Rhubarb Homebrew Wine and Chutney

This year I changed Cornwall for Suffolk and had to leave my pride and joy allotment behind L and was lucky enough to get a new one with a few months. What a disaster, overgrown to the hilt and poor soil quality and an abundance of spear grass.

Due to the everlasting winter, crops have been slow, but what has grown in abundance is Rhubarb!! I love rhubarb, first thing I have made is Rhubarb Chutney;

Ingredients

250g Rhubarb

2 Red Onions

100g Sultana

200g Sugar

200ml White Wine Vinegar

1tbsp Crushed Cloves

1tbsp  Allspice

I love my food processor I have the Kenwood FP920,  my lovely other half brought it me for Christmas and I couldn't be without it!!

Anyway wash  Rhubarb and onion (if your good like me and grow it yourself, otherwise shop brought it isn't such a problem) Chop off the usual bits (Top and Tail etc) and chuck it down the processor on the slicer disc.  Then shove it all in the slow cooker and give it a mix, if you’re worried that there isn't enough liquid you can just chuck some more vinegar in then whack it up high. This is best done at night as you can leave the slow cooker on while you sleep. When you get up in the morning take the lid off and carry on cooking so some of the moisture can evaporate. I left mine for about an hour or two and then dished into my sterilised jar, trying not to add too much liquid, put some greaseproof paper on top and seal and leave to mature in a cool dark place, hopefully for at least a month!!

So my next Rhubarb recipe is for homebrew and for this you will need;

Ingredients

1.5kg rhubarb
1.3kg sugar
250ml white grape juice concentrate
1 sachet general purpose white wine yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient

As before make sure you wash the rhubarb clear of and insects, slugs, caterpillars and shove it through the food processor (love love love)

Now you need to put it into a container, you can buy fancy ones but I like to use STERLISED ice cream tubs. Add the sugar and mix and then you’re going to want to leave that for at least a day, maybe two or three.

 

After you’ve waited for a bit crush the pulp, I like to do it with a clean hand, but I suppose you could use a masher, not too much mind. Stir in three litres of boiled but cooled water and make sure its well mixed.

Strain through sterilised muslin into a sterilised demijohn (if you have more than one spare, if not you can use any sterilised liquid container big enough) add the grape juice concentrate and make up to the top of the demijohn and add the yeast and the yeast nutrient.

I would siphon into a clean demijohn after about a week, and then do it again after 4 so you’re disposing of the stuff at the bottom. When its definitely stopped fermenting you can add pectolase to clear, rack it and to enjoy it at its best I’d wait a year, although you could drink now! Enjoy =D

Upholstering Ottoman

I am excited to share with you one of my favourite projects and my first blog post....Upholstering Ottoman's!

After perusing local offers of knackered out furniture I spotted this little gem with 20 hours left and at a bid for £1.24 I eventually won for £5! My other half clearly thought I was mad and begrudgingly went and collected it, calling me upon arrival saying it stinks, and was past the point and just what am I going to do with it!

Unfortunately he was right and there it sat in the hallway looking sorry for itself, until I ventured into my basement and found some old curtains, where they came from I am unclear but it was certainly my Ottomans lucky day!

 The first fun job was removing the fabric, which I found out was was an actual William Morris Wey design and hopefully will survive after a wash. It was quite sturdy when removing it, they don't make fabric like this any more without a massive price tag!

If it scrubs up nice I look forward to making some vintage children's clothes so watch out in future posts! =D

As I got down to the next layer I realised that the fabric was holding the wooden box together and not want to risk it I did some upholstering washing and let dry and came back quite springy so I forwent the desire to foam it and started putting on my nicely ironed curtains;

A slight problem was the chunks of wood with the wheels, after realising that they were in fact glued to the bottom I had to come up with a fancy way of getting around and I have to say it looks pretty good, I'm going to have a think about what to do with the bottom, still unsure whether to paint, frilly beading or use the left over material to make drop edging (think futon)

 Since the way of the pattern went I had to try and ensure that the front of the box matched all the way through and down the back of the box, so to achieve this I firstly did the side of the box, starting from the bottom of the outside and pulling tightly over the lip and tacked down at the bottom.

I then used a long length of material, starting at the bottom of the front of the box and over the lip to line and cover the side panels at the bottom, then out of the back of the box.

The reason I did the this is to have a seamless edge without too many tacks on show, while still being very secure.

 Finally It was time to do the lid, as you can see you needn't worry about rough edges as the top panel secures that nicely and you can see, try to trim down any access so it doesn't bunch and create bumps for a seamless finish!

And there you have it, just needs some nice hinges, which I will use the old holes for, you can't see in the picture but I put some pins to show where the holes are and will take the old hinges to B&Q to ensure I get exactly the same ones, just nice shiny gold ones (fingers cross)