Looking Back on Growing in 2013

Give or take a couple of weeks, it was a year ago I got the call from my local allotments to tell me that I was at the top of the list and there was a vacant plot. I'd been waiting 4 years for that call, and I can't even describe how excited I was. A couple of days later I went to view it. It was plot 59C. And it was mine. It was only a quarter plot, but to me that was 23' x 27' which was mine to cultivate, to nurture and to tend. It was what I'd been dreaming about for 4 long years.

I can't say that the timing was perfect. I had a 3 month old and a 22 month old when the call came. I didn't have either of these when I applied.
When I applied I also had no garden to speak of and all my growing was done in pots or on the windowsill. I'd moved house 5 months before the call (to a place which was luckily closer to the site), and the new house had a decent size garden which I'd been planning to put into use.
None of this mattered to me though. There was so much I could do,  and so many things I could grow. Rather than take things slowly, put in some simple crops and see the year through I hatched magical plans for creating a wonderland of veg.
With hindsight, that wasn't the best idea. Balancing the new family with the plot was hard work. I ended up clearing the plot in all kinds of weather. One weekend even involved clearing snow in order to carry on. I got the plot cleared but I was already behind where I should have been. Then at the end of February I injured my knee; that took me out of action enough for 6 weeks, and when I returned to the plot it looked exactly the same as when I'd started clearing it. So I did it all again. Now I was way behind where I should have been, but again, rather than simplify my plans I went for it.
To cut the story short, lets look back, and ask how did the year go? Quite simply, there were a lot of failures. These have taught me some valuable lessons though. I know the root of them was in trying to do too much. That won't happen again. I planted and sowed much later than I should have. That won't happen again. I didn't plan well enough for successional planting and getting catch crops in. That won't happen again!
On the flip side though I did have some success. Courgettes, Squash, Kale, Peas, Sweet Potato, Electric Daisies, Mooli, Fiesta Popcorn, Globe Artichoke (these were already there), Chickpea Edamame and Borlotti Beans all gave me something, even if the size of the harvest wasn't what it should have been.
I got Strawberries, Raspberries and a few Apples out of the garden, along with loads of lettuce and radish, and a few other bits and pieces, but I was always on the back foot and again I could have done a lot more had I started with baby steps rather than grand designs

So lessons have definitely been learned.
I'm starting growing in 2014 with a new hunger, and I'm going to try to make things slightly easier for myself. I found this post from RealMenSow quite inspiring. I would recommend having a read of the whole site; I've followed it for a few years and have learned a lot from it. I still probably won't make things quite as easy on myself as that, but I can definitely try.
I have a greenhouse in the garden which should make it easier starting seeds off. This also means the windowsills will be clearer in the house this year. It will also give me somewhere to grow a few veg which enjoy the heat.
I have a years worth of experience to help me, and this is something which no amount of reading books and magazines and watching gardening shows can give you.
I have met people on the allotment, ranging from those who have been there for years to those who started at the same time as me, which is a wealth of advice waiting to be tapped.
I now have this blog, which should provide me with a record of what I've done, both the positives and the negatives. Hopefully having one place for all these notes will improve my record keeping, something I was not particularly good at in 2013.
And lastly, I have 2 extra pairs of hands who I hope will enjoy helping on the plot. I'm not saying this will make things easier, but growing as a family will add another dimension to the plot.

Preserving Mushrooms and Mushroom Salt

Given my previous post about how little I generally find while foraging with the family, it would seem contradictory to now write about storing a large haul. However, knowing the growing habits of those winter chanterelles, I couldn't resist returning solo for a couple of hours.
After doing this a couple of weekends on the trot I ended up with 3-4kg of winter chanterelles (craterellus tubaeformis) and close to another 1kg of hedgehog mushrooms (hydnum repandum). There was considerably more than this out there, but I went each time with a friend who took his share, and with a time limit I couldn't stay picking all day.

Much as a binge on mushrooms would have been great, being able to reach for a few wild mushrooms over the leaner foraging months has too much appeal, so I've preserved them in a variety of ways. 

