June 2014 – Sustainable Life Birmingham

Convert Divan Beds into Netting Cages

Okay so don’t go ripping up your own bed to do this. You will find plenty of old divan beds laying around skips, dumping areas and end of year house clear outs in student areas. The divan beds are those old fabric bed bases with wooden frames inside consisting of two separate sections to make the whole bed once the mattress is on.

The great thing about these beds are they light, they have wheels so they are easy to move and the frames inside are quite a sturdy build and require no further work to them.

Step One

Remove the fabric – most of it will be easily ripped off but you may need a knife for the edges.

Step Two

Using a staple gun, start tacking cheap pond netting around the wooden frame. Make sure it is taut.

Step Three

Enjoy your new cage net – perfect size for protecting 6 cabbages!

How to Pollinate an Indoor Tomato Plant

If your tomato plant is indoors, in a greenhouse or polytunnel – do not expect to still get tomatoes even if bees have access to the plant. Tomatoes are actually self-pollinators so without an outdoor environment they will need a helping hand.

There are two main methods for pollinating your tomatoes but never fear they are very easy! When your tomato plant is in flower:

Shake Method

Hold the tomato plant and shake it rigorously but being gentle to the plant. That’s it!

Flick method

Hold the stem by the flowers and gently flick the flower heads a few times. Viola!

Then just wait it out until you see the flowers turning into tomatoes. You may also need to do this to give your tomatoes a helping hand if they don’t seem to be pollinating themselves.

Silver Birch Sap Wine

So now you have your Silver Birch Sap you may think what could you possibly do with such a sugar rich liquid. The answer is of course, make wine! Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of the batch we made this year but I can tell you it ended up being an off-white coloured wine and one of our more enjoyable brews. We will definitely be making this one again next spring.

Minimum Equipment Requirement

1 Gal Demijohn or Drum/Tub
1 Airlock
1 Siphon Tube

Ingredients for 1 Gallon Silver Birch Wine

1 Gallon Silver Birch Sap Unprocessed (not boiled down or anything).
1133g Sugar
2 Lemons
277g Raisins

Method

Sterilise your equipment
Boil the Sap and Lemon together for 20 minutes
Add the sugar and raisins and stir in while still warm
Strain the flowers – keep the liquid but not the flowers themselves
Place into the primary fermentation bucket/Demijohn
Allow the mixture to cool until it reaches around 21C
Add yeast and yeast nutrient
Cover and place airlock
Keep in a warm dry place
After 8 weeks, test the mixture with a hydrometer. Add sugar according to taste if it’s ready to bottle.
Add a crushed Campden tablet to clear according to the tablet instructions and allow to settle
Rack Off and bottle.

Dandelion Flower Wine

Dandelion Flower wine is best made when the dandelion flowers are in full bloom in the spring and fully open on a sunny day. The wine requires acidifying for the yeast so it tends to become a very citrus flavoured wine. For this reason we called this batch the Citrus Bang. We aren’t usually very fond of overly citrus flavours so we may change or ignore this recipe next year or use it as “Filler” wine only (wine we make only when we have made everything else available and have spare drums/demijohns).

Minimum Equipment Requirement

1 Gal Demijohn or Drum/Tub
1 Airlock
1 Siphon Tube

Ingredients for 1 Gallon Dandelion Wine

1.136 Litres of pressed dandelion petals (follow the instructions for how to prepare the petals in our post on dandelion cordial if you are unsure)
340g Raisins
907g Sugar
3 Lemons
3 Oranges
Water as required

Method

Sterilise your equipment
Boil the Petals
Allow petals to steep for a minimum of 2 hours (we did overnight to increase flavour)
Strain the flowers – keep the liquid but not the flowers themselves
Add raisins, Lemon Juice, Orange Juice, sugar and orange/lemon zest to the liquid and place on a low boil for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool.
Mix thoroughly and add to the Primary Fermentation Bucket/Demijohn and top up with water.
Allow the mixture to cool until it reaches around 21C
Add yeast and yeast nutrient
Cover and place airlock
Keep in a warm dry place
After 8 weeks, test the mixture with a hydrometer. Add sugar according to taste if it’s ready to bottle.
Add a crushed Campden tablet to clear according to the tablet instructions and allow to settle
Rack Off up to three times, or less if you don’t mind it cloudy. Top up with water and bottle when finished.

Mahonia – Oregon Grape

Name: Oregon Grape

Location: The berry of the Mahonia, typically American but often found across the UK in posh gardens particularly in new build areas.

Months: June, July, August

Edible Parts: Berries

Non-Edible Parts: Anything else

The Mahonia Bush as pictured above is filled with sharp holly like leaves. As such people tend to stay away from the berries mistaking them for poisonous holly berries. The bushes typically look around this size in the UK with the same twisty wood at the base and a fluffy head of not so fluffy leaves. The berries look powdery blue like Sloes but are grouped together in long string bunches similar to grapes. The berries themselves are often said to be a bit too tart for raw eating but having now tried them myself I would say they are only slightly tart and quite sweet and full flavoured. In fact I was licking my red fingers all the way home enjoying the taste. Mahonia berries can be used to make jams and wine as with most berries. You will not be dissapointed with flavour.

One last tip to leave you with as we learned this the hard way: BRING GLOVES when harvesting. The leaves HURT and the juice STAINS. Ouch!