Growing Cauliflower
Posted on | July 1, 2009 | No Comments
This is my first year trying to grow cauliflower and the experience has been what I’ve come to expect from brassicas – nothing happens for month on end and then all of a sudden there’s a cauliflower/calabrese/broccoli/cabbage, by jove!
Cauliflowers
I first noticed the cauliflowers…. Hang on, I’d better explain that I’m terrible at labelling rows of vegetables in the garden and I always forget what I put where, so until the cauliflower/calabrese/broccoli/cabbage identifies itself, it all looks the same to me. As I was saying….
I first noticed the cauliflowers about a week ago and they looked picture perfect – bright white, tight curds, like a pristine baby cauliflower you might buy at the supermarket. Now however, they’re not looking so pretty. The white has faded to a mottled cream/brown and the curds have started to drift apart a little. I decided to put the worst looking pair out of their misery – they’re still quite small so we’ll need them both for supper.
I don’t know if the lack of water and the heat we’ve been enjoying is the culprit, or if it’s simply just par for the cauliflower course and I need to pick them earlier. Either way, I’m sure they’ll be very tasty and by my keen powers of deduction I can now say with a fair amount of certainty that the middle row of brassicas is broccoli.
Or cabbage.
June Update
Posted on | June 27, 2009 | No Comments
The year is careening past at a fair old lick, isn’t it?
Much of my June has been occupied with a bit of feline business down in South Africa, but work in the garden (and other areas) has still been going on.
Strawberries
In the garden, the strawberry plants our neighbours gave us have been fantastic croppers. Over the last fortnight we’ve probably had a small bowl of beautifully sweet strawberries each night. Which in contrast with the new raspberry canes which has produced one solitary raspberry. I’m not going to be able to make my framboise lambic this year!
Elsewhere, the peas are just starting to deliver and we’ve already had a couple of servings of mange tout (a quid a pop in the supermarket). I cut the first Summer cabbage to go into a coleslaw last night and also stumbled upon the fantastic site of a white head of cauliflower peeking through the greenery! We’ve also had radishes aplenty. Unfortunately, I think we’ve realised that none of us really like radishes, so “aplenty” is way too many.
The plot
The new potatoes are flowering and I can’t wait to dig them up for a couple of reasons: obviously for that beautiful new potato flavour, but also because I need the space in the garden!
In the greenhouse, I’ve got all of my chillis and aubergines potted out, as well as a few nice, big tomato plants. I’ve got one cucumber plant that has really taken off, as well as some seedlings which will be potted on this weekend. I also have a whole tray of tomatoes that I want to give me a deliberate glut towards the end of the Summer so that I can make sun-dried tomatoes or something similar.
Cucumbers in the polytunnel
But the best things in the greenhouse – as I noticed this morning – are the first tomatoes and cucumbers. For three or four months now I’ve just been looking at seedlings that haven’t done an awful lot, but now I can see the fruits developing and it’s an incredibly satisfying feeling! Makes me feel a lot happier about the upcoming challenge I’ve set for myself (more on that soon).
Homemade Feta Cheese
Posted on | June 26, 2009 | No Comments
This was my first attempt at making feta cheese. I used the recipe from Ricki Carroll’s book and the results perfectly illustrate the frustrations I have with the book.
The end result, while still tasty enough, is nothing like feta. Well, actually it’s a bit like feta, but I think that has more to do with the oregano-flecked brine that it is soaking in than the cheese itself.
Feta(?) in brine
The cheese is very fresh tasting with a smooth creamy texture that is uneven to the point that some chunks are fairly firm to the touch (like mozarella) whereas other areas almost turn to cream when handled.
The finished cheese
As I mention in my review on the book what it doesn’t tell me is how to alter my process to improve the finished cheese and get closer to “real” feta.