Freezing

The method really depends on the age and condition of the mushroom. Young small mushrooms can be frozen whole, then defrosted and used in any recipe as a fresh mushroom.
If the mushrooms are older or not in perfect nick, then sauté them before you freeze. Keep small ones whole and chop up any larger ones. Heat up a mix of butter and oil over a medium heat, add the mushrooms and increase the heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are cooked. Cool, then freeze. It is worth mentioning that you shouldn't adorn these mushrooms with garlic/seasonings etc as this can produce some bitter off flavours; that can be done once they are defrosted. 

Freezing should not be considered a long term storage solution; try to use the mushrooms within 2-3 months. 

Drying

This is possibly the most widely practised mushroom preserving technique. Not only will it allow them to be kept indefinitely, but the flavour of most mushrooms will intensify once rehydrated. I say indefinitely, but really they'll keep around a year, bringing us nicely back to the next season. Certain mushrooms such as the Cep (boletus edulis) are dried almost as standard.
This can be done by threading a small amount of mushrooms onto a string and hanging in a warm spot with airflow until dry, or can be done using a dehydrator if you have one. Personally I use the oven method as I generally have more than the string method would allow and no dehydrator. When using any method the aim is to fully dry the mushrooms before they spoil but without cooking them

Start off by cutting the mushrooms into 3-4mm slices and laying on a baking tray. Some people recommend using a rack for airflow all around the mushrooms, some baking paper to stop them sticking. Me, I just stick them straight onto the tray and haven't had any issues. Put the tray in the oven, a temperature of around 50c will be ideal for the process and leave the door of the oven open which will create airflow and allow the moisture to escape.

It will probably take 6-8 hours for the mushrooms to dry, but it could be a lot more depending on the size of the slices and the moisture content to begin with.

To use the mushrooms, soak in warm water for approx 15 minutes, or add them directly to a dish which will simmer for a decent length of time. If soaking them first the soaking water can also be added as this has a decent mushroom flavour.

Pickling/Salting

I'd only ever dried or frozen mushrooms so this was a bit of an experiment. There was a method of pickling which involved boiling in white whine vinegar with salt, peppercorns and a couple of spices before placing into sterilised jars and covering with olive oil, but I decided against this as I wanted to retain as much of the mushroom flavour as possible.
Salting is an  Eastern European method of preserving mushrooms and can be done either wet (brining) or dry. To salt them you take a large pot and add a layer of course salt, followed by a layer of mushrooms and repeat. Brining seems to involve boiling the mushrooms in salty water and then covering with a vinegar brine.

I ended up using a method which sits somewhere between the two above.

The mushrooms were laid in a dish, covered with salt and left for a couple of hours. After this time I drained the liquid which had formed, covered with more salt and left for another couple of hours.

 I then put the mushrooms in a sieve, leaving as much of the salt in the dish as I could (more on that in a moment) and quickly rinsed them off.
I then put them into simmering cider vinegar for a couple of minutes, switched off the heat and left for 4 hours. After this time they were drained, added to a sterilised kilner jar and covered with olive oil.
 These were absolutely delicious with cold meat and cheese platters over christmas and received a big thumbs up from anyone who tried them.

Mushroom Salt

The salt I saved earlier was for an experiment. I figured that if it has been hydrated in the juices from the mushrooms, once dried out again there may be a little extra flavour in the salt. So I spread it out on an oven tray and dried it in the same way as the mushrooms. It worked! Once dry there was a taste of mushrooms to the salt. Not strong, but rather nice. I will definitely try to save more of the salt next time and make this a regular part of preserving.

Soup

The last of the mushrooms were turned into soup and the soup frozen. There are hundreds of mushroom soup recipes on t'interweb and I'm sure there will be one for everyones tastes.
I gently cooked diced potato, onion, leek and garlic in butter for 10 minutes, added mushrooms and thyme and cooked for another 10 minutes. Seasoned, simmered in veg stock for 10 minutes and then blended worked for me. When I defrost some, I'll probably add a dash of cream but it isn't necessary.

There are still a few species of edible mushroom out there, in fact some of the experts/old hands I follow in various places are still finding baskets full of Winter Chanterelles, Hedgehogs, Velvet Shanks and Oyster mushrooms, so it's not too late to get out and have a search yourself. I know if it ever stops raining in Dorset I'll be back out there.

