Sadly we are not yet in the position to need wood for winter, but when we have our passively heated house with a wood burning stove I have EVERY intention of rigging up one of these...
A perfect example of human ingenuity making a labour intensive job a bit easier. I'm pretty sure this is a brilliant example of some basic physics principles - fulcrums (fulcra?) and levers and moments and things.
Just brilliant.
Living the Good Life
Saturday, 20 December 2014
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Adventures in fermentation: Making cider vinegar, ginger beer, and kefir
Now then, while I am happily pootling away at the Forgotten Household Crafts project, I am very bad at sticking to only one thing at once. When I get inspired, it tends to take many forms - I blame my creative brain *shakes fist*
So, alongside my reading of Mrs. Beeton and digging through various crafty books I had an urge to try going no-poo again and try making my own bathroom cleaning spray. Then I ran out of kimchi, realised it's Christmas next week, and went shopping at my favourite shop in the world where I found some kefir. Inspiration set in.
I realised that going no-poo meant I was very shortly going to run out of cider vinegar, so resolved to try making my own. I made some more kimchi, and while chopping up cabbages wondered if I could ferment ginger into ginger beer to have at Christmas (answer = yes). As for the kefir, I'd read about it, but never tried it - let alone made it.
Having detailed the process of making cider vinegar and ginger beer I realised these are blog posts in themselves (more soon!), so for now, some teaser pictures...
As for the kefir... well, that's currently just a jar containing some milk and a spoonful of kefir on my kitchen sideboard. We'll have to see if it turns into anything...
So, alongside my reading of Mrs. Beeton and digging through various crafty books I had an urge to try going no-poo again and try making my own bathroom cleaning spray. Then I ran out of kimchi, realised it's Christmas next week, and went shopping at my favourite shop in the world where I found some kefir. Inspiration set in.
 |
| The magic word: live. My interpretation: breedable! |
I realised that going no-poo meant I was very shortly going to run out of cider vinegar, so resolved to try making my own. I made some more kimchi, and while chopping up cabbages wondered if I could ferment ginger into ginger beer to have at Christmas (answer = yes). As for the kefir, I'd read about it, but never tried it - let alone made it.
Having detailed the process of making cider vinegar and ginger beer I realised these are blog posts in themselves (more soon!), so for now, some teaser pictures...
 |
| Cider in the making... |
 |
| Spontaneous fermentation of ginger smush... ginger beer here I come! |
Monday, 15 December 2014
Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management
Dear reader, I have a Christmas present for you...
You can download a copy of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management on Kindle for the handsome price of £0.00 - that's right, it's FREE! (just click the link to go straight there)
So whether or not you have a Kindle, you can have a look at an electronic copy of her masterpiece (all 591 pages of it - including a recipe for toast) without having to spend any of your pennies.
This does not mean I will not be 'borrowing' my mum's copy when I go there at Christmas, but at least this way I have a more robust copy that I won't worry about spilling things on.
Happy reading!
You can download a copy of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management on Kindle for the handsome price of £0.00 - that's right, it's FREE! (just click the link to go straight there)
So whether or not you have a Kindle, you can have a look at an electronic copy of her masterpiece (all 591 pages of it - including a recipe for toast) without having to spend any of your pennies.
This does not mean I will not be 'borrowing' my mum's copy when I go there at Christmas, but at least this way I have a more robust copy that I won't worry about spilling things on.
Happy reading!
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Forgotten Crafts Project #1: Preparing food
Today I read a very pertinent review of John Seymour's other book (The Forgotten Arts and Crafts), which read:
I really thought this book would be about
1) The forgotten crafts
2) How to learn to do them
What I got was a lot of reminiscing and stories about how things were better before mean 'ol World War I came along and industrialized England.
Beginning to read the chapters of this book, I see this person has a real point.
The first chapter on food preparation is divided into 6 sections:
* savoury puddings
* desserts
* chopping, pounding and pulping
* beating
* cake mixes
* pastry making
Some of these I think are good fodder for investigating 'forgotten household crafts', and some of them less so. The section on cake mixes seems to basically cover how as a boy he preferred eating the cake batter to the actual finished product.
And that's about it.
