Win a set of Burgon and Ball Kneelo knee pads!

Poor old Nick’s knees have been taking a right old beating of late. If it’s not damage caused by crawling around after his one year old son in an attempt to stop inquisitive fingers delving into electrical sockets, his poor patellas have been hammered mercilessly by the endless crouching down required to clean up after his two incontinent greyhounds.

There’s no wonder his knees clack like castanets when he waddles down the allotment path, so this year I’ll be giving him the gift of knee protection, courtesy of Burgon and Ball. Kneelo knee pads incorporate memory foam technology and deliver optimal flexibility right where it counts, making them perfectly suited for gardening, DIY duties and other knee-bound household tasks. Quite simply, if you own a set of knees, you need a pair of these.

And it’s not just Nick who will be squealing with delight on Christmas morn , I’ve managed to grapple FIVE PAIRS of Kneelo pads off the folks at Burgon & Ball to give away to five lucky winners of this ridiculously easy-to-enter prize draw.

How to win

To stand with a chance of winning, simply log into Twitter, make sure you are following @thirstygardener and @burgonandball, and retweet our Burgon & Ball knee pad competition tweet with the hashtag #Ikneedthese

All names successfully completing the criteria above will go into into our ‘Santa sack-o-fun’, and the winners will be picked out randomly on Wednesday 13th December 2017.

Check the Ts&Cs below, stroke your kneecaps in anticipation and GET TWEETING!

Terms and conditions Entries must be submitted by midnight Tuesday 12th December 2017. The winner will be selected at random from all entries fulfilling the criteria as stated above. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be drawn at random from all entries received by the closing date. Should the Promoter be unable to contact the winners or should the winners be unable to accept the prizes, the Promoter reserves the right to award the prizes to an alternative winner, drawn in accordance with these terms and conditions. Two Thirsty Gardeners are responsible for the first part of the promotion, which is the publication and adjudication of the prize draw. All other facilities connected with the provision of the prize are the responsibility of Burgon & Ball

 

 

 

To see more Burgon & Ball products, go HERE

 

The post Win a set of Burgon and Ball Kneelo knee pads! appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/12/win-set-burgon-ball-kneelo-knee-pads/

Ding Dong! It’s our digging and swigging Christmas gift guide 2017

We know how Christmas gift buying works these days. You vow to get started early, making considered choices for all your friends and family, then realise you can’t be bothered with all that brain-sapping thought and ask Google Claus to do the work for you. So, for our loyal readers and those of you who have hit the search button on ‘Christmas + Gift + Booze + Garden’, here are some suggestions.

You’ll find a mix of things we’ve discovered throughout the year along with some superb treats from some of our digging and swigging chums.

And if this lot doesn’t fully satisfy you, then we’ll be adding some more in the run up to Christmas, so come back later and have another goosey-goosey- ganders.

Craft Metropolis Box of 12 Beers

Price £36
A trip to London is always a treat as it gives us the opportunity to sneak off to the pub and guzzle a load of the latest London beers. Which might be why we like Craft Metropolis beer boxes so much – they only contain beers sourced from the capital, meaning each selection contains otherwise hard-to-find beers, rather than the more common nationwide brews filling other boxes. Their Christmas dozen includes bottles and cans from personal favourites Kew Brewery, Signature Brew and Anspach & Hobday with an impressive range of styles to savour. Turn your living room into a great London boozer…

SAVE MONEY! Christmas bonus!
Because Craft Metropolis like us so much they’ve agreed to knock £4 off the price of their Christmas box. It’s £40 for most people. Click the link below and you’ll be able to get it for £36. Bargain!
Available from CraftMetropolis

Hepple Gin

Price £36.55
A few years ago we interviewed top chef Valentine Warner for this site, in which he revealed his plans for a new gin distillery in Northumberland. Hepple distillery is now up and running, producing one of the best new gins on the market. The local juniper shines like few other gins, showing off their complex bitter and fruity flavours, and the drink is lifted with a few refreshing flourishes of citrus. Hepple is also doing good things through a sustainable juniper propagation programme, so if you know a gin fan this is a product well worth investigating.

Available from The Whisky Exchange

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Membership

Price from £65
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society like whisky. They’ve assembled the world’s biggest collection of single barrel whiskies, containing some of the highest quality boozes you could wish for, and nurtured them in their vaults before popping them into bottles and sharing the goods with their members. Not many people get to taste these special treats, so the gift of membership opens up a whole world of taste exclusivity for you gleeful recipient (and if you don’t know what their whisky taste might be, they’ve even worked out a way to discover everyone’s taste profile).

Available from SMWS. Membership starts at £65, with other options available that include special gift-worthy extras (such as the membership and taster box for £95). 

It’s our digging and swigging home made booze book!

For the ultimate digging and swigging gift there’s always our book, Brew it Yourself. It’s rammed full with ace booze recipes – from beers, ciders and wines to more curious cocktails and infusions – many of them using home grown ingredients. And don’t just take our word for its goodness – take a look at the five star reviews on Amazon for authentic tales of boozy glee.

Available from Amazon

 

 

Somerset Cider Apple Poster

And whilst we’re on an undignified, egotistic roll of self promotion, allow us to recommend this splendid apple poster, designed by Nick’s very own gnarled mouse-hand. It’s a typographic apple, beautifully constructed using the names of Somerset cider varieties. Ideal for bathrooms, sheds, kitchens and outhouses and just the ticket for covering up unsightly stains on walls.

It costs a mere £10 (including postage) and you can buy it from our newly opened Etsy shop, right HERE.

 

Bosch EasyCut 12

Price £130

Here’s a sight for saw eyes – the ideal prezzie for folks who like to saw stuff up via the power of lithium-ion batteries. Use it like a cordless jigsaw for sawing sheets of wood, or wield it like a powerful mini-chainsaw and prune branches like a boss. Gift it for Christmas – its first task will be to dismember the sad, threadbare branches of a post-Christmas spruce.

