living without a fridge

Now our kitchens not the most conventional, no fitted cupboards, worktop and a 1950′s hygena sink but there’s a washing machine and a cooker- which has seen a fair few Christmas dinners but still works fine- but there is one thing that induces the ‘visitors twirl’ in any guest trying to make a brew.
“where’s the fridge”
they exclaim as they whirl round and round, their eyes searching for that familiar wintry wardrobe. I have to explain, as they continue to search fruitlessly behind doors and once outside! that
“we don’t have a fridge.”

When this house was built in the mid 1920′s a fridge would have been a luxury and not one which probably the previous owners could have afforded. A tin or ceramic lined cupboard would have been as close as they came to one. Eggs, cooked meat and milk would have been kept here or in the built in pantry, which is nothing more than a cupboard under the stairs.

When I was a child not so many years ago, most things that now my mother and grandparents put in the fridge would have been kept in the pantry. I can remember that milk was always left out near the kettle, a one pint bottle brought every morning by the cheerful milkman- he really was. Cheese was kept in a tuppawear container or under a special cheese dish and veg was always in a basket in the pantry. The only things that I remember that were kept in the fridge were yogurt and anything that had been cooked- leftovers.

We never even had a freezer but as the years went on my parents bought into the domestic bliss that was a fridge freezer, micro wave, electric mixers and washer dryers. The pantry went the same way as the meat slicer, removed and replaced and since then everything from bread to butter, cakes to carrots are confined together in the whirring cabinet of chills.

Before I go any further, I’m not a hippy or bonkers, no comments please. One reason we have no fridge is that the thought of stepping into an electrical appliances showroom fills me with the same fear that i get on the way to the dentist. It had been in the back of mind for a while, what would life be like without such a familiar kitchen appliance? It is one of the kitchen trinity, sink, cooker and fridge after all.

To be honest we just got on with it, yes we may go shopping a few more times a week and never have ice cream anymore but we live in the city, a shop is never far away and I’ve long since given up eating such cheap dairy excuses for the real thing. Goats milk lives near the kettle and lasts as long as we need it, cheese is kept in a metal lunch box in the pantry and is always stone cold, vegetables live in a wicker basket and I admit broccoli only lasts a few days but it also gets eaten in a few days.

I can honestly say there is only a few times I miss it, one is holidays such as Christmas when the shops are closed for a few days and it would be nice to stock up. I don’t want it to sound like we do without, our life remains pretty much the same, we eat what we like, I still buy meat and fish, I just eat it fresh rather than freeze it and forget about it. Fish is never as good once frozen. When we’ve cooked meat and have leftovers they are used the next day.

What Ive noticed is that we eat better our food is fresher and we’ve given up processed food. People still say you’ll need one when….but we’ve not yet. Yes when we have a glut of peas or beans they’ll have to be eaten straight away but it hardly warrants a whole freezer.

That brings me on to cost, you could get a fridge freezer for £300 with an eco one at £600+ then there’s extra warranty, and the cost of running it. Now I’ve not worked it out but we only use around £4 a week on electric, thats without a TV, DVD and any of the other electrical bit that go with them. A fridge is always on always using electric even if your asleep, out or even on holiday, I like the thought that so often we are never using a even single watt of electricity and are at home getting on with our lives, yes that makes me feel smug.

It’s been nearly a year now, we’re not dead, were a little better off and our carbon footprints more Borrower than Bigfoot. I’m not saying everyone can do without but for a change the city dweller has the edge on the country mouse, we live near the food we eat, I can leave my milk in the shop fridge and collect it as I need it rather than buying 6 and freezing them, you can keep your fishfingers and my butter always spreads.

where I am now

I’ve been away from blogging for such a long time but must admit to missing the routine of it of late. After moving again last year we now finally have a place to call our own nothing special but it’s ours. Seen as we have been here nearly a year I thought I’d post an update on our progress.

