Year: 2014

How to Make your own Fruit Leather

Making fruit leather is one of the easiest and cheapest methods of storing fruit over winter. If you have ever had sticky coils of fruit flavoured roll before you should definitely try making it for yourself.

 

All you need to make fruit leather is a bunch of fruit, and some sugar. However, unlike jams and cordials that require a high percentage of sugar to preserve the fruit, fruit leather is dried out so only requires as much sugar as you want in order to stop it tasting bitter or sour.

 

Simmer FruitFirst of all take your chosen fruit of any quantity and mush it together in a pan. Taste the fruit and decide how much sugar you want to add to the mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes or until thoroughly mushy and the sugar is completely dissolved.

 

If you do not like skins and seeds in your fruit leather, now is the time to sieve them out. Spread the mixture thinly onto greaseproof paper. Use a second piece of paper on top if necessary to roll it out with a rolling pin.

Remove the top layer of grease proof paper and place into the oven at around 75 degrees, or into a dehydrator machine.

fruit leatherWait for about a day and test the leather to make sure it is no longer sticky, and dry enough to touch. Remove from the machine and gently peel off the greaseproof paper, cut into strips and roll. To store for any length of time dust with icing sugar to prevent the rolls from sticking to each other.

Darwin’s Barberry

Darwin’s Barberry is a plant very similar to the Mahonia and also produces a fruit that is extremely similar in flavour and uses.

In fact, you may often come across a Barberry bush and mistake it for a Mahonia because they look so similar. You won’t come to any harm if you do, just bear in mind the differences. While the Mahonia berries are clustered into a grape like bunch across a stem, the Barberry hangs in bunches instead. The leaves are also the same as the Mahonia leaves, but tend to be much smaller, like a miniature version of the Mahonia. The Darwin’s Barberry bush is more commonly seen used as a hedge, whereas the Mahonia is a bit more of a stand alone plant.

Darwin's Barberry

Name: Darwin’s Barberry

Location: The berry of this plant, is typically found around early autumn in a plant that looks very similar to the Mahonia but smaller and often as part of a hedge.

Months: August, September

Edible Parts: Berries

Non-Edible Parts: Anything else

 

Darwin’s Barberry can be used very much in the same way as the Mahonia (Oregon Grape) to make jams and wine and perhaps even cordials. As a fresh fruit it is edible but a bit too tart to be a treat so is best used cooked/preserved.

Day Two: Chicken Experimentation

I say it’s day two, but actually it’s day 2.5 as I did manage to get to the plot yesterday and do a rough half hours work getting some extra clearing done but hopefully you won’t mind me bundling it into Day Two.

Day Two

Today  I concentrated mainly on more clearing armed with my trusty hedge trimmers and fork. I managed to get up to the next tree stump cleared which means I have about 1/3 to 1/4 of the plot left to do. Yay! The main thing not to think about however, is that after I have finally finished clearing I will need to do some serious digging!

day two allotment

While I was doing the clearing however I had a couple of extra helpers on my plot today. Killian (5 years old) helped me with some light digging work and keeping an eye on my other helper: Chickeny the chicken. We brought her along to the allotment today for a bit of enrichment and to see if she can get any of the soil loose. The soil right now as it stands is quite rock solid! Chickeny did more egg laying than anything else but I aim to bring her back and see if we can get something more done. I’m going to need to dig it up several times so every little helps.

day two allotmentIf you are thinking about getting chickens on to your plot there are just a few simple things to remember:

  • Keep the chicken/s supervised. Cats and other animals are usually lurking around and the chicken may even dig very deep and escape.
  • You can use a netted cloche like the one in the picture to keep the chicken in a controlled location. Our chicken doesn’t really “escape” but the netted cloche stops her wandering into someone else’s plot by mistake. You can learn about how to make these in our blog post: making divan’s into cloches.
  • Ensure they have water available – bring along a spare drinker.
  • Ensure they have shade available (I used my old hoodie draped over the cloche to provide a shaded corner).
  • Make sure they are placed away from any plants you want to keep. The tastiest plants for us are the tastiest plants for chickens!

Day One: Clearing the Plot

I am just starting my own new permaculture project by taking on a second allotment with a list of permaculture ideas in mind. The “crops”I will be growing on this plot are going to be varieties that are designed to stay there such as berry bushes, trees, strawberries artichokes and more.

