Is there anything else OS I can be doing?

kinkyjinks

PennyGSD wrote: »

I don't know what style of wine you like, but we've tried quite a few of the Beaverdale kits and haven't found a bad 'un yet and best of all they're drinkable in just 4-6 weeks, although do improve with age.

I've just started making wine and have used this recipe. I made 2 demijohns of it to begin with and 1 demijohn of this recipe. They were really simple to make and taste unbelievably nice, especially when you know they only have 2 cartons of juice in them. The 2 recipes are going to be well practised while I wait for my country wines to mature:beer:

Wee_Jo

Hi Penny :hello:

Thanks for starting this thread - it's great! I am starting out on Old Style and really enjoying it so far! I find out about new things to do every day. I also make yoghurts as well (though I have a yoghurt maker so that's probably cheating ) and they are just lovely.

I want to start doing some windowbox gardening, think some salad leaves to begin with and I hope to also have access to a garden soon (through the Land Share scheme) :money:

I think I will give making peanut butter a go, it sounds good fun and I'd love to try some jam making! I find Old Style really exciting - so much to try and a good sense of achievement to everything you do! :T

Jo

foxgloves

Well, something I was intending to do today......until a terrific rainstorm, thunder & lightening started, was go around my garden harvesting herbs for making herb teas. I already dry big bunches of oregano, sage, tarragon, etc, for cooking, but it occurred to me earlier this year that some of the herb teabags you get in boxes (if you want something other than the usual 2 or 3) are quite expensive when it's easy enough to grow herbs for making tisanes in the garden. I've been experiementing with combinations of different leaves & found I really like 2 parts lemon balm with 1 part each of vervaine and grapefruit mint, so I'm going to dry supplies of those from the plants in my garden and crumble them up for herb tea over winter. I think that if I water & feed the plant, they'll regrow & give me some more leaves until the frosts come. I've got some tangerine sage as well, so my next experiment is going to be finding another herb to put with that. Just a thought if you like herb teas & don't already dry & make your own x

PennyGSD

Just wanted to quickly pop in and thank everyone for their responses as unfortunately I haven't had the time to devote to replying, but I have been quickly reading - and I'm sitting here eating HM yoghurt with a HM granola topping at the moment.

By the way, I made the infamous (is that the right word?) galette au chou for the first time last night, and it was as good as reported. Mine had the addition of finely chopped courgettes - I have an allotment, every meal has the addition of finely chopped courgettes.

More later.

missychrissy

PennyGSD you are doing really well to start with. I make my own wine but I have never used the kits as too expensive. My next door neighbour used to use them and I thought they were horrible so I didn't go down that route. My cheapest wines use 'free' ingredients such as elderflower, elderberry, blackberry and rosehip and plum and work out at about 16p per bottle.

I also make wines out of cartons of juice and I find they work out at approx 50p per bottle. Jenny Jelly's wine recipe using apple and grape juice makes a lovely white wine and everyone likes it. Her rose wine using cranberry juice and red grape is also good. I do shop around for the cheapest ingredients and at present Farmfoods is doing 2kg sugar for £1 and 2 cartons of apple juice for £1.

I have a 5 gall Betta Bottle but I much prefer 5 gall fermenters with taps. They make racking off really easy and bottling a doddle. I have tried a few websites but my favourite is Hop and Grape as their prices are reasonable and their customer service is excellent.

Have you thought about ditching washing powder and fabric conditioner. I have been using eco balls for about 3 years now and my washing is perfectly clean. However, all of my children have left home so I do not have any muddy/dirty football gear etc anymore so I'm not sure how they would cope with heavy stains but they work extremely well for me. Lakeland sell them as well as soap nuts and could save you a considerable amount on your washing bill.

Are you on metered water? If so, then installing one or two water butts could save you a fortune, especially if you have fruit and veg to water. Also, I save all my sterilising fluid from home brewing and use it to flush the toilet.

I agree with the slow cooker suggestion. I have a 6.5L Cookworks and I do large batches of meat/veg/pulses and then portion it up and freeze. Cheaper cuts of meat are excellent for this.

Hope this helps!

Nicoll

I eat tons (literally) of peanut butter, think I have an addiction so I'm going to try making my own. Haven't done it previously as thought it would be too much hassle and I'm a useless cook and have little spare time but the recipe on here sounds easy peasy so gonna give it a go this weekend

PennyGSD

As promised, here’s a fuller reply. I’m still really grateful for all the helpful responses and can’t believe how helpful and friendly you all are –I wish I’d had the courage to start posting earlier.

Anyway, I sort of fell into this current job as I was temping at a company and was coming to the end of the contract. They still needed help, but weren’t permitted to increase head count so the working from home arrangement came about – initially for 3 months, but I’m still here 15 months later. No job security, but I’ll worry about that when it does eventually end.

I had originally angled this question at cooking/food type suggestions as that’s the bit I most enjoy, but I’m also enjoying all the other tips. I’ve already adopted most of the cleaning tips – we only use vinegar, bicarb and Stardrops, although I do admit to keeping a bottle of Power Spray as sometimes this really is the only thing that will shift the results of my experiments in preserving! I haven’t tried the laundry gloop as I love the smell of Bold 2-in-1 and it seems to work so much better than any other brand for me, but don’t worry, I use at least 50% less than recommended, and only ever buy it on stonking special offer, although I have been known to add soda crystals to help with a white wash. I might give the gloop a go just once though. Not sure about the eco balls...

