Wine Making Again

I forgot to add that despite the numerous rescources, including a slightly bonkers 1970's paperback, I have come across if anybody has practical experience of country wines (rather than the kits) then I would welcome any comments or tips......

Wine Making

I have acquired a large selection of home brew kit recently. Bins, barrels, demi johns, tubing etc.... Which I think gives me just about everthing I need bar some yeast and campden tablets etc.. Whilst poking around the net to get a bit more info I came across A Drinkers Kitchen which is a really handy website which gives some extremely good recipes, tips and information including a cracking sounding Lemon and Ginger Cordial. Well worth a visit

Vegetable Seeds.net

I stumbled across this website from the Real Men Sow blog. They have a great offer where if you add a link to their site you qualify for free seeds. So I thought I'd give it a go. The website is REALLY good. Not only is it really easy to navigate and packed with useful bits and bobs the prices do appear to live up to the lowest prices in the UK tag that they have on their site. I haven't been through it with a fine tooth comb but Gardeners Delight Toms at 40p a packet ! Free seeds or not I will certainly be giving them a go.

Winter Lettuce

Does anybody have any experience of Winter Lettuce? I am contemplating sowing over the next week or so but although I have seen lots of info online I wanted to hear it from someone with first hand experience. Any offers?

Pleasantly Surprised

I decided to haul up all the dreadful excuses for crop from the patch yesterday as the sight of my withered and rotting veg plot was getting too much to bear. However, when I dug up the spuds I was able to get over a carrier bags worth. The shallot stems had disappeared which made them blooming hard to find but when I did I had a fairly decent haul, certainly enough for a couple of jars of pickles. The onions were fine and are drying and the kale is really good although there does appear to be a glut of caterpillar eggs on them presntly. So, despite my earlier post all in the garden is OK (ish)

Garden

A dreadful summer with far too much rain. In essence............... Potatoes - Planted Foremost this year and very disappointing Kale - Very good results Runner Beans - So far so good Onions - Pound shop specials and looking OK as we speak Shallots - Pound shop again but poor showing Broad Bean - Pound shop and not one took Chillis - Largely eaten by aphids but handing on in there Tomatoes - Several varieties planted and poor showings so far In fairness I have been quite lazy with the garden this year, rather like my blog posts. Here's hoping for a better year next year

Carrot and Cougette Soup

I had a massive courgette that needed using up this week. The result was a fabulous fat free soup that I found online and adapted a bit to suit our tastes. Looks and tastes absolutely fabulous. A few squirts of Fry Light (or Olive/Veg/Sunflower Oil), 1 onion, finely chopped, 1lb carrots, peeled and sliced, 1lb courgette, unpeeled and sliced, 2-3 tsp curry powder, 900ml Vegetable Stock and some freshly chopped parsley to suit. Sauté onions for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add carrots and courgette, followed by the curry powder. Stir for 1-2 minutes. Add stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Add chopped parsley. Transfer soup to a blender and blend until smooth