Kirsty Pollock

I lucked out and got starter from our local summer market baker. I keep it in the fridge. I make bread once a week, feed starter night before, mix but don't knead the bread (usually 300g Spelt 200g Whole Grain Rye, 80g starter, 320ml water h it's REALLY sticky, you could not knead it if you tried) and leave 12-24 hrs in my pantry (pretty cool temperature, maybe 14C.). Then I put it in a loaf tin (usually with parchment paper, but also tried oiled and scattered with polenta) cover and let rise for 1hr on the "dough" setting of my small "does everything" oven, then leave it another hour until it hits the top of the tin. Then bake for about 1hr, maybe 1.5 at 180C. If I have had the gas oven on I'll use that but it's not really got any effective temperature control, and it's pretty hot, so no more than an hour. Let cool totally before turning out if using oil/polenta. If using the baking paper maybe turn out and bake 20 mins more on a rack

Provisos: this is a German recipe and makes German bread. A pretty solid brick, by some people's standards. The crust is usually very thick and crunchy.

The inner is totally fine by local standards. Not as good as the bakers sourdough by any means, but in winter there's no market...

It lasts wrapped in in its paper (then a plastic bag once totally cool). It lasts all week, last few days as toast or broken up in soup.

Again:
THIS IS NOT A. FLUFFY SPRINGY CHEWY BREAD!
IT IS GOOD SOLID GERMAN BREAD!

I like that, not everyone does. But it's no hassle to make. I've also made "deep dish" pizza with it - it doesn't need to rise as long for that, and there my overenthusiastic oven really shines!

The old way in the UK of heating water from coal fires was known as a "back boiler" . Maybe if you look up how they worked, you might find some more ideas perhaps applicable to a wood fired option?

I am a Scot, and in N Germany for 10 years, but even that difference hurts in the summer 30C+ not unheard of, not much rain but reasonable humidity (winter is about the same). For me "too hot" is over 20 in sunshine if there is little wind.

My house is an old 1880s farmhouse with insanely thick clay walls and (most importantly) a half-metre-thick clay floor between the upper story (not renovated yet, just a music room up there). My house is 45 degrees to the compass, with my living / sleeping room facing SE, so shaded in the late afternoon, also theres a big bush thet grows tall and shady in the summer, and the apple orchard and (frankly overgrown) beech hedge shades the other big room (my housemates room)  which faces pretty much South. The more W facing rooms (kitchen, small sitting room) are shaded by garden hedges and the smokehouse, and despite that  the conservatory seems to serve as a bit of an evening heat trap, nowhere in the house seems to ever get above about 18C in the summer, or below 14C in the winter (with the heat on very low). The cooker has an exhaust fan that actually connects to the chimmney!

I do shut the living room curtains if I have cut the bush as then it gets over 20C.

Helpfully, it is almost always windy or very windy here.

I am an early riser, try to keep the doors and windows shut at all times unless it is cool (the house has enough natural draughts!!!) . I try to do my garden chores in the morning (where it is 12-20C depending) , but I react badly to mozzie bites so I have to mostly wear full loose coverup and a head net (not ideal, especially as I am light sensitive and old enough to need glasses for close work). Cutting the grass is the worst because though my mower can take the abuse of cutting wet grass, it is hard work!

I go most days to the river (10 mins walk) for a swim The road is at least partly shaded for most of the way.

I work from home on the computer, I have various locations for an outdoor desk, where the combo of shade (trees or a big sun shade parasol) and the almost-guaranteed wind mostly does the trick. Though, frankly, in the afternoon it is usually cooler indoors!

I am not sure how much is applicable to your more southern climate, but shading the building as you plan to is recommended, plus think about REALLY insulating your roof and upper storey from the sun.

I have a lot of thistles this year! I've dug up (carefully) those that are in the way, plan to chop and drop the rest at some point. I know bees love them (and snails, it seems) so I don't want to get rid of them all....

1. Any suggestions on control so they don't take over? Some areas of my field are left wild, currently 3rd year, ryegrass, mugwort, dandelions, some nettles this year, plus assorted minor players like chamomile, wild geraniums, wild chervil, bugloss, some kind of creeping thing I don't know... It's different every year so far...

2. Should I just compost them, or is there anything else I can more usefully do? Brew them up into a fertiliser? Can one eat them? (How?) I can't burn them as it's only allowed to have fires outdoors in March and (I think) September here... And I don't think my chimney would appreciate doing it indoors. I could be wrong...

