The staff of life

Baking reasonable bread has been one of the most difficult things to master. However, after many months we seem to have it cracked. The trick, in this cold house, seem to be to allow the bread-maker to do the kneading and proving (as it is warm) and then use the standard oven and trays to do the baking. Loaves like this seem to cost about 40p a loaf including the costs of energy for baking^*.

The most successful recipe, to date, seem to be this one for a light brown loaf. This  is a good general purpose loaf, good for sandwiches or toasting,  and which keeps quite well.

Ingredients

• 350 g Brown Flour
• 150 g White Bread Flour
• 350 ml warm water
• 1 oz Lard
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 tsp Dried active yeast
• 1 tbs White Sugar

Nutritional Information

Nutritional information reflects amount per slice.
Calories 102
Total Fat (g) 2
Saturated Fat (g) 1
Cholesterol (mg) 1
Sodium (mg) 234
Total Carbohydrate (g) 19
Dietary Fiber (g) 2
Sugars (g) 1
Protein (g) 3

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One of today's visitors unfortunately was not very welcome. The Large Yellow Underwing Moth larva was found. Two in total. These cutworms are thankfully enjoyed by the chickens and were dispatched quite quickly. These will be added to "slug patrol" at nights also.

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^*  White flour 6p, Brown Four 25p, Lard 1p, Yeast 1p, Salt & Sugar 1p, Energy 5p

Taking the piss .. ..

.. .. out to the garden.

Urine has all the hallmarks of a great fertilizer. It is rich in nitrogen as well as having reasonable amounts of phosphates and potassium. Indeed, fertilizers are rated by the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) system and in this regard the potency of urine is similar to that of proprietary fertilizers but with the advantage of being free. Research from the Stockholm Environmental Institute suggests that one person's urine can anually fertilize about 500 square meters.

Urine is probably too concentrated, when it is produced, to be used directly on plants. It should be diluted 8:1 with water, although other sources suggest stronger concentrations can be used. However, direct from the source, and undilutted, it can be added to the compost heap as an activator and as a useful way of adding nitrogen to a carbon heavy heap.

As there can be other salts in your urine it should be used around the garden. Apply at different sites each time and avoid always using the one site. When using the fertilizer it should be delivered to the plants roots not the leaves to avoid the risk of scorching.

As part of the drive to self-reliance we have decided that this is the next stage and will reduce our need for fertilizers. This, plus composting, should meet our needs. For reasons of practicality this will mainly be a male chore. I feel that we can probably allow visitors to skip this.

This is job number 1. However, there is an obvious job number 2, though this step is perhaps one too far at present. For those wishing more information about human manure I'd suggest The Humanure Handbook which can be downloaded here (or as kindle file here.)

Macaroni Fritters and Tomato Sauce

In our plans to try and avoid meat we continue to look for quick and easy recipes.

This takes about 45 minutes to make and is palatable if not stunning. However, a quick and economical meal which is another way to use up macaroni.

Ingredients

• 3 oz Macaroni
• 1 tbs Plain Flour
• 2 Tbs Milk
• 2 Medium Eggs
• 2 oz Parmesan Cheese
• 8 oz Tinned Tomatoes
• 1 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 small Onion
• 1 tsp Basil
• 1 tsp Sugar

Sauce :-
Add the grated onion, tin of tomatoes, oil, sugar and basil to a pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 mins.
Fritters :-
Drain the macaroni after it has cooked and allow it to cool. Mix flour and milk to a paste, mix in the cheese and add the macaroni. Fry the macaroni as 4 fritters and serve with a green salad.

Compost

Successful composting is one of the most valuable skills I am going to have to learn. If we wish to get anything out of the soil we are going to have to know how to put things back. After reading an article about compost trenches I decided to try this. This was also prompted by the failure of the rotary composter to have made any great dent on the woody material we had fed it 18 months ago.

As the second raised bed is empty at present and needed some attention it became the recipient of this attention. Steady rain made the work heavy, but after an hour we hopefully have a nourished and turned vegetable bed. Hopefully this lower layer of compost may act like Hügelkultur and warm the bed slightly over the months.

The plan this year will be to try the rotary composter again. However, this time we will have a more carefully controlled mix. We will aim for all the kitchen scraps a to leave via this route and augment it with the chicken dropping and bedding. Once we have the compost we will be able to use this handy calculator which I found on Skippy's Vegetable Garden Blog. The rotary composter should give a hybrid result between hot and cold heap composting but we will try for a better mix of green and brown items. Most sites list the following groups :-

Green Items (These are high in Nitrogen)

• Urine
• Nettles
• Grass cuttings
• Tea bags and coffee
• Vegetable peelings

Brown Items (These are high in Carbon)

• Paper and cardboard
• Wood and twigs
• Bedding from animals

The brown items take much longer to compost, as we found to our cost last year.

Today's visitors included :-

Mystery Planting

Spring seems to have finally arrived. After working in the garden I decided to try and save the seedlings which were capsized and thrown about by the great winds. I have no idea what is where and these little sprouts, if they survive, will be quite interesting to watch develop.

Nutty Bars

A serious deficiency in self sufficiency has been the difficulty in making sweets or other treats. These Walnut bars, however, come half-way to being acceptable.

2 oz butter
8 oz soft brown sugar
1 medium egg
¼ tsp vanilla essence
4 oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
4 oz walnuts
Cream the sugar and melted butter, then beat in the egg and vanilla essence. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and then fold into the sugar mixture. Fold in the nuts. Bake at gas mark 4 for 30 minutes