I’ve made a promise to myself to get back on here moaning, ranting and hopefully having the occasional thing to brag about.

making an axe handle

My partner brought me an old axe head that she’d liberated from work and in true style I threw it in a tool box and forgot all about it. Finding it recently I thought it would make a good project. I used a piece of Willow for the handle, I’m sure that it not suitable at all but I wanted to practice cutting the shape and that was the only wood available.

I roughed out a blank on the shave horse with the draw knife then drew round an existing handle to get the shape. I then went back to the draw knife and roughed out the rest. The straight grain of the Willow was a great help. Other than some sanding to get a smooth finish it was all done on the shave horse with the draw knife.

With it being green wood, I then brought it in and placed it by the fire for a few days to dry it out. Next I cut a little notch in the top to take the wedge. With a little work with a knife I managed to get the shaft to fit into the head of the axe. (this was harder than it looked as the hole was irregular shape) I then drove an seasoned Oak wedge into the grove.

I was pleased with the shape of the handle but felt I made a bit of a mess with the wedge, I’d not cut the notch long enough I don’t think and the split did not seem central. A few weeks later the handle came loose, this time I used a larger wedge and that seems to have done the trick but I’m not trusting it yet!!

Saturday’s full English -a spiritual experience

Saturday morning would not be the same without this beautiful scene. It might not be the most healthy- even though it’s all organic- or the most original but it’s become an institution.

Opening the fridge on a Friday creates conflicting emotions, on one side there’s the excitement of some great ingredients sitting there waiting to be fried grilled or in someway warmed to release their captivating aromas and flavors but then you remember it’s Friday. You can’t cook these little beauties at six on a friday night, nor can you split them up, there a team, a tribe waiting to set saturday off to a flying start.

Coming down to the kitchen on Saturday morning is like a six year old coming downstairs on christmas morning, it’s exciting. I lay out the ingredients on the table, fetch the eggs from the coop and make a cup of tea. Now even though I like many have cooked this meal many times, perusing the separate ingredients with a brew in one hand is necessary not to decide how each will be dealt with, no that’s set in stone, it’s to give thanks.

Next my two favorite skillets come out, cast iron beauties there like my Sunday best. The kettles back on and so is the grill and two hobs, once butter hits the pan the song of frying begins. Bacon’s on, sausages under, tomatoes and mushrooms sliced, beans and eggs waiting. The song gets louder the smells intoxicate the senses and a trance like state is reached and then what would seem to the uninitiated to be a frenzy of scrambling, kettle reboiling, peppering, burning, fat spitting and bubbling chaos ceases, the fat quietens the kitchen cools. It’s done.

Like a monk illuminating pages I arrange the what until now have been separate ingredients, into a meal I make then one. All that is left for the eater to decide is their personal choice of condiment, it’s not fundamentalism after all.

It’s not about whether you believe in hash browns or not, or accept fried tomatoes as a second helping, it’s that your there letting it into your life. Monday could be poached eggs Tuesdays I’m open to some experimental thing with leftovers but Saturday’s full.

making cider vinegar

I’d love to say that the reason that all the cider we made in 2008 still is to be drunk is that we are only modest drinkers but that just not the case, it is and I’m thinking in gastronomic terms here, a bit cat pissy. Now that’s not to say that it’s undrinkable but it seems to have positioned itself in the emergency booze category along with that stuff in the strange bottle that I don’t know where it came from but gets that funny stain out of the toilet.

I digress, as I’m from a long line of waste not want not’s the natural thing to do is turn it into a superior product. Now I have in the past transformed what is an acquired taste cider into very pleasant apple brandy, by freeze distilling-which actually is my most popular post- but I wanted to have a go at something different.

Cider vinegar is a must in our kitchen so I having a go at making my own and at about £4 for an organic bottle, I’m hoping to save money too.

