Compost Update

February is winding to a close, which means that we've been following our new composting regimen for nearly two months now, and I figured it's time for an update.

Between the two of us, Steve and I have done a pretty good job of turning/rolling the bin at least three times a week. Unfortunately, our £7.50 RollMix Composter doesn't seem to be able to withstand even two months of that kind of use. There's a springy wire that wraps around the outside of the cylinder to help hold its shape, and the end of that wire popped out within about two weeks of use. After three or four weeks, the casing for that wire started to rip around the middle. At this point, I just hope that the bag itself lasts long enough for us to decide whether or not a big, rigid compost tumbler on a frame is worth the investment.

The wire on our RollMix Composter started poking out of its casing
after just a few weeks of use.

At this point, it's still difficult to say whether the frequent turning has had any significant effect on the rate of composting. The stuff in the compost tumbler does seem to be breaking down a little bit, but I don't know whether that's actually the case, or if the new additions just look brown because they have a coating of dirt on them from being mixed with the rest of the compost.

Frequent turning of the pile is supposed to help create a better oxygenated environment for the aerobic bacteria that do the heavy lifting in the initial stage of composting, but those bacteria also need heat, which is in short supply this time of year. As I'm typing this, the weather guy on the radio is going on at some length about the "Beast from the East" bringing icy weather from Russia and making this the coldest February in some large number of years, so our local population of decomposers is working at a serious disadvantage.

Whether or not the tumbling action has made a significant difference, there can be no doubt that the composition of the pile has a huge effect on the behavior of the compost.

Universal Pancake Recipe

A few weeks ago, I promised that I would post my Universal Pancake Recipe.

The first few years I went gluten-free, I hated it. Okay, I still hate it, but I've also learned to appreciate the staggering variety of flavors and textures that are available beyond the basic three grains.

As I was re-learning how to cook without wheat, barley, and rye, pancakes were one of the first things that really *worked* for me. I'm terrible about following recipes, preferring to eyeball rather than measure, and substitute whatever happens to be at hand. Pancakes were the first thing that I felt comfortable eyeballing, and having at least one dish that I understood well enough to improvise gave me back a lot of my confidence as a cook. They're a great, low-commitment way to try out a new flour or flour blend.

Hopefully, if anybody else out there is struggling with re-learning how to cook gluten-free, this will help give you the confidence to experiment, and the knowledge to rescue something that doesn't seem to be working at first.

Weekend update, 17-18 February

Saturday was spent in the garden. The weather was finally clear enough for Steve to put the second raised bed into place. Our cloche hoops finally arrived, so I bent those into shape, and covered them with new, not-ripped fleece. Doesn't it look much nicer now?

As long as I was out in the garden, I picked a few radishes, transplanted a few that were overcrowded, and moved a few shovelfuls of dirt back into the raised beds. (We needed to clear a bunch of dirt in order to set the beds into place.) Our soil is still very, very heavy clay, but it was heartening to see SO MANY WORMS in every shovelful.

On Sunday, I intended to make pancakes, feed the worms, do some sewing, write a blog post, etc. but I only got as far as making pancakes before my brain chemistry turned against me and I became non-functional for the rest of the day. Will try again next weekend.

First Foray into Naalbinding

I need a new craft hobby like I need another hole in my head.

That said, speaking as someone with five piercings in each ear and one in my nose, that clearly hasn't stopped me before.

Last September, I found myself looking ahead at a 3-day conference bookended by a train journey of roughly six hours involving multiple commuter trains (noteworthy for their complete lack of luggage space) at either end. I had just finished my last big commuting project, and all of my other unfinished projects were not terribly portable. I needed to find something compact and brainless but time-consuming, and I didn't have time to shop around for new tools or supplies. (Besides, the fabric/yarn embargo still stands.)

So it was that I picked up a bone needle and a ball of homespun wool, and took up yet another craft.

January carrots, or, The trouble with seasons

Needless to say, there's a bit of a learning curve to growing your own food. Particularly if you grew up in a place like Southern California where seasons are something that happens to other people, and then move somewhere like, say, Scotland or Wales where seasons make the difference between lounging outside with a picnic of fresh strawberries, green salad, and roasted summer squash, versus sitting in your house shivering and hoping you never see another rutabaga as long as you live.