I’m also extremely proud of our frugal energy usage. Being at home all day through this last freezing winter could have resulted in a huge energy bill, but I’m pleased to say it ended up being a lot, lot less than previous years – low energy bulbs, stat set to a very low level and warming up by moving around regularly and eating large bowls of home made soup made it really quite comfortable – neither of us agree in suffering for the sake of it! I also have a 6.5 litre slow cooker, and have actually managed to nearly overfill it a couple of times. Yes, brilliant for cheaper cuts of meat and batch cooking and hiding lentils and mashed veg. I love lamb shoulder in it and we always make full use of the leftovers as well. We quite often have lamb ‘flavoured’ Shepherd’s Pie. It’s amazing how nice veg is when simmered in the left over lamb juices with a touch of mint and a few shreds of meat.

I would love, love, love to keep chickens, but we have such a tiny garden I wouldn’t be able to give them enough space, and still keep them away from the dog.

I moved on to the Beaverdale wine kits as they genuinely produce wine like the stuff you can buy. There are much cheaper kits available, but they always seem to have a harsh ‘home-made’ edge to them so we decided that £1.30ish (I’ve worked it out properly now) is a very small price to pay for something that tastes just like a reasonably pricey vineyard produced bottle. I’ve always found that ‘country’ wines are never really the same. Quite what I’m expecting when they’re not made from grapes, I don’t know. However, I do remember making a couple of successful gallons in the early days from drinking grape juice so I might just have another go at the apple/grape and redcurrant/grape combination – thanks for reminding me of this.

And finally – a little tip for Jo_Rourke – if you just want to have a mini attempt at jam making, why not try it in the microwave first. I make a couple of jars of raspberry at a time using just slightly less sugar to fruit – no water, lemon juice or anything else, and best of all no specialist equipment or welded on fruit to clear up afterwards. I don’t know how to do links yet, but I did find the method on here somewhere. If you can’t find it I’d be happy to post what I do, but I think this post is long enough for now.

shopndrop

PennyGSD wrote: »

if you just want to have a mini attempt at jam making, why not try it in the microwave first. I make a couple of jars of raspberry at a time using just slightly less sugar to fruit – no water, lemon juice or anything else, and best of all no specialist equipment or welded on fruit to clear up afterwards. I don’t know how to do links yet, but I did find the method on here somewhere. If you can’t find it I’d be happy to post what I do, but I think this post is long enough for now.

I would love to have a go at making jam, never tried it. Any chance of posting the method as I am sure there must be others that are interested in having a go.

PennyGSD

Here's what I do. Makes 2 smallish jars (sorry, no idea what actual volume this is, but if there's a bit left over, I just use put that semi-filled jar in the fridge and make it the next jar to use up).

Before starting, place a couple of saucers in the freezer for your wrinkle test.

Add approx 500g washed raspberries into a large microwave bowl with a lid. Make sure it's big enough to take 2-3 times the amount of fruit as adding sugar will increase the volume, and you need some bubbling space.

Microwave on high for 3-4 mins until the fruit is soft and cooked.

Add 450g sugar and stir. Heat again on high until it looks like it's about to boil over (about 6 mins on mine, but don't take your eyes off it as once it starts to go, it's very quick).

Continue to heat in 2-3 min sessions until it's cooked for about 15 mins and then test it for wrinkles. Place a small amount on the saucer straight from the freezer and leave it a few secs - push it with your fingernail or a spoon and if it wrinkles it's ready. If it doesn't, continue the 2-3 mins sessions until it does.

I think I cooked my very first batch at little too long as it was quite a challenge to spread on all but the densest home made toast, but did taste really good. Any further and it would have been raspberry toffee (pinched that from somewhere on her, but it's such a perfect description). I've been leaving the later batches a little softer as they are easier to spread, and the looser they are, the easier they are to stir into yoghurt. And don't forget, the fruit will continue to cook for a couple of mins after you take it out of the microwave.

When the jam is ready, and while it is cooling a little, sterilise your jars. I clean them and sterilise them in Milton fluid (I use this to clean my wine-making stuff so have it anyway, but I don't think it's 100% necessary) and then fill them quarter full with hot water. Shake it about so that the whole jar is wet and then microwave (without lids) until nearly boiling. Remove from microwave (with oven gloves), empty and then drain. This won't take long due to the heat.

Fill the jars while both the jam and the jars are still hot, but not boiling, then seal.

As you're only making a couple of jars at a time, it's worth experimenting. I find raspberry very reliable at setting, but a little apple added to low pectin fruits will apparently help them to set.

EstherH

Thanks for the jam recipe Penny. I would love to have a go at making but was always put off by the large amounts. Do you know if blackberries are high pectin? I got a recipe for blackberry syrup off the Its tough... thread, so when my blackberries are ripe I shall be using them for both these. Haven't been shopping yet, so no wide mouthed flask to try yoghurt. Probably have to wait now until next week.