So I might not be addressing that one in quite so much detail.
He does however talk a lot about puddings (both sweet and savoury) and they seem like things I should be investigating. We've all heard of Yorkshire puddings - but what about Essex or Suffolk puddings? Summer pudding is fairly well known - but what about Cambridge pudding?
But of course there are no recipes.
So I will have to broaden my net to investigate other sources of such knowledge, as Mr. Seymour is not hugely forthcoming on the issue. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, not least of which involving pinching my mum's copy of "Mrs. Beeton's Household Management" when I visit at Christmas (mwahahaa), but I suspect a trip to the library is in order.
Does anyone have any recommendations for useful books...? Please let me know!
I really thought this book would be about
1) The forgotten crafts
2) How to learn to do them
What I got was a lot of reminiscing and stories about how things were better before mean 'ol World War I came along and industrialized England.
Beginning to read the chapters of this book, I see this person has a real point.
The first chapter on food preparation is divided into 6 sections:
* savoury puddings
* desserts
* chopping, pounding and pulping
* beating
* cake mixes
* pastry making
Some of these I think are good fodder for investigating 'forgotten household crafts', and some of them less so. The section on cake mixes seems to basically cover how as a boy he preferred eating the cake batter to the actual finished product.
And that's about it.
So I might not be addressing that one in quite so much detail.
He does however talk a lot about puddings (both sweet and savoury) and they seem like things I should be investigating. We've all heard of Yorkshire puddings - but what about Essex or Suffolk puddings? Summer pudding is fairly well known - but what about Cambridge pudding?
But of course there are no recipes.
So I will have to broaden my net to investigate other sources of such knowledge, as Mr. Seymour is not hugely forthcoming on the issue. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, not least of which involving pinching my mum's copy of "Mrs. Beeton's Household Management" when I visit at Christmas (mwahahaa), but I suspect a trip to the library is in order.
Does anyone have any recommendations for useful books...? Please let me know!
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
Forgotten Crafts Project: Introduction
"I'm only a housewife, I'm afraid"
So opens the Forgotten Household Crafts book. Immediately I am realising I have completely misjudged the project, and that my views - beaten into be by society and the media over the years, are completely in opposition to those of Mr. Seymour.
As far as he is concerned there is no nobler profession - unless you are a farmer - and it angers him that the role of 'housewife' is so maligned. As I begin to read the book, I realise he is right, and I wonder where the idea that running a house is neither a) challenging nor b) time consuming comes from.
Since completing my PhD I have effectively been a housewife, while I've tried to work out what my next steps are to be. Even with modern conveniences I find that keeping our home clean, tidy and organised takes up most of my time, and I've had to earmark my mornings for writing if I don't want to spend my entire life doing 'house work'.
While both Jon and I were working full time I think we began to realise that our lifestyle wasn't compatible with us both being in full-time work. If we wanted to keep chickens, make all our food from scratch, preserve food that's in season, run an allotment, mend clothes and furniture rather than replacing it, make people gifts AND have a clean, tidy and organised house, we either needed to be super-human or make some life changes.
And despite our range in superhero pyjamas, we were not developing anything approaching superpowers.
There was one section that really stuck out to me in the introduction. It refers to our attitude to work:
"I was talking to an old lady [...] and she gave me an account of a week's work when she was a child: washing on Monday, selling eggs and butter at the market on Tuesday, baking on Wednesday, and so on. "Wasn't it all a lot of work?" I asked her. "Yes," she said "but nobody had ever told us there was anything wrong with work.
"And what do people do with all the time they "save" by not having to look after their homes properly? Do they spend all that time improving themselves or their environment? They do not, for life without the firm base of a good home is unsatisfactory and unpleasing. So such people seize on any cheap thrill that comes along to allay the boredom. They besot themselves with the telly"
Speaking for myself, this pretty much sums up my life when I was working full time! My home was cluttered and unloved which made me stressed, and I didn't have the energy to do any of the things I wanted to do. I'd buy books and DVDs to allay my frustration, and spend my evenings watching television because I was so exhausted. I had a list of health problems as long as my arm - including PCOS, depression, IBS, anaemia, and I reckon I was about 6 months from a diagnosis of CFS. And all because society tells me I'm nothing without a 'career'? Hmm.
