My Starters Have Arrived

My sourdough starters arrived from Florida today. Each one is just a few grams of dried flakes, but when I mix them with water and flour the yeasty beasties will come back to life and start multiplying. Soon I can make Sanfrancisco sourdough bread, and champagne grape bread (the bread doesn't contain champagne or grapes - the starter was made with champagne grapes).

In return, I have sent some ginger beer plant to the nice lady in Florida who gave me these starters. It's a cross-cultural exchange.

Brilliant Jam Jars Idea

Kethry over at Urbania to Stoneheads came up with a brilliant idea for labelling jam jars - paint a square of blackboard paint on them and label them in chalk. How cool is that? It looks really smart but also home-made, and it's very practical and reusable. I bet I could beg some blackboard paint on Freecycle - there must be people who bought some for a project and then kept half a tin full of leftover paint in the shed.

New Baby in the Sustainable Blogosphere

Ally, author of Ducking For Apples, had a baby boy called Leo Thomas. Leo was born at 4.45 a.m. yesterday, after 36 hours of labour (phew!). He weighed a very respectable 8lb 7.5oz, and he and mum are doing well.

Congratulations Ally and B!

Apple Time

"Who wants to help pick some apples and make them into apple juice?"

Eleanor, Sam and I headed next door with my longest ladder, a broom and a large bucket to collect apples. We were soon joined by some of the local urchins who were keen to catch the apples I was knocking down, and offer some tips of their own.

"Yes, chucking your tennis racquet into the tree is an effective way of bringing down the apples. I remember from when I was ten. But it runs the risk of damaging the tree, and then the people who live here won't let us pick their apples any more."

I had some strange conversations with my helpers.

"Why are you collecting all these apples? You can't eat them."
"Yes you can eat them. Who says you can't?"
"They're not the same as real apples from the shops."
"They're exactly the same as that"
"But they're not from the shops"
"Where do you think the apples in the shops come from?"
"They come from the shops"
"Yeah, but where do the shops get them from?"
Silence
"I dunno"

Once we'd cleared that up we weighed the apples with an antique brass spring balance Steph gave me (thanks Steph - it beats standing on the bathroom scale whilst carrying the apples, then subtracting your own weight from the results) and found we'd collected 19lbs (about 8.5kg) of apples.

The urchins joined in with cutting the apples into quarters and tossed them into the crusher. More odd conversation occured at this stage.

"Why do they have sweetcorn in them?"
"Let me have a look - oh, you mean the pips"

Then we had a go at running the crusher, after I had given them a graphic description of what would happen to any body parts that entered the hopper.

The crushed apples then went into the press, and again we took turns at operating the press whilst we all watched the brown cloudy juice run into a bowl.

The labourers were rewarded with a drink of apple juice. Just a small one though as the bulk of the juice went straight in the freezer. They all declared it delicious. With any luck I can scrounge up more apples in the coming weeks until I have enough for a batch of cider. You never know, my own army of scrumpers, armed with tennis racquets, might bring me some.

Smells Like A Brewery In Here...

Steph's here (I know she was just here a fortnight ago but she liked it so much she came back), so we've been busy as usual. Steph instructed Ed to make a shelf to store preserves and things, which he did (I'll show you pictures another time). We made five gallons of tea wine, five gallons of beer (from a kit, I don't know how to make beer from scratch yet but I'd love to learn). We sorted all the stored potatoes out and removed those which had become rotten. Let me tell you, rotten potatoes smell really foul. And we picked about ten pounds of mixed hedgerow fruit - damsons, elderberries, blackberries, sloes, haws and apples - to make 5 gallons of hedgerow wine.

We met our new neighbours, who told us to help ourselves to all the apples, pears, damsons and greengages we want from their garden. Another neighbour provided some empty beer and wine bottles from her recycling bin (we had to do some fancy footwork to explain why we were eyeing up her bin - she initially thought we were accusing her of crimes against recycling, or perhaps of having a drink problem). And we had a gorgeous lamb casserole with our own pink fir apple potatoes and roasted mystery summer squash, and drank lots of beer - well we'll need the bottles to bottle our own beer when it's ready!


