Tag along Projects for 2022

[Broch]

I'm thinking more homesteady/self-reliance if I'm honest.
( Not stopping anyone else from doing something else however - BCUSA used to have a nice bushcraft skills progression program of sorts to follow. )


I think there probably isn't going to be as much interest in it as I assumed there maybe would from lack of responses. Thats not a forum based comment that sounds like a pity party - Just that if its not generating interest for many people its not going to be that well received to be taken up and maintained for a year.

And that is fine.

OK, understood. It's a bit difficult to find a clear distinction though. Is making something useful out of leather homesteady or bushcraft (neither word does spellcheck recognise )?

I suppose it depends on the object made thinking about it.

So, made and used in the home rather than made and used in the woods?

Does it matter if only three or four of us have a go?

 

[TeeDee]

OK, understood. It's a bit difficult to find a clear distinction though. Is making something useful out of leather homesteady or bushcraft (neither word does spellcheck recognise )?

I suppose it depends on the object made thinking about it.

So, made and used in the home rather than made and used in the woods?

Does it matter if only three or four of us have a go?

No doesn't matter at all - I'm still going to nail some projects and interests anyway.

 

[Machiavelli]

I think this is a really good idea. I would definitely like to be involved.

I also have plenty of beeswax, so would happily send some out if required for an activity.

 

[Tengu]

Id love to join in but I am really busy on my varied Heritage Projects now, as well as trying to get a job

 

[TeeDee]

I'm adding one more to the List ( for me at least )

LEARN TO USE A SEWING MACHINE.

 

[TeeDee]

@Robson Valley said he'd been doing cheesemaking. He might chip in on this

I make crowdie.....think cottage cheese, but pressed a bit and left to firm up.....but again, to me that's mostly a seasonal thing. I did dig up some of the lady's bedstraw roots to use as the rennet/colour though and I've made it with nettles as the rennet too.

I also did the 'American' preppers one using dried milk and vinegar to curdle. Surprisingly good for what it was, and very quick too.

Can I have a recipe from you for your crowdie please Toddy - can you make it with any Milk ? I was thinking of finding some Goat.

 

[Toddy]

Crowdie is the simplest of cheeses. It's just milk and rennet of some kind.
I use Vegetarian rennet most of the time. Occasionally I'll make up a kind of stewed 'tea' of nettles or of lady's bedstraw and use that though.

1 litre of milk, heated to blood heat (warm but not hot on your wrist, like doing a baby's bottle)
2 teaspoons of rennet .....doesn't matter animal or plant.

Stir through the rennet and leave the bowl to sit somewhere not chilled. The microwave is good (good for raising bread too ).
It'll set, and you then gently slice it up into sort of cubes. Don't smash it, just cut it. I use a piece/ butter knife.

A lot of the whey will rise to the top. Pour this off carefully, don't dump it, it can be tasty and it can be used to make both drinks or used in low fat pancakes, or even in making oatcakes.
Strain the rest through a sieve lined with cheesecloth...or just use paper kitchen towels. They work fine and there's little mess thereafter to wash up.

Leave it to drip for a couple of hours, then break up the crudes with your fingers and stir through some salt. I like salt so I use about a teaspoon's worth. If you don't, don't add it.

At this point you can season the crowdie by adding herbs too. I like fresh dill, it's also really good with paprika, or even fresh ground black pepper.

We serve it with oatcakes....Scottish type oatcakes not the soft ones (Bodge did an excellent recipe for the English ones) usually.

If you wrap it in cheesecloth and press it for a bit, it'll set into a creamy coloured firmer cheese. Not a particularly strong tasting cheese though, but it can be sliced and roasted at that point.

Link for vegetarian rennets...

Amazon.co.uk : vegetarian rennet

or for the animal based ones too

Amazon.co.uk : vegetarian rennet

 

[TeeDee]

Crowdie is the simplest of cheeses. It's just milk and rennet of some kind.
I use Vegetarian rennet most of the time. Occasionally I'll make up a kind of stewed 'tea' of nettles or of lady's bedstraw and use that though.

1 litre of milk, heated to blood heat (warm but not hot on your wrist, like doing a baby's bottle)
2 teaspoons of rennet .....doesn't matter animal or plant.

