Apples and bubbles

Sparkling Apple Wine

I don't think the wine Bill opened tonight is supposed to be sparkling but as they say, it is what it is!  As well as growing our own food we make our bread, our own soap and our own wine.   We had a large quantity of less than perfect apples this year, many of which we fed to the pigs but after our grapes got "pruned" by a Houdini goat we needed something to make some wine from.   Most years we make Feijoa wine but this year we thought that we should try using the apples.  The brown sugar version is clearer and less bubbly, the white sugar version is slightly cloudier and very bubbly.  We haven't tested the alcohol content but I think the white sugar version is more potent.  Make sure that your wine has finished fermenting - the second batch clearly had not and we managed to blow up several bottles.

Apple Wine PdB

Enough good apple bits to fill a 20 L bucket or barrel
1 sachet wine yeast
8kg sugar (white or brown)
1 kg raisins
Juice of 9 lemons
A small cup of tea

Chop up the apples and put them in the bucket.  Fill the bucket with boiling water.  Put the lid on and leave for a few days.  Stir twice a day.

Strain out the fruit (feed it to the pigs) and add the sugar, the raisins, the lemon juice and the tea.  Fill the bucket again to 20 L and stir until the sugar dissolves.  Add the wine yeast, stir, cover with the lid and leave in a warm place.  We left ours on the kitchen bench wrapped in towels.  Leave for two weeks or so and then transfer to a demijohn.  Try to do this without transferring any sediment, by syphoning it into the demijohn.  Make the quantity up to 20 L again by adding water.

Leave in the demijohn in a cool place for several months.  Once the liquid is clear syphon the wine into sterilised bottles and lid.  The wine is drinkable at this stage but will most certainly improve with age.

In the summer I don't really like to drink beer but I do like a glass of cold cider occasionally.  Clearly it is not summer now so after a hard day's work a mug (my very large special pottery mug) of mulled cider is a great warming treat.  First make the cider though.

Apple cider

To be perfectly correct one makes cider by crushing the fruit but most of us don't have the equipment.
Any type of apples are fine for cider though a mix of sweet and bitter is best.

Chop whatever quantity of apples you have, cores and all into large chunks.  Place the pieces in a large plastic or crockery container, though don't fill it too full or it will overflow when fermenting.  Cover with boiling water and then put a cloth over the top.  Leave for 10 days stirring daily.

Crush the apples with a potato masher and strain the liquid through a jelly bag or muslin.  Feed the pulp to your pigs!  Add 1 cup of sugar to every 4 L of liquid.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Strain again into 2 L plastic bottles and screw on the tops lightly.  Leave until the fermentation has stopped and then syphon into clean plastic bottles and screw on the caps tightly this time.  You can drink the cider in two weeks but it does improve a bit with age.  Your cider may well be very fizzy so chill well before opening.

On a cold night after a good day's work when the fire is going and all is well with the world mull some cider on the woodburner.

In a pot that can go on the top of the woodburner make a sugar syrup with 1 - 2 T of sugar to each cup of water.  On the stove bring the water to the boil and add 2 or 3 cloves a cinnamon stick and half a sliced lemon or orange.  Simmer for 5 minutes, add 1 - 2 cups of cider and then reheat on the top of the woodburner.

Vitamin C is good for you.

Mother Nature must have known what she was about.  At the time of the year when we can all use extra vitamin C the citrus fruits kick into gear and produce large quantities of fruit.  The citrus back-bone of our food forest is hugely productive.  Last weekend we picked about 30kg of grapefruit and lemons and you can't see where we touched the bushes.  We will have hundreds of kilos this year though not too many limes.   We even have edible oranges.

Today was crutching day.  For the non-farmers amongst you this is when the ewes get a trim - bum and tum - so that when the lambs are born they can find the clean udder easily.  We have been putting it off because you can't shear sheep when the wool is wet.  With a break in the weather the shearer was round to "do" our nine ewes this morning.  Sadly we had miscalculated our dates and one of the ewes, my favourite, Lilispot had lambed in the early hours of the morning and the little black female lamb had died.  On a small property it is difficult to run the ram in a separate paddock so he and his girls run together all year.  This does make any serious predictions a little tricky.

As we have lemons and eggs our guests this weekend will be treated to an old-fashioned favourite, Lemon Meringue pie.

