Making Damson Jam/Jelly

Damson Jam is easily my favourite jam to eat. Sweet bit with a hint of sharpness! 

But with so many stones it can be a pain to make.

Here's a video of how we make it and make sure we have no stone in it!

Let me know what you think!

What's your favourite type of homemade jam?

Making An Insulated Pantry Door

The pantry project is moving forward!

I've decided to upgrade the door to this storage room. What I want to make sure is that the kitchen stays warm and the pantry stays cool. Having a door with insulation in it and having it well sealed will help me do this.

This video is quite carpentry based but shows how I went about making a new door. Not traditional construction but hopefully a few will find it interesting!

Let me know what you think.

Tomato - Sweet Current

At the Hereford Seed Swap earlier in the year a lady I was speaking to recommended I grow a tiny type of tomato. 

It's because we were talking about my grazing children and how they love to pick at fruit around the garden.

Blackberry Cake

I don't have to guess where my children have their passion for free food. 

My youngest daughter even said to me the other night that it;s such a good year for blackberries. And they do seem particularly good this year, sweet and plentiful!  Although I did catch one of them planting blackberries in the veg garden to increase next years harvest!

Teaching Bushcraft

Over the summer I had an unusual opportunity come my way. 

I talked about this in a previous post where I was preparing to teach my first ever bush craft lesson.

Apple Storage Rack

I made a load of fruit crates a while ago that stack together to store our apple harvest. 

These have been great in some ways. It gives a good airy store place and allows apples to sit for a long time. The downside is that because they stack you can only access the top tray. I wanted something a bit different, more like drawer unit. I'd seen many online but wanted something a bit bigger to fit the space I had.

Children Playing Bake Off

As a family there is a few programmes we watch together, one of these is The Great British Bake Off. The kids just love it and are always inspired by it. 

All of this year they've been playing "Play-dough Bake Off" at every opportunity. They get their play dough out, we set them a theme and then they get to it. My youngest will run round shouting "3 minutes left!" and the girls will panic to finish at the end - just like the program.

Old Newspaper

When I was ripping out the old kitchen I pulled out some old newspaper out of an old blocked off chimney.

One was from the Ledbury Evening News July 7th 1975 and advert from the classifieds:

I love the thought of going to get peas like this!


And the second was from The Sun and an advert for chief engineers on an Antarctic expedition.

 I think the readership of the Sun might have changed somewhat from those times! 

What old snippets of history have you found while working on a property?

Ideally I'd like to find a pot of gold...

Brimfield Vintage Working Day 2019

After speaking to a family friend the other day about an item of machinery for one of my articles, he mentioned that it was their vintage working day this weekend.

Now we often go for a day out with Grandma (my mum) but not very often with Granddad (my dad) and I thought this would be perfect for him as well as he normally goes to it every year anyway.