Cartoon from climatecartoons.org. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Alun's Tea Wine

I have to give credit for this recipe for a university friend of ours called Alun. It's quick, easy and cheap, even to make big 5-gallon batches. If you let it ferment out and bottle it properly it's very nice, but when we were students we just used to dip a jug into the bucket and filter it through a coffee filter as and when we needed it.


Alun's Tea Wine


For each 5 gallons -make 40 cups of strong tea, 12.5 lbs of sugar, 2.5lbs of raisins chopped, 2 lemons sliced. Make up to 5 gallons with boiled water. When cool, add wine yeast, following instructions on the packet.

On our recipe it says "ready in 4 weeks", but I think that's only for students. My dad used to say "Not a drop is sold 'til it's 7 days old". Nowadays I'd ferment it out, rack it twice and bottle it properly. But if you want to do it the "gut rot" way, be my guest.

I'm Gonna See All My Friends

Just got back from Cropredy 2008. To all those who missed it - I hate to do this to you but it was an absolute corker. Unbroken glorious sunshine, fantastic bands, interesting stalls and yummy, varied food, the usual great organisation, plus a few new extras.

Jools Holland played a fabulous set on Thursday night, and Richard Thompson was his usual stellar self on Friday, after Fairport played the whole of Liege and Lief with the original line-up (so far as possible). Dave Swarbrick was amazing. He's a new man following his transplant op. The last time he played Cropredy, he was wheeled on stage in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank behind him. This time he walked on, played standing and bopped about with the best of them. Needless to say his playing was peerless.

Cropredy festival now has a fringe. The two pubs in the village booked several acts (including some of the bands who performed on the main stage last year) and put on their own concerts. Also there was a huge screen behind the main stage on which they showed live images of the band, the crowd, and some cheesy videos (the one for Hiring Fair was especially cringe-able). It was great for a shortie like me, who has never really seen much at the concert, to be able to see what was going on onstage.

The highlight, however, came on Saturday night with the video for Matty Groves - in Lego. If you don't know what I mean, it was done in a similar style to The Brick Testament. Simon Nicol sang it absolutely deadpan, although the audience were all hooting with laughter at the video. They followed it up with the usual medley, played with even more energy and zip than usual, and the drawn-out ending was thoroughly silly and fun. I can't imagine how they're going to top it next year.

The only disappointment, for me, was the large number of absent friends. Our family met up with my sister Lindsey and her husband Andrew, and Lindsey's friend Steve and his kids, and we had a great time. But we missed Steve H., Jim and Catrin, the Roses, Shona, Ford, Christina and Alan, and especially my sister Steph who couldn't make it this year. Please, guys, do your best to make it next year. "Meet on the Ledge" just isn't the same without you.

A Holiday, A Holiday

We're off to the Cropredy festival again for the weekend, and when we get back back we're going to visit my Dad in Ireland for a week.

Behave yourselves whilst I'm away, won't you?

Woodturning Lathe

I told you I had a go on a friend's woodworking lathe last week. Well he just sent me some photos and a short movie clip of it.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Yesterday I visited my friend Guy in Telford. Guy is extremely handy and has made a water collection system for flushing his downstairs loo. It's not hooked up yet, but I got some snaps of the water butt on a five-foot-high stand, and the filter unit to keep out undesirables. What I don't yet understand is how he's going to arrange things so it flushes with mains water when the butt is empty, but I'm looking forward to going back when it's all up and running.

I also had a go on his new wood-turning lathe. Guy had already made beautiful magic wands for the kids out of scraps of cedar and mahogany reclaimed from old windows. He made me a bodhran beater while I watched, and I even had a go on the lathe myself. I made something that resembles a lumpen Venus of Willendorf but I am very proud of it nevertheless.

I've promised him some beeswax for wood finishing when I collect any.