Available from Amazon

Tamdhu 10 Year Old

Price £34.95

Whisky galore! We’re big fans of Tamdhu’s malty mashups here at Thirsty HQ – it’s difficult to choose our fave, but if we had our arms twisted (and faces pushed aggressively against the shed door) we’d like to find Tamdhu’s sherry casked 10 year old dangling in our festive stocking on Christmas morn. It’s everything you’d want from a Speyside – fresh oak and cinnamon on the nose and bursting with fruits and spices. Go grab a bottle, Christmas elves…

Bag one here…

Burgon and Ball planters

Price from £7.99

Houseplants are HOT SHIZZ at the moment, so go bag yourselves one of these handsome Burgon and Ball pots and get wrapping. Dangle the ropey one (pictured left) from a bathroom ceiling and lob in a nepenthes ventrata, (which we have been reliably informed will thrive in humid, steamy conditions) or cram a classic Aloe succulent into the terracotta pot (pictured right) and place it for all to see. For the purposes of producing suitably festive photographs, we stuffed ours with fairy lights.

Available from Burgon and Ball 

RHS Annual Membership

Nothing says ‘ I haven’t given much thought to your Christmas gift’ as a papery voucher stuffed into an envelope. However, watch initial disappointment evaporate from their face as they rip open a splendid RHS Membership. Offering up RHS garden entry, access to shows and expert plant advice, it’s a no-brainer gift for the hort lover in your life.

A one year gift membership costs £59 and includes six luxury postcards, two packets of seeds (EU only) and vouchers for a free RHS tote bag and £5 to spend at RHS Gardens.

Order here. Now.

Proper Job Christmas Jumper

Price £21.95
In recent years the Christmas jumper has gone from naff gift no-one wants to must have fashion accessory. The naffer the better. This year, with your generosity, your best beer drinking buddy can not only parade around in one of the cheesiest jumpers we’ve ever seen, they can also earn beer-nous creds courtesy of the ‘Proper Job’ logo emblazened within the festive graphics. It’s one of the greatest beers money can buy (we’ve featured it as a beer of the week), from Cornish brewing stars St Austell, which we’re certain will be accompanying many Christmas dinners.

Available from St Austell Brewery

 

The post Ding Dong! It’s our digging and swigging Christmas gift guide 2017 appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/12/christmas-gift-guide-booze-gardening-beer-whisky-club-rhs-tool-book-poster/

Beer of the Week #105: Kriek Boon

Lucky us. We’ve been invited to the launch of a new beer-and-food menu at the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park’s ‘Rosebury Lounge’. They’ve given the traditional afternoon tea a twist by matching dainty finger sandwiches, hand-made pastries, scones and cakes with beer.

Not only were we impressed with their choice of beers – Thornbridge Chiron, Kriek Boon and Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar – but the posh nosh looked impressive too, with ‘Cotswold egg and black truffle’ among the sarnie options to have caught our eyes and a ‘Maple Snow Ball’ sounding like an intriguing pastry (see full menu below).

Annoyingly, my dodgy back and Rich’s dodgy day-job meant that neither of us could make it, but such was my salivating at the prospect of a tasty tea with a drop of Kriek Boon – one of my favourite beers – that I delved into my beer collection and pulled a bottle out for immediate consumption.

On the Rosebury Lounge’s menu, Kriek Boon was up second, accompanying the pastries.

Unable to muster anything quite as tasty as the Lounge’s ace chef Paul Thieblemont, I hopped down to Gregg’s Bakery and snaffled a jammy biscuit instead.*

Kriek Boon is a Belgian Lambic beer that has been flavoured with cherries. Lambics are produced by a natural fermentation using the wild yeasts unique to the Pajottenland region which create deliciously crisp and sour beers, of which the Boon brewers are masters. It has Champagne-esque bubbles, kept under control with a cork, and is a sweet and sour, sparkling fruity wonder. The tasting notes on the Lounge’s menu describes it perfectly: “Spontaneously fermented with 400g of whole cherries added to each litre of beer, giving a slight tartness with lovely cherry and almond flavours. Chocolate and cherries are a match made in heaven so this beer is the perfect companion for the hits of chocolate, vanilla, caramel and hazelnut.” It also goes well with a jammy biscuit.

Maybe we’ll take a visit to the Mandarin Oriental sometime next year, pull up a plush chair and enjoy their Beer Afternoon Tea because, as much as I enjoy a home poured bottle of Kriek Boon, I’m certain it’ll taste even better with a menu designed to match it’s fruity charms.

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The lowdown

Brewery: Brewery Brouwerij Boon, Lambeek, Belgium
Beer name: Kriek Boon
Strength: 4%

Available from Beer Merchants

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Beer Afternoon Tea at the Rosebery Lounge

Menu

FINGER SANDWICHES
Slow roasted turkey with cranberries and sage butter
Cotswold egg and black truffle
Smoked salmon tartare, tarragon and compressed Granny Smith apple
Slow braised beef short rib, horseradish and watercress
Mediterranean sandwich, confit tuna with sweet piquillo peppers, black olives and oregano
Goat’s cheese, caramelised onions and butternut squash

Beer match
Thornbridge Chiron – 5.0% abv

HAND-MADE PASTRIES
Mandarin mont blanc
Maple snow ball
Chocolate and caramel yule log
Santa’s hat
Passion fruit and hazelnut finger

Beer match
Kriek Boon – 4.0% abv

THE FAMOUS ROSEBERY SCONES & CAKES
Freshly baked plain and cranberry scones accompanied by Devonshire clotted cream, strawberry jam and rose petal jam
Battenburg Cake
Cinnamon and Plum Cake
Beer match – Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar – 5.6% abv

The Rosebury Lounge Beer Afternoon Tea costs £65 per person plus service charge and can be booked by calling reservations on 020 7201 3828 or emailing molon-rosebery@mohg.com.