Lemon meringue pie (PdB) - serves 6 - 8
Pastry
You can use bought ready rolled sweet pastry (about 1 and a half sheets) or you can make your own.
To make your own
250g flour
1/2 t salt
175g butter
grated rind of one lemon
2 T sugar
3T water
3T lemon juice
melted butter

Rub the butter into the flour, salt and lemon rind, make a well in the centre and add the liquids.  Gently bring all together into a sold ball.  Chill for 30 minutes then roll out.

For either sort of pastry cut to fit a 25cm round or 34cm by 12cm paper lined tart tin.  Chill for another five minutes then line with baking paper and weights or rice.  Bake 12 - 15 minutes at 180 deg C, then remove the weights and bake until golden (about 5 minutes).  Brush the hot pastry with a beaten egg.

Lower the temperature to 160 deg C
The filling

200ml water
100g caster sugar
2T cornflour mixed into 3 T water
20g butter
2 - 3 egg yolks depending on size (some of our eggs are enormous)
1/2 t lemon rind, grated
1/2 t orange rind, grated
50 ml juice from the lemon and the orange

Heat the water with the sugar in a pot until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to simmering temperature.  Add the cornflour paste while whisking and then simmer until thickened.  Add the butter and stir until it is melted.  Mix the egg yolks a little and stir into the thickened mix with the rinds and the juices.  Remove from the heat.
The meringue

2 - 3 egg whites
120 g caster sugar

Beat the egg whites, (until they are foamy) add the sugar gradually while beating.  Beat until the mix is very thick and glossy.

Assembly
Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry case and top with meringue.  Smooth and then create some whirls if you like.  Make sure that the edges are sealed.

Sprinkle the top with a little extra sugar.

Bake for about 25 minutes until the meringue is golden.

Cool completely before serving so that you can cut neat pieces.

The Great Flood

In the winter, our place is wet.  It is not just normal wet, rather super wet - up to pigs' ankles wet!  This makes farming and gardening somewhat unpleasant at this time of the year.

Our philosophy has now completely changed with regard to how we grow things.  We had been leasing another 10 acres across the road but the owner put it on the market so we had to bring the cows home.  This meant a rethink of a) what we were doing and b) how we were to do it.  On our own 6 acres we were suddenly over-stocked.  The largest of the cows had to go, as did several sheep and a few goats.  Another cow has gone to live with pig-raising friends - this is an ideal relationship - they have a bull so Devonshire will get in calf, we get the calf to hand rear and they get the milk for their happy pigs.  But, we still had to think our way through where and how everything was going to work.  We currently have two donkeys, one cow (Little Miss Gentle) and a couple of calves from January, ten sheep, ten goats, three rabbits, about thirty hens, thirty ducks, two sows, a boar and two piglets, five dogs and five cats.  This is a large number of animals on a relatively small piece of land.  In order for this to be close to sustainable we have to be able to feed the animals as well as ourselves.  Every bit of the land now has to be doing something, either growing food for ourselves or for the animals.

Our citrus grove had started to produce significant quantities of fruit in 2013, and in the winter of 2013 we started planting new fruit trees there, to replace those that have drowned in our main orchard.  It was still planted in a traditional way, trees at 5m centres. Then a friend started talking about Food Forests.  Suddenly, we started to question our planting ideas.  Why do we have such wide avenues between the rows of trees?  Why do we have lawn that we still have to mow?  Why have we got a huge orchard, a citrus grove, a strawberry garden, a currant garden (45 currant bushes)  and a very large vegetable garden, all in separate places and all requiring watering, weeding and generally looking after?  So we made a plan.  In the words of a long-gone hair shampoo advertisement, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen.  Already we have replanted two strawberry beds, moved several red and black currant bushes (and taken cuttings for many more), moved ten rhubarbs, eight gooseberries, the hazelnuts, some cape gooseberries (that will now seed forever), planted a thyme bed, a coriander bed, six blueberries and continued to plant fruit trees.  Some of the citrus trees have been under-planted with shallow growing vegetables and the con-centric rows of citrus trees (three circles at 5m, 10m and 15m centres and 36 bushes in total) are now being joined up with lower growing plants, straw and lots and lots of well-rotted manure (our animals are very good at providing us with this.)

