Little Green Space
|
Little Green Space |
|
| November 2008
November 28, 2008 Cider, Part 2 Remember the frozen apple pulp? Well, it went into the fermentation bucket, along with some water, the champagne yeast and sugar, and it bubbled away merrily for a couple of weeks. A few days ago I passed the lot through a sieve and a funnel into a variety of receptacles: demi-john, plastic milk cartons etc. Thought I'd better have a little taste, so one of the receptacles was a glass. It looked like cider and smelt like cider, so I felt quite optimistic as I raised the glass to my lips. It tasted...disgusting! Alan, who is fitting our woodburner, and insulating our loft, had a taste, too. His response was encouraging - although it tastes pretty foul now, it is not at all vinegary, and it may well improve after some time. So I am hopeful that at some point in the coming weeks some magic will occur that clears the liquid and leaves it tasting just like real cider. November 26, 2008 Save the North Pole! The new website for our Christmas campaign "Save the North Pole" - to tackle climate change and support projects locally and worldwide - went online today. Check it out at www.savethenorthpole.org.uk November 24, 2008 Trees We had a working weekend clearing a large overgrown area of bramble and nettle, and planting some oak, ash, beech and rowan trees - the continuation of our tree planting programme. We are planning to create about an acre, in total, of mixed native woodland at Hackney Leys, all in areas which are badly overgrown and neglected and currently doing little for wildlife. November 19, 2008 Chickens and walls The chooks have finally succumbed to the short days this week - we're now getting only 2 eggs a day, instead of 3. I know we can't complain though, as some hens stop laying altogether in the winter - and that is something that may happen to ours next year when they are a bit older. We have the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers coming in a few weeks. They are bringing a team of people to Hackney Leys to train them how to rebuild the traditional Derbyshire dry stone walls. It's part of our work restoring the site and creating habitats. Rich has been working hard to clear the area that the BTCV team will be working in. November 16, 2008 Curly Kale
So, instead of the traditional sprout this Christmas, we'll probably be tucking into some curly kale. Whilst the sprouts were a miserable failure, the kale has been a huge success. Which is strange as, rather like my successful runner beans, it was a bit of an afterthought. A "what can I sow now that'll give us some veg for winter" moment, standing in the garden centre. Everyone in our house eats it, which is just as well, as we have rather a lot of it! November 14, 2008 Sprouts
My Brussels sprout plants, which were supposed to provide us with heaps of sprouts for Christmas, went all wrong. First, the cabbage white caterpillars got hold of them. Then the pigeons pecked them. Then when the sprouts appeared they had "blown" - formed tiny little baggy cabbages, rather than nice firm sprouts. So I have been gradually uprooting them and feeding them to the chickens. They love 'em! And the greens will help keep them healthy over the winter months. November 13, 2008 Transition Matlock The Transition Matlock event last night was a big success, with well over 50 people attending and forming working groups on issues such as food, transport, recycling and renewable energy. We showed this clip from Transition Lewes, which very neatly explains the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change - check it out! November 8, 2008 Wood The installation of our wood burning stove will very soon be complete. Of course this means that we will need to have some wood to burn on it. We have a whole load of logs stacked up behind the shed, under a makeshift cover, but unfortunately they are not dry enough to burn. What we really need is a woodshed - well, actually, what we really need is a barn, but that's another story. Meanwhile we'll need to get the wood we have somewhere dry. So this morning we made a woodstore, using two limestone crates freecycled from a local building site. We've stacked the logs up in them and covered it over with an old piece of plastic (leaky paddling pool) to keep off the rain. By next winter, it should be dry enough to burn! November 7, 2008 Juice I was in the vicinity of Argos today, so I popped in and bought a juicer for £25. At home I tried it out - you can just shove whole apples straight into it, so making juice isn't too time-consuming. My daughter tasted the result and was less than enthusiastic. "It's not as nice as the juice we had on Apple Day" she said. Hmm... Mind you there were no bits in it - maybe it's the bits that make it taste so nice? November 5, 2008 Cider, Part 1 Last week a friend from Transition Matlock popped around with a homemade apple press which his neighbour said we could borrow. And Alan, who is installing our woodburner, turned up with a five gallon fermentation bucket. So today I chopped a couple of bucket-loads of apples, mushed them up in the food processor (in small batches, to save the motor). Then tipped them into the apple press. Unfortunately the process stopped there. We just couldn't get the press to work: there was a whole ratchet issue that neither Rich nor I could get to grips with (literally). It seemed a shame to give all that lovely apple pulp to the pigs, so after some hasty online research, I found instructions for making cider using the freezer. We popped the pulp into several bags and squeezed it into the freezer - not easy, given the quantity of stewed apple already taking up space. In a couple of days we'll put it in the bucket, along with some champagne yeast - optimistic, I know - and some sugar, and see what happens...
|