*Yes, I know it’s not a pastry. It was that or a ‘Yum Yum’ and I refuse to ever order anything with such a ridiculous name as ‘Yum Yum’

 

The post Beer of the Week #105: Kriek Boon appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/11/beer-week-review-kriek-boon-cherry-belgian-rated/

How to prepare your house for sale using storage

To secure the sale of your home it’s vital that your property stands out from the fray, especially in competitive areas like London. Recent research suggests that clutter is a particular irritation that deters people from making an offer. Luckily, this is easily remedied by maximising the space in your home in a few simple ways, including decluttering and using affordable home self-storage. That’s why we’ve compiled these simple tips below to make sure your journey into the housing market is plain sale-ing.

• Declutter it. Clearing out clutter is a surefire way to free up some extra room in your home and allows you to utilise every nook and cranny inside your property. Remember, moving home is the prime chance to rid your house of any unwanted/unused items and make a fresh start. Sort through your belongings and mark items with one of four labels: keep, store, discard, donate. There’s always the option of trying to earn some cash selling unwanted items on classifieds sites like Gumtree or online auctions like eBay, too. 

• Decorate it. Create an illusion of space by installing mirrors, and paint your walls neutral colours so they don’t provoke a strong reaction. Finally, think about your kerb appeal by trimming the lawns, hedges and trees, and perhaps getting rid of the beloved garden gnome.
  

• Depersonalise it. Stripping down the more personal elements of your home will make it easier for potential buyers to imagine their own belongings in the space, and therefore judge whether they can imagine themselves settling down in your property. Remove family photographs, ornaments and other unnecessary clutter; stow them in convenient self-storage ready for the big move.

• Store it. Properties convey a bigger and better image when unburdened by bulky items of furniture. Carefully select some key pieces to keep in each room, but use storage facilities to store away any excess. Available in a range of sizes for any purpose, storage containers are also a godsend for any other family heirlooms that are crowding your home, therefore acting as the perfect halfway house between your old and new property. Always ensure you choose a reliable storage provider approved by the Self Storage Association (if you’re in London or elsewhere in the UK).
  

• Clean it. The number one rule of home viewing preparation is make sure your property clean. Big turn-offs for buyers include: smells, stains, dirty plates, unmade beds, dusty surfaces and general grime. Giving your home an intensive clean-through will rid your home of any distasteful elements and make it far more visually appealing to potential buyers.

We wish you good luck on the house sale, and remember – simple sells!

The post How to prepare your house for sale using storage appeared first on UK Home Improvement Blog.

from UK Home Improvement Blog http://www.ukhomeimprovement.co.uk/how-to-prepare-your-house-for-sale-using-storage/

Beer of the week #104: Birra del Borgo, KeTo Reporter

It has been a while since we last published a Beer of the Week. It’s not that we’ve stopped stinking beer, rather that we’ve been too busy reviewing beer for other people. So to help fill the void left by our own neglect we’ve asked another beer blogger to provide us with a guest review. Step forward Katie Wiles, communications manager for CAMRA and author of the excellent blog Wiles About Beer. Here are her thoughts on a tasty Italian porter – take it away, Katie…

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“This week I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on how beer amplifies the fine-dining experience – a relatively new concept here in the UK. Beer is so firmly associated with Britain’s pub culture that it is often overlooked in restaurants, with many gravitating to the more well-established wine options instead.

“Yet it seems that we are missing a trick. Beer boasts a huge (and ever-growing) range of flavours and styles and – most excitingly – there are relatively few rules on how to pair them. A stout doesn’t necessarily have to go with chocolate, and a wheat beer doesn’t need to be paired with a salad. In fact, Christina Perozzi, founder of The Beer Chicks, claims her favourite pairing is a double IPA with a carrot cake. Beers can even make a great base for cocktails – in the seminar, Mixologist Jack Wareing recommended combining a double IPA with a stout for a great vermouth base.

“At the event, I had the chance to sample some beers recommended to amplify the fine-dining experience. The one that screamed “luxury” to me was the KeTo Reporter by Birra del Borgo. Well-presented in a stylish 33-cl bottle and served in a wine glass, it is a classic porter with the addition of Kentucky Tuscan tobacco leaves. The tobacco taste brings out a fantastic spicy smokiness that makes you immediately envision yourself seated in a leather chair next to a log fire in a posh cigar room.

“I chose this dark beer as my “beer of the week” because it is complex and interesting – with hints of whisky, chocolate, coffee and nutmeg. As with any other luxury, I wouldn’t recommend indulging in it to excess, but rather savouring it as a treat after a decadent meal. The suggested accompaniment is a Tuscan cigar – but I would probably opt for a nice dark chocolate instead.

“The founder of Birra del Borgo, Leonardo di Vincenzo, explained that the Italian craft beer movement originated in the fine dining scene. He strives to create beers around the entire experience of an evening out – and I must admit, this has been masterfully achieved with the KeTo Reporter.

“Luckily, you don’t have to travel all the way to Italy to try this beer or any other in the Birra del Borgo range. They’re all available on Beerhawk if you want to stock up for your next dinner party.

“Who knows? Perhaps, if you are lucky, the Birra del Borgo will be on the menu on your next meal out, carefully recommended with a dish. I certainly hope so. There is an entire world of food and beer pairings out there that we have only just begun to tap into here in the UK. Not only do pairings present us beer-lovers with a new exciting way of enjoying our favourite brews, but it also gives us an opportunity to introduce even more people to the fantastic art of craft beer through the medium of food. Until then – cin cin!”

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The lowdown

Brewery: Birra del Borgo, Borgorose, Lazio, Italy
Beer name: KeTo Reporter
Strength: 6.5%

Available from Beer Hawk

The post Beer of the week #104: Birra del Borgo, KeTo Reporter appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/11/beer-review-birra-del-borgo-keto-reporter-italian-porter/

The Decanting Club Review

In our unending quest in the search for brilliant boozes (bought/homemade/whatever) we have encountered many drinks subscription services. Some promise bulk ordered, bargainous booze, others offer regular streams of small volume, high quality beverages with the booze connoisseur in mind. The Decanting Club sits in the latter category – a crowdfunded startup who aim to sniff out wines made by small producers that champion local traditions. Said fancy boozes are then delivered to the consumer via the DC USP – plastic wine pouches.