Frugal Subversive Award

One of the proudest moments in my life was my leaving party on my last day of working in a large mental institution. There's this thing called "institutionalisation" which means that people in an institution, both inmates and staff, change to conform to the requirements of the place. They often take these habits home with them, for example insisting that meals be served at a set time and becoming quite agitated if their routines are broken (working there was quite good practice for having children with Asperger's Syndrome, come to think of it). I'd been there for three years, and at my leaving party my boss said that I had never become institutionalised, and described me as a "maverick". I don't think he meant it as a compliment, but I was more pleased than I can tell you. Of all the things I've ever been called in my life, I like "maverick" by far the best.

So I was very pleased when Scarecrow gave me the Frugal Subversive Award.

According to a dictionary meaning this award translates as:"A radical supporter of political or social revolution (by) Avoiding waste"

Or as Rhonda (who initiated this award) put it:"bloggers who consistently turn their backs on consumerism to live frugally in a creative and authentic way. These bloggers have made me think in innovative ways about my own life and how I can make a difference making, reusing, and just saying "no" to mindless spending."

I've got to tag Stonehead, who is one of the most vocal opponents of consumerism I know.

Stop the Ride is a frugal blog. I love her scientific approach to saving money, calculating the cost-per-ounce of different brands and taking nothing for granted.

Wombat is a friend from when I used to spend a lot of time on Self-Sufficientish. I keep saying I'll go back there because they're a great bunch, but I find it a terible time-sink. I log on for "just a few minutes" and suddenly find an hour has gone by. Its my fault, not theirs. But now I can keep up with Wombat by reading his blog about taking three months off work to try to be more self-sufficient in an urban Aussie back yard.

MEME RULES

1. When you are tagged, write a post with links to three blogs who have inspired you with their frugal creativity or innovation.

2. In your post, please link back to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme and save the award graphic.

3. Leave a comment or message for the bloggers you’re tagging, so they they know they're received the award.

4. Display the Frugal Subversive Award badge to identify your blog as part of the movement that is turning its back on consumerism at any cost.

Allotmenteers Rock

I've said it before, allotment people are the greatest. I had an email from a friend on the allotments saying she hadn't seen me for a while. I confessed that I hadn't been down for a few weeks due to the appalling weather, and now I'm dreading going because the weeds must be neck-high.

She emailed me back to say she spent half an hour clearing weeds on my plot, and gave me an update about what's ready for harvest. I felt so touched, I almost cried.

We've Got Bees!

Wow! What a day that was!

A friend of mine with a big van and a bee suit (thanks Tony) drove me to Ally's place in mid-Wales. Ally and her lovely partner B sold us 2 colonies of bees in pretty WBC hives. That sounds quite simple doesn't it? But actually it took all day and was quite complicated. Ally and B also entertained us and fed us delicious soup and plenty of tea and coffee. They're lovely people and I'm so glad to have met them. They're going to be fantastic parents.

Driving for almost 3 hours with two colonies of irritated bees was a peculiar experience, and I have to admit the occasional feeling of "What the hell am I doing? I've changed my mind. Let me out!" But we had no escapees at all, probably due to the unstinting amounts of gaffer tape we used to hold everything together. We finally got back to Poynton after 11pm, moved the hives into my front garden and opened the entryways - the bees were making quite a racket inside the hives but they didn't come pouring out looking for blood.

This morning I can look out of my living room window and see the hives with bees busily coming and going. It's a really good feeling. There's nothing quite as relaxing as watching somebody else hard at work is there? And I could do with a rest now.

Lemon Curd

I made some lemon curd using Hedgewizard's recipe. Thanks, Hedgie, it's delicious and sooooo easy - you all must try it. Suitable for the preserve-challenged; forget massive cauldrons full of boiling hot jam, special thermometers and getting the whole kitchen covered in sticky goo. The whole process takes about 10 minutes from thinking "Hmm, maybe I'll make some lemon curd" to admiring your finished jar of golden yumminess. Plus it uses ingredients you probably have knocking around anyway - lemons, eggs, sugar, butter and cornflour. Finally, there's no problem with small batches. Just make a single jar if that's all you need.