Kirsty Pollock wrote:I know nothing about Caravans beans, .

Caragana! Damn you autocorrect!

I know nothing about Caravans beans, but I do know that horse chestnuts are

A) not edible with any amount of processing (correct me if I'm at all wrong, because they grow near me in abundance)
B) usable as laundry soap - the instructions I saw were to soak, blend somewhat, drain and use the liquid.

I guess you all mean what in Germany is called Sanddorn. Up on the Ostsee (Baltic) it grows everywhere behind the sand dunes and there's quite an industry with the juice, jam, liqueurs, ice cream etc. So they like sandy soil and lots of sunshine in long long summer days. Wind and salt resistant I guess I though the Ostsee isn't fully salty if course). Definitely sour, usually heavily sweetened. (Probably historically with beet syrup, another local product).

There's a problem though - in the past few years (2022,2023)  there's been a disease wiping out commercial harvests, I don't know if the wild stuff is affected, I haven't been on as much coastal exploring these past couple of years.

https://m.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/erde-klima/sanddorn-in-not-die-vitamin-bombe-des-ostens-16556499.html#:~:text=Der%20Phytopathologe%20hat%20auf%20dem,kein%20Wasser%20mehr%20aufnehmen%20k%C3%B6nne.

Sorry, I can't find anything in English. They don't seem to know exactly what the issue is, maybe a fungus or bacteria. It's really quite worrying.


I do know that for growing seeds you need to freeze them for a while or they don't grow - the packet I had had directions. They may also need long summer days to thrive - 16 hrs. Or maybe like onions there are different varieties.

*income* tax, not "overtime tax !

Anita, Forsythe,

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

And thanks for the much better summary of the situation in Germany for our overseas friends. As Brits, we fitted a normal modern high efficiency wood stove in one room, connected to the existing chimney (which is split inside to 2 sections for 2 stoves) with no idea we were doing anything "dodgy". Fortunately our local inspector passed it on his last visit. I had kept the energy certificate when I bought it.

My Kachelofen is pretty efficient, two fills will keep it hot all day and night, it only burns for about an hour or 2 to do so, the rest of the time it just radiates heat. It takes About 1 15 litre buckets worth of wood per fill.

Mine is just a simple tall "box" shape. it draws like CRAZY in the burn phase (at least now that 20 years worth of ash has been cleaned from the inside). The chimney sweep did this but now I saw him do it, I could do it myself - every 5 years. There's 2 round tiles you remove to get access.

The chimney itself is, as you guys mentioned, inspected and cleaned every year, along with the oil furnace (efficient for it's age but it's nearly 30 years old). I believe that will need mandatory replacement soon. The local preference for that swap is a wood gasifier as it can "just" "plug in" to the existing radiator system. There's likely a grant for it, and in any case, one can deduct up to €6000 per year from overtime tax for workman's bills on house works. To heat the 60m2 ground floor and the one large (5m x 5m?) room upstairs takes about 1000l of oil per winter (€1200 at current prices). Also hot water but I barely use any. It also keeps the largeish "boiler room" (utility room)  that it is in warmish (above 12C) and dry as a bonus

I'm so grateful to hear there are modern approved versions of Kachelöfen that I could consider fitting.

We have a local big sawmill for wood but I haven't priced it up. I am using fallen cherry and fir trees from my property and wooden building waste - unpainted floorboards and debarked trunks that were (are) used as beams. I suspect I can "cull" more of my overgrown windbreak firs for about 10 years to come, and they are so densely planted I suspect that was the intention. My neighbour got a whole chestnut that fell on public land opposite his house by just asking the local council if it was ok if he chainsawed it up. This happens within a km 3-4 times a year. Old trees are generally protected though, another neighbour must get special permission to fell one that was digging up their house, and only if they planted TEN more new trees!

Local conditions and rules affect costings, that's for sure!

A small bundle of wood, about the size for one load, at the supermarket is €5!

Does anyone who knows enough about both

Rocket Mass Heaters

and

Kachelofen (a type of wood fired storage heater common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

to do a side by side comparison?

Also  - anyone who knows if we are even ever allowed to do a RMH in Germany, or who has succeeded in getting it past a Schornsteinfeger inspection . (I have the permission for at least 1 Kachelofen that I do have already, there were 2 in the property looking at the floor wear and that there's most on the bits of one in the barn... so maybe I could restore that one)