It’s an inspired delivery method for sure. Not only do slim plastic pouches slip nicely through your letterbox, therefore negating the need for you to lie in wait for the postie and sign for a bulky package*, they won’t make that terrible, bottle rattling sound as you take them out for recycling, alerting the neighbourhood of your shameful boozy indulgences. A result on both fronts.

For trial, we were sent a couple of pouches containing a Clip Loureiro Vinho Verde from Portugal and an Adalia Valpolicella from Northern Italy. Both wines are from small organic producers – the Vino Verde being a lip-pursing acidic number, and the Valpolicella a light, spicy and easy drinking red. All a bit too easy drinking to be honest, making the 150 ml pouches seem a bit miserly on the serving front, leaving us wheezing for another glass of tasty grape-based** booze.

There’s a choice of subscriptions – for £10 you’ll get 2 x150ml pouches poked through your letterbox per month. Go for the £25 option and you’ll receive 1 x 150ml a week, and for £39, 2x 150ml sachets per week will be hurtling their way to you. When compared to some of the bigger booze subscription outfits, the Decanting Club offering seems a tad pricey, especially when you factor in the savings they make from delivering booze in pouches rather than glass bottles. You do, however, get the impression that each wine in their bulging portfolio has been hunted down with gusto and curated with care.

Subscribers also receive tasting cards for each booze supplied and – best of all – each wine is accompanied by a video tasting tutorial, accessible via the Decanting Club website and hosted by wine expert Steve Evans. He’s a kind of macho John Inman/camp Kurt Russell who talks knowledgeably and flamboyantly about the wine he’s throwing down his neck. He’s a captivating watch and no mistake – a swashbuckling wine wizard who deserves to be on proper TV and enjoyed by the masses. Or at the very least, Sunday Brunch. 

The Decanting Club looks like a decent way of experiencing new wines in short, sharp doses. We are not unaccustomed to the pleasures of supping on fine wines, but we often fall into the ‘supermarket trap’ – a deep, ingrained mental conditioning that makes us grab ‘anything under 6 quid with a nice label’ whenever we stray too close to the Co-op chiller cabinet. A subscription to the Decanting Club would help open our eyes to the wider winey world.

For subscription info, visit The Decanting Club website. Here.

A pouch-bourne plonk, poured with perfection

*  Beware the ‘ring and run’ tactic, utilised by numerous courier services whose employees – pressured to deliver unrealistic targets and pushed for time – don’t want to hang around waiting for you to pull on some trousers/get out of bed /walk five steps before answering the door. And while we’re on the subject, my dad used to be a postie and told me that some of his colleagues used to fill in ‘we called, you were out’ cards BEFORE going out for delivery, so they didn’t have to carry heavy packages down long garden paths. IT’S A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

** We’re good for non-apple based wines, thank you very much. In fact we’ve got over 50-odd bottles of various veg and berry boozes left over from our ‘Brew it Yourself’ experiments festering maturing in the brewing shed.

The post The Decanting Club Review appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/10/decanting-club-review/

Frocester Beer Festival 2017 – The Review!

Thank you to the organisers of Frocester Beer Festival for another excellent weekend of boozy entertainment. We’ll gloss over the decision to replace glass pint pots with plastic (please, never again) and we won’t dwell on the choice of closing band*, simply being grateful that the problem was dealt with.

Instead we’ll remember the perfect Saturday drinking weather – warm and sunny but with enough passing light clouds to avoid fried skin – and the greatest ever line up of beers.

The highlight of the day was a setting sun, casting a pink and orange glow across Gloucestershire’s gently rolling hills, which prompted festival-goers to fold their beer lists into paper planes and launch them into the colourful sky, creating a silhouetted display of a hundred swooping, dipping and crashing aircraft. All this to a background of fiddle and banjo folk and the happy chatter of beer-talk.

For the second year running Rich had better things to do** so again the task of picking out the festival’s best beers fell to me, aided as always by my drinking pals…

Frocester Beer Festival 2017: Five Best Beers

Anarchy, Smoke Bomb, 3.9%
Smoked beers divided our group between me (I like them) and everyone else (not fans). They’re not easy to get right, but this pint was mightily impressive. Dark, but not heavy, with a fresh grainy sweetness and enough smoke to be always present without killing the rest of the flavours.

Marble, Frazzle Rock, 5.9%
One drinker in our group, Rory, decided to work his way through every porter and stout at the festival.*** For most of the day Blue Monkey’s Guerilla Special (a chocolate amaretto stout) was top choice until he noticed he’d missed out an entire section of the drinks list that included a smoked porter from Marble.**** It instantly had everyone purring with admiration: a thick, creamy beast with lovely chocolate flavours and such a subtle lick of smoke that they all decided smoky beers aren’t so bad after all. Good work, Rory.

Roosters Rockefeller, 4.4%
This Yorkshire booze wasn’t even on the list, only showing up as a last minute substitute for a failed cask. And what a bonus booze it turned out to be – an easy drinking pale ale that was gratefully guzzled at a time when the palette began to get a little weary. My even wearier tasting notes describe it as having ‘an unusual fruit lipsalve flavour’ which I’m certain was meant to be a compliment.

Woodforde, Once Bittern, 4%
Frocester’s very English Cotswold cricket ground setting demands at least one very traditional English style beer, and Norfolk’s Woodforde provided the best of these. A malt forward brown booze, sweet on the tongue, with floral and nutty notes mingling with the hedgerow hop flavours. Owzat!