Recipe for lemon meringue pie coming soon...

My Best Friend's Wedding

No blog entry yesterday as it was Good Friday, the most solemn day of the year. Today is quite a contrast, as I will be travelling to Wales for the wedding of one of my oldest friends. Congratulations, Jim and Catrin. I hope you're both as happy as you deserve to be.

Hand Made Card

I was the 12,000th visitor (near enough) to Mrs Nesbitt's blog and she sent me this beautiful hand-made card as a prize. It made my day to recieve something so lovely and personal in the post.

Thanks, Mrs N. Here's to the next 12,000.

I've Been Tagged

Wild Burro tagged me with the Five Things Meme, so now I have to tell you five things about myself you didn't already know. You didn't log on today to find the name of my first crush at school or what bizarre part-time jobs I had when I was a student, so I'll try to keep it self-sufficiency related.

1. Just over 9 years ago I tried to grow vegetables in containers in the horrible paved yard in our old house in Liverpool. Things started off really well and I had strawberries, rubber beans, tomatoes and I can't remember what else beginning to grow. But then I got pregnant with my eldest and was prostrated with sickness and exhaustion for 3 months. When I felt well enough to go back out there, the slugs had eaten everything. I never tried to grow stuff at that house again.


2. I'm worried this whole plan will never work because my kids (well mainly my eldest who has Asperger Syndrome and sensory issues) are very picky eaters and won't eat almost anything we can realistically grow. Worst of all my husband colludes with them. So unless we can become self sufficient in pizza and pasta we might be on a hiding to nothing.


3. When we first got the allotment I asked the kids what they would like to plant. Tom (the eldest) said "Bananas". Sam (the youngest) said "Jelly beans!" Well, we've all learned a lot about fruit and vegetable growing since then.


4. I was once bramble picking in a field near here, off the footpath, when the farmer let his cows into the field. The buggers all chased me and you may laugh but even just one cow is much bigger than me and a whole stampede of them is not funny. I scrambled through the thorny hedge, ripping my jacket, and continued picking berries on the other side. As I worked along the hedge the cows followed me. I could hear them snorting and stamping through the hedge. I've never picked berries in that field since.


5. I was sorting out some packets of seeds the other day and making a month-by-month spreadsheet of what to sow and what to harvest, on Ed's new laptop. A packet of radish seeds emptied itself all over the keyboard. I managed to get most of them out by holding it upside down and shaking it. But every now and then I discover another one causing a key to stick. Sorry, Ed.

Well there are your five things. Now I have to tag five more people. I'm going to tag some of my favourite blogs which have been inactive for a while, in the hope it will encourage them to start posting again.

1. www.anythingbutsprouts.blogspot.com
2. www.academicsqueaking.blogspot.com
3. www.multiveg.wordpress.com
4. www.marvin-the-magnificent.blogspot.com
5. www.goodlifeallotment.blogspot.com

Today's picture is an aerial photo of our allotments, with our plot marked with a red "X".

World Exclusive Interview

Stonehead is a good friend of Bean-Sprouts, and a regular commenter. He has an active blog of his own where he talks about life on a croft in North-East Scotland, environmental and political issues. I'm fascinated because he has gone much further along the road we are travelling, buying a smallholding and living off the land. I interviewed him exclusively for Bean-Sprouts.

Bean-sprouts: Describe a typical day for you.
Stonehead: Hmm, no such thing as a typical day! I get up between 5.30 and 6am. I have a shower every second day to conserve water, then it's straight into getting all the breakfast things ready before making packed lunches. I then head out to do the morning chores, feeding and mucking out the chickens and pigs.