Homebrew Kits

Alcohol is not cheap. Not if you buy it from shops ready made that is. An average bottle of bottom of the range wine will probably set you back a fiver, and a bottle of beer will easily cost you a couple of quid, probably more. As we approach Christmas, a season when people seem to imbibe rather more than normal, everyone is probably feeling the pinch a little more. There is another way.

I'm stocking up for christmas now; 30 bottles of wine, and 40 pints of beer. If I were to walk into my local 'offie' or Supermarket, that'd cost me maybe £100 for the wine, and £50 for the beer, as long as there were some decent offers. So lets call it £150 for the lot. I can't afford that.
What I am going to do is get the 30 bottles of wine, and 40 pints of beer and I'm going to spend less that 40 quid. And it's easy. Home Brew Kits.

I've made kits before, and while some brewers would probably turn their nose up at them I see absolutely no shame in it. After all it's basically extract or juice concentrate brewing. Don't get me wrong, without serious outlay you aren't going to get a vintage bottle of wine or an artisan crafted beer. But you do get a quite satisfactory tasting bottle of whatever you brew for a fraction of the cost of the equivalent shop bought drink. The 2 kits I am using are about as bottom of the range as I can find. The beer kit cost me £15 and the wine kit cost me £20. Add in £4 for 5kg of sugar and that's change from £40, with 500g sugar left over.

If you want to have a go and you've never brewed before, there will be another cost, which is the equipment. This isn't going to break the bank, they sell complete kits for around £20, but in fairness a barrel and spoon and a syphon are about all you need to brew from a kit, and you should be able to pick those up for between £10-£15. Add this one time outlay to your first brew total and you'll still be quids in.

The premise of both of the kits above, and in fact for any of these varieties of kits is very similar. Empty the "wet" contents of the kit into a large barrel, add boiling water and sugar, top up with cold water, add yeast and leave for 1-2 weeks. Stabilise and clear the contents of the barrel (for wine), bottle and leave for a week or so and it's ready to drink.
I'll admit that as someone who brews quite regularly I find sections of the instructions frustrating. The first 3 steps of the instructions which were INSIDE the kit told you what to do before you openened the packet. Not an issue if you don't open it before you're ready to start. I've never taken a temperature reading as they seem to think you must (probably to sell you a thermometer). In fact between a thermometer and a hydrometer I know what I'd choose. The little irks I have though are not in any way major, and the instructions are clear and concise enough for anyone to follow.

These are my 2 barrels just before the lids go on, wine on the left and beer on the right. The weird "scum" on the surface of the wine is actually wood chips. These was a new one on me for a wine kit so I'm interested to see if it adds anything extra to the flavour of the finished product.

I'll update on how these turn out just before Christmas when they're ready, but I wanted to get this post up now and throw the gauntlet down to anyone who wants to save a few pennies at Christmas. These kits come in all shapes, sizes, colours and flavours, so whatever your preference there will be a kit to match. Given that they are for sale in a lot of supermarkets nowadays you should be able to source one quickly. I'd love to hear from anyone who decides to give it a go. And if not for Christmas, maybe New Year!

An Almost Rant and Excitement

Foraging is about so much more than simply finding food for free. Granted this is a large part of it; the tastes and textures you can experience from food which isn't available in any shops is hard to describe. The incredible selection of mushrooms, wild greens, berries, fruit, flowers and nuts, from the simple blackberry picked and popped into your mouth as you walk past a bush, through a simple dish of mushrooms on toast, to the painstakingly prepared feasts incorporating special ingredients and cooking techniques, there is a feast waiting in the wild larder on everyone's doorstep.
I am still a beginner, and it will be years before I could consider foraging as a way of replacing a fair number of my meals, but it's not about that for me. I have the small allotment plot to put less shop bought produce on my family's plates, and I aim to increase the size of the plot as a means towards self sufficiency. From a pure food point of view, foraging supplements this with variety and tastes from select meals, alcohol, preserves etc.

For me, foraging is not just about feeding the body. It is about connecting with the world around us again, to learn to respect our surroundings and appreciate what we can take, in moderation, from nature as our ancestors did. While I am still a beginner when it comes to foraging, I am learning more each season. Little by little my knowledge will grow, but I don't see the process as aiming to know everything. It is about the journey of learning new things. If you continue to read this blog you'll see me find things for the first time and hopefully share in some of my joy. (as below). You'll also see me fail to find things which I have before (I have no idea where my Wood Blewitts are this year!).