Cronx, Nektar, 4.5%
One of the great things about Frocester’s beer menu is the huge number of boozes from breweries I’ve not even heard of. Cronx was one of them and I was mightily impressed with their pale ale. That menu correctly described it as possessing blackcurrant favours and aromas which were presented in a modern, fresh and juicy kind of way, with soft malt and a spicy finish to complete the piece.

My tent, pitched next to the cricket ground. After 20 years of service, and much patching up, it finally broke beyond repair while taking it down. A splendid innings.

*Guitar noodly, misery-laden songs with an Eddie Vedder impersonator on vocals. Perfectly acceptable in a dingy bar; totally wrong for beer-swilling revellers desperate for something to dance to. They soon exited stage left and were replaced by a mix tape.

**Erect a polytunnel, a chore that elicited much swearing, no doubt including phrases that started “If only…” and ended “…beer festival instead.”

***When finished he switched to the cider menu. None were worthy of a mention.

****I made an instant beeline for Marble, one of my favourite breweries, starting the day with their excellent Manchester Bitter… but we’re not allowing two beers from the same brewery in this top five.

The post Frocester Beer Festival 2017 – The Review! appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/09/frocester-beer-festival-2017-review-marble-cronx-woodforde-roosters-anarchy-brewing/

Review: The Mini Polytunnel

We often find ourselves drooling over the numerous polytunnels that can be found dotted over our allotment site, and dream of owning our very own to grow fruity exotica and hothouse veggies (and to maybe fill with the junk that we can’t fit in our shed). As luck would have it, First Tunnels recently contacted us and offered up one of their rather natty ‘mini tunnels’ to test. We put our name down for a 10 ft x 4 ft tunnel, which arrived promptly after ordering.

After waiting for the summertime rain to subside (approx three weeks after receiving the tunnel) we finally got round to hauling the constituent parts over to the allotment for assembly. And here are our thoughts…

You’ll want to enlist a friend to help put this polytunnel together and set aside at least half a day, as it’s deceptively DIY intensive: holes need to be drilled, wood needs to be cut to length, screws need to be lost in the long grass, swears need to be bellowed. We would also heartily recommend reading the instructions first* before heading off down the allotment as you’ll need a few tools at hand to do the job. A cordless drill is a must; you’ll need a saw for cutting the timber to length, a big old hammer, and a heavy duty stapler for fastening the cover into position.

The frame fits together relatively easily and is held firm by some of the BIGGEST nails you have EVER seen**, coupled with four sturdy corner brackets that are bolted onto the joists. The biggest challenge was covering the frame with the poly sheet – it requires a certain amount of skill to keep the cover taut whilst stapling it to the joists and adding the retaining batons. Tying up the end sections in a neat fashion was also particularly fraught; an aptitude for wrapping Christmas presents would come in very handy during this stage of proceedings. Sadly, it’s a skill we lack, hence the rather shoddy looking result pictured below. In our defence – it was getting dark and was nearly tea time***, so we rushed it a bit.

When fully constructed, our mini poly tunnel stood firm and proud and glistened magnificently in the fading sunlight. It’s a pretty weighty unit, so hopefully it’ll be able to repel the cross winds**** that tend to whip through our allotment. We’ve often watched***** fellow allotment holders’ compost bins take flight and crash through other peoples plots, but we’re counting on our tunnel to remain steadfast.

We are slightly apprehensive on the amount of ventilation that the tunnel will be able to provide – there are fold down legs that the unit can stand on for heat relief during hot spells – but we’ll have to wait until next year to test this out properly. For now, our tunnel is being used to house prematurely harvested pumpkins that were rescued from our mildewy pumpkin patch, and we can report that they are ‘orange-ing off’ nicely. Next year we will be stuffing our tunnel with hot chillies and maybe a melon or too, but for now, so far, so good…

*An unnatural act which goes against all our principles.

** See top picture, top right. Admittedly not the best indicator of scale. For all you know, I might have minuscule, Trump-esque hands that make tiny nails look MASSIVE.

*** Sausage, chips, beans.

**** and we’re not talking about the old chap on the allotment who bugles the ‘Reveille’ through his bum cheeks every time he bends over to to tend his onion sets.

***** Watched, laughed, taken photos, then retrieved.

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Our poly tunnel was supplied by First Tunnels.
Price: from £90

Go here for more info

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The post Review: The Mini Polytunnel appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/09/review-mini-polytunnel/

Great Newsome: the family brewery that grows its own barley

Great Newsome Brewery is a family run business located on the East Yorkshire coast near Hull. The brewery’s farm home has been managed by four generations of the same family and produces the barley that goes into their excellent beer. I’ve been guzzling their beers and have picked out my favourites from their range, but first I caught up with family member Matthew Hodgson (who, according to the brewery’s website, ‘cracks the whip’) to find out more about the farm, the beer and how we might go about growing our own barley.

Your family has been arable farming for many generations – what made you decide to add beer brewing to your workload?
Farmers love to grumble – either it is too wet, too dry or prices for their crops, livestock etc are too low. Back in the late 90’s this was the situation we found ourselves in and, as a small family farm, we wanted to diversify into another business that could work alongside our farm. As children we holidayed down in the south west a lot and our parents would seek out the beers they couldn’t sample at home. Around that time, to make a viable business of it would have been hard, so we left the idea alone. Fast forward to 2005/06 and things had started to change, people were wanting to try local food and drink, and a number of pubs became free houses nearby so we took the plunge.

How long was it from setting up the brewery until you were happy with the beer you were producing?
It was certainly a good year before we got a settled core range together that we were happy with. I am somewhat a perfectionist and am always keeping an eye on quality and consistency, so there is always room for improvement. That said, the ultimate test is the customer and with the positive feedback we are getting at the moment we can be satisfied with what we are producing.