Now there are many ways of fermenting alcohol into vinegar some more complex than others but I was coming from the point of ‘if you build it they will come’ or if you let the air to it, the Acetobacter, the vinegar bacteria present in the air, will attack the alcohol in the cider and convert it into acetic acid or vinegar, with just patience and without needing Kevin Costner. That’s a ‘Field of dreams’ joke, sorry never mind…

Here’s what I did,
Nearly fill a large jar with 6% cider, (about 2.5ltrs) this cider is completely natural, just apple juice and time.
Leave enough space for adding a little cider vinegar, at 6% or more and unpasteurized, this so I’ve read, should aid the fermentation as the natural bacteria should still be present. I used Aspall organic cider vinegar. I added about 200ml.
Put a piece of cloth over the top and secure with an elastic band.
Leave in a warm place out of direct sunlight, mine is in the cupboard above the oven.
Wait…..

I’ve read that you need to add this and that or keep stirring but I’ve not. I will check it every month, I’m thinking it will take two to three months. It has already become a little hazy and there’s a white mold on the surface as there should be. I think if you brew any type of alcohol you should have a go at vinegars too.

More poultry problems

After last weeks attack on the chickens I’ve been on my guard but was not expecting what would happen next. I let the chickens out as normal carrying their food round to the back of the house as there has been quite a few rats round the coop and I thought this might control it a bit.

I’d gone back inside to make the morning brew and it was a while before I noticed that Allen (the cockerel) was not about, I started to panic a bit as the memory of last week was still fresh, sadly when I looked in the coop he was laying there dead.

I checked the body no sign of attack or injury it was very strange. It had been very cold that night but it has been colder. My farmer friend said that it is something you have to get used to, he’s right there not pets there farm animals working for me. I was still quite upset though when I buried him.

fantastic Mr Fox 1 Chickens 0

Well we’ve had the chickens for nearly a year now and it’s been a pleasure with no real problems, other than losing the three day old chicks mysteriously one night. Well dying not being abducted by aliens.

However perhaps this relaxed attitude was the reason I forgot to close the gate on the chicken run. They live in old dog kennels, having a secure house surrounded by a wire fence. It has a concrete floor and is walled on two sides, pretty much a fortress, well that is if the gates shut!

I was just about to write an excuse but there is none, they are my responsibility and I let them down, that makes me feel bad but it’s also a lesson I’ll never forget.

I knew what was going on as soon as I heard Allen (the cockerel) doing his panic crow, it was about five in the morning, I raced to the window to see him and the fox fighting it out. Quite amazing really, he’s not the biggest cockerel and it seemed a fully grown fox. By the time I’d got outside the scene seemed a lot different the fox had scarpered but Allen lay in a strange position. I marched up to perform what I thought would be my first chicken dispatch and by moonlight just to add to the drama. However just as I was about to take hold of him he jumped up and ran off!

I searched but could not find any of the hens or Allen by this time, so I made a brew and just hung around until morning, all expecting not to see any of them again. By the time it was light all but one of the hens were back scratching and crapping all over the lawn. I was relieved to have not lost them all but guilty that it was my fault.

The lesson never let your guard down, well let the guard down but don’t forget to shut the gate too, well you know what I mean.

more green woodworking

the first egg!

After spending the last week consulting books and considering chicken recipes one of the little beauties laid it’s first egg, OK it’s the smallest chicken egg I’ve ever seen but beggars as they say…

Todays egg is considerably bigger so I guess that was it’s first ever and they were a little younger when we got them than point of lay.

There is a little mystery in going to the coop around lunch time to find an egg laying there, soon hopefully they’ll be four and I’ll not know what to do with them!

rabbits out veg in

Finally the rabbit proof fence is up and hopefully going to keep the pesky little wabbits at bay. Luckily there was already a path around the veg patch so the chicken wire only had to bet tucked under the slabs rather than digging a trench. In true simplicity style the majority of the fence was begged stole or borrowed. Some wire was donated to the cause some was recycled from around the garden and only one section had to bought, the posts too were collected from around the garden so the whole thing cost only about £10.

There’s still a fair amount of digging to be done but the main area has been cleared and the turf removed. We’ve decided to paper mulch most of the beds as it cuts down on weeding which suits me fine.

Cabbages lettuce onions kale beetroot and french beans are already in and apart from one mystery attack the fence seems to be working. I think it’s either mice or squirrels! I’ve put wire netting along the front to deter the chickens from jumping over for a snack.