Free pop!

Hello fellow wayfarers.  Goodness me!  I had no idea it had been so long… It only seems like yesterday.. well maybe last month, since I last wrote on this blog thingy.  In this household life has a habit of taking one by the scruff giving a hearty good shake then another shake just for good measure.  I am sure I am not the only one.

Any way today I had an unexpected day off, another of life’s little shake ups.  So I decided to make my elderflower pop, well start it anyway.  Then I had some elderflower left over and some lemons, and as it was so hot I decided to make some elderflower and lemon cordial for circle tonight.

Then I thought to myself, as I sometimes do, that it would be really nice to share my two recipes with you so that you can have a go should you feel minded to do so.

So first of all,

Elder Flower Pop!

Cups = UK measuring cups – but I being me just use rough handfuls, it’s not an exact science.

6 cups of fresh elderflowers.  12 cups dried.  Remove all thick stems and leaves.

½ gallon of water.

½ cup of sugar or honey.

¼ cup of whey* You can get this by just draining some off of your natural yogurt.

1 lemon – peel the rind with a good peeler and then use the juice as well.

Rinse the flowers briefly, don’t let them stand, you want all that nectar and flavour in your pop.

drain the rinsing water away.

Boil your1/2 gallon of water, and then in a non- reactive pot/bucket or pan pour the boiling water over your elderflowers.

Now, we are a big family and do all things big so my actual recipe is three times the above amount so I use a clean plastic rubbish bin for this purpose. J

Let this elderflower and water steep for 48 hours.  Cover your pot with muslin or a clean tea towel, I use a clean sling from the 1^st aid kit! It’s ok I have a few of these so no one will be bereft if a sling is needed.

After 48 hours is done strain the flowers through your muslin or tea towel, if necessary suspend over your pot/bucket or pan and leave it to drip for a bit.  You can squeeze too… very satisfying.

Discard the elderflower on to the compost heap and put your lemon juice and rind into the elderflower juice, add your sweetener, then add the whey*.

Cover the pot/bucket or pan with a clean cloth and leave it to do its fizz bizz for the next two weeks.

During this time you can have fun drinking and collecting beer bottles… you know, the ones with the spring caps, or if you don’t want such fun, go to Ikea and buy some!  You are going to need this kind of bottle as when the 2 weeks is up you will bottle and seal your lovely pop.  DON’T fill right to the top, just to the shoulder.  Believe me you don’t want to try it!  The larder was never quite the same after one episode and that’s all I am going to say about that! 

Leave your pop for at least a week then serve, cold…. ummmmmm

It’s particularly nice with the tiny tip of mint in it, or on ice.

*Whey. 

Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained, and is the starter for loads of lacto-fermented fruits, vegetables, and beverages. It doesn't look great I'll admit but it is natural and safe, no nasty chemicals, AND bonus!  In making it you can get another by product, or main product, which ever whey you look at it! lol.

Whey is said to do all these things.. there is alot of research out there so check it out for yourself! 

It has loads of minerals

Rich source of amino acids

No fat, cholesterol or lactose

Anti - oxidant

Contains components that stimulate the release of two appetite-suppressing hormones

Whey protein is nutritionally complete

It is easy to digest and promotes a healthy gut flora

Beneficial for wound healing

High glutathione levels help protect against various age related diseases including: Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cataracts and arteriosclerosis. 

May help enhance memory performance in elderly adults

Provides a protective, anti-microbial effect against ulcers and other gastric mucosal injuries, i.e. H.pylori.

So here is a nice natural way to get some whey!

So make some lovely yoghurt (easy peasy), or alternatively get a large tub of natural, preferably organic, plain, probiotic yoghurt.

If I buy it I get my favourite, which is Yeo Valley. It must have live cultures in it!

Put your yogurt in a thin, less absorbent tea towel, or a sling J  tie it up- you can use rubber bands for this - then suspend it over a large jug or small bucket.

When you tie up your tea towel, put a wooden spoon through the knot then this can be suspended over your jug.  Or, tie it up with a longish loop and hang the loop from a ‘s’ hook over a rail or door knob on a cupboard.  I hang mine from the remedy room shelf. Here is one  made earlier. And here is a picture but not a good one I am afraid. The sun was still bright enough to create too much shadow. Blow!  L  Just realised I have used up my breakfast yoghurt.  The sacrifices I go to just to show you how easy it is to do.

Whatever you do the bundle has to be suspended high enough for the whey to collect bellow without touching the bundle. Don’t be tempted!  This is NOT a good time to squeeze.

