Welcome To Dorset!
Wot's this then?
This website is designed to be a pictorial log of living, growing veggies, foraging, breadmaking and stuff in the beautiful English county of Dorset.
My name is Simon, I am a freelance database designer and IT consultant. My wife Sue, and I are lucky to be able to rent a reasonably nice house near a nice part of the UK called Sherborne. Sometimes we don't feel so lucky - like when pipes burst, mice and squirrels invade the house, rabbits eat all our home grown veggies and cluster files - well, basically they cluster! Oh, well, living in the country is nice but you have to share it with the creechers!
Foraging in the Hedgerow
We love foraging stuff from the hedgerows. Elderberries to brew elderberry, jam and medicinal juices with. Blackberries for wine, jam and juices. Nettles make a lovely soup and an exploding beer - I'll post the details of the 'nuclear' nettle beer someday! Don't forget the Hawthorn berries - we call 'em Haws (that's not rude!), rosehips, sloes, crab apples, wild garlic, dandelions - there's just so much!
You can have a look at my Hedgerow page for pictures and stories from the local area.
We make our own bread from a natural sourdough starter that we have lovingly nurtured for over a year - he's almost a family member!
We like to grow our own veg as it tastes nicer and is more healthy - in reality I'm a tight old wotsit and don't like spending money!
Foraging in the Supermarket?
Foraging does not need to done just in the countryside - I include looking out for huge bargains in supermarkets as foraging. I haven't been able to bring myself to rummage in the bins yet but maybe one day...... Some of my favourite 'forages' have included buying amazingly cheap parsnips from Tescos to make home made parsnip wine and parsnip bread. Very cheap, almost stale bread makes lovely bread pudding and we bought a lot of plums last year that have been turned into jam.
We also 'forage' at our local recycling centre. They have a little 'shop' there, where for a very low price you can buy some pre-loved stuff. I usually get all my demijohns for wine making here - they are usually VERY filthy and take a lot of cleaning but the savings are huge! The next time I get a really dirty demi john I'll maybe do a video a post on how to clean them.
Home Made Wine & Jam
I've made a lot of wine over the last few years. Some of it very nice and some of it absolutely disgusting! Sue has made some lovely jams and syrups.
I'll be telling the stories of successes and failures here.
Here's the complete story in pictures of me having a go at home made supermarket juice wines like the world famous Worzels' Orange Wine.
We've had quinces donated from friends to make home brew quince wine, quince jam and quince cheese. The wine was nasty, but the Quince Jelly and 'cheese' was yummy!
Bucket loads of dandelions were picked in the spring of 2010 to make homemade dandelion wine and dandelion syrup. Again the wine was 'orrible but the dandelion syrup was very nice, but... way too much work!
Simon is a real miser , so where ever possible all the home brew equipment, fermenting vessels, demijohns or carboys should be cheap or even better - free!
Enough waffle - use the links at the top to navigate around the site and don't forget to send and e-mail with your comments!
Did you say Database Design?
Talking about relational database design (well you might have been!), why not have a look at the QiSQL Database page? This wonderful site covers SQL Database design, relational database implementations and a free SQL tutorial - you know it makes sense Rodney!