we didn’t mind.

Day 3

The first problem I encountered while on the plot was a lack of access to our tools storage box. The box was a gift from our wonderful friend Wayne, so it was brand new but the padlock we used was also new and desperately needed oiling. I waited for Alan and Killian to arrive with the oil but they were not due to land for an hour or so.

In the meantime, I began work on the vertical growing fence.

This fence is constructed out of plastic 2L bottles and twine. I have started from the one end of my plot where the seating will be, so that the first area covered will provide some privacy. I am told that particularly in winter time the fence along the side of my plot is very see through as the plant life dies off. My plot is immediately next to the park, so it’s important to me to have some kind of barrier between us. I am thinking about planting lettuces in this plastic bottle wall next spring if not sooner as they don’t mind the shady bits under the trees.

The aim is to create a “Lettuce Hedge” across the plot which would take little to no space and produce more lettuce than we know what to do with. For now we are building it little by little with whatever 2L bottles we can get our hands on. I will produce a quick guide for building a vertical garden like this so stay tuned.

We then got to work clearing the last third of the plot of brambles including the mound at the back. As it turns out, there is lots of rubbish and stones all over the plot we need to deal with before we break our tools trying to dig. In this picture you can see our good friend Dean working hard scraping up the loose brambles and plants into piles (or rows as he decided).

We then borrowed Alan’s wheelbarrow for the day and began collecting pebbles of all sizes and poured them into a pile at the end of the plot. We don’t want these pebbles in our way on the allotment – some of them are quite large! However, we can reuse these later underneath our polytunnel/aquaponics system. I’ll tell you more about this later though so stay tuned to find out what happens to these pebbles.

According to the allotment council, the plot has been sneakily used as a dump site for trash, weeds and gone over crops for many years now and several allotmenteers have had to be told off about it. Hopefully now we are working on this plot they will stop but in the meantime that still means an awful lot of rubbish and dangerous items to be cleared off the plot! I got to work collecting buried plastic carrier bags, bottles, broken shards of glass, bricks, concrete, plastic and twisted metal to name just a few little surprises on the plot. There is still plenty more to be done however, so we will have to continue this another day!

A BIG thank you to everyone who turned up to offer a helping hand or donated materials or gifts to the project.

Hawthorn Berries – Haws

Name: Hawthorn Berries

Location: Found on Hawthorn trees, identify the tree first and make sure you have the right one before venturing this one.

Months: August, September, October, November

Edible Parts: Berries

Non-Edible Parts: The pips/stones inside are poisonous, never consume these.

Hawthorn berries are very common across the UK and last well into the deep winter so they are quite important as a food stuff. These haws pictured are quite a large variety but they are normally a bit thinner than this.

They make a great savoury flavour to accompany meat particularly game so I make them into a Haw Sauce (like ketchup but with much more flavour). I have found a lot of large ones this year that are lovely and soft so I will be exploring some alternatives.