But this has all become a bit serious. I merely mean to indicate that perhaps Mr. Seymour has a point and we need to reclaim the word 'housewife' (or indeed 'househusband'). It does not mean a boring but perfectly dressed 1950s Stepford wife acquiescing to her husband's every whim while he lounges around reading the paper, which I will confess is what the word conjures up to me.
Ugh. I didn't do 5 years of postgraduate study to label myself with those prejudices.
I'm not going to try and redefine the word now, but I am realising that there's more to this project than simply learning to make butter. I suspect there's some sociology and feminism to delve into as well.
Jolly good, Mr. Seymour! You've thrown down the gauntlet, and I accept.
Onward!
So opens the Forgotten Household Crafts book. Immediately I am realising I have completely misjudged the project, and that my views - beaten into be by society and the media over the years, are completely in opposition to those of Mr. Seymour.
As far as he is concerned there is no nobler profession - unless you are a farmer - and it angers him that the role of 'housewife' is so maligned. As I begin to read the book, I realise he is right, and I wonder where the idea that running a house is neither a) challenging nor b) time consuming comes from.
 |
| Ugh. |
Since completing my PhD I have effectively been a housewife, while I've tried to work out what my next steps are to be. Even with modern conveniences I find that keeping our home clean, tidy and organised takes up most of my time, and I've had to earmark my mornings for writing if I don't want to spend my entire life doing 'house work'.
While both Jon and I were working full time I think we began to realise that our lifestyle wasn't compatible with us both being in full-time work. If we wanted to keep chickens, make all our food from scratch, preserve food that's in season, run an allotment, mend clothes and furniture rather than replacing it, make people gifts AND have a clean, tidy and organised house, we either needed to be super-human or make some life changes.
And despite our range in superhero pyjamas, we were not developing anything approaching superpowers.
There was one section that really stuck out to me in the introduction. It refers to our attitude to work:
"I was talking to an old lady [...] and she gave me an account of a week's work when she was a child: washing on Monday, selling eggs and butter at the market on Tuesday, baking on Wednesday, and so on. "Wasn't it all a lot of work?" I asked her. "Yes," she said "but nobody had ever told us there was anything wrong with work.
"And what do people do with all the time they "save" by not having to look after their homes properly? Do they spend all that time improving themselves or their environment? They do not, for life without the firm base of a good home is unsatisfactory and unpleasing. So such people seize on any cheap thrill that comes along to allay the boredom. They besot themselves with the telly"
Speaking for myself, this pretty much sums up my life when I was working full time! My home was cluttered and unloved which made me stressed, and I didn't have the energy to do any of the things I wanted to do. I'd buy books and DVDs to allay my frustration, and spend my evenings watching television because I was so exhausted. I had a list of health problems as long as my arm - including PCOS, depression, IBS, anaemia, and I reckon I was about 6 months from a diagnosis of CFS. And all because society tells me I'm nothing without a 'career'? Hmm.
But this has all become a bit serious. I merely mean to indicate that perhaps Mr. Seymour has a point and we need to reclaim the word 'housewife' (or indeed 'househusband'). It does not mean a boring but perfectly dressed 1950s Stepford wife acquiescing to her husband's every whim while he lounges around reading the paper, which I will confess is what the word conjures up to me.
Ugh. I didn't do 5 years of postgraduate study to label myself with those prejudices.
I'm not going to try and redefine the word now, but I am realising that there's more to this project than simply learning to make butter. I suspect there's some sociology and feminism to delve into as well.
Jolly good, Mr. Seymour! You've thrown down the gauntlet, and I accept.
Onward!
Monday, 8 December 2014
How to make Christmas puddings... in a slow cooker!
I love my slow cooker.
On my list of favourite things in the world, it's right up there with my husband and the Pope (maybe 'things' sounds wrong...).
So when it came to making this year's Christmas puds it crossed my mind that a slow cooker would actually be a rather splendid way of steaming the puddings. I haven't actually done an energy comparison (though I will...) but it strikes me that when boiling a pan of water for about 6 hours, the slow cooker is going to come out on top.
