Nancy Reading

Ac Baker wrote:I was brought up in a family with generations of rhubarb lovers. My late Mum used to cook it with minimal sugar, so it was pretty tart. I add no refined sugar, I ear my rhubarb poached with fresh ginger and a sweeter dried fruit e.g. sultanas.

Have you tried cooking Rhubarb with sweet cicely (Myrris odorata) leaves Ac? It really does help make it sweeter. I keep meaning to test the pH of the sweet cicely as I'm wondering if it is alkaline, so neutralising the rhubarb acidity.

bright side....or not


source

This is a great thread and making me sad again that chestnuts don't seem to like Skye much - I was hoping for good coppice firewood and sweet staple nuts, hey ho.
I remember as a student in London (UK) walking through Kensington gardens and collecting chestnuts in their prickly shells off the grass. There were lots of mature trees there, probably still are, about now (or slightly later in the year) would be the time to check for them. I quite like the nuts as a raw nibble in moderation.

In addition to Anne's suggested threads this one has some interesting avenues to explore... My climate sounds pretty similar - mostly mud though. I'm wondering about something like Russian winter boots with felted sides for warmth, and either attached wooden soles, or removeable wooden soles like pattens as Dennis Lanigan mentions in the thread above:



Tell me more about the snow build up issue? Is that making lumps under the sole of the boot? Maybe some sort of wax like they put on skis would help.

Matt McSpadden wrote:I'm assuming my best options are to either get a tiny heater or add more insulation, or both.

We haven't addressed the tiny heater side yet ....

How often do you go in the drying room? Would taking in some sort of heat battery (like hot rocks, or liquid wax) be an option? What's your climate like in winter - sunny days for solar space heating perhaps (I'm wondering about trombe walls...)?
How warm is the room next door? You describe it as a shed, so I'm assuming less warm. Is the door to that insulated and sealed too? If warmer - can you steal some of the warmth from there somehow.

I think I was given issue #2 ; not for sale though, it's an interesting peek into the past!

Esteban Ademovski wrote:     Next stop was the Abbey, where I joined Stephen in laying mulch over the greenhouse roof - a simple but deeply grounding task.

Oh this made me laugh - not many places where this would be a regular task!

and just in case - if you quote my post above make sure you don't have 'disable BB code' checked as that is what makes the square brackets work as code in a post.

OK. I can see the link to the video, but it is not embedded (you can't see the actual video in the post) and hasn't completed the scavenger hunt item for you. edit -  It doesn't have to be at the start of the post - anywhere in the post will do.

What platform do you use on permies Lisa? Do you use mobile or desktop view? The aim is to get mobile as the default with as many features as possible, but at present some things you can do more easily in desktop mode.

There are (at least) 2 ways for you to do this. One is to use the buttons on the post creation window - do you see text formatting buttons with one called 'youtube'? If you do, when you are making your post you can just press that, add the youtube link (except for 'shorts' which are a bit more complex) and the video will be embedded in your post.

If not then you may have to make the link yourself using extra (hidden) text. By putting 'youtube' and '/youtube' in square brackets around your video link this will do the same thing as the editing window button. I'll break the code here so you can see:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/et3BPw3KgJA?si=NdH6IKks4S89BoCq[/youtube]

Jay Angler wrote:Some reading I've done, suggests that traditionally, oats were grown and fed only to horses and not people.

(Ahem, Scotland......)

When Dr Johnson defined oats as “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people,” his friend James Boswell replied, “that’s why England has such fine horses and Scotland such fine people.”

It seems that the Romans introduced oats here and they grow really well - better than alternative grains like wheat anyhow. They have been grown alongside rye and barley (also preferring the milder climate) for people food since then. Some background reading on the history of oats as food here I'm interested to try making sowan - a sort of yoghurt made from the husks remaining after milling.


Thanks for bumping this thread Andre, as I'm going to need this information myself...
this paper gives some information on the steps of oat processing and why and how it varies from other grains:

In modern mills, the first step of dehulling is a rotating disc that has numerous fins running from the centre of the disc to the exterior( Reference Girardet, Webster, Webster and Wood3 ). The oats fall into the centre of this rotating disc and are thrown into a series of impact rings on the wall of the dehuller, which causes the groat to be separated from the hull

Historically the crofter would have ground the grain themselves on a quern stone, but latterly were usually obliged to use the landlords mill. They would provide peats for dry/toasting the grain and/or give a share of the yield in return. Legin cornmill was a little mill in Ireland, now I believe holiday accomodation. They clearly mention the dehulling stones there, but no idea what the criteria for them is.

One thing that is mentioned often is the need for the grains to be dried (11-13% moisture), or even toasted slightly. Our mill has a small 'kiln' next to it, which I belivee was normal in the UK for oat mills.
this food and drink 'blog gives some simple inestructions which may be worth a try if you have a small amount to process:

Loosen the oat hulls in the oven if you plan to eat the oats. Roast the oats on a cookie sheet in an oven at 180 degrees for 90 minutes. The hull will puff up and begin to break away from the edible oat groat inside.
Use a burr mill or a roller mill to carefully grind the oat hull away from the groat. Collect everything, groat and hulls, into bushel baskets and cover with screening or mesh until you are ready to winnow.
Wait for a dry, breezy day to separate, or winnow, your oats and hulls. Spread out a sheet on a flat, dry ground. Bring out your bushel baskets.
Winnow the oats. Toss your hands full of the oats and chaff into the air. The breeze will carry away the hulls and the heavier grains will fall onto the sheet.

If you are working on a field scale then I did find some references to a build it yourself machine that some growers in Wales (who are reintroducing black oats to the country) called the tiny oat collider they give UK sources for parts, but their costing is a bit high for home use perhaps. On the video they describe the action as accelerating the grains against a hard surface where they shatter, (similar to the first reference above) so there may be other ways you can do that.

I think I will probably try toasting and milling in my coffee mill on a very coarse setting and see how that works. Good luck!