Your range is quite traditional, with a few modern twists thrown in. How did you go about deciding what beer styles to brew and what plans do you have for future beers?
In the first place we had to make money, so we looked at what styles would sell well. Talking to publicans and trialing a selection of beers from another brewery in local pubs certainly helped. The evolution of our beer style has been driven by what our customers have asked for and this has lead us towards classic British beer styles. Our aim has been to keep the whole process as simple and consistent as possible from the selection of raw materials right through the brewing process. As for the future, we want to continue to produce beer that is not reinventing the wheel but a drink that you can enjoy all night without even thinking about it – to me that is the sign of a good pint.

You grow the barley on your farm that goes into your beers. What varieties of barley do you grow and what makes them right for your beer?
The main variety at the moment is Concerto. It suits our farm and its heavy clay soil. Concerto is a modern variety that the maltsters want as it makes very good malt. For brewing we find it has a good bold grain, so it’s easy to mill and generally we get good extract from it. It imparts a good flavour and, in most years, has low nitrogen levels which helps prevent beer hazes forming.

How much of your barley goes towards the brewery?
We grow more than we require at the moment as this year we have planted 40 hectares, which should produce about 300 tonnes. We probably won’t require more than a 1/3 of this but it is growing year on year.

Where do you get the barley malted and how involved are you in the process?
We have all of our barley sent to Muntons at Flamborough just up the road from us. Concerto barley seems to be generally used to produce a good light ale malt and we talk to Muntons about what specification we require for our brewery. Obviously there is some seasonal variation but it is pretty consistent.

Do you have any plans to grow other brewing ingredients on your farm, such as hops?
We have some hops in the ground now which we planted last year. We are quite far north but hops should grow up here and have done so in recent years not too far away. We have grown four varieties: Challenger, Celeia, Boadicea and First Gold. The first year they did not do so well, which we sort of expected, but with a dry spell in spring they don’t seem to be establishing themselves quite as well as I had hoped. Both Challenger and Boadicea seem to be growing the best so far. So we are using them more as a marketing tool to show visitors but, when the time comes, I hope we will be able to brew a green hop beer with them.

Rich is planning on growing some barley on his allotment for brewing purposes. Do you have any growing tips for him?
Nitrogen levels in the soil must be relatively low to prevent malt that gives you hazy beer, so don’t plant it after a legume plant such as peas or beans. Try planting it after a crop that uses a lot of nutrients, such as potatoes, and don’t use manure on the soil before planting. When harvesting, make sure it is nice and dry, you don’t want damp barley to grow moulds that again will affect the quality.

How much will he need for a pint?
For an average strength beer I would suggest 15g, it doesn’t sound much does it.

 

Great Newsome Beers – the taste test

Seeing as Great Newsome is a family brewery I decided to share my haul of their beers with my Dad, Jim, each picking out our favourite from their range

Sleck Dust, 3.8%
Chosen by Nick’s Dad
This is an easy drinking, straw coloured blonde ale with a citrus hop freshness which had my dad exclaiming “hip hoppy hoorah!” on first sipping. “Smooth beer, this one” he continued, “with a subtle hint of fruit. It’s up there with the best.” Praise indeed

Frothingham Best, 4.3%
Chosen by Nick
A proper brown beer that perfectly shows off the slightly sweet, slightly nutty malt and has a decent, but not overpowering, level of bitterness. The kind of pint that’s refreshing in the summer and comforting when cold nights close in – and one that you can get stuck into over an extended session…

To find out more about the Great Newsome Brewery and their beers visit greatnewsomebrewery.co.uk

Main image: June on the Great Newsome farm.
Left to right – Matthew Hodgson, Ruby (the springer spaniel), Donna Hodgson, James Hodgson, Nick Broadhurst, Nick Hopper, Doreen Hodgson, Laurence Hodgson, Rachel Spruce, Jonathan Hodgson.

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/09/great-newsome-the-family-brewery-that-grows-its-own-barley-frothingham-best-sneck-dust/

How to survive a German Oktoberfest

The Germans are coming! Taking over our drinking venues with their crude folk songs, dubious leather fashions and barrel loads of foamy beer. Such is the surge in popularity of German beer festivals within the UK that even our local city, the normally sedate poshville that is Bath, has succumbed to their rowdy appeal and, in late September, we’ll be hoisting steins and slapping thighs with the Somerset masses at the Komedia Oktoberfest.

Having both lived and worked in the beer festival mecca of Munich we like to think we know how to get through a proper German beer festival so, for any novices out there, here’s our five point plan for survival…

1 Beer Expectations

Unlike most British beer festivals, where the aim is to sample as many different ales as possible, German Oktoberfests usually feature beers from just one brewery (or if it’s a multi-brewery event, such as the Munich Oktoberfest, then the various beer halls will each be operated by a single brewery). This means the choice of beer is likely to be between a lager, a wheat beers and possibly a dark beer or specially brewed festival beer. Bath’s event will be served by our mates at Krombacher so, like most authentic festivals, the beer will be excellent.

2 There Will Be Drunkenness

At many of these festivals you’ll be swigging from vast steins of booze – or pint pots with jugs of booze on standby for constant refills – and be egged on by everyone around you to get caught up in the general drunken revelry. Getting at least a little bit schnockered is almost inevitable, but do try to pace yourself – we’ve seen too many people set off like a rat up a drainpipe only to come out the other end looking like they’ve been chewed up and spat out by a hyena, forcing them to leave early with their dishevelled tails between their wobbly legs. Our tips to stay the right side of inebriated mess include: don’t drink on an empty stomach; avoid getting into rounds with booze-crazed nut-jobs; and do all the other things in numbers 3 to 5…

3 Be Sociable

Us Brits are often a bit shy when it comes to sitting next to a stranger, especially if they’re wearing their great grandfather’s buffed lederhosen*, and will maneuver tables and chairs to avoid such seated mingling. The long tables at German beer festivals make this impossible, so plant your arse on a bench and strike up an immediate conversation with your drinking neighbours. You will also find that talking to your new friends is a good distraction from drinking too much beer.