With the chores done, I head inside for breakfast with the rest of the family. The other half heads off for work, the Big Lad gets the school bus, and I take the Wee 'Un to playgroup. If it's playgroup duty day, then I'm out until noon or so helping keep an eye on the children with lots of making stuff and story telling. If it's not playgroup duty, then I have from 9.30 until 11.30 to get jobs done. This can be building chicken houses, working in the vegetable patch, working with the soft fruit and fruit trees, mowing grass, planting, topping, baking, cider making, brewing, preserving.

After collecting the Wee 'Un I either finish off the morning's work or play outside games with the Wee 'Un. If working, we turn it into a play session as well so he can help with parts of the job. The Wee 'Un helps me make lunch, we then do some quick baking before having a quiet play and do some reading while we wait for the Big Lad to get home and for the bakes to cook. With the Big Lad home, we feed the chickens then the boys play together outside while I do more jobs.

From around 4.30pm until 5.30/6pm it's a repeat of the morning chores, the other half usually gets home just as we finish. We eat between 7.15 and 8pm, so that the boys can chill out for a while, then off to bed. Then it's tidy up and relax time. I try to fit in a bit of blogging around then, but usually it's more like 10pm until 11pm as it's nice to spend a bit of time with the other half! Weekends are even busier.

Bean-sprouts: What made you decide to pursue this lifestyle?
Stonehead: We don't regard it as a lifestyle. It's our way of life. I've always wanted either a small farm of my own or a yacht. I like working with animals, I like working the land, I like tinkering, and I like working hard for myself and my family.

I'm a pragmatic green - I don't buy the spiritual, hippy, pagan thing at all. I think we have one world, we have to tread lightly, we have to use resources sparingly and we have to be responsible for our actions. I do get a lot out of being outside in all weathers and enjoy being part of the natural world, but I'm not the communing with nature sort.

One thing I definitely am is an anti-consumer. I have a pathological hatred of being sold stuff that I don't want or need. I accept that I and my family have certain needs that can only be met by shopping, but I try to do so as little as possible. I'm a huge fan of bartering, trading and giving, I love making things and I like being minimalist. This can cause friction with the other half and the boys, but as we're generally in accord most of the time I can fudge on certain things (like TV!).

While I was very good at my career, I was always conscious that I was mainly generating money for people for whom I had little time but I persisted until we had sufficient money to be able to just afford the croft. However, I regarded the whole wage-slave thing as total BS, so once we were in a position to escape to the hills, I grasped it with both hands and got out of there. So why do I pursue this life? Because it's "my" life, just as it's also the other half's. We both choose to share it with each other. (The poor lads haven't much choice at this point!)

Carol Singing

Last night some of my choir, St George's Singers, went carol singing at the hunting lodge of Adlington Hall, a Medieval and Tudor stately home about five miles away from our house. We do this every year, singing for guests in the dining hall. We sing "The Twelve Days Of Christmas", "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and other well-known carols, and the diners sing along. The choir gets a fee from the hall, and we take a collection for charity at the end. The hall also provides drinks and mince pies for us after we've sung.

It's become a traditional part of Christmas, and I'd feel sorry if I ever had to miss it.

What does this have to do with self-sufficiency? Part of my philosophy on life is to relish the simple things that give me pleasure. Something like singing beautiful music with friends in a gorgeous setting, and then eating mince pies and talking and laughing afterwards, can give me a feeling of fulfilment and well-being that can last for days. I love Christmas, and these are the things I love about it, the things I've been posting about for a week now. Not spending lots of money. Not receiving expensive gifts. Not haring round the shops or sitting in traffic and becoming very stressed. But spending time with friends and family, making things, sharing food, music and appreciating the many blessings I have been given. That is part of self-sufficiency, not only in food, energy or water, but self-sufficiency in happiness and satisfaction.

Woolly Hat

Blog memes. I don't start them, I just pass them along. Stonehead is usually to be seen wearing a fetching woolly hat (should that be "beanie"?) . Recently Hedgewizard has also taken to wearing one. So I thought I'd join in and post a pic of myself in my favourite woolly hat.