Despite that, it is bloody tasty served like this:
Cheese on toast
Brew Day Report 15th June 2009 – Summer Wheat Beer
Posted on | June 15, 2009 | No Comments
This beer is a cross between an American Wheat beer and a Belgian Wit. The base beer is a simple wheat beer but I added some orange zest and coriander at the end of the boil (the Belgian influence). I simply pitched a starter of WLP001 that I top-cropped from my last brew.
Grist
2.5kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
2.5kg Wheat Malt
0.5kg Munich Malt
Hops
30g Perle hops for 60 minutes
Yeast
1 litre starter of WLP001 top cropped from a previous batch.
Miscellaneous
Zest from half a dozen oranges (added at knockout)
1 teaspoon coriander, lightly crushed (added at knockout)
Batch details
Volume in fermenter: 19 litres
Target Pre-boil gravity: 1.042
Actual Pre-boil gravity: 1.046
Target OG: 1.049
Actual OG: 1.050
Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll
Posted on | June 8, 2009 | No Comments
Ricki Carroll is seen as something of a hero in the American cheese world. Her book is the lactic equivalent of Charlie Papazian’s Complete Joy of Homebrewing and has launched the careers of numerous cheese makers, professional and amateur.
It’s an easy read and contains recipes for pretty much every well known cheese style – cheddar, gouda, stilton, camembert, parmesan and so on.
The book is split into a number of sections the first of which is a general overview of the cheese making process and the techniques and equipment required. The book then moves into chapters about the different styles of cheese namely hard cheese (cheddar and the like), soft cheese, mold-ripened cheese (blue cheese, camembert/brie styles) and Italian cheese. There is a handy chapter on making other dairy products, although many of them rely on a specific pre-made culture added to milk. I find this approach akin to making ginger beer with a soda stream.
The book finishes with a chapter on cheese appreciation and some recipes that use cheese, whey, buttermilk and cream.
As an entry level guide to cheese making I don’t think you can really fault this book. It’s a clearly written easy read (I actually got this book for Christmas and had read it cover to cover by turkey time). My first batch worked like a dream. It wasn’t the “cheddar” that I had intended to make, but it was certainly cheese, and very palatable to boot leaning cross-border into Caerphilly territory. I have since made a few batches of cream cheeses all of which worked very well, and I am currently crafting a cheese press (using the instructions in the book) so that I can make some hard Italian-style cheeses.
As good an introduction into cheese making as this book is, I do have a couple of problems with it. Firstly, Carroll makes much importance of aging cheese, and stresses the importance of temperature and humidity control. However, there is practically no information of how – or even if – this control can be achieved at home. From my brewing experience I know that temperature can be controlled accurately at home (assuming one has a spare refrigerator and can wire a temperature controller), however I have no idea how you can control humidity.
Secondly, there is no information on what is actually happening during the cheese making process and how the cheese maker can alter the processes, conditions or ingredients to affect the finished product. The Chimay website gives detailed descriptions on the cheeses they produce, but there is no information in Carroll’s book that would allow me to create a “clone” recipe for those cheeses.
Overall a great beginners book and one that will certainly get you making cheese and perfect for those who want to knock out mock-Cheddars or Mozarellas without really caring about the process. Readers wanting a more in depth account of the process will quickly move on though.
Catch Crops
Posted on | June 5, 2009 | No Comments
One of the frustrating things I find with this whole “growing your own” malarkey is that I’m probably one of the most impatient people on earth. The thought that a cauliflower might take six whole months before it bears veg irritates me like nails down a blackboard. The main reason for this is that the aforementioned cauliflowers are taking up valuable space in the garden that could otherwise be producing other crops.
This is where the idea of catch cropping comes in – growing faster growing crops in between slower growing ones. For example, in between rows of young cabbage or broccoli you could grow lettuces, or beetroot or radishes.
This is similar to the idea of companion planting in which you grow two crops together, one to help the other. For example, onions with carrots – the smell of the onions masks the smell of the carrots thus preventing carrotfly attacks. This would be useful if only I was actually growing carrots. As it is, I’ll have to stick with catch cropping.