Let the whey drip through the cloth overnight.

When the bag stops dripping, everything is done, you have made a cream cheese in the cloth and have lovely fresh whey for your fizz.  What could be more simple?

Store the cream cheese in a covered glass container. Save your whey in a glass Kilner type jar.

Kept in the fridge whey can last for about 6 months, so I am told, but sadly, not here.  Nothing lasts long in this house! J

Now then how about a little homemade cordial?

Homemade Elderflower and Lemon Cordial.

1 gallon of water. 

6 lemons, peeled and then sliced in half.

1 ½ handfuls of dried elderflowers or three generous handfuls of fresh elderflowers.

2 UK, level measuring cups full of organic sugar.

Start to boil the water.

Throw in your elderflowers and lemon peel.

Juice your lemons over the pan.  I have a lovely wooden one but you can just squeeze or use a fork.  Don’t worry about the pips they come out at the end.

Bring to the boil and then allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. 

The smell is divine and worth the effort just for that.

Turn off the heat, stir in the sugar, leave to cool right down.

Put into a large jug, or two large milk containers and pop in the fridge.

If it is too sweet use less sugar next time, add more sugar if you need to but it is quite sweet wit the elderflowers.  I don’t think you’ll need to, unless you are a hardened sweet toother.

Drink when cool, with ice is nice.

All things wool

Ooh it’s so exciting.

We now have an amazing drum carder AND both of my spinning wheels are up and running AND at last I have conquered the use of the drop spindle.

We have got about 2/3 through the fleece and now with the drum carder we can whizz through and yet still be using our own bodies as the energy.  While our lovely Tina had a perfectly good and reasonable argument for the use of the hand carders, there are some of us who find using the hand carders hard on joints and S l o w………

The drum carder is still painstaking but the size of the batt is immensely satisfying and the carder itself is really great.  It is, for any out there who are interested, a “Classic Carder” in oak of course!  Here is the link if you are interested. http://www.classiccarder.co.uk/opencart/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=57

Isn’t it beautiful? 

And what about my spinning wheels?  They are both Ashford’s and beautiful too. My older one needed TLC after living in the loft with unruly boys who didn’t appreciate their intrinsic beauty.  Poor thing needed a new orifice bracket, new brake band knob, new flyer, (goodness knows where that could have gone, it is so big after all) and a new leather bit for the footman.  I spent some time looking on the internet for the right bits and supplier of said bits,  then I contacted them by phone.  What a delightful couple they were.  They run a spinning and weaving centre called Hilltop and their names were Sue and Bill Chitty.  You can find them on www.handspin.co.uk. 

I had the most lovely phone call ever and it was more like chatting to friends than suppliers.

Any way, the parts were ordered and duly came along and now it is altogether beautiful and working. 

The other one just needed a good polish up. 

Lovely lavender polish.

Well we had fun…. Well I did anyway.  And here are some pictures to show us using the bits and pieces mentioned.  Now I am the one behind the camera so don’t go looking for me okay?

 We carded using both the hand carders and the drum carder.  We spun using the drop spindle and wheels and I took some pictures.

Heath and Radish also had a go with the drop spindle but I forgot to take pictures and will try to get  some the next time for you. However, here is a great picture of Radish using the hand carders, doesn’t he look grand with my piny on?

Everyone had a go at the drum carder and here is Michael, looking up at just the wrong time.  I was trying to capture him concentrating and of course the fleece has already gone through on to the drum. 

Why am I so pleased?  So satisfied about all of this?  Because who knows when/if the old skills may needed to be used again and of course they are of value in their own right.  These skills at the very least develop a true appreciation for the process and product produced. We so easily purchase goods in the shops if we have the money, but we are totally divorced from the real work that goes into them.

When the energy to produce anything comes from your own body, a part of you is intrinsically integral to its makeup.  This is as true of a garment, or handmade machine, as it is of cooking.

For many years my gran used to say “Better a dinner of herbs cooked with love than a banquet cooked without.”  She is not here to say that any more but I say it now because now I really understand what that means.  I used to often share a simple bowl of bean soup and wholemeal bread with homemade butter with an amazing lady called Molly.  It was always a simple meal as she lived frugally, but do you know what?  I remember those shared bowls of soup with such fondness and a sense of fullness even now after all these years as they were made with such love and the company was loving and enriching in every respect.  Yet I have also been to grand meals where everything was turned out to perfection and looked beautiful but there was no love involved at all, and there was no sense of feeling satisfied.  Maybe a part of the cause of peoples poor relationship to food may be found in this root?  Food has to be satisfying on many levels not just nutritionally and if one is just stuffing the face on the run how can one really appreciate food?  Where is the love?

