Selfsufficientish.com

Thanks all for your thoughts and ideas. Green Aura: he was extremely apologetic and offered to buy me some wine but I decided it wasn't replaceable, it was the time and effort I'd lost and commercial wine would be no recompense. Though I was very disappointed, it wasn't the only blackberry wine I ma...

I have two demijohns* which leak around the bung. I tried different bungs, tried pushing the bung in tighter and making sure it's moist but the glugging soon comes to a stop, a sure sign it's not sealed. Can they be redeemed somehow or should they be thrown out? If no fix is available, can they be r...

I've had mixed success over the years with fruit (non-grape) wines but it nearly always turns out at least pleasant and drinkable and a fair proportion is very pleasant indeed. Sometimes I've made some and found it disappointing, then put it aside and tried it again a couple of months later only to ...

What happened? How many gallons did you make with how fruit in each and how did it turn out? I've made both blackcurrant and gooseberry wines a few times and certainly the former received some very positive comments and I've enjoyed the latter except for the first attempt My main mistake on my first...

I'd say first check the weight of the fruit you have, you may have enough. The plum wine recipe I use recommends 4lb (1.8kg) for a gallon but I have one fermenting now with only 3 1/4 lb plums and it's tasting reasonably 'normal' tonight. I've never really done mixed fruit wine so can't say what's b...

2 gallons of blackberry 1 gallon of 'plum' (graveyard mix)* 1 gallon of blackcurrant I still have a gallon of raspberry, some lemon and sultana, and a couple of bottles of 'gooseberry champagne' in old-style pressure lemonade bottles. *I found a churchyard in a nearby village with a couple of trees ...

I agree: don't blanch. (funny word)

I'm sure I used to blanch them years ago but they were always disappointing (soft) when thawed.
Now I don't wash them, just slice and put them in bags or plastic boxes and they're much better.

What to do with them?

Plum Wine!

I *bought* a bottle of walnut liqueur many years ago with my left-over Lire at an Italian airport. It was smooth but I could never really say I liked it much. People who tried it didn't hate it but didn't want a second helping.

If you do try doing this, I'd be interested to hear how yours does.

I was wondering today whether it's usual for people who lean towards greenness to have houses full of cr*p which just might come in useful at some point in the future.

Mine certainly is and it's because I can't throw out something which I think might come in useful.

If the police are interested in catching people stealing what someone throws out, their priorities are wrong! Can you imagine the desk sergeant answering a 999 call and saying "well it may be against your company policy but we have genuine calls to deal with, involving crimes of violence and propert...

I have several square metres worth from the bathroom and I'm not sure what to do with them. A lot are broken but many are not. I've already chucked out some in small pieces. They still have tile adhesive so quite rough. Can I use them in cement mix for a clothes post hole? I suppose they might be us...

It's amazing how you can't think of a sentence involving apostrophes when you need one... Other folk's aren't so fussy - they just spread apostrophe's around indiscriminately... :wink: What? Three times as many as there should be? You'll wear it out. :tongue: I've definitely had this odd behaviour ...

I like Martin's advice but not tried Tiscali. Can I suggest plusnet? I've been with them for about six months and no trouble at all. More to the point a VERY particular (ie will complain if any little thing is wrong) friend likes them. £10 a month for 1GB download suits me for browsing for hours a ...

Try another OS. For instance Ubuntu, a variety of Linux is free (both in the 'not constrained' sense as well as costing you nowt) and is easy to install and use. Really, it is. I tried varieties of Linux in the past and had trouble installing and configuring it and gave up but this is just a breeze....