So in my brassica patch, I’m going to add a load of lettuce and dwarf green bean plants that will give us some beautiful vegetables whilst the brassicas are slowly doing their thing.
Make A Watering Can From A Milk Carton
Posted on | June 3, 2009 | No Comments
We go through milk like ninety in our house and whilst it’s no bother to toss the empties into the recycling I’ve found a couple of other uses for them, for example as a vessel for building up yeast starters when brewing.
However, my current favourite use is as a watering can. It requires a bit of DIY – if you can call stabbing some holes in a plastic lid DIY!
My method uses a corn on the cob holder – simply because they live in the drawer next to the stove. I heat the prongs in the gas flame and then prick a dozen or so holes in the lid of the milk carton and that’s it! You could use a needle to give smaller holes and therefore a finer spray, but I find the corn cob holders do just fine.
Plastic milk carton (empty, cleaned) and a corn cob holder
Pricking holes in the lid
The finished article. Looks like cack, works like a dream
After pricking holes in the lid (smaller diameter holes tend to be better – something to do with fluid dynamics) simply fill the carton with water and replace the lid. Water away.
The finished article might look a bit cack but the results are pretty good. You’ll quickly develop a variety of squeezes and shakes that allow you to water a wide area or target single plants. The one drawback perhaps is capacity. I tend to fill up a thirty litre bucket (from the water butt when possible) and haul that up to the veg patch. I can then refill the milk bottle from the bucket as required.
Tap, tap
Posted on | June 2, 2009 | No Comments
It would seem that the chickens want to come inside.
Strawberries and birds, or lack thereof.
Posted on | June 1, 2009 | No Comments
Strawberries
In the early Spring we were given a half dozen or so strawberry plants by a neighbour. I planted them out in the veg patch not really expecting much in the first year. And I’ve been completely shocked at how well they’ve done! The first few berries are almost completely ripe and will probably be picked this week, with many, many more on the way.
Another surprise has been the complete lack of avian intervention. Whilst neighbours have netting all over the place to protect their crops from birds, I’ve not had to worry. Chickens aside, our back garden has almost always been a bird free zone, despite my wife’s attempts with bird feeders. I put it down to the cat who has taken to hanging out at the bottom end of garden. Another potential pest I’ve not had any problems with is the slug, and again I put this down to the abundance of frogs in our garden. Incidentally the cat likes killing the frogs (as do the chickens on occasion) which creates neat little food chain. Quite a microenvironment in our back yard. Very zen.
Brew Day Report – Blonde Ale – 25th May 2009
Posted on | May 26, 2009 | No Comments
Blonde Ale fermenting
Grist:
4kg Maris Otter Pale Malt
400g Munich Malt
400g Wheat Malt
Hops:
US Centennial 16g @ 11.7%A/A FWH (19.1 IBUs)
US Centennial 10g @ 11.7%A/A @ 1min (2.5 IBUs)
Yeast:
1 vial of WLP001
Batch Details:
Volume in fermenter: 19 litres
Target Pre-boil Gravity: 1.037
Actual Pre-boil Gravity: 1.037
Target OG: 1.043
Actual OG: 1.046
Misc:
The mash pH seemed to be very low – in the mid 4s. This should be up around 5.2, so either my pH test papers are knackered or there’s something up with our water. I will get on to Severn Trent! This low mash pH may be a possible cause of my low mash efficiency which is currently at about 66%. I’m not too bothered about this, since my current source of malt means that throwing an extra couple of pounds into a batch doesn’t break the bank. However, when it comes to brewing some higher gravity brews (like a Dubbel or a Weizenbock) I will have issues with mash tun capacity.
The yeast took a while to kick off – probably due to the fact that I only pitched on vial and no starter (naughty, naughty) – but at the time of writing, just under 24 hours after pitching – the fermentation is starting to get going.
Updates
13th June 2009 – Primed with 200g sugar and bottled.
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