Unlike our Christmas cake, I don't have a family recipe for Xmas puds. But unlike our Christmas cake, a pudding needs to be somewhat less precise in measurements. Rarely do I have everything I need, even if I've done shopping 'specially, so this is just as well.
Surveying some of the big cheeses in the culinary world I did of course create a spreadsheet of quantities of ingredients used, so that I could compare, and find an average. The quantities are for a 1.2 L pudding, serving 6-8 people.
As you can see, for all and every, they're very similar, and don't vary much from the quintessential Victorian Householder, Mrs. Beeton.
The type of fat used varies - be it butter, oil or suet. The quantity and type of booze also varies quite a lot (blimey, Nigella!) varying from stout to brandy to a rather tame sub with milk by Jamie Oliver. But the principle is the same: 100 g each of breadcrumbs, flour, fat and sugar; 500 g dried fruit (whatever you fancy: I used raisins, sultanas, apricots, dates and figs); about 150 ml stout/liquid; 2 eggs; as much spice as you like, and a grated apple. Nuts seemed very optional.
I then divvied this up into one big and 6 tiddly pudding basins (the large one actually just being a leftover container from a past pud...), put about an inch of water in the bottom of my slow cooker, and switched it on low for about 6 hours. Better safe than sorry - and I figure it's practically impossible to over-steam a pudding over this time frame!
Et voila - no worrying about the pan boiling dry, very little effort (compared to the cake), and a pudding that tastes infinitely better than those shop-bought stodge-fests.
I seriously recommend trying to make your own (if, of course you like Christmas pudding!), I couldn't believe the difference the first time I made my own. It was AWESOME!
On my list of favourite things in the world, it's right up there with my husband and the Pope (maybe 'things' sounds wrong...).
So when it came to making this year's Christmas puds it crossed my mind that a slow cooker would actually be a rather splendid way of steaming the puddings. I haven't actually done an energy comparison (though I will...) but it strikes me that when boiling a pan of water for about 6 hours, the slow cooker is going to come out on top.
Unlike our Christmas cake, I don't have a family recipe for Xmas puds. But unlike our Christmas cake, a pudding needs to be somewhat less precise in measurements. Rarely do I have everything I need, even if I've done shopping 'specially, so this is just as well.
Surveying some of the big cheeses in the culinary world I did of course create a spreadsheet of quantities of ingredients used, so that I could compare, and find an average. The quantities are for a 1.2 L pudding, serving 6-8 people.
As you can see, for all and every, they're very similar, and don't vary much from the quintessential Victorian Householder, Mrs. Beeton.
The type of fat used varies - be it butter, oil or suet. The quantity and type of booze also varies quite a lot (blimey, Nigella!) varying from stout to brandy to a rather tame sub with milk by Jamie Oliver. But the principle is the same: 100 g each of breadcrumbs, flour, fat and sugar; 500 g dried fruit (whatever you fancy: I used raisins, sultanas, apricots, dates and figs); about 150 ml stout/liquid; 2 eggs; as much spice as you like, and a grated apple. Nuts seemed very optional.
I then divvied this up into one big and 6 tiddly pudding basins (the large one actually just being a leftover container from a past pud...), put about an inch of water in the bottom of my slow cooker, and switched it on low for about 6 hours. Better safe than sorry - and I figure it's practically impossible to over-steam a pudding over this time frame!
 |
| Raw pud mixture in my teeny basins |
Et voila - no worrying about the pan boiling dry, very little effort (compared to the cake), and a pudding that tastes infinitely better than those shop-bought stodge-fests.
I seriously recommend trying to make your own (if, of course you like Christmas pudding!), I couldn't believe the difference the first time I made my own. It was AWESOME!
 |
| Cooked puds - and cakes! |
Saturday, 6 December 2014
Forgotten Crafts Project #59: Festivals and decorations - a short history of Christmas traditions
A brief miscellany of Christmas traditions...
It seems we have a lot to thank the Victorians for when it comes to the way in which we currently celebrate Christmas. Gift giving, crackers, cards ... are all Victorian inventions. Ironically, all these traditions were well and truly established by the time John Seymour were a lad, I think it's just that we've taken them all a bit overboard in recent years. The good old beeb has a really good page on Christmas traditions which I have stolen much of this info from.
