Thanks to everybody who regularly visits to read my blog. From the cluster map I can see that there are a lot of people from across the pond and many different parts of the world interested in our little life. Keep spreading the word and thanks for the support.
I’m off away this week to Bulgaria with the wife and a friend. It’s the first time I’ve flew for a few years and it may be the last. I used to love to fly but now it makes me nervious not to mention the carbon footprint I’ll leave behind. I’m thinking of making it my last trip by plane, I can save myself from worry and cut down my emissions. I also like the thought of travelling through Europe by train.
We are flying to the capital Sofia and then travelling by train through the mountains to Varna on the Black sea coast. Sadly on the way there we are going by sleeper train so the views will be wasted but we will make up for it on the way back. I’ll post some pictures on when I get back.
Needless to say I’ll not be posting for just over a week.
I’ve been a little busy to get alot of things done veg wise these last few weeks but March is normally one of the busiest months of the year. Seeds are constantly on my mind in march, wether it’s the ones that I’m sowing or the ones I need to buy.
Now is the time to get out all those seeds that you saved from last year so that you have organic and free seeds aswell as a knowledge of the seeds past. That is if you remembered to save all your seeds rather than plonking them on the compost or eating them! Over the past years I’ve managed to save more and more, if you are growing the same thing year after year there is no real excuse not to.
I don’t have a greenhouse I have to make do with a table near the window but if you are careful you can make best use of such a small space. If you have no greenhouse then don’t sow crops which benefit from that type of environment and think about which seeds can be sown in a prepared bed. With these two thoughts in mind you will realise that you don’t need much room at all.
If I had a greenhouse it would be full but because I don’t I have to plan the growing season well. All the seeds I can sow in a prepared bed save me having to find space for them. It also means that I have a few more weeks before they have to be in the ground. The seeds that can be sowed straight into the ground are normally those which require thinning rather than special individual treatment.
Yesterday I sowed squashes, chilli peppers and tomatoes as for me these are much easyer to deal with when they can be seperated, they also benefit from an extra bit of TLC. Also if I’m honest I love to watch squashes grow. I also sowed three tubs of raddish which is a great crop as it ’s quick to germinate.
I’ve been wanting to post some videos on the blog for a while as I still feel that they are a great way of explaining an idea. Next to seeing something first hand a video gives a greater insight into many principals of permaculture.
This one comes from “Peak Moment” a weekly half-hour TV series featuring conversations about local food, renewable energy, transportation alternatives, preparedness, economics and other areas of concern as we move into a period of declinging fossil fuels.
Give it a look and then check out the rest on you tube. This is my favourite as I love the chemistry between the presenter and the guy.
Suburban Renewal - One Backyard at a Time
I went to the local garden centre yesterday as I’ve been wanting some fruit trees for a while to add to my permaculture/perennial garden. I have been trying to get hold of some local variets of apple tree but it’s been hard trying to track down where to get them from and I can’t wait any longer. I will still try and get some as I want to create an espallier wall at my mothers as she has the room.
After spending too long looking at each tree I decided on Malus domestica ‘Jupiter’ or ‘an apple tree’! It’s on a MM106 rootstock which is a little large for my garden but I’ll just keep it heavily pruned. I decided on this instead of the M27 that I was after simply because it looked the most healthy and had a good shape and amount of branches. More branches = more apples. It ripens in October so should be reay for my birthday and be a little addition to my cider enterprise. Oh and it cost £18.99.
I now just need to find a place to put it. I will try it infront of the summer house as even though directly infront of it there is a lot of shade, it’s tall enough to have it’s branches in the sun, if you get what I mean.
If it works it will mean that that area will be productice as at the moment it’s just used to store stuff or rubbish through the year.
Also like when you are in any shop I ended up with more than I went in for. I also bought three blueberry bushes,for £14.99 an early, middle and late. In theory that means fruit from July to September. I think I’ll try and grow these in pots but I’m new to fruit growing. I’m still waiting for a decent crop of Black currents after three years although the goseberries were brilliant last year but I guess that wasthe weather.
I’ve not posted for a while as the last few weeks we’ve had loads of visiters and I’ve been trying to get jobs done in the house tiling the floor painting etc. We have always had an open house and if we lived in a place that junkies and maniacs would not just walk in, the door would always be open.
I want to say a big thankyou to are friends Brick and Steph for our shopping bags, I’ve been using these cotton things that are a bit crap, but these are brilliant loads of room and biodegradabel maximum hippy points. They are from unicorn-grocery.co.uk>
I don’t want to go on about why plastic bags are evil and I’m not saying you should buy these but if you don’t I’m not talking to you.
The average working person in Britain on one hand is told to use the supermarket less and on the other lives frugally because of a lack of money rather than because of a lifestyle choice. I’m very much working class, well actually I’m one of Margaret Thatcher’s ‘underclass’ ( bless her ) as I don’t have a job at all.
How much of my life is voluntary simplicity and how much is imposed poverty, I could not say, we don’t struggle but we don’t want much. We are not in a position to spend money like water but then I’ve no desire to. We eat well have fun and blow the budget occasionally but the thing we never have to do is worry about money, for that I’m very thankful. When I’ve no money I don’t moan about it.
Some people however don’t have that choice, ethical shoppers or not many people do long hours for little pay, a vast majority of people work in jobs that promote consumerism, un-organic produce and money in favour of people. In reality many people work in supermarkets, where does that leave them? They get discounts on their shopping and are already at work, then some hippy tells them to shop local or buy ethical orgaic meat at twice the price. **** off is most peoples answer and why should they push an already tight budget?
