Get a grip woman!

beanielou

I love Arran EH & SL.
Used to have a cottage there & then latterly a lodge.

Suffolk_lass

beanielou said:

I love Arran EH & SL.
Used to have a cottage there & then latterly a lodge.

@beanielou we are staying in a house in Whiting Bay after @edinburgher said he liked that area. As we drive from my Mum's (east of Ayr) towards Kilmarnock we can see Arran and have always wanted to go. Mum has been up there over thirty years and this will be our first trip to Arran. We are normally a lot further north. Largs is the only other place south of Glasgow. Looking forward to it but we have two motorhome trips in the next week first; a wedding overnighter tomorrow, and four nights in Ongar with our usual friends who have camper/motorhomes.

I'm trying to use a referral code for the octopeds but I couldn't use the click through because my account from when I was with them in 2019 was still in existence, so I have emailed and asked. 

rtandon27

Suffolk_lass said:

@rtandon27 The bloom is, I think, what I refer to as my starter. I put half a teaspoon of sugar in a jug with the contents of a 7g dried yeast sachet and add 200m of tepid water and mix it so there are no lumps. Then I leave it until it foams, at least 1 cm before adding it to the flour and salt (stirred through to disperse the salt). Then I add 10ml of water, the 300g of sourdough starter, an egg and about an ounce (25g) of butter and set it to mix in the mixer with the dough hook. I add two or three more tablespoons of flour so that it makes a ball rather than a pile of sludge in the bowl. 10 minutes later I turn it on to the floured surface and I can tell if it needs more kneading (feels tight) or is right to prove. I make it into a round bal and pop it in an oiled mixing bowl, covered with a disposable shower cap until it threatens to burst out of the bowl, in contact with the film of the SC. 

Blimey! Half an hour to extract! I presumed you meant to actually remove the super(s) of honey from the hive. The messy reference makes me think you are visiting the beekeeper's set up which is a scaled up version of ours. It takes a fair old while to extract the honey here... but in a small kitchen with limited space. We use an uncapping fork but there are all sorts of bits of kit from hot knives to hairdryers to professional uncapping set ups like this one - you have to have a LOT of hives to pay for this sort of scale, and as for extracting itself...

so in reverse order...

So sorry I did not explain the honey situation very well!  We have a dedicated group of bee club folks who spend a whole day using uncapping forks and then hand spin the honey to get it out!  To be 'inclusive' and 'green' we encourage all staff to 'volunteer' for 1/2 hour to 'help' extract the honey.  Having been involved in the teaching in previous years, it's really just adding to our extracting time, but it educates and includes which is an important part of my workplace ethos.  We luckily have use of a medium size catering kitchen with a steel worktop and steel sinks so cleaning up the stickiness is a breeze!  The funding for the real bee-keeper comes in from the corporate side so that our company can be seen to be green and helping the environment.  Thank-goodness for his expertise, as the rest of us are enthusiastic but amateurs and over the years have managed to loose several queens!

I think the bloom and the starter are one in the same, but the difference is that if she was making sourdough, there was no bloom, just starter from the large jar and if she was making a regular loaf, then it was made with bloom.  I don't think I can ever recall her doing a combination of the two as you do!  My own breadmaking adventures have consisted of either using a breadmaker or handmaking flatbreads & pizza bases - so the 'magic' touch of hand-baking loaves is not something I've ever developed!

beanielou

Whiting Bay is just awesome. 

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - love the pantry shots - you've awoken a yearning I never knew I had

If it's not too intrusive, could you PM the name of your Arran accommodation? We're looking for somewhere for next Easter and the place we stayed in before is £1,000+ for a week

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher said:

@Suffolk_lass - love the pantry shots - you've awoken a yearning I never knew I had

If it's not too intrusive, could you PM the name of your Arran accommodation? We're looking for somewhere for next Easter and the place we stayed in before is £1,000+ for a week

Consider it done! Always happy to share (privately) with the people I "know" on here!

Suffolk_lass

I slept really badly - mostly a hot dog trying to sleep sideways on our bed with the result that I was too hot. Must dash as I need to get to a cafe by 10.00 to meet some (one at least) fellow beekeeper for the start of our non-seasonal informal chats)!

Suffolk_lass

I forgot we were going to a wedding reception on Saturday and we took the van and slept overnight. We are also away again this week, and then after swapping vehicles, off to Scotland until the end of the month. In the meantime, I opened the larder door to see Raspberry juice dribbling down a jar of apples and forming a sticky puddle on the shelf! It is very warm in there. Literally one of 6 jars on a shelf and not on a cardboard tray. How annoying is that!?

Watty1

Now I have read your thread I want a larder and a lot of jars full of deliciousness....

Suffolk_lass

If you are thinking of foraging @Watty1, berries freeze better than storing in preserving jars. And as of last year, my short-term storage is of barely sweetened stewed fruit (blackberry would work with apple in this context) into 140c jars (I let the fruit and jars cool for 10 minutes, and they take about the same time for the jars to come up to temperature from cold in the oven, as the fruit cooks. Apart from Bramley apples (which make lovely mushy apple) I stop the cooking before the fruit goes too mushy and after the ten minutes, use my jam funnel to fill the jars and seal. They don't keep well once opened so 250g jars are ideal, or just over half a 500g jar between us for dessert (custard or ice cream are the favourites, and then the rest for breakfast on porridge, with yogurt or on cereal. I keep thinking I could pre-cook some crumble top and make instant crumbles, but there is never the room in my freezer.

My skinflint MSE thinking is to cook using the oven powered by solar now and then reduce its use a bit in winter