Thursday, 18 April 2019
Wednesday, 10 April 2019
Friday, 5 April 2019
Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Building a Raised Bed
We’ve just taken delivery of a few sacks of barley, oats and wheat seed for our latest brewing experiments. Lucky old us*. And to contain our grassy stash, we’ll be building a lovely new raised bed down on the allotment. But how do you make raised beds, we hear you ask?
It’s easy. Read on, green-fingered friends, read on…
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Raised bed gardening is an advantageous way of growing plants. The general idea is that plants grown in a deep container that sits on the earth will be insulated from the chill of the ground, retaining warmth for longer, thus creating favourable growing conditions. It’s a technique bourn from traditional permaculture methods designed to maximise cropping; plants are also sown closer together in raised bed gardening, helping create a tight canopy to inhibit weeds, and it also means you are not reliant on the native soil in your garden. In theory you could build and fill a bed for plants that thrive in alkaline soil, and construct a separate bed for those that prefer to nestle down in soil more acidic.
For those less adept at DIY, raised beds can be bought in kit form, with a minimal amount of construction required before you are up, running and ready to plant. For those that like to get stuck into a rewarding garden project, there are three main construction types to consider…
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Wooden Raised Beds
Advantages: Easy to build. Cheap(ish).
Disadvantages: Slugs will like to hang out in the damp, woody corners. Wood rots – You might need to replace the panels after a few years service.
How to build
- Choose your wood carefully. Pressure treated wood, although made to prevent premature rotting, has its concerns. Back in the old days, chemicals used in the pressure treating process contain chromated copper arsenate (CCA) which uses arsenic – not the kind of chemical you want leaking all over your spuds. Fortunately, most modern PPT treatment uses Tanalith E, an organic based preservative which is safe to use and will retail your organic vegetable status – if that is important factor in your gardening. Old Scaffolding boards are a good choice, and another cheap option would be getting hold of a few pallets to break down. Garden centres are a good source of palettes – ask nicely and they might let you have a couple to take home. Steer clear of any blue ones though – these are hire pallets and unless you want a hefty fine landing on your doorstep, they shouldn’t be touched, let alone set upon with a hammer and saw.
- Use square retaining stakes for each corner, and for maximum stability, every metre. Hammer the stakes into the ground to a depth of around 25 cm.
- Fix your wooden panels to the retaining stakes. Screws will last longer and make things easier if you want to deconstruct your work, but nails are the quickest option. Whatever you choose, make sure they are galvanised for maximum corrosion protection.
- Don’t forget the spirit level! Keep checking your levels as you go.
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Brick walled raised beds
Advantages: Built to last – bricks won’t rot.
Disadvantages: Time consuming and costly to make. You’ll need a bit of basic brickworking skill to construct a brick bed.
How to build
- Mark out the designated area using stakes and string.
- For a strong and stable bed wall, put down a hardcore base approx. 10 cm deep before laying your bricks.
- If you plan to construct your brick raised bed on concrete or an existing patio, leave the odd gap between brick joints to provide drainage. Cover the holes with mesh to stop them clogging.
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Sleeper raised bed
Advantages: Looks the biz. Will last for years.
Disadvantages: Sleepers can be expensive to purchase and can potentially leak undesirable chemicals into your soil.
How to build
- Choose your sleepers carefully – old railway sleepers may look lovely and rustic, but will most likely have been treated with tar and creosote which will seep into your soil in warm weather. Pay a visit to your local garden timber yard, who will be able to advise. Look out for new, softwood sleepers that have been treated with eco-friendly preservatives. Softwood sleepers are also a lot lighter, making them easier to lug around the garden.
- Ensure the ground you intend to build on is firm and level.
- Overlap the sleepers like brickwork if you are building a bed more than two sleeper levels high.
- Fix in position by hammering metal rods into the ground, either side of the sleeper walls.
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Filling your raised bed
To aid drainage, first lay an 8 cm layer of gravel or stones, on top of which lay a weed inhibiting membrane. Fill your bed with topsoil. If you can, avoid filling with soil sourced from elsewhere in the garden to prevent any weed contamination. Remember to add a generous amount of well rotten manure, and dig over the area thoroughly before planting.
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- But unlucky for our allotment neighbours, who will be cursing our wandering seed when it makes its way into their soil beds, borne on stiff breeze and avian beak.
This post contains a sponsored link
The post Building a Raised Bed appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.
from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2019/04/building-a-raised-bed%ef%bb%bf/
Monday, 1 April 2019
Big Brand Global Lager. Is it any good?