We still have to contend with constant flooding.  We have planted many many flax bushes and gum trees to suck up the water in the winter, but no sooner do we get one area less wet, than the water seems to pop up somewhere else.  Today we planted another thirty poplar trees, partly for stock food and partly as water suckers.  In the summer, many parts of the farm benefit from this deep watering but right now it's awful.  Truly awful.  The pigs are in mud all day unless they go into their houses, and we are desperately racing against time to build a barn for them to get them out the mud.  The barn itself is built, but the concrete floor needs to go down and the fences finished and we can't do this until it stops raining.  We plan to build another one for the cows, and keep them out of the worst of the mud too.  We will follow Joel Saletin's ideas on this - lay straw, put the cows in, feed them, then as they create manure, lay more straw, feed them, lay straw and so on.  But, at the same time we have gardening to do and animals to tend to and it continues to rain.

The only farm dwellers that really like the rain are the ducks, of which there are far too many.  We don't seem to be able to breed up hens or geese, but we can sure breed ducks.  Before this season's ducklings arrive we have to cull a few out.  They eat a huge amount of grass and make rather a mess.  Because they free range in the orchard the ducks are living the good life but it does mean that they tend to be not particularly fat (as in chubby) and quite like wild duck to taste.  Kent's recipe for duck soup will make any scrawny duck superb.

Duck soup with duck legs KB

Two ducks, plucked and dressed.  Remove the legs (keep them though) and save the kidneys, the hearts and the liver.

The soup:
Add the carcase and the breast meat to a 10 L stock pot and saute in a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil.  When the carcase has browned a little, add
1 cup celery root
1 cup chopped leek (white part)
1 cup carrots, chopped in largish dice
2 onions, chopped in half
4 bay leaves (I use fresh and crush them before adding)
1 cup parsley stalks
10 black peppercorns
1 allspice
20 coriander seeds
10 cumin seeds

Keep the heat up and stir with a wooden spoon.

After a few minutes, add 50g flour, whilst still stirring.

When the flour has cooked a little, add
200mls sherry
100mls dry vermouth
1L red wine

Turn the heat down and simmer for two hours.

Strain the soup, retaining the vegetables and the meat and chill the stock.

To cook the duck legs
Heat the oven to 160 deg C and melt a small quantity of butter in a cast iron pan.  Dust the legs with flour and saute the legs until they are golden and sealed.  Remove from the pan and deglaze it with 50 ml of gin and quickly add some of the saved stock.  Replace the legs and add sufficient stock to cover them.  Add some fresh rosemary, some sliced garlic, freshly ground black pepper and 10 juniper berries.  Place in the oven and cook for 3 hours, making sure that the legs stay covered in stock.

Remove the legs from the stock and shred the flesh off the bones coarsely.  Mould the leg meat back around the bones into their original shape.  Wrap in pig's caul (our local butcher in Greytown sells this if you ask him) and set aside.  If you absolutely can't get this, then skip this step and leave the legs as they were.

Form the cast iron pan, remove al the meat juices and any remaining stock, add the remainder of the chilled stock and boil until the volume is reduced by half.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place the legs on a baking tray and bake at 260 deg C for 4 minutes.

Apple wontons to serve

Core one apple and place it in a small pan with 1 teaspoon of apple tea (or water), a shot of brandy and a little salt and pepper.  Squeeze a lemon over the apple and add 20g of butter.  Simmer for 10 minutes with a pinch of chilli until the apple breaks down into a rough paste.  Take a wonton sheet and brush the edges with beaten egg.  Add a tablespoon of the apple mix and shape the wonton to your favourite shape.  Fry all the wontons in a small pan with a little grapeseed oil.  While you are doing this, place the duck legs back in the oven for about five minutes to reheat (no more than 5 minutes).

Reheat the soup slowly.

Now, place a leg into each bowl, gently pour over the soup and garnish with an apple wonton.

Enjoy!

So it snowed!

