Is august the best month of the year, despite holidays I have a freezer full of free berries/plums, although these days each time I open the freezer door I wonder can one of these be powered for nothing. It’s strange how these days how each time I use everyday items and technology I consider how I would manage without it. I recently purged myself of social media, mainly Facebook it’s quite surprising how it controls your behaviour, and of course you will all know , as you read the small print that Mark Zuckerberg owns the rights to everything you post. Living without the internet whilst in the fantastic north wales for a week was no problem. However I observed the behaviour of others in my party trying anything to get the local café Wifi code or wandering about holding their phone up looking for a bt hotspot ,If there was a zombie apocalypse I think that’s all they would do is wander about clutching their smartphones. I am so happy I didn’t pay my o2 bill and they cut me off ;-).
Now I am turning my attention to having a log burner in my conservatory good old Freecycle I hope will provide me with the beer barrel this will make my conservatory perfectly habitable during the winter months , in the past it has become a dumping ground for stuff. I continue to make my logs in preparation for this. I’m also after planks of wood for planters as next year I intend to grow a fair amount of veg. I have also rescued another chicken and as you will see from the pics the difference between a bird rescued from a battery farm a week ago compared to my now healthy looking birds. You don’t tend to notice the change as I see them each day but when I brought Martha home the difference was stark. Watching the pecking order establish itself is an amazing thing. Not for poor old Martha though the poor bird got hen pecked for 2 days. Chuck and Berry are still laying well I haven’t bought eggs since we had them and have only used ¾ of the sack of food we bought for 11 quid. Those wondering what happened to the prawn curry will have to wait until spring as the prawns where too small, I did however feast on winkles they are really very nice if a little fiddly but nothing better when sat round a campfire with friends. And speaking of friends I want to thank those people who reaffirmed to me that good people exist. You know who you are, and I thank you. As promised a short vid of the log burning experiment. https://vimeo.com/103785180 . The fuel burnt for 90 mins like a lump of coal, it gave out good heat and didn't smoke at all. massive success and ideal for a log burner ,that's my next little project I think a homegrown log burner. off too the beach too see what the day brings.......
ok very quick update , the new acquisition meant I didn't make the low tide. so the prawn curry is having to wait. had a great afternoon with my boy on this . and I reckon I can use it to launch missiles ;-). mucho fun and I know I can drop my lobster pot from this if the sea is calm . I burnt half of my log tonight and it is an amazing thing I will put a vid up tomorrow but wow anyone with a log burner can heat the house with the shit people post through your door,( half that log burnt well like coal for 90 mins with no smoke and proper heat it really is great. trust me brother you need to do this. I now need to make a log burner for my conservatory I'm thinking a beer barrel. I will make up a vid of how good those logs are tomoz.....
well it was much more fun going out and getting this stuff than it was eating it, it wasn't bad but hell I'm looking forward to a prawn curry tomorrow. first it was the scurvy grass I thought this might be tricky but its all over the place I found it near a local estuary. remember if you do this you want the young leaves for this recipe about 100 g. shamefully I didn't get a picture of the plant so I stole one off the net.then it was limpets and sea lettuce, you'll need a good strong knife and please be careful not to stab yourself in the thumb like I did these critters have real sticking power. I only took ten even though the recipe suggests 25 , I wasn't sure I was going to like this so I figured not killing was a better option in case I hated the stew. you need 5 sea lettuce and finding this took the most time. then your ready .... wash everything thoroughly in fresh water unless you want grit stew. add the chicken stock to 600 ml fresh water and boil ,add the sea lettuce and simmer for five mins, then add the scurvy grass and 2 tbs of soya sauce. salt is in the recipe I found but god knows why so I didn't use it, lots of black pepper though. then I added the limpets and cooked for 10 mins. served with cous cous it wasn't too bad, I couldn't help feeling throughout the cooking process how like an indian palak murg it was and I wasn't disappointed , the seaweed and scurvy grass is very like spinach in consistency. lets be honest it wasn't great but the limpets were not bad at all and I reckon with some palak murg type spices this could be pretty good. otherwise with limpets I reckon soak in vinegar overnight and eat as snacks. lol you live and learn, tomorrow is a prawn curry.
Yes I know ! it has been some weeks since I made my log, I’m currently on my jolidays in a rather windy north wales. So my log will be tested without fail very soon. In the meantime and having learnt every recipe under the sun involving eggs I have set me mind to foraging from the sea, todays recipe is scurvygrass sea lettuce and limpet stew, sounds awful but hell I’ll never know if I don’t try, most of us know what a limpet is and a quick look in most rockpools at low tide will give sea lettuce but scurvy grass what’s this? Well a bit of research reveals its very common around our cliff tops and rocky area’s where it as little competition and it can flourish its was commonly used by sailors in the 1800’s to combat scurvy as it has a high vit c content. This might be a challenge to find. So tonight I’ll update here with the outcome . I must also find time to put my lobster pot out today I think low tide will be around 1430 hours. |