So the above may sound a bit ranty, maybe even slightly hippy-ish. Hopefully neither. But what brought it about was the realisation that when I go out foraging, I probably don't even gather a tenth of what is around me. The reason for this: I go with my family!
My intention is to keep this blog, as far as I can manage it to the 3 main hobbies I have and not about my family, hence it's name, "Brew Forage Grow".
But in this one post I will make the exception, and if you can see that it is possible to have a full time job in an office and 2 young kids at home yet still make time to get out into the world around you, to cultivate a plot (even just a quarter plot like I have) and even brew some alcohol to enjoy in the downtime then I'll feel like I've added to this world.

I have a long suffering wife and 2 beautiful little girls, currently 1 and 2.5 years old. A trip out to the forest means we generally take a pushchair, restricting our movements to the main paths for the most parts. It can often involve a backpack carrier as well, restricting my movements even further with the eldest on my back.


I can almost sense the mushooms sat off the path, mocking me as I pass blindly by. Occasionally I venture off the path, often with my eldest daughter, normally returning to the "look" from the wife who was left on the path with the pushchair.
This happened at the weekend. I knew "the look" was waiting for me back at the path when I darted into a LMLP. That's a Likely Mushroomy Looking Patch. Then I started grinning. And I did a little dance. With a 2.5 year old strapped to my back like this:

The reason for my joy? The reason for the jig? I found my first ever Winter Chanterelles or Trumpet Chanterelles depending who you talk to (Cantharellus tubaeformis). I know they taste good, I tried them once on a mushroom walk I went on with John Rensten, but I'd never found them on my own. Maybe I'd passed them by many times, it's hard to say as they are almost exactly the same colour as the leaf litter they inhabit.

After that excitement I stuck to the path with the family, and just before we turned back, happened upon a couple of birch boletes

So when we got back to the car we had a couple of boletes and a couple of handfuls of winter chanterelles in the basket. By no means close in size to the hauls you often see on foraging blogs from people who have been doing this for years.

What you can't however see in the basket, is the fun we had as a family and the memories we are hopefully building for the girls as they grow up. You can't see the excitement I felt finding a new species of mushroom for the first time, or the connection with the outdoors we all get from just being outside. That is why foraging is about so much more than food. That is why foraging is about more than just what is in my basket when I get home. The memories and family time are the most valuable things I can take from my surroundings, and I wouldn't swap them for even the biggest basket of foraged goods.

Rowan Racking and a Book Review

Over the last couple of weeks the constant rains of October seems to have died down, there is a freshness in the air from the glorious sunshine mixing with a November chill, and I haven't been able to enjoy any of it as I've been ill. Joy. What I have been able to do while I've been out of action though is catch up on some reading.
And carry on with the rowan wine.

The wine (water) was strained off the must into a demijohn, sugar syrup, citric acid and yeast added and it's now bubbling away. It's also probably the nicest colour of any wine I've made at this stage, a glorious pinky peachy haze. I'm hoping it keeps some of this beauty as it clears.

As for the book, it's Booze, by John Wright, which happens to be his fourth River Cottage Handbook and the 12th in the series. I have to admit to owning the entire collection, and his Mushroom, Edible Seashore and Hedgerow books are all looking more worn in my collection than quite a few of the others.

So what of Booze? Is my copy of this one going to end up worn and dog eared from use or looking new but relegated to propping up the bookshelf? Now I've had the chance to read through it I can happily say the former. The tone of the book is exactly as I had hoped from John's previous writings. It has a steady pace throughout, and delves into considerably more detail than simply a list of recipes. The detail however, is presented in a mix of lessons, stories and good humour making it both educational, interesting and fascinating at the same time.
I have been brewing since around 2010, mainly country wines and infusions, but I have learned as much from this book as I probably did over those last 3 years. I had always known the hows, but never really known the whys. Maybe this is because I gloss over the moment I start reading a paragraph of technical terminology, or couldn't focus my attention long enough to take in all the information, but this book has remedied that. Not only this, but it's re-kindled my desire to experiment a little more with my concoctions. Not just to follow recipes but go off-piste (and occasionally off pissed) with my brews, which should be easier now I understand how each component affects the other. But I digress.

