Free Food – Page 4 – Sustainable Life Birmingham

How to Preserve Carrots

There are two main ways to Store carrots for future use out of season and both are pretty good. Carrots are one of those wonderful vegetables that just keep on giving.

Method One

Store the carrots in soil or sand.
– Storing in the ground may not be wise, as slugs and other critters will gobble them up. However, if you planted them in a tub you can simply keep them in there above ground and they will last and last as fresh as they ever have been! If you need to uproot them, store them in sand to have the same desired effect.

Method Two

Store them in brine (salt water).
– Use a mixture of salt and water ( as below) to store these carrots by lacto-fermentation. I use this second method when it’s carrot planting season again so I can store the leftover carrots for even longer while I grow more.

Ingredients

Water (2 cups)
Salt (2 tablespoons) – You can source this from the sea to avoid extra expense! See our post on making salt for more info.
Carrots!

Method

Gently dissolve the salt in the water on a low heat and allow mixture to cool.

Peel and chop the carrots into sticks that fit easily into your jars.

Fill each jar with carrots and pour the liquid into the jar so that it is full. Shake or tap the jar a little to remove trapped bubbles of air.

Leave for a few weeks and monitor the pressure build up in each jar. Let the air escape every so often for the first few weeks.

Ready to eat raw or steamed and packed full of flavour and probiotic goodness!

Re-use old Seeds

Some seeds are healthy and bursting full of flavour – just add water! This week we had a big clearout of some of our older seed packets. These can become unreliable or you may just have decided that these seeds weren’t a great turnout for you and they have been phased out.

Check to see if the seeds can be sprouted or turned into micro-greens and use them up as part of your all year round salad.

To sprout seeds:

Place in a clean jar full of water overnight.
Empty the water out and leave in the jar on a windowsill
Rinse with water every day until sprouted
Ready to eat!

To grow Microgreens follow our handy tips on making juice box seedling containers.

Turn your Juice and Milk Cartons into Seedling Trays

It’s easy to turn your leftover Juice Cartons and Milk Cartons into seedling planters. Not all cities recycle this material so if you are stuck in a place that won’t recycle them like us, it’s a great idea to try to re-use them instead.

Cut out a rectangle shape on the top of the carton (keeping the lid tightly screwed on still. Do not cut all the way to the edge of the carton – you will need a cm roughly around the edges to keep the carton stable with the weight of the soil inside.

Then simply fill with seedling soil and plant your salad seeds. Place on a windowsill and harvest as and when you desire! The easy compact design of these cartons make them the perfect size for windowsills and the cartons are naturally leak proof and certified food safe.

Erecting a Polytunnel

Make sure you set aside a full day or two for some really hard work and back breaking labour. Don’t make the mistake we did and assume your polytunnel will be okay weighed down for a day while you get your breath back, it won’t!

Separate the work across two days. Make sure you only put the cover on when you have time to dig it in all at one go.

Day One

Get the Polytunnel erected (frame only). Make sure you have all your tools and equipment necessary and an extra person to help out. You will need someone to help carry and lift the arches if nothing else and to hold bars in place while they are fixed in.

Dig a trench where the polytunnel will fit in all around it, even if it has no base frame – you will need the trench for the cover. You can use the frame of the polytunnel itself as a guideline so you don’t need to mark it out. You will need to move the frame while you do so.

Day Two

Get the cover on the polytunnel as per your instructions, you will need an extra helper for this too. Align up the sheeting and tie it down. Then move the frame into the trench if not already and ensure the cover lays down into the trench. We lined our cover with a few bricks and rocks to help weigh it down but we are not yet sure if this was wise. Next, move the soil from the trench back into the trench on top of the cover. Do the same on the inside of the polytunnel too to seal in the cover and ensure there are no gaps. Press the ground in firmly.

Try to get the cover as tight as possible, but with this type of polytunnel it will be difficult.

You will notice how warm and cosy your new polytunnel is (just like ours, mmm!) Remember to seal the doorway properly before you leave or it will serve as an entryway for the wind.

Polytunnel Plan

This section of my new allotment will not be much permaculture this year. The polytunnel will house a mixture of perennials and annuals. The greater plan for next year is to convert the base of the polytunnel into a pond/self irrigation system which requires the entire polytunnel plot to be dug out. This pond will then be converted into an aquaponics fish farm eventually completing the project.

In the meantime, It;s the middle of winter and I am several muscles short of digging out the polytunnel section in time for my first plantings in february. Therefore to ensure I don’t miss out on this year’s harvests I am postponing the pond until next year and building my new polytunnel somewhere else on my plot. This will give me the year to casually dig out the pond section where I eventually want the polytunnel to end up.

My rough plan for the finished plot shows the polytunnel and pond system on the right hand side. I will move the polytunnel to the middle section while i dig out the pond on the right hand side where i want ti to be. This means for the first year my polytunnel will have to be regularly maintained and watered manually.

Plants planned for polytunnel:
Tomatoes, chillis, Peppers, Melons, Aubergines, Avocado tree (currently on windowsill), cucumber, sweet pepper, cape gooseberries, coffee plant.

I will be putting up the new 6m x 3m x 2m polytunnel this week so if you’d like to come along and help please do get in touch.

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.

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.