N.B. I've tried to reference my sources, as I truly believe in accountability for sweeping statements made by anyone on t'interwebs. These sources are all web-based, and while my undergrad tutor would cry: "but any old idiot can put stuff on the internet!" (he's right - look at me go!), this is not my area of expertise, so, in lieu of proper academic referencing I have used what I consider reliable sources. If however you ARE an expert in Christmas traditions history then PLEASE get in touch, I would love to pick your brain!
Christmas trees
It seems adorning one's home with greenery at this time of year is a veeeery longstanding tradition. And why wouldn't you want to get some of the limited verdant plant life from around you, and bring it into your home to remind you that while it *may* be cold, and dark, and depressing, and you have very little to do right now, life is in fact still going on outside?
But it was of course the Victorians who formalised this use of plant life in the home, borrowing from what appears to be a Germanic tradition (hmmm, where would Queen Victoria have got Germanic influences...?) - and it's hardly surprising that whole trees were readily available in such a densely forested part of the world!
According to the BBC's guide to a Victorian Christmas [1]:
In 1881 Cassell's Family Magazine gave strict directions to the lady of the house: "To bring about a general feeling of enjoyment, much depends on the surroundings… It is worth while to bestow some little trouble on the decoration of the rooms".
Good old lifestyle magazines, making us want what we don't actually need, since the 1800s ;)
Christmas Cards
In 1843 Sir Henry Cole (apparently aka Old King Cole, who I believe was a merry old soul indeed) commissioned the artist John Calcott Horsley to design a card that could send to his acquaintances. Sceptics will also note that Henry Cole was instrumental in the establishment of the penny post three years previously, and I have certainly heard it said that Christmas cards were introduced as a means of encouraging people to use this new service. Not a bad idea really, however cynical you're feeling! While originally retailed at a shilling each, they were a luxury item well out of the reach of the working classes [2], but the idea caught on, and by 1880 11.5 million cards were sent [1].
Turkey For Christmas lunch
This one baffles me. Why you would have turkey for Christmas lunch instead of goose or beef (or indeed just chicken) is beyond me - we are altogether not turkey fans! It's a weird one, as according to the British Poultry Council (I like to think of a group of chickens and turkeys siting around a table), up until the 1950s turkeys were a luxury food. In 1930 it took a week’s wage to buy a turkey. Now it takes 1.7 hours [3].
Other interesting news from the turkey council: Turkeys are believed to have first been brought to Britain in 1526 by Yorkshireman William Strickland - he acquired six birds from American Indian traders on his travels and sold them for tuppence each in Bristol. Also, Israel is the world's largest consumer of turkey.
Gift Giving
While gift giving had long been a tradition at winter celebrations, the gifts exchanged seemed to be very small - foodstuffs and handmade trinkets. It was Queen Victoria who began the trend for sharing larger items, and for their being exchanged on Christmas day as opposed to New Year's day [1, 4].
Christmas Crackers
The invention of the Christmas cracker is attributed to one Thomas Smith, a confectioner who, following a visit to Paris came up with the idea of selling bon bons (sugared almonds) in twists of decorative paper in England in the mid 1800s. Over the years these became more and more elaborate, incorporating mottos, small gifts and, of course, a chemical strip which emitted a loud CRACK when pulled [1, 5].
So there you have it, a brief overview of some of the peculiarities of the English Christmas. By all accounts much of what we now consider "Christmas Traditions" in this country were consolidated by one Mr Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol. I'm not sure I really have a problem with this - there are worse things to hold to as traditions than a Christmas goose, reflection on your past, present and future, and general generosity.
Plus, plastic tat didn't exist in Dicken's day, and I'm all for more of THAT.
References:
It seems we have a lot to thank the Victorians for when it comes to the way in which we currently celebrate Christmas. Gift giving, crackers, cards ... are all Victorian inventions. Ironically, all these traditions were well and truly established by the time John Seymour were a lad, I think it's just that we've taken them all a bit overboard in recent years. The good old beeb has a really good page on Christmas traditions which I have stolen much of this info from.
