Hedgerow Booze

The finished articles

And as a reward for my dedicated foragers... a little boat trip.

Fishing for Perch in the Ouse

01.09.12

Fishy Business

I’ve never been much of a fisherman; in fact, I’ve never caught a single fish.  In theory, I’m all for sitting quietly by a river or lake with a rod and line with only my thoughts for company, but in practice, I find my limited patience is not well suited for the sport.

Fortunately for me, my good friend Rick is very patient and a seasoned fisherman to boot.  Rick graciously agreed to help me catch some fish from a stretch of Ouse not far from my house.  I was the one tasked with dispatching the fish as Rick is more of traditionalist when it comes to fishing and usually puts them back.

Below, is a timelpase of Rick expertly catching 3 Perch for my dinner, whilst I tried to entertain myself as best I could.

Rain can’t stop us

06.07.12. One winch at a time in the Monkey Woods.

A friend of ours, Nick, is fortunate enough to have five acres of woodland in a very picturesque part of Sussex.  It’s a great place to spend time sitting by a fire and cooking the odd sausage in the summer months.  Sadly, of late the experience has been less than pleasant; we’ve been forced to sit feeling sorry for ourselves under tarpaulins - trying to pretend it’s not raining.  

We had had almost given up the woodland dream, when Nick met Sandy at a gypsy themed party. Nick, being a sensitive soul, fell hopelessly in love with her at first sight. 

Sandy the caravan - www.hazydayscaravanhire.co.uk/

OK, so I know caravans aren’t all that cool, but you haven’t met Sandy.  As Sandy is already spoken for, Nick decided he needed one just like her in the Monkey Woods.  So along came the Compass 342, fresh from the fields of Kent. 

Admittedly she’s no Sandy but we’re working on it.

Four of us met at the gates to the Monkey Woods in anticipation of the delivery of the Compass.  After 15 minutes of good progress with the four of us pushing and pulling, the poor compass was thoroughly stuck in a rut.  With the promise of a free meal, I shot off home to grab a winch and dragged her up onto even ground where she sits proudly as queen of the woods.

 So now we can escape to the woods, whatever the weather and the sound of the rain drumming on the roof is rather nice, actually. Watch this space for some foraging experiments from the caravan kitchen. 

 

The Clay Oven

-->

Here’s a time lapse video of my attempt at making a clay oven, which I built over 6 weeks this spring.  It’s great for pizzas but I’m yet to master slow cooking with it..  I certainly don’t claim to be any sort of expert but if you want more details on how I made it, then feel free to get in touch!