Stir through the rennet and leave the bowl to sit somewhere not chilled. The microwave is good (good for raising bread too ).
It'll set, and you then gently slice it up into sort of cubes. Don't smash it, just cut it. I use a piece/ butter knife.
A lot of the whey will rise to the top.

Thanks Toddy.

 

[Toddy]

You're welcome

Meant to add, it's good with drained and chopped pineapple through it too.
My bother likes it with chopped grilled crisp bacon

If you stir some melted butter through it, or add extra cream when making it, you can roll the crowdie in pinhead meal. Makes almost like a Caboc

 

[Whittler Kev]

Eh ?

Venison works out pretty cheap, if you have friends who do the beating.
Seventy quid for a whole carcase last time. My friend used the shoulder meat for the lorne sausages. The rest was turned into chops, steaks, roasts and mince.

I'm a good vegetarian, but I'd rather my husband ate decent meat that I knew what it actually 'was', iimmc.

He gets duck, goose, pigeon, etc., too.
It's amazing how well the barter network provides

I know a gamekeeper who said the price of venison he gets has gone from £5 a kilo in 2019 to now 85p a kilo as no one appears to want it.

 

[Toddy]

It's so stupid, isn't it ?
It's really good lean meat, and it doesn't taste rank or 'hung' if treated the same way that is done for beef.
There are also at least 60,000 too many deer on the hills. That's just food on the hoof that's not full of either hormones or anything else, so it can easily claim to be truly organic.... it needs to be cleared by a vet though before it can enter the normal foodchain.

It can't be beyond rocket science to get it sorted out ?
I don't eat meat, haven't since my early twenties. I do cook and feed meat eaters though, and none of them has ever turned up their nose at the venison.

My friend made the venison lorne sausage, (venison is too lean, so he added the fat from pope's eye steak) and I took some along to a meet up....it disappeared in gun time

 

[Broch]

Well for someone who loves venison I wish I could buy it at £5 a kilo let alone 85p

It's more expensive than beef around here!

 

[Toddy]

I would suggest finding a gamekeeper who has to cull his area. It's commonplace. If the 'game dealer' won't take the carcase, and they often won't because there's somewhat of a glut, then often the gamekeeper will offer the carcase to the beaters.
I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be cleared by a vet.
The fellow who supplies my occasional venison big buys is both a beater and a butcher to trade. There is no way on this green earth that he'd not spot sommat suspect in a carcase, especially one that came from a gamekeeper he knew and worked for.
I realise that this all makes me (well, my husband) very fortunate, but these kinds of connections are right across the land.
If you don't connect up with others, then there's no way they know that you need and are happy to pay for something that needs a fair bit of diy, iimmc ?
We get goose and duck, pheasant, pigeon and rabbit too, this way.

M

 

[Broch]

There appears to be very little deer management around here TBH; I have asked around. The one guy that did provide me with some has now retired and, as far as I'm aware, there's no one stepped into his shoes.

I shoot my own rabbit, pheasant and squirrel and I get offered plenty of duck but there's no big wetlands around here to provide geese

Sorry TD, going off course here a bit

 

[TeeDee]

JANUARY - Soap Making
FEBRUARY - Cheese Making
MARCH - Home made Bacon
APRIL - Home Brewing
MAY -Smoking Meats & Cheeses
LEARN TO USE A SEWING MACHINE.
GROW FOUR UNUSAL PLANTS
MAKE MEDICINAL SALVES.
SOURDOUGH
CANDLE MAKING.

 

[Broch]

OK, no showers till January then

 

[British Red]

JANUARY - Soap Making
FEBRUARY - Cheese Making
MARCH - Home made Bacon
APRIL - Home Brewing
MAY -Smoking Meats & Cheeses
LEARN TO USE A SEWING MACHINE.
GROW FOUR UNUSAL PLANTS
MAKE MEDICINAL SALVES.
SOURDOUGH
CANDLE MAKING.

To tie up the two threads, I'm going to do a venison bacon video shortly ( as well as venison jerky). The Fallow had some great loin cuts - I think I'll use one for bacon, but I'm thinking topside for jerky...what cut do people prefer?

Venison haunch secondary cuts by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Haunch of venison by English Countrylife, on Flickr

 

[TeeDee]

PICKLING.

 

[Toddy]

Do you mean in vinegar (or verjus) or the kind made like sauerkraut ?

 

[TeeDee]

Do you mean in vinegar (or verjus) or the kind made like sauerkraut ?

Both