This year, we did a lot of things really well. One of the things we didn't do so well was carrots.

Weekend update, 27-28 January

As I sat down to write up my weekly update this morning, I found myself rambling on to the point where I think I maybe some of the tangents might be better broken out into separate posts. While I work on that, here's the bullet points version:

Sourdough:

• To use up excess sourdough starter during the week, I made some simple injera/dosa-type flatbreads using millet flour.
• Over the weekend, I made a batch of Sourdough Oat Biscuits for breakfast, and some Millet-Corn Muffins to go with a black bean, corn, and chicken chili that Steve made. Both of these came out... interesting. 

Garden: 

• There was only one reasonably clear and sunny day during the week, so Steve did a bit more work levelling the dirt under the pavers in the back garden.
• The compost tumbler is still rather smelly, so the hunt for more "browns" continues. On which note...
• Every weekday, I walk past a couple of small parks on my way to and from the train station. We've had a few stormy days recently so I've been picking up a handful of fallen sticks and small branches each day to add to our compost. 
• During a brief spell of clear weather, I planted out a bunch of carrot seedlings from our conservatory. Yes, January is a fantastically stupid time to be transplanting anything outdoors. Yes, carrots tend to dislike being transplanted at the best of times. This is one of those things that will take some explaining.
• Over the Christmas break, I ended up chopping a bunch of woody, dead bramble stems that were growing near the gate to our back garden. I finally got around to scattering them around the front garden as mulch, in place of wood chips. (Use what you've got, right?)

Crafts: 

• On Tuesday, I managed to pick up another skein of matching embroidery floss, so over the weekend I was able to finish the embroidery/seam treatments on my Viking smokkr! Next step: shoulder straps.
• I finished the cuffs of my nalebound mitts! I still need to make the thumbs and the flap that goes over the fingers, but they should be wearable within the next week.

Weekend update, 20-21 January

Food:
I was so pleased with the success of last weekend's sourdough loaf that I decided to try again. Twice. Once midweek, and once on the weekend, with different flour substitutions each time.

The first batch had 1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup cassava flour, 3/4 cup arrowroot starch, and a bit of millet flour left over from another recipe. The second batch used sugar in place of honey, and about 1/2 cup each of millet, sorghum, cassava, and brown rice flour, with 3/4 cup of arrowroot starch again.

Arrowroot starch is supposed to behave similarly to tapioca, but less gummy/binding and more crunchy. The original recipe was, if anything, a little bit too stiff, which is why I swapped in arrowroot for tapioca starch. And because I'd never used it before, and wanted to see how it turned out. Millet flour also bakes up quite crunchy, and the loaf does indeed have a very crunchy crust, with a soft, very moist interior. I swapped in the cassava flour (made from the same stuff as tapioca starch) because it's tasty, and to make up for the loss of the sticky tapioca starch.

Gluten free waffles!

Both batches came out much closer in flavor to an ordinary sourdough white bread, although the first batch had a little more sweetness than I would have liked, hence the substitution of sugar for honey and reducing the quantity of sorghum flour in the second batch.

Also, I made waffles. Just because I could. At some point, I will write up my universal pancake/waffle recipe.

Garden:
It was raining most of the weekend, so not much happened. Steve planted a bunch of garlic during a brief dry spell. We rolled the compost a bit, but it's a bit smelly so something clearly isn't right. I tore up some more paper and cardboard and added it to the roller. I also started updating our seed inventory for the current year.

Decorative seam treatment on smokkr.

Crafts:
I stitched a few more rounds on my naalbinding mitts, and a few inches of decorative seam treatments on my Viking smokkr. I've run out of dark blue embroidery floss though, so I'll need to stop by a craft shop this week.

House:
During the heaviest rains this weekend, I noticed that we had water dripping from our conservatory ceiling. Luckily, we basically just use our conservatory as a greenhouse, so there are very few things in it that could be damaged by a bit of water. But it does mean that we need to find somebody to come and do some repairs. Bleh.