The Greening of Gavin

Archives for August 2011

Clay Cob Oven Flue

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Well tomorrow is the big day!  Our clay cob oven workshop takes place with lots of willing participants expected to lend a hand stomping clay and sand, as well as making the oven itself.

Today our builder friend installed the flue, as I didn’t want to make a mistake cutting the hole in the roof.  Click to enlarge the photos.

The flue is sitting on a plate made of the lid of an old BBQ that I saved, and we will mould clay over it and the bricks.  The sticks are to support the roof so that the rubber cowling above it is kept in place whilst the heat resistant sealer is drying.

It is going to be so cool making the sand dome, then whacking on some wet newspaper, then finally making the clay dome.  I am very excited!

Limoncello

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As I mentioned yesterday, both Kim and Ben are not well, but never fear, I have my nurses hat on and am looking after them both.  Kim was sick of laying in bed, so I trundled her off to the lounge room, threw on the blankets, and she started watching Under The Tuscan Sun.

Half way through the movie, the main character, who was eying up some hot Italian lad, was told about this wonderful drink called Limoncello which she proceeded to drink.  Kim then asked if I could make some.  The reply was of course I can!

With lots of lemons on the tree, and a bottle of vodka in the cupboard, I set myself the task of making this luscious lemon liqueur.  After a bit of research on the net, the consensus was a recipe that goes kind of like this.  I borrowed the directions from taste.com.au but changed the amounts because I didn’t think it was sweet  or strong enough.



Limoncello (Gav style)

Ingredients

9 large smooth thick skinned lemons
700ml bottle of Vodka or Grappa
1 1/2 cups of white sugar
2 cups of water
juice of one lemon

Method

Pick the lemons, then grate the rind of all lemons.  Be careful not to get any pith as I am told it will make the liqueur bitter.

Once you have all the rind place in a big glass container that you can seal or otherwise the alcohol will evaporate. 

Then pour in the alcohol and seal the jar.

Let it rest while you perform the next step.

I love the way it changed colour over the course of a couple of hours.  Note the rind sitting on the bottom.  Some recipes state that you must leave it at this step for 30-40 days to infuse the flavour, however, I stumbled across a few Italian recipes that I translated, and they added the sugar syrup the same day.

So add the sugar and water and stir whilst heating on a medium heat.  Bring to the boil.

Boil without stirring for 3 minutes.  You will find the syrup will thicken a little.  Take it off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, and let it cool to room temperature.  Do not add the syrup to the rind mixture whilst hot.  You will burn off the alcohol, which kind of defeats the purpose of this drink.

My syrup cooled after two hours, so I gently poured it into the rind/vodka mixture.

I gave it a gentle shake to mix, and left it at that.  Sealed the lid tightly and tipped it upside down to check for leaks.

I popped it into a dark corner in the kitchen where I will remember to mix it by shaking once a week over the course of a month.  Apparently, it is then ready to drink, however I did see recipes that recommended two months.

As for the rest of the left over lemons, I squeezed them and made a drink for Kim.  We are look forward to drinking the Limoncello on a nice spring day!  I still have a few lemons left on the tree, so Kim has convinced me to go and buy another bottle of vodka to make another batch.  Might try Grappa this time, to make it a little more authentic.  If it is as good as my Cumquat Brandy, then it should be a ripper!

Has anyone else made this liqueur before?  How did it turn out?

Free Loganberry Plants

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About a month ago, I built this berry frame during a workshop at my home.  I needed to cut back the Thornless Loganberry that was growing in this bed, and needed to get serious about a trelis and net protection for the plant.

It is just two long pieces of ACQ treated pine, with powder coated wire strung between them.  It is taller than me, and is the right size to throw a net over to keep the birds off, and to temper down the summer sun.

The canes were at least 5 metres long before I cut them, so I followed the instructions on the tag that came with the plant which said to cut the two year old wood back to the stump, and cut the one year old wood to the 3rd bud which was about 30cm tall.  This should promote new and vigious growth.  I kept one of the 5 metre lengths and gave the rest to the others at the workshop.

Now, one of my fellow gardeners said that I should keep some of the canes and propagate them.  She told me to cut them 3 buds long and stick them into some potting mix (home made) and they should strike.  So I did as I was instructed, didn’t use any hormone root powder, and looked what happened. 

As you can see, most of them have taken off, with the lowest bud bursting already, even before the parent plant has started.  Maybe it is because these cuttings are warmer than their mother in the little black tubestock. A couple have burst their second buds as well.

So looking from above you can also see that a few have not yet burst their buds, but I checked them out, and they seam to still be alive.  I will wait about a month for more root development before transplanting the healthiest ones into the berry bed.  If I remember correctly the original plant cost about $15.  Now we should have lots of Loganberries this year all for free!  

I even surprise myself with these green thumbs.