really old style living?

Patchwork_Quilt

parsonswife8 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice rhiwfield:). This is just an experiment really.
I will do as you recommend and plant some out in early November.

I put mine in the fridge for a couple of weeks before I plant it out.

Thats_Me_3

I have just been told by Mr TM that I am selling myself (us) short again! So, re; old style here is a more comprehensive list - Cook everything from scratch, grow most of our own veg plus a lot of fruit - blackberries, raspberries, redcurrants, gooseberries, blackcurrants, pears (we also have a plum tree with 2 plums on it!) buy stuff that is to be discontinued in supermarket, knitting, a bit of sewing AND teaching myself to crochet, making pickles, chutnies, jam, marmaLAde, making EVERY £ go as far as at least £3 make our own yogurt, wine, beer, fruit teas etc.......... enough, enough.

Someone earlier (I have only just finished reading all the posts) asked for a recipe for lemon balm (Melissa) wine -

3 - 4 pints lemon balm leaves
3lb sugar
Juice and pared rind of 1 lemon
yeast (about half of a 1 ounce/28 gram packet)
water (about 7 pints)

Boil the water with the slivers of rind in it, then pour it over the leaves in a lidded fermenting bucket. Soak, giving an occasional stir(at least daily), for 4 days then strain, put into a sterilised demi john with the sugar, lemon juice and yeast and fit an air lock onto the demi john. Keep in a warm place out of direct light. When the fermentyation is finished replace the air lock with a solid bung and put away in a cool dark place. Leave it for as long as you can then siphon off into bottles. I find wine develops a better flavour if left to age in bulk.

Hope this helps, the recipe is from a little book called *Discovering Country Winemaking* by Daphne More, I got it from Amazon.

Keep up these brilliant posts, I have now been inspired to have a go at spinning, although I don't know if I will ever get round to it!

wssla00

Ceridwen- I have an article from a country living magazine on making cheese, I will see if I can find it!

I am making some yoghurt tonight, then will make a compote for me to have with it! Yummy!

I have friends coming at the weekend and I will be damned if I end up stopping my usual ways. They will have to make do and not be snobby!

The other problem is they are very good at spending money like water and not think about the welfare or the food miles of their food! So although they do offer to cook, they mess up my kitchen and make me feel a bit squeamy- especially about chicken! I will cook all weekend it's the only way I can think of doing it, without compromising my principles.

Oh well rant over! I am going to rest and watch river cottage on channel 4 od!

Have a good evening!

ginnyknit

So far today I have made bunting and a card for a baby shower, made Dgs a taggy blanket (saved 15 quid) padded Dgs's baby chair as it was very hard and planted out my leeks - not bad so far Now am crocheting together squares for Dd's throw for her new house. I feel as if I have acheived something today.

I made cheese - very easy, just warm milk and white vinegar strained, instant or nearly instant ricotta. Made a fab cheesecake.

The thing is we are demystifying things, if you get me. Our washing machine used to stop working a lot when the kids were little and we had a friend of a friend who used to come and fix it for a fiver, then when we couldn't afford the fiver we tried ourselves. The guy said you needed a special tool - yes molegrips! so we started fixing it ourselves. Most things are like that, you can fix a lot of things and make a lot of things yourself once you have the 'recipe' so to speak and the internet has done this for us.

tru

Mardatha, we spent the day on Dartmoor yesterday. You should head down there, one farmer must have gotten carried away with marking his sheep - they were pink all over :rotfl:

ceridwen

tru wrote: »

Mardatha, we spent the day on Dartmoor yesterday. You should head down there, one farmer must have gotten carried away with marking his sheep - they were pink all over :rotfl:

Drumroll - or sound of "Jaws" style music - and she's on her way shouting "Geronimo":rotfl::rotfl:

mardatha

My god I wish I had the energy to shout anything - I'm in the worse flare-up of ME that I've had in years and I canny get off the couch ! ( munch in peace, wee pink sheepies !) I just overdid things last week when one of my sons came for a couple of days and I should know better. It will pass.. it bloody better !
I was thinking about the Victorian craze (and skill) of pressed flowers. I have some Cornflowers in the garden & they would look so beautiful pressed flat in a card. It might be a nice thing to do at xmas, but we would need to keep the flowers now. Does anybody know how to do it ??

babychick

fold the flowers inside a piece of tissue paper and pop between the pages of a book - then pile up lots of heavy books on top, you'll need to keep adding weight to make sure the flowers dry out properly. failing that - i'm sure 'proper' flower presses could be made - have a go0gle and you'll see what I mean? Hope this helps a little.:o

NualaBuala

That sucks mardatha ... hope it doesn't last long. Sounds like at least you're still able to plot from your lair (aka the couch) so sheep better not get too complacent.

Gigervamp

The way babychick said is easiest, but if you wanted to make a flower press, you just need a couple of squares of plywood with holes drilled in each corner. Some blotting paper slightly smaller than the ply (several layers) and some long bolts with wing-nuts that go through the drilled holes to screw it all together.