4 Eat The Meat

Most Oktoberfests provide food, to be consumed at your table. Generally the meals consist of heavy going, greasy forms of meat:** perhaps a roast chicken; maybe a plate of cured charcuterie; or, most likely, a large lump of pork. If you have the option of food, take it. It will be the ideal accompaniment to heavy swilling, tastes great and, again, will provide a welcome distraction from drinking too much beer.

5 Sing

Your German beer festival will almost certainly feature live music, possibly performed by a band dressed in dodgy Bavarian fashion, playing mostly German drinking songs designed to be sung along to. Don’t worry about not knowing any words or tunes as their repetitive nature means you’ll soon get the hang of them. And make sure you join in – losing your inhibitions so you’re hollering and grunting with the rest of them is part of the appeal, helps to improve the social aspect of the event and besides, all that singing and swinging is a desirable distraction from drinking too much beer. Prosit!

The Bath Okoberfest is on Friday September 29th at Komedia. Find out more information and order your tickets here – we’ll look forward to seeing some of you there!

 

*In Germany it’s tradition to hand down leather pants through the generations. Do not give your Grandad a call and ask if you can borrow his used Damarts.

**These days you can usually expect a vegetarian option as well, and not just chips.

 

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/09/how-to-survive-a-german-oktoberfest-krombacher-komedia-bath/

Win! Tickets for Toby Buckland’s Harvest Festival

Fancy winning tickets for this Autumn’s HOTTEST gardening event?

YES! OF COURSE YOU DO!

We’ve managed to rustle up two pairs of tickets for Toby Buckland’s inaugural Garden & Harvest Festival, which will be held at Forde Abbey in Somerset on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th September.

It promises to be an Autumnal jamboree of talks, tours, workshops and demos – some of the highlights include…

Celebrity Speakers!
On Saturday, Charlie Dimmock will be taking the stage and bringing her practical panache and water gardening expertise. Toby Buckland, Jim Buttress and Alan Down will also be pitching in with garden chit-chat. BBC One Show’s Christine Walkden will be appearing on Sunday to dispense her irreverent, down-to-earth knowledge.

Practical Demos!
Learn from top-notch nursery exhibitors and garden experts who will be sharing inside knowledge on how they grow, propagate and care for plants – all in the stunning setting of Forde Abbey’s Kitchen Garden.

Buy Stuff!
Splurge the contents of your wallet on nursery plants, West County crafts, foodstuffs and booze. Cheese! Gin! Meat! Pickles! All will be present.

Meet us!
Admittedly, not the greatest of propositions, but never the less, we’ll be there on Saturday with our cider press, squishing apples and trying to flog our book. There’s also a rumour that we’ll be giving a talk in ‘Toby’s Big Brown Tepee’*, so that might be good for a laugh (at our expense).

To stand with a chance of winning a pair of tickets, simply log into Twitter, make sure you are following @tobygardenfest and @thirstygardener, and retweet our Toby Buckland competition tweet with the hashtag #ciderwithtoby

All names successfully completing the criteria above will be plunged into our ‘Demijon of golden delights’, and the winners fished out randomly on Saturday 9th September 2017.

Check the Ts&Cs below, set the satnav to Forde Abbey, and GET TWEETING!

Terms and conditions

Entries must be submitted by midnight, Friday 8th September 2017. The winner will be selected at random from all entries fulfilling the criteria as stated above. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be drawn at random from all entries received by the closing date. Should the Promoter be unable to contact the winners or should the winners be unable to accept the prizes, the Promoter reserves the right to award the prizes to an alternative winner, drawn in accordance with these terms and conditions. The prize does not include travel between the winner’s home and Forde Abbey, accommodation, food and drink, personal expenditure or incidental costs.

 

* We imagine it’ll be like ‘Emus Big Pink Windmill’, minus the dancing and aggressive puppetry.

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/09/win-tickets-toby-bucklands-harvest-festival/

How to grow juniper and start a gin garden

Top notch London distillers, Portobello Road Gin, have come up with a gintastic scheme to boost Britain’s declining juniper – they’re encouraging gardeners to grow their own juniper trees and send the berries to the distillery to turn into bespoke booze. To get the campaign up and running they’re sending out juniper saplings with purchases of a 75cl limited edition bottle from Waitrose this summer.

Being keen booze-growing gardeners we’ve been asked to help promote their efforts and have got our gloved mitts on one of their saplings. They’ve also handily sent out some juniper growing instructions, put together by TV gardening ace Alice Vincent, which we’ve published below. We’ve gone for the ‘grow it in a large pot’ option, which will soon be the centerpiece of our new gin garden. The pot in question is a rather splendid charcoal fibreglass piece which, at a capacity of 40cm cubed, should give ample room for growth over the next few years.

We’ve sprinkled a layer of wood chippings on the surface of the compost to make it look tidy and make it feel more like it’s in a Scandinavian woodland setting, and less in a scruffy garden in Somerset. It has been in its new home for over a week and already looks like it’s in for the duration (ie not gone brown and crispy just yet).

And while we’re keen that our new tree will help us get in with the gin crowd, there are other boozes we’ll be looking to make with a bumper juniper harvest. Our book, Brew it Yourself, has a few recipes requiring juniper, including a Viking inspired rye ale, while Rich has been guzzling a top notch juniper liqueur and is desperately trying to deconstruct it in order to make his own version.*

How to grow juniper trees from a sapling

Alice Vincent’s top tips

1 Make sure the soil is well-draining to ensure your juniper grows well in a wide range of temperatures. Junipers are really hardy and great for beginners so once you’ve planted it there’s not much TLC required.

2 The juniper sapling provided is a plug plant, which means it comes with its ready to go in compost. You can plant it all year round.

3 You can grow Junipers in a large plant pot or in your garden. Make sure the area is free of weeds and other plants.

4 Dig a hole about double the size of the rootball and surrounding compost, and gently tease out the roots.

5 Pop the rootball into the hole and gently pat the soil around it. Give it a good drink of water.

6 For the first two weeks, water your Juniper two to three times a week. Then let it be – if it gets too wet, it won’t be happy!