In addition to this I am going to try to develop symbiosis between my plants and supporting structures including a wormery, aquaponics, fish farming, irrigation and more.

As well as this I hope to create a small mushroom growing section and a polytunnel with more peppers and grapes and whatnot inside that cannot grow on my standard allotment.

All in all it will be a BIG project to take on, so I have decided to recount to you the progress of this project under the new category of Permaculture. If you are looking for regular allotment tips and tricks please take a look at the Grown your Own section instead.

Because the project is so large, I will be taking a step back from the regular farming allotment and let Alan take control of it instead so I can concentrate and take control of the permaculture one.

But wait… I can’t do any of this yet without first setting up the allotment.

As the pictures below will show you, the allotment I have chosen is extremely overgrown with plenty of trees and brambles across it.

allotment day one allotment day one allotment day one

 

So the first thing I need to do is start cutting back all these brambles and see what kind of work I have to do on the ground!

 

 

Day Oneallotment day one

Taking some handy hedge trimmers, I set to work on the plot hacking away at the tree stump growth and brambles.

I managed to get about half way down the plot in this manner and built up a sizeable pile of brambles and a pile of rubbish found underneath them such as bits of glass or old gardening gloves.

The plot has been unattended for a while, so I already attracted some attention from nearby allotmenters commenting on the amount of work to be done…

Not to be deterred I got a good 1-2 hours of work done in the afternoon.

allotment day one

Oregon Grape Mahonia Wine

Once you have identified a Mahonia Bush and picked enough Mahonia berries (oregon grapes), you can get started processing them into even more exciting things. You can do many things with these little berries but my favourite so far has to be turn them into wine. They do not call these little fantastic berries Oregon Grapes for nothing! We used a 1 gallon demijohn to test out our recipe this year but the resulting wine was so successful we are definitely planning to fill a couple of 5 gallon drums next year instead.

These berries make a full flavoured red wine that is simply scrumptious and high professional quality. We found it went nicely with game meat in particular.

Minimum Equipment Requirement

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

Ingredients for 1 Gallon Mahonia Wine

  • 2kg Oregon Grapes
  • 1350g Sugar
  • 2 stewed tea bags
  • top up with water

Method

 

  • Sterilise your equipment
  • Pass Boiling Water through the grapes and mash them up
  • Strain off the juice – do this several times to get the most out of the berries. It should be a super dark red.
  • Place into the primary fermentation bucket/Demijohn
  • Add sugar
  • 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 and bottle.

As you can see from our current demijohn we have been so surprised at the wonderful flavour of this wine we have started taking one too many “Test Samples” before bottling! Oh dear!

mahonia wine

How and When to Cut your Chicken Flight Feathers

For those of you with an open top run, the problem of maintaining flightless birds may suddenly rear it’s head when you find yourself confronted with an escaped chicken. Chickens do not fly very high, but with flight feathers they can get over a decent sized fence and leave themselves open to predators.

To remedy this you need to reduce tier flight capability by cutting their primary feathers on ONE wing.

Check your chicken’s wings, if it looks like the diagram below it’s time to cut the feathers.

 

flight feathers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Before you start cutting, check the feathers to make sure they are not still growing. There will be blood in the feathers if this is the case. Do NOT cut growing feathers.
  2. DO NOT pull out the feathers – the chicken will naturally grow new ones. Cutting the feathers allow them to stay flightless for longer and not cause any harm to the chicken.
  3. Extend the chicken wing outwards to view the primary flight feathers (the first ten feathers from the end of the wing as shown to be cut in the diagram above).
  4. Cut around 50% of the feather length off with scissors or nail clippers on ONE wing only. Cutting both wings will defeat the purpose of this. The idea is to unbalance the bird to prevent flight.
  5. If you find this doesn’t solve the problem (your bird is particularly adept at flight) cut the feather back more so that the cut is closer to the feathers above.
  6. The feathers will be replaced after a malt which is typically once a year so you will need to redo this every so often.
  7. Cutting flight feathers prevents the chickens from not only escaping but also from getting into trouble with a predator.

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.

convert diavn bed into netting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Two

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

netting cage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Three

 

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

cage netting cage netting

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.

how to pollinate tomatoes

 

 

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).

Dandelion Flower Wine Dandelion Flower Wine

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.