Making the Most of the Harvest – Herb Infused Oil

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Today it’s all about making the most of the herb harvest, with basil infused oil so you always have summer to hand on the kitchen shelf. Okay, so we’re not technically self sufficient in basil.  But, thankfully we know someone who is.  And, better still (for us, not them), they’re spending summer in sunny Blighty.  This means we get to carry out a weekly ‘huerto’ check.  We see that their rather splendid automated watering system is working correctly and that the local bunny population hasn’t stolen all their vegetables. On our last visit, we noticed their basil patch was looking […]

Preserving the Harvest Peppers and Chillis

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Making the most of the vegetable garden, involves stocking up on those things in glut.  At the moment it’s chillies and peppers.  And, it looks like it may well stay this way for some time.  That’s okay though, as I’m a lover of the humble pepper.  Mild ones, sweet ones, spicy ones, super hot killer ones, I’m happy with them all.  Preserving the harvest is a great way to extend the seasons and help your vegetable patch keep you self sufficient in certain foods for as long as possible. This year we have a few different sorts of chillies and […]

Brine Cured Dill Cucumber Recipe

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The cucumber plants in the vegetable garden look terrible at the moment.  The leaves keep being shredded by the wind.  But, regardless, they’re fruiting like crazy. So we’re enjoying cucumber soups, raitas and many salads.  But, we’re also ‘putting some by’ to enjoy in the winter months, as gherkins, dill pickles, pickled cucumbers or whatever you like to call them. For me, they’re brine cured pickled cucumbers and here’s how I make them… Brine Cured Dill Pickles Ingredients First of all, we’re talking knobbly ridge cucumbers, not shiny smooth greenhouse grown varieties.  But, that is the only rule I abide […]

Brine Recipe for Brine Cured Pickles

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With some things growing full tilt in the vegetable garden at the moment, I am on regular pickling duty.  It’s not yet time for lots of chutneys, but every week a few batches of dill pickled cucumbers, pickled chillies and peppers are being made up. These types of pickles really are the easiest to create.  It’s just a matter of picking things, cleaning them up, packing into sterilised canning jars, topping with brine vinegar and waiting for them to be ready. To keep things really convenient, I make up one large batch of brine vinegar.  Then I can quickly preserve […]

The Self Sufficient Vegetable Garden

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This year in the huerto where all our organic vegetable growing, is going on,  we’re self sufficient in… Chillies! Okay, so this is not the most useful thing to be self sufficient in.  But, they are packed with vitamin C, so we’re feeling pretty healthy.  And, it got me to thinking…  I thought about how the vegetable plot is very different every year.  We’re learning all the time and trying out new things.  But, with the best will in the world, a lot of our successes and failures in the vegetable growing department, are left down to the weather. Weather […]

Centralised Composting Toilets

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Looking into the world of composting toilets and the choices I could make to upgrade my humble sawdust toilet is a real eye-opener.  It is nice to know there are so many toilet composting systems to choose from.  That means there must be more and more people opting to use them. There is still an awful lot of stigma around the whole subject of compost loos, primarily I suppose because people are scared of what they will be confronted with when it comes to emptying them.  Using a manufactured composting toilet means only dry matter is stored and you only […]

Manufactured Self Contained Compost Toilets

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We’ve looked at cheap and cheerful home-made DIY compost toilets;  waterless, sawdust toilets which are basically a bucket you need to empty yourself every few days.  These systems work, speeding up the action and fertility of a conventional compost heap and providing an extremely environmentally friendly way of dealing with human waste.  But, being of a ‘back to basics’ nature they really are not for everyone. If you prefer a less hands on approach to the waterless toilet you can buy self contained compost toilets instead.  These self contained systems are a very glamorous version of the bucket compost loo.  […]