It didn't snow here at home but it did snow on the road between us and Wellington (work).  Along with several hundred extra commuters we (just) caught the train.  We had to stand but at least it was nice and warm.  Not so for our poor animals.  The pervasive wetness must depress them as much as it depresses us.  Fortunately (of course by good planning ;-) ) we are not lambing or kidding yet.  We have very little grass left and so are feeding baleage (pickled grass) each morning and night to the cow and the goats and yummy molasses coated grains as an extra treat for the goats.  We need to  buy more hay as the donkeys and the rabbits eat quite a bit of it.  Before you ask, these are rabbits that we want to be feeding hay to, rather than the other sort.  When it is so cold and miserable my thoughts turn to puddings.  Whilst steamed puddings are traditionally winter puddings I prefer fruit based puddings.

We are just using the last of the carefully stored pears - not so good for eating fresh any more but still good for cooking.  As we are on the lengthening daylight hours side of the winter soltice we have an abundant egg supply.

Pear brulee wtih raspberries KB

The dessert has poached pears in a tartlet of creme brulee and raspberries served with English cream.

To make the tartlet case(s)

500g flour
250g soft butter
125g sugar
2 and a half eggs.
Mix all ingredients in a cake mixer then roll out and line a large tart dish or several small ones.

To make the English cream
8 egg yolks
125g sugar
1 vanilla pod
1 L milk
Bring the milk to the boil with the vanilla pod.
Cream the butter and sugar together well.
Pour the milk onto the eggs.  Strain this back into the pot and heat, stirring for two minutes.  Strain again and reserve.

To make the Brulee cream
1 L cream
8 egg yolks
125g sugar
1 punnet fresh raspberries

While bringing the cream to the boil, whisking briskly, add the eggs and the sugar.
Quickly pour the cream over the egg mixture, add half the raspberries and pour into a baking dish.  Place in a preheated oven at 250 deg C for 5 minutes.  Chill for an hour.

Poaching the pears in wine stock
Note: this stock can be used over several days and for poaching any fruits.  The wine can be of your choice or excluded and replaced with water if you prefer.
1L water
500ml Late Harvest Chardonnay
50ml Poire William (pear brandy)
125g sugar
1 lime

Bring to the boil for 2 minutes and then reduce the heat down to a constant simmer.  Add cored and peeled pears for 10 minutes until they are soft enough to be eaten with a spoon.

Assembly
Stuff the central holes in the pears with a little of the brulee.
Place some raspberries into the tartlet case(s) and then add the remaining brulee.  Sprinkle some castor sugar liberally over the top.  Either place the brulee under the grill for a few moments or scorch the top with a blow torch.

Place the stuffed pear on top, swirl some English cream on the plate and enjoy!

All year round food supply

If one is serious about providing one's own food, then one really has to work at it.  There is no point in growing a surplus of food in the easy times, during the summer, and then having to resort to the supermarket because the garden is  finished for the season once the days get shorter.  Food production must be planned so that there is something growing all year round.  Even though it is mid-winter now, we have still many vegetables ready to eat from the garden.  In the last two days we have harvested swede, beetroot, carrots, cauliflower, spinach and leeks.  We still have pumpkins left on the verandah and a large quantity of frozen vegetables.  If we ventured into the wettest part of our farm we would also be able to dig potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.  Our onions were a flop last season so we are buying them but we intend to do better in the next season.  The garlic we planted on the shortest day 2013 was magnificent.  The elephant garlic (not really a garlic but related to the leek family) was as large as a man's fist.  We have planted our 2014 crop and still have plenty left.  We also have a (very) large quantity of frozen zucchini.  It is supposed to snow tonight so I have made soup this evening to take to work tomorrow for our lunches.

Zucchini and garlic soup (PdB)

1 T oil
1 chopped onion
4 - 10 cloves of garlic
1 kg of zucchini (or about 4 large ones)
a quarter of a cup of fresh herbs
1/2 t dried oregano
1 L stock (vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian version)

Depending on what else I am doing at the same time, I either gently sweat the onions and the garlic in the oil on the stove top, add the roughly chopped zucchini, the stock, most of the fresh herbs and the oregano and simmer for 45 minutes.  If I am busy I heat the oven to 180 deg C and mix the oil into the vegetables in a roasting dish and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until the zucchini is soft.  I then add the herbs (reserve a few) and the vegetables to the hot stock and simmer for a few minutes.

In either case, then blend with a hand blender or transfer to a blender and whiz.

Serve with croutons and a pinch of finely chopped fresh herbs or a few shreds of lemon rind.