We say it often: we’re living in a golden age of beer. Choice and quality has never been so high and it feels as if the whole world has suddenly cottoned on to the magic of beer. One reason often cited by the craft beer innovators for starting up breweries was as a reaction to the blandness of beers on offer at the time – and in most instances these would likely be the kind of global big brand lagers that dominate the sales charts.
We rarely drank these lagers before the craft beer boom, and resort to them even less now there’s more choice, but have they been harshly treated? Along with the rise in quality beers, has there also been a rise in beer snobbery, with those world lagers at the receiving end of unfair criticism?
Along with an increasing array of imported craft beers, big brand lagers from far flung places are also being made more readily available to UK consumers. To find out if any of them are worth flinging your earned cash at, we’ve decided to taste test a collection of boozes from five different countries.
Seeing as it’s the Germans who historically kicked off this global lager passion (familiar names including Anheuser, Busch, Pabst, Coors and Miller were German migrants who set up breweries in America and went on to conquer the world) we’ve also included a traditional German pils in our taste test as a ‘control’. We’ve worked with Krombacher quite a lot over the past year so it’s their pils that we’ve used for taste test purposes.
Krombacher Pils is smooth and malty with a distinctively Germanic spicy and grassy hop bitterness. It’s quite soft and bready, a touch sweeter than other pils, and the light hopping helps to crisp it up at the finish. We like it as a daytime sipper and it goes especially well with vegetable dishes or a Sunday roast chicken – there’s enough flavour to make it worthy of a place on your dinner table, but it will never overpower those more delicately flavoured dishes.
So with the German control safely guzzled it’s time to check out five more big brand lagers. In drinking order…
Quilmes, 4.9%
Country: Argentina
We first tried this Argentinian import while researching beers to represent each country at the World Cup and, though not a world beater, it certainly did the job of providing refreshing boozeiness while watching football. It has sweet malt flavours common to lots of mass produced lagers with only light hopping at the finish. Nothing overtly nasty to report and an acceptable fridge beer for when your main focus is on the tv sporting action.
Windhoek Lager, 4%
Country: Namibia
There’s very little wrong with this. You could make a strong case for it being bland but not everyone wants full flavour all of the time. It’s close to Krombacher in its initial sweet grainy flavour and it has a noticeable bitterness that edges towards grassy. The high carbonation suits its light, crisp body and at 4% it’s the kind of lager you would want to neck to see off a sweat.
Molson Canadian, 5%
Country: Canada
This really is a bland beer that has somehow managed to suck flavour from the grain and hops to leave behind a thin, dry drink with a light fizz and a bit of sweetness. Despite those criticisms it’s far from horrible (there are a lot worse out there) and we can see the appeal. It fills a gap between beer and water, and if it were the only thing on offer at a bar we would stick with it for a few pints.
Chang Classic, 5%
Country: Thailand
Something in our memory banks suggested this tasted great when drinking it in the hot and humid streets of Bangkok but when we got back home it became one to avoid. However, it has been a long time since we last drank any. Trying it now we notice how different it is from the other beers, with very little bitter hopping, an almost vinous homemade wine tang to the body and some sharper lemony notes prodding the palate. Rice is among the ingredients, which is partly responsible for this change in feel and flavour, and is a reason the purists will criticise it. Treat it as a different kind of product than a regular lager and it becomes a more acceptable drink, albeit one we would only want to experience in a hot and humid Bangkok setting.
Kirin Ichiban, 4.6%
Country: Japan
We assumed this beer was flown in from Japan but it’s brewed under licence in Wolverhampton by Marstons. Weaker, paler, lighter and fizzier than Chang it also has a bit of peppery Germanic hopping at the finish. A basic lager but no complaints from us.
Verdict
With the exception of Krombacher, none of these are the kind of beers we would choose to drink that often, but it has been a fun exercise comparing lagers from around the world and picking out a favourite. Even the most committed Big-Brand-Lager-Refuser probably has at least one they don’t mind drinking (call it a ‘guilty pleasure’ if you like) and of the five we tried it’s Namibia’s Windhoek that is our top pick. Heck, we might even get a case in for the fridge – with summer approaching everyone needs a quick and simple thirst quencher to fall back on.
This is sponsored post.
The post Big Brand Global Lager. Is it any good? appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.
from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2019/04/big-brand-global-lager-review-molson-windhoek-quilmes-chang-kirin-ichiban/
Thursday, 14 March 2019
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Rum renaissance: five rum facts (and six rums you should try)
Rum is a spirit on the rise. Far from being a tipple only enjoyed by salty sea dogs and Cuban bartenders, it is now being appreciated by a new generation of drinkers keen to flex their taste buds in new directions. From mature sipping rums, to bright cocktail classics and unique flavours from far flung islands, rum’s diversity is its main strength. To celebrate rum’s renaissance we’ve unearthed five fantastic facts…
Light & Dark
As rum is made all over the world, using different raw ingredients, the rules as to what constitutes a rum are varied and confusing. Most are produced in the Caribbean or Central America and broadly fall into three national influences: English-style rums from the English speaking Caribbean islands tend to be dark, molasses based spirits; Spanish-style rums, from Spanish speaking countries, are known as ‘Ron’ and usually lighter in style; while French speaking countries have a ‘French (or ‘Rhum) Agricole’ style which are produced from sugar cane juice.