The book is broken into 5 sections; The Principles, Infusions, Wine, Cider and Beer, with a small directory in the back of links to useful sites.
The principles take a look at each stage of the general "brewing" process which covers the 4 main sections of the book, has a decent list of the terms used and a handy brewing calender. The calender seems to give a nod towards the previous Hedgerow book and nods at John's interest in foraging many of the ingredients used in the brews from the first 3 sections.

The book has plenty of images running throughout, both detailed photographs and hand drawn pictures, all of which I believe are provided by John himself. Whilst the drawings themselves won't win any art prizes, they do the job of visually explaining a task better than a "posed" photograph in my opinion. I will also admit to having a chuckle at one of them. If you get a copy of this book or have one, turn to page 182 and tell me that's not a drawing of John, by John, straining the mash.

I won't delve into each section in detail, as the actual content is pretty self explanatory from their headers. However they do all follow a similar pattern; an introduction of the general techniques which will be used, a guide on the equipment required, and a look at anything which can go wrong.
I will be revisiting these many times until I don't need to, and certainly trying a few of the recipes out from each section, some of which I'm sure will appear on this blog.

For more information on the author, John has a website at www.wild-food.net and I'm sure the book itself is available from all good retailers (or as I bought it, direct from the man himself if you're lucky enough to attend any of his walks).

A Pretty Good Day

Some days are just good days. Originally the plan was to bottle the pumpkin beer and strain elderflower cordial that i've been making from elderflowers gathered earlier in the year and frozen. I managed to strain the cordial:

Found a couple of bay boletes and a massive cep which i've cut into thin slices and are drying for storage:

But best of all, was the free chicken coop with run that I picked up from freecycle. It was dismantled and collected in the dark, but the picture below shows the exact type of coop. I've wanted chickens for a long time, but initial start up costs have got in the way. We've been saving to hopefully get a coop and chickens next spring, looks like we'll be able to. And the money we've saved can be spent on a bigger run for the chooks.

As for bottling the pumpkin beer, there's always tomorrow

Wild Chug and Rowan Wine

This post was originally going to be the first part of my acorn coffee adventure which I started yesterday, but needs must and the wild hop brew needed to be bottled today. Well yesterday actually but who's counting? This will be a short and sweet little post so I can keep track of what's starting when. And if you get some enjoyment out of it, even better.
There are loads of ways to sterilise bottles, but I tend to fill a brewing bucket with Milton Sterilising Fluid (other sterilising fluids are available) and submerge the bottles. 15 minutes later I have sterile bottles and a barrel full of sterile liquid. Rather than waste it, I siphoned it out into 3 demijohns so I could rack the scrumpy I started a few weeks back, and was left with a sterilised barrel which I decided to start my Rowan wine in. I don't make things easy for myself!

So the wild chug is bottled; I'll provide some fantastic pictures of what will amount to, um, bottles, when I finish the pumpkin beer tomorrow. I don't want people too excited at too many posts with pictures of bottles.

The 15litres of my first ever attempt at scrumpy cider is now sat in 3 demijohns to ferment out.

And the Rowan wine must is sat, smelling slightly dodgy which I've read is normal, in a barrel doing it's thing. I had these Rowan berries in my freezer waiting to be used, but there may be enough time still to pick some if you fancy giving it a go.

It doesn't matter what angles you try, a barrel with a kg of Rowan berries and some water in it just doesn't look exciting. See:

Rowan Wine

• 1kg Rowan berries
• 2 oranges
• 2 litres boiling water
• 1.5kg sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried yeast

• Pick the berries when ripe, remove stalks, wash and place in brewing bucket
• Cover wtih the boiling water and leave for 4 days, stirring daily
• Strain in to demijohn
• Make up sugar syrup with sugar and 750ml water
• Pour into demijohn with rind and juice from the oranges
• Start the yeast and add to the wine
• Leave for 4 months
• Rack and leave for another 6 months, then bottle

Apparently this wine clears quickly but needs a long time before it becomes drinkable. Lets see if it was worth it in a year!