Maple and Pecan Pie

Frankie made a lovely maple and pecan pie this week, soooo good. I'm sure there are a few calories in there...

Two more cockerels were dispatched this week then hung for a couple of days before gutting or 'dressing' as it's called.
We are down to the last two, just as well really as I picked up Emily a day or two ago as she wouldn't go in the coop and found more damage from the cockerels on her poor girl, she was the one that suffered with the last cockerel; I found a patch of bare skin at the base of the neck, luckily no blood, so the boys have been moved to the run next door till their time to go. One is going to next door and the other for the pot just leaving us six girls for the winter period. Next year I'll decide what to do, whether to breed some more hybrids from next door or get some more hatching eggs.

The elderberry wine has now been sieved off the pulp and into a brown demijohn, the extra must put into a bottle to use for topping up as the ferment settles down. I had a quick taste of it as there was some left and it was rather good, also the aroma is very much red wine like. I hope this time I do not get an infection in it, I made 2 gallons in 2007, 1 is still in a demijohn, the other I bottled only to find it like vinegar. Which is exactly what it is now used for! I must test the other demijohn and see if it's off too...

We picked a few too many elderberries so they have been sitting in the fridge all prepared for use then today Frankie turned up a recipe for an elderberry pie, result. Though today it's going to be a matter of just making the filling and freezing it for use later, it's all good.

Brew Day Success, Theakstons Old Peculiar

Ah yes, what does this have to do with anything you might ask? Well, it's a piece of Emmental cheese, the nickname I've given to the hop strainer I made for the boiler in it's third incantation. More holes than a holy thing...
Yesterday was a brew day, this time 'Theakstons Old Peculiar' was the recipe. Everything went well this time, including the draining down of the wort from the boiler through the hop strainer; 5 minutes to empty completely dry, excellent! I cannot wait to try it but I guess I'll have to.

Also this week we have collected Elderberries and started a batch of Elderberry wine, currently it's fermenting in a bucket alongside the Damson, the Blackberry and a Fermenter full of beer in the kitchen, quite a little brewery thing going on at the moment!

First Cockerels Dispatched last week

Well we have started culling our cockerels as was inevitable, having six is not an option.
Last week we did two of them and as my neighbour wanted to learn how to dispatch one I invited him along. I talked him through the process and how I hold the bird and then the action required to make the kill also pointing out some tips I've learnt along the way along with the signs to be sure the bird has been killed.
I was a bit nervous at being watched and hoped it went cleanly for the birds sake, I need not have worried as both went instantly and without any unnecessary pain.
He was keen to see how to gut them too so I arranged for him to call round two days later, after hanging the birds, for a demonstration.
We had the first one on Sunday evening pot roasted (recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) with veg. It was not bad but could have done with more cooking to tenderise them more, the remains went to a chicken curry Monday night which was very good and there is still more for another meal, not bad out of a 2kg bird.

Thinking of Winter / next year

Yesterday I spent some time in the plot, the first job was to get the over wintering onion sets in. This time I planted them equidistant at 8" each way, much further than before but as recommended by Joy Larkcom in her book, it'll be interesting to see how much bulk they put on next year. With these and the others growing from seed I should have around a hundred early onions, there is a risk of course that some will go off before we use them but we'll see how it goes; I have favoured these for next year because the land will be free again early enough to use for another crop in the same year.

I also cropped out the last of the main crop spuds, these ones are planted in the alley between our garden and the field. I pulled about half a sack of lovely desiree and all in pristine condition, not one slug hole, shame we have to rotate but I'm planting butternut squash there next year so it'll be a good use of the space for sure.

The first sowings of pak choi 'rosetta' and brocolli raab are up already, also more lettuce, all sown in modules. I'll be trying all sorts with these this year to see what I can produce over winter.

Over-wintering Onions

I decided to whip out the remaining wind torn runner beans so that I could press on with getting some over-wintering onion sets in.
As I'm clearing each bed I'm using my stash of used decking boards to create timber sided raised beds (donated by our neighbour who decided he didn't like the colour of the stain) and this is the third one to undergo a make over.
With Frankie helping it didn't take too long at all, the next job was to go and collect some manure from another neighbour. Arriving at 'le mound de poop' we found that the long dry weather spell had done nothing to help it start to rot and instead found a huge pile of what can only be described as large dry nuggets!
Despite the dryness and high winds blowing across the field, with Frankie holding the bags open and trying not to get a mouthful of the stuff each time I shovelled some in, we did manage to fill four bags with some passable stuff and used this to mix into the newly made bed.
I will give this a good water and let it settle and get the sets in next week; These are in addition to the 4 rows of seed sown 'senshyu' planted about 3 weeks ago, which I am please to say have germinated well. Last years grown from sets were a real success, this year I'm doubling up on them as I am getting more use out of the ground over winter can follow these with something else next June/July when they are lifted.

IPA Yeast Dead, Long Live The Yeast #2

I was right the yeast I pitched into the beer was dead, the following morning there was no activity at all so I re-hydrated another pack of yeast, thinking back the first pack when hydrated didn't froth and foam up like it does normally rather it just sank to the bottom of the water, and pitched this into the beer. Eight hours later I could see bubbles forming in the air lock, hopefully the delay has not let an infection get hold - I'll soon know in a week or so when I'm bottling.

What's The Time?

I will tell you the time, yes it's beer o'clock! The barmy summer temperatures are receding and today I made the first all grain brew since April this year.
For this brew I decided to go for a clone of Deuchars IPA, a very nice beer I've drunk from time to time when available. Everything went to plan except... except the hop strainer started to block when running off the final beer into the fermenter leaving behind about a litre or so of wort, I'm really going to have to make a strainer with more holes than a very holy thing. On the basis you cannot have enough holes I'm going to drill it to death, shouldn't be too hard since I now have a bench pillar drill :-)
Oh what else could go wrong well, the yeast starter bottle appears to have not started, I've pitched it into the wort and if there is no life by the morning I'm going to do another packet of yeast. Ah well the course to beer eutopia is rarely a true one....
I've another brew to do as soon as this one is done and dusted, hopefully before the month is out, then, bottle supply permitting, another brew possibly with a christmas theme.