I love my ‘electric free’ things, I love making and creating things; how grand to think that perhaps in some small way in my doings, and sharing those doings with others, we are not just learning new skills but reconnecting with another way to love, through the creative impulse and work with dignity.

Blessings of all green and growing things.

Stweradship: its time to get back to simplicity

Hi there.  Well it seems like ages since I have had half a chance to blog.  We had our summer solstice 'do' this week end, and we were pretty sure, that like all other events so far this summer it would have to be indoors. However, joy of joys, as the day progressed the rain clouds faded away and the puddles dried up.  We lit our fire and celebrated outside.  Just as we declared "Peace in the South" the sun shone out!.  Synchronicity.

After lots of delicious food we gathered together to share ideas, poetry art etc. It soon became apparent that we had all independently come up with the theme of sustainability.  

What is sustainability? Well for me it means living as much as possible in tune with nature and her rhythms.  It means living frugally.... well that is not a choice in our case, we HAVE to live frugally.  It means, where possible, doing as much as one can oneself, to ensure that when we have to use resources, the return of those resources, one way or another, does not cost the planet and future generations more than it can afford.

Each of us have our own levels of understanding, and/or ability to live sustainably, but I am sure that there are few people who can fail to acknowledge that unless we all try to do something, then our planet and all who live on it are in for traumatic and troubling times.  

One of our group, not generally known for dire predictions and over exaggeration read from a book that had touched him deeply.  As soon as I can get the title off him, I will tell you what it was, but my Swiss cheese mind does not recall just now, but in essence it said something like this...

    "the economic system is collapsing, climate change threatens further starvation and deprivation across the world,  the seas are being fished out, the waters are becoming polluted, the land is being poisoned by chemicals, animals are treated as commodities and not sentient beings, the sense of community and belonging is being eroded and people are becoming more and more fearful."  

What a dire out look, and easy to see why so many people keep their blinkers on and refuse to see what is glaringly obvious.  

We all need to change.

We can not all make huge changes overnight.  It can be a job to know where we as the 'little people' can begin.  Well, we can all start with little changes and build them up.  Here are a few ideas. Now before you think I am getting preachy, I am still building up my green credentials, and some of these things I have only just started.  Some of these things I have done forever... and no! I am not going to tell you which things...lol.

If you, like me already re-cycle as much as you can, FREEGLE or something similar.  (For those across the oceans you may have this or 'Free Cycle).  Advertise for free items you no longer need  or want cluttering up your home and then give it away!  That's right, some one else may really value those mis-matched plates, pots, books, gardening tools.  And while freegling, see if there is something that you would value and pick it up for free. It saves landfill and is community minded.

If you have skills, and need skills see if you can join a group that barters skills.  It is community minded and enables folk to offer what they can for skills they may otherwise not be able to afford.  

Make things at home like soap powder for a greatly reduced cost - yes it works well with no nasty chemicals.  Learn how  to make your own natural cleaning materials, like surface cleaner, toilet cleaner, soap etc.  All these can be made from natural products at home, with no excess packaging and no nasty pollutants or carcinogens that can affect your precious loved ones.

Make more meals at home, buy less from the supermarket that reuses packaging which goes to landfill and takes centuries to decompose.

Try growing a few items at home, not only does home grown taste great, it is good fun and can often be done in the tiniest of spaces. The taste is something else too.... 

Maybe you don't have green fingers, well see if there is a local 'green box' delivery service where for a very small cost you can get fresh in season veggies locally grown, that reduces miles of  travel costs adding to the carbon foot print of our food.

Try to steward the use of your car.... you may not be able to walk every where, but you can be more efficient in the manner in which you plan your tasks so that you reduce the amount of times you drive out....

Don't try to do everything all t once overnight, start small, be kind and forgiving of yourself, but make those little changes.  As will I. :) There are many other ideas I am sure... please, tell us about them.. Lets hear your voices and contributions... 

You may have something to share that we can all do simply and easily.

Remember! We are only ordinary people, but even a diamond started out as a rough stone, and we can all make a little difference

Sainsburies have started selling, for cold beers and drinks a galvanised basin/tub.  These are much like the old ones that my Gran had for the wash on Mondays and bathing small people in.  They are only a £10.00 and certainly a sensible alternative to constantly buying plastic!  the only down side is that it says cold drinks on the side... but hey, weigh up the alternative, plastic/steel.  I went steel. 

Pretty good eh?