So, the beginning of January is here and
there is nothing to forage, I haven't learnt to hunt yet and still need to figure out my menu, so I’ve been thinking about the ingredients that I
may have a problem sourcing.
My first thought went to alcohol, and what
I can do to achieve my goal of having beer at my feast. Beer is a simple theory. You need water, a starter yeast, some malted barley and hops. When I actually get round to making the beer, I'll deal with the hops, but my brain went into overdrive today regarding the barley.
I spoke to a work colleague who is an amateur brewer and been advised
that for around 20 litres of beer, I will need 5kg of malted barley. So, malted barley – where can I get
that? I’ve been told that buying from
brewery shops, it would cost £5 for the amount that I need. “That is very reasonable, a fiver for twenty
litres of beer” thought I, and there was the temptation to reach into my wallet
and haul out a crisp note. Then the
realisation of my challenge set in. It
isn’t that I can’t afford five pounds for the barley, I can, but my budget
doesn’t allow me to.
A fiver is a sixth of my total budget for
every consumable item on my Christmas dining table. I figure I’m going to have to buy things
like dairy products, sugar, maybe some spices and these ingredients aren't cheap. So not to eat up all the budget, I realised I am going to have to change my mindset as I
simply cannot afford to spend this money on barley to make beer. If I want beer, I am going to have to make it for free, and I'm also going to have to find a lot of things for free.
I also need to figure out how I can bottle
this beer. I have easy access to empty
beer bottles, but I can’t seal those with caps unless I spend money on them –
again, something I can’t afford, so I need to find a source of swing top
bottles, like the ones that are used by Grolsch. Any ideas folks?
On a positive note, I’ve had some advice
regarding veggies. Tim Butler who runs
The Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews has suggested upturned grow bags for
growing all the root vegetables that I will need. With a little lateral thinking, I realized
that can make my own grow bags. There
are many farms around where I live, and they have horses. In the next few days (once the farmer’s new
year hangovers have subsided) I plan to approach a few farms with the hope that
I can clear out their stables and collect the horse manure. Sure, it means scooping a lot of poop, but it
contains the nutrients that potatoes and parsnips need. Combining this with some soil and then filling the mix into jute bags will be my first step, before leaving for a few months to compost down. Then, come the springtime, I should have a
DIY grow bag in which to plant my root veg for Christmas. As I’m going to have to grow these at the
front of my house, half way up a cliff with a public footpath running by, the
jute sacks will also look much better than a plastic grow bag and stop the local preservation society moaning that I'm making my house look messy - I hope!
