I think the idea that it was a plant stems ( no pun intended ) from the fact that the concoction in the basin or whatever it was kept in contained yeast and yeast does grow, and it was fed same as a plant only it was fed on sugar. By the time you had finished there was twice as much mixture so you g...

Here is the recipe for the ginger cordial 1 large root of fresh ginger 2 cups of water 2 cups of sugar 1 cup of squeezed lemon juice 1 piece of lemon rind with no pith on 2 tsp cream of tartar Chop up the root ginger quite small. Put in a pan together with the sugar, water, lemon rind and cream of t...

I have one just outside the kitchen door into which goes all my kitchen waste apart from the strong tasting stuff like onions and citrus fruits. I bought my 3 tier worm bin from the recycling centre next door to the tip I worked at before being made redundant. It cost me a fiver but it was a big sav...

Does anybody grow sprouting seeds ie alfafa, mung beans etc.
They have to be amongst the easiest vegetables to grow, although I seem to have a problem with carrot sprouts. The easiest and quickest are alfalfa and radish sprouts.

Paul

I normally put in about a quarter of a bottle of sloes, well pricked so the gin can leach out the juices and colour from them.
I was begining to notice there was a bit of a boozy vibe going on in my foraging

I've used malt vinegar several times with no problems. in fact I put it in neat, just enough to cover the element and just left it overnight.
Next morning rinse it out with cold water and away we were.

Paul

Heres one for the carpet I tried and strangely it worked. I did have the luxury of being able to leave it on for a couple of days though. Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda all over the carpet and leave for a few hours. The bicarb apparently dries all the fleas and their larvae up, so you can just suck th...

I too have a breadmaker and have found that putting slightly less water than the instructions gives a firmer loaf that is much easier to cut.
My favourite bread is rye bread with bacon and walnuts. Great with cheese. This one is best made by the conventional method though.

Paul

I use rapeseed oil all the time and like you never have any problems with sticking tins etc. It doesn't overpower the taste of the food as some oils do.
I've used it for salads, frying, deep frying, baking and roasting, with vegetables meat and fish and would recommend it.

Paul

Well I've managed to pick enough sloes for this years sloe gin and enough crab apples for a gallon of wine. ( Making those tomorrrow) I didn't manage to find any edible mushrooms though. I found a recipe for hawthorn brandy over the weekend so I might try that this year as well. Sunday made some gin...