That Reminds Me

Its been lovely and sunny here for the past couple of days, so I went to the apiary for a quick look.Poly seems to be doing ok - not that much activity, but plenty of bees in the hive, lots of stores and still some sugar bags, so it all looks ok.

However Heather is no more… no signs of life, so opened up the hive to discover a lot of dead bees, and streaks of dysentry stained all over the tops of the frames. I’m hoping that this is just ‘one of those things’, as it was a weaker colony with a late supersedure queen, but there’s always a chance that its Nosema Ceranae. I’m planning to send off samples to SASA for analysis in case its something more serious.

In the mean time I’m investigating how best to clean polystyene hives - acetic acid /should/ be ok, but there’s always a chance that it might damage them, so I’m hunting for more info.

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And another one… since I’m on a roll with fermented foodstuffs, I thought I’d bring up sourdough.

Sourdough is the traditional origin of leavened bread as we know it - at some point in the dim and distant past, someone left some bread dough out. Wild yeasts and other microbes got in, and fermentation started. When baked, this fermentation caused it to rise, and a whole new world of food was discovered.

Making sourdough is easy, and baking sourdough too. Rye flour is particularly suited to sourdough, since it attracts wild yeasts very well, develops amazing flavours, and is the kind of bread you can’t easily go out and buy without some effort. Rye is a traditional grain from Eastern Europe, and rye bread makes up a huge part of the Russian and Slavic diet.

To create a starter, do the following:

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While I’m on the subject of spiced foods, I thought I’d add a recipe for another favourite of mine - Krupnik. This is a fantastic spiced honey liqueur found in most Eastern European countries, but under different names (Krupnikas, Vitatis, Viryta, Medovukha - the list goes on…).

Its incredibly easy to make, and another one of those where every family has a different variation - though the base of alcohol, honey, cinnamon and citrus peel seems universal. Here’s my personal variant:

750ml Vodka
400g Honey
3 Cinnamon Sticks, crushed
10 Cloves
5 Allspice Berries, crushed
10 Black Pepper Seeds, crushed
1 Vanilla Pod
5 Green Cardamom pods, crushed
2 Black Cardamom pods, crushed
1/4 Nutmeg, crushed
1 tsp Caraway Seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds
1” Root Ginger, finely chopped
3 strips Lemon Peel
3 strips Orange Peel

Simmer all the ingredients apart from the vodka and honey in 2 cups of water until the spices are well infused and the liquid a dark brown colour (usually 5-10 minutes). Add the honey and mix well. Add the vodka, cover and leave to cool (if you don’t cover it, then you’ll evaporate all the alcohol!). Leave to stand for up to a week, stir well, strain through a fine sieve and bottle.

Tastes fantastic, but remember its still a strong spirit, even if it tastes like Christmas!

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The origins of this recipe come from one given to me many years ago by a Red Man from the Beltane Fire Festival - I’ve tweaked and changed it a lot over the years, and have finally come up with my favourite recipe, which I thought I’d share!

• 25 Green Cardamom pods
• 12 Black Cardamom pods
• 1 small dry chilli (not too fiery!)
• 15 Cloves
• 20g Black Peppercorns
• 75g Cinnamon Bark
• 60 Allspice Berries
• 2tsp Coriander Seeds
• 1 medium Nutmeg

Place all these ingredients in a coffee grinder and coarsely grind. Add:

• 20g Ground Ginger
• 2-inch stick Root Ginger, finely chopped
• 75g Loose Leaf Black Tea

Mix well together and store in an airtight container.

To make a single cup, place 1 heaped teaspoon in a teapot for 1, steep for at least 5 minutes, then strain and serve.

To make chai for 50 people, put the whole lot in a piece of muslin, tied up tigtly. Place in a pan containing 50 mugfuls of water (around 25 pints) and bring to the boil, simmer for 5-10 minutes, then take off the heat and serve.

In all cases, chai should be served sweet, with milk, the thicker the better (condensed milk is traditional in many parts of the world).

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With the work I’m doing making medieval shoes, I offered to draw up a bulk order for leather and tools for Perfidious Albion. There are 2 main suppliers I use for leather things:

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I can’t remember where I first got the recipe for this drink - but I do know it tastes fantastic!

Its a traditional May-Day or spring time drink from Scandinavia, Finland in particular. In many ways its akin to Ginger Beer or Elderflower Champagne, but is made with honey and lemons, and it wonderfully refreshing.

Sima

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Today I had an interesting problem with a python module I’m writing, and was provided with a nifty solution by a colleague which I thought I’d share.

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I’ve been working with Perfidious Albion - the Edinburgh University Medieval Society to help them make shoes which are suitable for the viking or medieval period, and have found a lot of useful references, so I thought I’d collate them all here.

The general rules are:

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Finally, after many months of searching, I have a Ginger Beer Plant. A what? people ask. Well, I’ll explain.

A Ginger Beer Plant is a symbiotic collection of microbes (yeasts and bacteria) that is particularly good at fermenting sugar solutions. It exists as gelatinous lumps that look vaguely like overcooked rice crossed with snot, and they will happily ferment any sugary liquid into a tasty (and fizzy drink).

Ginger Beer plants are relatively rare - they first seem to appear in the UK in the 1800’s, which may or may not be related to soliders returning from the Crimean war, bringing them with them. They were very popular, but gradually waned as people turned to shop-bought drinks, to the point where it has become increasingly difficult to track one down.

Sadly, those people who do think of ginger beer plants often think of just using yeasts, which while making ginger beer, is in no way as fascinating (or tasty) as the genuine article!

Hopefully as my plant grows, I’ll be able to share the grains with other people. Until then, the best option is to get onto the Yahoogroups Ginger Beer Plant discussion list, and ask around (which is how I got mine). They come into the general category of SCOBYs (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeasts) which includes sourdough and kombucha, for which there is also a ton of information on the internet.

There are countless recipes and methods online for making Ginger Beer using the plant - however they seem to all boil down into 2 main varieties. In both cases, keep the plant in the light to keep the lactobacillus levels down as these can give a vinegary edge to the plant if they grow too much.

Traditional (Daily) Recipe

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Wow - never though this would happen. Well, ok, it had already happened over here: Bee Blog - but thats was more introspection about bees on my part.

I guess in a way its Bruce’s fault, as he keeps pointing out things I say or do and follows them up with ‘you should blog that!’ So in the interests of writing something that no-one will ever read - onwards!

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