The colour of the rums is down to ageing and filtering. White, light or silver rums will have spent a shorter time in casks and are often charcoal-filtered to remove colour. Some golden rums then have caramel added to give them their colour. Aged rums gain their deeper tones from a longer time spent in the barrels, while dark rums will be produced from caramelised molasses and aged in charred barrels for extra depth of flavour and colour.
Strong & Stronger
While most rums are bottled at around 40% ABV, there’s one category of rum that is considerably stronger: Navy Rum. Its bottling strength of 57% ABV is a nod to the minimum alcohol level required of the Royal Navy for sailors to ‘splice the mainbrace.’* Wet gunpowder from booze spillage was a potential problem for naval vessels and 57% was the strength at which the explosive substance would still ignite if it came into contact with rum. The booze was tested by mixing a bit of gunpowder with rum and lighting it – if it went up in flame then it was ‘proof’ of alcohol (hence 57% being referred to as 100% English Proof).
Rum & Coke
Rum is, of course, a vital booze for anyone who likes to dabble with the art of cocktail making, and rum & coke is one of the popular cocktails around, due to ease of making and effectiveness. It began in Cuba around a century ago where it’s known as the Cuba Libra and uses the local light rum, served with or without a squirt and slice of lime. From Cuba it spread to America, then the rest of the world, where many variations have sprung that use rums of all distinctions. To make the classic version mix 120ml coca cola (no other coke will do), 50ml white Cuban rum and 10ml fresh lime juice in a highball glass filled with ice. Top with a wedge of lime. Dream of sunshine.
Dark & Stormy
Another popular rum-based cocktail is the Dark ‘n’ Stormy which is a combination of dark rum and (stormy) ginger beer, served in a tall glass with ice and a slice of lime. For a proper Dark ‘n’ Stormy the rum should be Gosling Brothers Black Seal – the company lays claim to the creation of the original cocktail in Bermuda and has trademarked the Dark ‘n’ Stormy name. They’ve even packaged up pre-made cocktails in their own Dark ‘n’ Stormy cans.
Rum & Raisin
Dark rum is one of the best drinks to have hanging around the kitchen. Not only is it great for a quick cocktail fix but it’s also a useful ingredient for cooking where its sweet, rich and boozy characteristics can pep up a plethora of puddings and sauces. Its most famous partner in recipe books is the raisin, first combined in ice creams by Sicilians, and since used in cakes, fudge, chocolate and other sweet confections.
Five rums to try
Aged rum for sipping
El Dorado 15, 43%
Country of production: Guyana
El Dorado produce a range of award winning rich, fruity and spicy aged dark rums. The five year old is a bargain; 15 is exceptional and great value; or for money-no-object options they have even older rums.
Dark rum for cocktails
Goslings Black Seal, 40%
Country of production: Bermuda
The main player in a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, it’s sweet and treacly with burnt orange and caramel flavours.
Light rum for cocktails
Havana Club 3
Country of production: Cuba
Smooth and light with traces of vanilla, almond and oak it’s the ideal choice for mojitos and more.
Navy rum
Wood’s Old Navy Rum, 57%
Country of production: Guyana
For the ultimate winter-chill-buster this is surprisingly smooth with flavours of toffee and cracked pepper.
Rhum Agricole
Rhum Clément Vieux Select Barrel, 40%
Country of production: Martinique
A very different style from more familiar rums, this comes with grassy, herby notes alongside some light fruit and spices.
Flavoured Rum
Tiki Lovers Pineapple Rum, 45%
Country of production: A blend of various Caribbean rums
Rums suit flavourings better than most spirits, particularly if they’re enhanced with tropical additions like the sweet, fruity juice of pineapple in the cheerful tipple.
*This nautical phrase means to partake in an extra ration of rum or grog – splicing (repair) a mainbrace (the rope used to support the mast of a sailing vessel) was a tough task so the successful repairman was rewarded with an extra helping of booze
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The post Rum renaissance: five rum facts (and six rums you should try) appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.
from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2019/03/rum-renaissance-five-rum-facts-dorado-goslings-rhum-clement-havana-club-woods-navy/