N.B. I've tried to reference my sources, as I truly believe in accountability for sweeping statements made by anyone on t'interwebs. These sources are all web-based, and while my undergrad tutor would cry: "but any old idiot can put stuff on the internet!" (he's right - look at me go!), this is not my area of expertise, so, in lieu of proper academic referencing I have used what I consider reliable sources. If however you ARE an expert in Christmas traditions history then PLEASE get in touch, I would love to pick your brain!
Christmas trees
It seems adorning one's home with greenery at this time of year is a veeeery longstanding tradition. And why wouldn't you want to get some of the limited verdant plant life from around you, and bring it into your home to remind you that while it *may* be cold, and dark, and depressing, and you have very little to do right now, life is in fact still going on outside?
But it was of course the Victorians who formalised this use of plant life in the home, borrowing from what appears to be a Germanic tradition (hmmm, where would Queen Victoria have got Germanic influences...?) - and it's hardly surprising that whole trees were readily available in such a densely forested part of the world!
According to the BBC's guide to a Victorian Christmas [1]:
In 1881 Cassell's Family Magazine gave strict directions to the lady of the house: "To bring about a general feeling of enjoyment, much depends on the surroundings… It is worth while to bestow some little trouble on the decoration of the rooms".
Good old lifestyle magazines, making us want what we don't actually need, since the 1800s ;)
Christmas Cards
In 1843 Sir Henry Cole (apparently aka Old King Cole, who I believe was a merry old soul indeed) commissioned the artist John Calcott Horsley to design a card that could send to his acquaintances. Sceptics will also note that Henry Cole was instrumental in the establishment of the penny post three years previously, and I have certainly heard it said that Christmas cards were introduced as a means of encouraging people to use this new service. Not a bad idea really, however cynical you're feeling! While originally retailed at a shilling each, they were a luxury item well out of the reach of the working classes [2], but the idea caught on, and by 1880 11.5 million cards were sent [1].
 |
| The very first Christmas card, designed by John Calcott Horsley. Credit: V&A museum. |
Turkey For Christmas lunch
This one baffles me. Why you would have turkey for Christmas lunch instead of goose or beef (or indeed just chicken) is beyond me - we are altogether not turkey fans! It's a weird one, as according to the British Poultry Council (I like to think of a group of chickens and turkeys siting around a table), up until the 1950s turkeys were a luxury food. In 1930 it took a week’s wage to buy a turkey. Now it takes 1.7 hours [3].
Other interesting news from the turkey council: Turkeys are believed to have first been brought to Britain in 1526 by Yorkshireman William Strickland - he acquired six birds from American Indian traders on his travels and sold them for tuppence each in Bristol. Also, Israel is the world's largest consumer of turkey.
Gift Giving
While gift giving had long been a tradition at winter celebrations, the gifts exchanged seemed to be very small - foodstuffs and handmade trinkets. It was Queen Victoria who began the trend for sharing larger items, and for their being exchanged on Christmas day as opposed to New Year's day [1, 4].
Christmas Crackers
The invention of the Christmas cracker is attributed to one Thomas Smith, a confectioner who, following a visit to Paris came up with the idea of selling bon bons (sugared almonds) in twists of decorative paper in England in the mid 1800s. Over the years these became more and more elaborate, incorporating mottos, small gifts and, of course, a chemical strip which emitted a loud CRACK when pulled [1, 5].
So there you have it, a brief overview of some of the peculiarities of the English Christmas. By all accounts much of what we now consider "Christmas Traditions" in this country were consolidated by one Mr Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol. I'm not sure I really have a problem with this - there are worse things to hold to as traditions than a Christmas goose, reflection on your past, present and future, and general generosity.
Plus, plastic tat didn't exist in Dicken's day, and I'm all for more of THAT.
References:
[1]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/history.shtml
[2]
http://www.royalmailgroup.com/sending-traditional-christmas-cards-still-more-popular-e-cards-reveals-royal-mail-research
[3]
http://www.britishturkey.co.uk/facts-and-figures/turkey-history-and-other-facts.html
[4]
http://www.livescience.com/25779-christmas-traditions-history-paganism.html
[5]
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/xmas/crackers.html
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