If you can’t afford organic meat and a solar hot water system there’s not need to buy cheap super market shite and leave the hot tap running. Ethics principals and respect don’t cost a penny.
The media has jumped on the band wagon in the last few years, that anything to do with the environment organic food or veg growing is in and we should all be doing it. Just check out magazines and TV listings full of open ended arguments and no real questions, just as ever lifestlye promotion.
” We shop at the local farmers market, it’s all local and organic”
” Yeah, well, I shop at Lidle, it’s foods from a million miles away and the money I save goes to the pub at the weekend to drown my miserable existence and the farmers market is on while I’m at work.”
Remember you don’t need to be seen making a change it’s enough that you know that you’ve made an effort and you have done your bit. You still may drive to work shop at the supermarket and appear to be like all the other sheep but you know that you’ve made the choice to change.
Changing your routine is always difficult but add money, lifestyle and your job and the struggle increases, but hang on. I don’t have alot of money or even a car, how do I manage to be able to choose where I shop and what I do? The answer is simple I make a concious effort, how ever small, I don’t come up with excuses why not to, I think how can I ? I look at my life as a whole not just as a series of actions. Nobody is going to save the world alone.
The house at the back of mine has been empty for a month or so now as the council are renovating it. Thats fine by me, it’s sad that they could not do alot of the work there years ago as I’m sure that it would have helped the old lady who lived there with her heating bills.
In their infinate wisdom they decided to fix a cracked window pain in the kitchen window, whats wrong with that? well two days later they took all the windiows out and replaced them with UPVC.
Crap council of the week must go to Scunthorpe council this week for wasting money and time, well done Scunthorpe council.
The one the left is the normal cider and the one on the right has been freeze distilled.
We had some friends visiting this weekend so what better way to celebrate than with alcohol. I’d been wanting to try this technique of freeze distillation with cider for a while but never got round to it. Basically you put your alcohol in a container then put it in the freezer. All the water freezes and you are left with a higher alcohol content and a stronger flavour.
Freeze distillation is a metaphorical term for a process of enriching a solution by partially freezing it and removing frozen material that is poorer in the dissolved material than is the liquid portion left behind. Such enrichment parallels enrichment by true distillation, where the evaporated and recondensed portion is richer than the liquid portion left behind.
Part of the reason I did this was that I was not convinced that the cider had much alcohol as it does not taste as if it does. However after the freezing process the change was considerable. It had definatly enhanced the flavour, colour and raised the alcohol content. It really works!
Although I did not end up with much compared with the volume that I started with what I ended up with was a much better drink. I am going to try it with the second batch of cider that I made as this was mostly Bramleys and although it’s not as bad as I was led to believe, I think that it could be turned into a far superior drink if distilled.
According to Wikapedia this process is illegal in many countries because a number of by-products of fermentation (fusel alcohols), which are mostly removed by heat distillation, tend to accumulate to an unhealthy level in freeze-distilled beverages.
From what I understand, this process was very popular among the New England colonies.
Barrels of apple wine would be set out in sheds during January and February when the temperatures where blistering cold. And, by first thaw it would be ready to drink. In America this drink is called Apple Jack. Freeze distillation is also refered to as the Mongolian still and is said to have been in use since the 7th century.
” HE’S HAVING A GO AT THE FLOWRES NOW”
Now I’ve normally got little time for a plant unless I can eat it, however there are times when flowers play an important role in our lives. Even I, a miserable frugal shopper, sometimes find myself buying cut flowers. Before you ask not to smooth over an argument between the wife and I!! Whether it’s weddings, funerals, birthdays or anniverseries a bunch of flowers can mean alot to somebody.Don’t worry I’ve not gone all ‘hippy’, here comes the ranting bit.
The commertial flower industry is big business, billions are spent every year across the world on giving that special somebody a bunch of flowers. We often read about organic, fair trade and local when it comes to food and drink but how often do we consider it when buying flowers? Well we should considering the fact that around 65 countries are involved in the cut flower trade, the main countries being Colombia, the Netherlands, Israel, Ecuador, Spain and Italy.
Flower growing is a big operation, and like most mono crops, productivity is king. Chemical spraying is vital for the level of production that we require. If flowers are gifts of affection then we should treat them as we do the food that we put into our and our familys bodies. If you would not give chemically sprayed out of season produce to your family why would you give them flowers treated in the same way?
I have made a commitment not to buy flowers from florists or the supermarket and only to source them locally or grow my own just as I do with vegatables. Like my choice not to give greetings cards it is met with comments of being tight fisted but who cares.
It is also worth remembering that flowers purchased from the supermarket are more than likely going to be from Africa or south America as these countries can meet demand but at what cost? There is not only the Fair trade issue to consider but the standardisation of the flowers themselfs, just as we lose varietys of fruit that don’t fit the mould we could risk the same with flowers.
It is easy to grow flowers, even more than veg so why not grow your bunch of flowers? or go out and pick some wild ones. It’s true that there are more flowers about at certain times of the year but why should that be a problem just make the most of it while you can. I think that a carefully grown plant or flower says alot more about you than a bunch bought at a service station on the way to a party. I always buy bulbs for my mothers birthday and plant them up on that day, not much to look at but after a few years when they all come up together around her birthday, I think it’s worth it.
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