If push comes to shove...?

zarazara

I made raspberry vodka blackcurrant vodka and raspberry vinegar last summer.
They are very succesful and I hope to make more this summer.

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I have been thinking about buying hubby a beer making kit...

does anyone know how much it works out per pint to make?

I haven't brewed for many years, but there's a heck of a difference between beer made like wine, where the wild yeasts floating about in the air are excluded with an air lock, and the other kind we used to mass-produce at college.

In the wine-type brewing, you can choose from a large range of yeasts, so you could copy German lager for instance. It's a lot more faff, and a bit more expensive getting the equipment, but I found the results were worth it.

There must be tons of sources on the internet. I remember having to go mail order for the hops and yeasts, as there was nowhere local selling them, back in the 1980s.

There's no way I'd drink our 'college' beer now! :eek:

cootambear

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I've made lots of vodka and gin fruit drinks the last few years, but all my beer making turns out to not be so tasty not sure what I keep doing wrong, but it never tastes good.

I should make fruit wine, but I never seem to find the time.

if you post your technique/recipe up i`ll have a look

[Deleted User]

I have been browsing in my favs and thought you might like this useful site

http://www.pfaf.org/user/default.aspx

[Deleted User]

I`m getting no-where with this vegetable canning malarky. It looks as though all available pressure canners are in the US and they are all aluminium, so even if I had a gas hob they are a no no. A pressure cooker will probably work but the jar has to be on a false bottom and the whole jar covered with at least an inch of water. Thats out as well so I give up. I`ll carry on with jams, chutneys, wines, pickles and preserved fruits and tomatoes and I`ll freeze my veg as I am not too keen on dehydrating them. Now I`m going to put canning out of my head

Poosmate

I know this thread hasn't been posted on for a month but I think it's becoming more relevant as the year progresses with all the redundancies being made and the unrest in the middle east. Come April, no doubt all of our bills are going to go up, Council Tax, water rates etc. Utilities went up in December (well most anyway), petrol is creeping up as is food.

Kittie, I was watching loads of videos on YouTube about canning, it does seem to be more of an American thing and it seemed a bit of a polava! I then watched a load of vids about dehydrating food and I thought it looked much more doable. If you search on YouTube you can find vids showing you how to do almost anything even how to make your own dehydrator!

Poo

Rummer

I find it all quite scary and have been carefully planning my fruit and veg planting so at least we can reduce the food bills over the summer.

rhiwfield

Poo, I agree with you, its the impact of all these factors that are squeezing family budgets, and the current massive increase in oil prices has yet to feed through. A year ago Brent crude was around $75, now its $114, a rise of 50%. And dont forget that £-$ rate has fallen so that oil costs us even more.

Rummer, I agree its scary unless you're getting bankers bonuses.

But the good news is that food is one of the things that we can do something about, where we can actually grow a fair bit of what we eat, often of better quality and variety than what we can buy in the shops.

Happy growing!

valk_scot

Hubby asked me how much I could cut off the weekly food bill on average per week if I got the allotment up to absolutely top production. After mulling this over I admitted I didn't really know, apart from that it would be more in summer than winter! Also would I base it on the cost of produce I didn't buy elsewhere or the value of the produce I brought home? ( No these are not the same thing...I adapt the meal plans to what I've got in the summer rather than have a full supermarket of choice.) And what about the things I get in barter? I swap surplus produce for eggs from the neighbour's chickens, home baking (the old lady down the road is a demon of a scone maker) and the odd bit of childcare. How to cost all that in?

Better start keeping a notebook, I suppose. It's all "outs" atm though...new gardening gloves, three new fruit trees, nets, canes etc!

Farway

valk_scot wrote: »

Hubby asked me how much I could cut off the weekly food bill on average per week if I got the allotment up to absolutely top production. After mulling this over I admitted I didn't really know, apart from that it would be more in summer than winter!

The traditional allotment [10 rods?] is supposed to be enough ground to feed a family of four for a year, but of course this can only be seasonal, and does not include bananas / oranges etc