7 Little further cultivation should be required. Wait for the plant to start producing the wonderful Juniper berry!

Get your limited edition gin from Waitrose or order your own juniper sapling from Portobello Gin’s website www.portobelloroadgin.com

Our fibreglass planter came from planters-online.co.uk

*Junique, a white wine/juniper liqueur – well worth seeking out if you have a penchant for juniper. And wine. Tastes amazing over ice. Get some here.

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/08/how-to-grow-juniper-and-start-gin-garden-portobello/

Review: Charles Bentley Bistro Set

Let us be clear, this summer has not really been the weather for outdoor dining. Late spring saw us galavanting around the garden with fistfuls of BBQ-ed meats, skipping around in flip-flops and sniffing armfuls of fragrant blooms. But the moment the kids broke up for school holidays, Monsoon Season UK announced itself and ruined everything. Ever since, our outdoor excursions have been confined to rain-dodging dashes to the brewing shed for supplies before skulking back inside to sulk in front of Netflix.

But we live in hope of a sunny September, when we can kick back and relive the sun-kissed delights of alfresco dining. We managed to get our fists on a nice bistro set just before the weather turned nasty – it’s a swanky one from Bentley that ticks all the boxes. Well-constructed and sure footed, it will perch proudly on a patio, decking or balcony garden. Made from steel and painted with a coated powder finish means it’s maintenance free – just give it a cursory wipe down to remove any spilled Bolognese – and comes in a variety of colours, from soft hued lilac to zingy lemon yellow.

You can fold down the table and chairs faster than shouting ‘flash flood!’, and its slim profile means it doesn’t take up valuable space in the shed; space that could be filled with other, more precious items – such as sacks of apples and bottles of booze.

Cider season will soon be upon us and the table and chairs will be replaced on the patio by the cider press. But for now, we dream of sitting betwix the welcoming metal limbs of our Bentley Bistro Set – Bolognese optional; pint of cider, compulsory.

Charles Bentley Bistro Set
Price: £69.99
Available from: BuyDirect4U

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/08/review-charles-bentley-bistro-set/

The five best new gins

Earlier this year we listed our ten favourite new gins for the Independent (you can read the piece here) and, since its publication, we’ve been regularly contacted by distilleries eager to shower us with booze for any potential updates. Every week it would seem another new gin or three is being released, often using interesting or unusual ingredients, and they’re mostly of an excellent quality. Being generous gin guzzlers we suggested we could publish an update on our own site. We would include the five best samples since that initial piece. And we would call it ‘The five best new gins’.

“Count us in” cried the distilleries –  so, without further wasted words of introduction, here they are…*

Marylebone Gin, 50.2%

£49.49 per 700ml bottle

This is a proper London Dry Gin, made in London and distilled to a boozy 50.2% ABV. It has gently floral aromatics and a big depth of flavour, but we like it best because you can really taste the juniper – fruity and bitter, crying out for a splash of tonic and a slice of lime. In fact it made such a good juniper accented G&T we used it as one of our g(u)inea pigs** for another Independent feature to find out the best drinks mixers*** (you can read that one here).

Click to buy a bottle

Nicholson London Dry Gin, 40.3%

£34.95 per 700ml bottle

With this spirit we’re taking you back to gin’s heyday and a booze originally made in 1736. It meets the ‘new’ criteria because it has only just been revived, using the Nicholson family’s recipe. It’s another London Dry Gin with prominent juniper flavours accompanied by some nice spice of coriander along with a bit of nutmeg and some fresh citrus notes. A top notch traditional gin.

Click to buy a bottle 

Slingsby Navy Strength Gin, 57%

£63.96 per 700ml bottle

If you thought Marylebone gin was strong, brace yourself for this nautical number distilled in Harrogate from the town’s famous spring water. Botanicals used include primrose, milk thistle and, perhaps inevitably for a Yorkshire product, rhubarb. Have a sip and you’ll be met with a joyous rush of booze but will also notice it’s surprisingly smooth. It’s quite a citrussy drink up front – and you should also be able to detect a few hints of that rhubarb – and it finishes in a well rounded swirl of mellow juniper flavours.

Click to buy a bottle

Earl Grey Forest Gin, 39.5%

£67.50 per 700ml bottle

We’re heading over to the Peak District for this special gin which comes in one of the most stunning ceramic bottles we’ve seen. Ingredients from the local forest go into the distillation and include pine, bilberry, gorse and moss. The gin then receives the addition of a locally blended Earl Grey tea, which itself includes bergamot and Sicillian lemon, along with local spring water. The result is a wonderfully complex drink, with subtle herby and woody flavours mingling with fruit and floral notes and releasing the comforting fragrances of the Earl Grey. Take your time with this one – it’s a bit special.

Click to buy a bottle

Durham Gin, 40%

£29.99 per 700ml bottle

“I’ve got to leave old Durham Town” warbled avuncular, mustachioed whistle-smith Roger Whittaker. He wouldn’t have been in such haste if he’d filled his cup with this tasty booze. Durham Gin is a London Dry Gin made from a savoury mix of ten botanicals, featuring the likes of cardamon, orris and celery seed. It’s a fresh, floral number with peppery overtones and a long smooth finish – just the ticket for a gin heavy G&T. Top marks marks too for the holographic-tastic bottle label which was inspired by the Rose Window – Durham Cathedral’s vast, stained glass-terpiece. 

Click to buy a bottle 

 

*All prices correct at time of publication)

**This wordplay isn’t working, is it? GINea pigs. Get it now? No? Hmm, sorry…

***And to complete the ‘new’ theme, try combining it with one of the ace new mixers from Double Dutch. We’re quite keen on the pomegranate and basil mixer, but they do some great tonics and ginger beer as well.

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from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2017/08/ive-best-new-gins-slingsby-nicholson-forest-earl-grey-marylebone-durham/