Damson Vodka ( or Gin)

Quite a few people recently have asked me how I make the  Damson and the Blackcurrant flavoured Vodkas I give away as Christmas gifts. Anyone who was at the FSA Conference a couple of years ago,  will have tasted some of my Hedgerow vodkas :) 

Well, if you come on one of my Preserving talks, or workshops, you can find out :)

But as it's near ish to Christmas/Yule I thought I would tell you ( and show you!) how *I* do it. 

Take a clean jar, I used a Le Parfait jar, but any wide necked jar will do.

Put in washed, pricked fresh fruit and add spirit of choice. I have found Vodka or Brandy to be good - it doesn't have to be an expensive brand. Gin is also do- able ( but I don't like Gin!) 

If you don't want to have to prick the fruit, freeze the fruit whole, then put it in the jar and pour on the spirit. The liquid will rapidly cause the fruit to split.

Add sugar. It is better to add too little as you can always add more, if you want it sweeter when you taste test it!

Put the jar somewhere you can shake/upend until all the sugar has dissolved.

Put away in a cool, dark place.

Leave for up to a year...I have found if you leave it longer than that it might get a slightly musty taste.On the other hand it might become divine and utterly delish! So it is up to you to keep on tasting the jar occasionally!

Strain (I use one of those permanent coffer filters for this inside a funnel, all sterilised) into a suitable bottle ( I save the small wine bottles one can get (25 or 35 cl) is these are ideal to give as gifts as well!)

Label.

Drink!

Damsons in Vodka and sugar

After a day of shaking/soaking

The Garden Festival Hellens Manor 2016

As usual we went off to Hellens Manor for the annual Garden Festival there.

For details of what I was up to see their event page.

This year I gave a talk about Preserving Natures bounty 

The Marque I had all weekend for Moors Wood events

Lots of info about chickens and composting and crafts

Composting workshop on Sunday

We did some Hapa Zome  in the wood with some of the same children as last year :)

And made dens for people and soft creatures :)

Fabulous weekend as always - hard work but great fun.

Working at SHYPP Leominster

Today I was at SHYPP Leominster as part of  an H Energy and  and Herefordshire New Leaf   funded event, working with lots of lovely people coming in to do workshops with me about chicken keeping, composting, seed sowing, gardening, cooking and lots of different crafts (needle felting a brooch, herb scented decorated bags, decorated seed planters and paper boat making)

needle felted brooch making

Everyone very intent on their work

 Time for a well earned cuppa - the lunch SHYYP provided was really good :) Thank you!

This lovely person holding Mrs Algy made the brooch she is wearing :) 

As always, the Serama chickens were very popular! Mr and Mrs Algy were stars!  Mrs Algy laid an egg at the end :) 

Members of The Big Skill were also there, with clay modelling, wet felting and willow weaving so there was lots going on for people to see and join in with  :) 

SHYPP is a fabulous project - this is what they say on their website

SHYPP provides 16 - 25 year olds across Herefordshire with housing, training and employment opportunities.
We provide a range of accommodation suitable for young people at different stages of their lives including foyer accommodation, move on flats, shared houses and supported lodgings.
We are not just about accommodation we work with young people through training programmes and a wide range of activities.  SHYPP wants to give Young People the opportunity to develop independent living skills, identify their talents and go on to live happy and successful lives.  SHYPP also provides floating support to assist Young People in their own homes, enabling them to access accommodation, maintain accommodation and help with debt management.
SHYPP is a service driven by what young people want, this means projects develop according to their needs.

Thank you to H Energy and Herefordshire New Leaf for making such a great day possible and to all the staff and members at SHYPP for being such good fun to work with. 

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 It was a privilege to work with such an enthusiastic, thoughtful group of young adults.

Also many thanks to the  helpful men who helped carry stuff to my car at the end :)  

Composting workshop coming up

Easter Eggstraviganza

Yesterday I spent a fun day working at a local housing association event in Hereford.

I took Algy and Mrs Algy the Serama chickens, and offered "decorate a pot and plant a seed" , "make a bumble bee"  and "make natural dyed bunting" as well as advice on chicken keeping, veg growing, composting and general sustainability

 Cone bees

Natural dyed bunting/flags (hapa zome)

40 children decorated a pot and planted vegetable seeds with me and around 80 passed through my stand (mainly to admire Algy and Mrs A )  :)

Cider and apple juicing.

One of the many workshops or talks I offer is on Preserving Natures Bounty. Some of it deals with apples and cider /juice making. I have all the equipment needed to demonstrate how to do this and can demonstrate what to do.

We had a bumper harvest this year. We picked hundreds and hundreds of pounds of apples.

This is just a selection!

I washed out loads of bottles

and apples ...

and then started to chop

Then we got busy with the scratter

 and the press

End result - 70 l of cider

and some pasteurized juice.

Hard work, but well worth it :)

Green Gathering 2015

One of the things I did this August was to volunteer to help at Green Gathering, the most amazing green festival ever. Some of you may remember I went to the last Big Green Gathering back in 2007,

Well this is its baby sibling, risen out of the ashes of  the sadly ( due to no fault of its own) defunct BGG which was cancelled at the last moment in 2009.

I traveled down to Peacefield Park, Chepstow during the last week of August, in beautiful weather, to set up camp for a week in the "temporary intentional village" which is the Permaculture area;

 I set up my tent and a spare one for my daughter  and a friend, who were coming for the first two days of the festival proper. I also had Algy and Mrs the Serama  miniature chickens with me, as I was doing a workshop on chicken keeping during the festival. So my car was full to the brim as you can see! You can just see the pen that Algy and Mrs shared in the lhs tent  (it's the red thing)

I also helped to set up various structures - tents, yurts and helped with the chores in the Permaculture village.

I had fun with fellow Forest School Leaders, we were providing sessions for the festival goers and their children as well as any one else who wanted to have some fun :)





On Wednesday I was pleased to meet up again with John "Compost" Cossham and I spent a lot of time recording the process of setting up his compost waste reduction area.

The recycling areas dotted around the festival site are quite something! The dedicated recycling crew collect the carefully separated resources from the festival and all is recycled.




This is last years compost pile and the composting area on Wednesday morning, before John got clearing it up.

All the festival compostable waste was brought to John in bags and over the course of the week and the festival he (mostly single handedly!) created a huge compost heap which allows the festival putrecibles to compost down rather than going to landfill. The pile remains there unattended until next years GG.





This is a waste minimization process rather than a soil improver process, as the compost made is full of all sorts of stuff which won't decompose.

But is an amazing feat of work from the Recycling crew and John to reduce landfill from the festival site.


The composting area on Sunday






As well as helping John with the compost area and helping in the Permaculture village and with Forest School  I also gave three workshops over the course of the festival, on chicken keeping and composting. here is Algy the Serama cockerel meeting his adoring public




Apart from working hard, I met up with loads of other friends I have not seen for a long time.
I went to some excellent talks, chatted to so many people, bought an lovely poncho from The Woolly Pedlar,

saw some amazing artists and craft people

and of course listened to lots of bands :) Seize The Day, Martha Tilson and Sentient were excellent!




We had two days of terrible rain but apart from that the weather was kind to us - on Wednesday night I was able to watch the meteor showers for several hours lying on my back in the grass :)

I came home Tuesday tired and in need of a shower and with aching knees after a week in a tent, but very happy :)