English Country Life YouTube channel

[Muddypaws]

Just a quick heads up - British Red, who hasn't been active on here for a while, has started a new YouTube channel, with his wife, on various aspects of homesteading, chicken keeping and so on. I thought it might be of interest to some of you.
The channel name is English Country Life, and although there are not many videos yet, it promises to be a good source of useful information for the aspiring homesteader.

Link to latest video on sterilising greenhouses.

 

[bobnewboy]

He used to have a blog too, but the website is no longer found.

 

[Tony]

Good for him, I miss him on the forums but I know life's busy, I just forwarded the video of the Canterbury fork to Shelly who's the veg grower in our house

 

[Fraxinus]

Just to say I have been watching their videos and find them well thought out and interesting. British Reds relaxed manner is a refreshing change to some other channels out there.
Well worth taking a look, IMHO.
Rob.

 

[oldtimer]

British Red taught me everything I know about growing carrots. I drink to his health every time they are part of a meal.

 

[SiWhite]

Oh, lovely news. Thanks for the link...

 

[British Red]

How lovely of you guys to remember me! We did run a blog for a while, but the costs of hosting it got to be prohibitive

The YouTube thing was a bit of an accident. We made some videos for other smallholders asking for advice about things like electric fence set up and several people suggested we start a channel. So we did!

The channel we are doing is trying to "demystify" the self reliant life a bit. A recent survey found that 48% of people would like to try smallholding, but one of the biggest reasons they cite for not doing it is "lack of skills". Rather like Bushcraft, I think you have to jump in and learn by doing, but hopefully we can encourage a few people to try a few things and, just maybe, get as much pleasure from living simply as we do

Anyway, thank you all for the kind words and the kind people who have kept in touch - I'll try not to be such a stranger. If anyone wants a peek at our place, tonight's video is about garden design and shows a bit of our veg area, a few of the chickens etc. We have four hens sat on eggs right now and many more to come, so we will knee deep in rare breed chicks by this time next month!

 

[Coldfeet]

Thanks for sharing, I have subscribed for later enjoyment.

 

[British Red]

I hope you enjoy it! Tonight we posted our redcurrant jelly recipe - its been a good year for currants - we even got a few white currants from our new bushes!

 

[bobnewboy]

I saw that earlier. Do you think that the same recipe would work for black currants? We have a load ripening well and a freezer full to play with already.

 

[British Red]

It absolutely does, I made blackcurrant jelly last year. I think it goes very well with duck as well as on toast!

 

[bobnewboy]

Its cooking now

 

[British Red]

Brilliant, hope you like it!

 

[bobnewboy]

It works! I now have four recycled jam pots filled with a red hot, rich purple-red jelly, slowly cooling down on the kitchen window sill. It's so dark in colour that I cant see through the pots, but it has set wonderfully on the back of the stainless spoon i used to skim the boiling mixture. Even SWMBLT wants to lick the spoon and associated cooking gear. Thanks BR for your videos and giving me the confidence to have a go. Will you be doing any chutneys this year? . Looks like we'll have a good crop of onions, and our neighbour has more crab apples than she knows what to do with......

 

[British Red]

I'm delighted! How aboutb

Caramalised Onion Chutney
Home made pectin
Used in Apple g chilli jam?

We can do those with your ingredients

 

[British Red]

Thats apple & chilli jam

 

[chimpy leon]

Im enjoying your channel British Red, some brilliant vids - the apple grafting series was greatly informative. Looking forward to the rest of the axe restoration series.

 

[bobnewboy]

I'm delighted! How aboutb

Caramalised Onion Chutney
Home made pectin
Used in Apple g chilli jam?

We can do those with your ingredients

Caramelised onion chutney sounds great to me. However I’ll have to wait a while for the crab apples to fill out unless I can use cheap shop bought ones.....

Cheers, Bob

 

[British Red]

Thank you sir! They are recorded but I need to edit them (including making "axe wax" to protect it). I never realised what a time consuming job editing even a 20 minute video is . I'm trying also to post "seasonal" stuff like gooseberry jam in a timely way for people's harvests so the axe stuff is awaiting time.

But have a sneak preview

 

[British Red]

Caramelised onion chutney sounds great to me. However I’ll have to wait a while for the crab apples to fill out unless I can use cheap shop bought ones.....

Cheers, Bob

I'll do the crab apple stuff when they are ripe