Cider - Bottling it

I've been making cider from a hotch potch of local apples for a few years now. I think the results are slowly improving, but others may choose to disagree.

The fermenting apple juice has been sitting patiently outside our backdoor all winter in an odd assortment of plastic 5 gallon containers. Some beachcombed and some reused old vegetable chain oil containers, whilst other are best left undescribed. With a reasonable (for cider) level of alcohol it never quite froze even at the worst of the temperatures, but all signs of fermentation ceased.



With such low temperatures there is also little chance of it going off. Once temperatures rise again with spring the fermentation continues. I racked the cider at some point (that is syphon it off the sediment) and then leave it again to finish working.

A final transformation can occur, when the malic acid turns to lactic acid, reducing the unpleasant acidity of the cider, so I tend to leave it in the barrels until temperatures are quite warm. It has happened that a cider so acidic that its almost undrinkable has turned out very well by June.

As I don't have a cellar or a cider room to keep it in the barrels I bottle it in order to keep it as long as I can. Mainly into 1 litre plastic bottles (the tonic/bitter lemon type mixer bottles hold pressure well and can be reused time after time very easily).




Occasionally if the cider merits it then I may also use some glass bottles. The two different ciders in the photo were bottled yesterday. The pale cider is made from our own Tom Putts apples in the front garden, whilst the almost brown cider is a combination of bramley, cox and russet from an orchard near Godalming which is slowly being renovated.

The difference in colour is partly down to the apples and partly to the length of time the pomace was left before pressing. Also I used some water and suger with the Tom Putts to fill the barrel. Purists would not approve but I am not above using water, sugar and yeast where needed. I tend to use sugar to increase the alcohol content if the apples are low in sugar and water to keep the barrels topped up. I always ferment to a dry cider, but then add a small amount of suger (1 teaspoon per quart) to prime the bottles as I have found this can improve keeping and sometimes some fizz can make a average cider more palatable. Cheers!

The Charcloth Experiment

My nephews James and Christopher have been staying with us this week and we managed to fit in some time for a little woody work.


Christopher was very keen to try making some charcloth and as I've never tried it I donated an old cotton T-shirt for the experiment. I've only recently learnt of charcloth, which apparently is the material often used to catch the sparks from a flint or steel when making fire.


Meanwhilst James was busy making a new shelter with a stick frame and bracken covering.



Back at the charcloth Experiment. The pure cotton material is rolled up and the rolls fitted into a suitable tin, in this case a golden syrup tin. The process is very similar to making charcoal. The aim being to cook the cloth until its perfectly charred but to avoid it burning to ash.




With the lid fitted the tin is placed in the fire. A hole has been drilled in the lid allowing the smoke to escape.
Once the lid stops producing smoke the cloth is charred, the tin is removed from the fire and the hole plugged with a suitable stick whilst the tin cools. The first attempts were a little trial and error, but in the end we produced some quite charred cloth which looks as if it might do the job. Unfortunately my steel spark striker wasn't good enough to produce an ember, though we got as far as some somke. More practice needed I think, although perhaps Christopher will have succeeded by the time I've posted this article.

Weald and Downland Weekend

One of the magical things about the Weald & Downland Museum is the sense of tranquility that I get through being there and that's concentrated once the visitors leave. The water mill is one of my favourite buildings even though its very hard to photograph.


Even at the busies times there are parts of the museum that remain calm and in the early morning, or a late summer evening it's quite special. The water wheel is around the back of the building and it's not until the evening that the sun gets onto the moss covered blades.


After a busy show day it's a good way to wind down to take a gentle wander round the site and let the quiet seep back into me.


Another building that's hard to photograph is the old smithy with its collection of iron tyres propped up outside.

This weekend I took my camera on a walk as well and couldn't resist taking some photos that I hope capture the special nature of the place.

Polelathe - Heavy Horses show

This weekend was the Heavy Horses and working animals show at the Weald and Downland museum. It's one of the biggest days in the museum calendar and this year the weather was excellent for a change.




One of the star attractions is the horse drawn steam fire pump which charges around the arena before extinguishing a small thatched structure. In the hot weather the thatch really blazed up and putting it out was a challenge.


Next to me in the smithy Robert and Carol were hard at work on both days of the show. In the summer I don't envy them working in the forge, but in the autumn it will be a different matter entirely.



As well as the horses the museum also works two pairs of oxen which are used for a range of farming tasks.


For most of the day the combination of my shelter and the oak tree I pitch under keep me cool and shady, but in the evening as the sun gets lower it floods my workspace with light.


I almost consigned some alder to the firewood pile having failed to work it before it dried out. But in splitting it I noticed that the grain looked interesting and when I tried turning it I found it had accidentally spalted really well with very interesting grain patterns, here making a pair of door wedges and a door knob. Not surprisingly they sold almost immediately.

Greenwood - Working in the woodyard

I joined in the activities in the woodyard at the Weald & Downland museum on Thursday. Luckily I missed the all day torrential rain on Wednesday and although a little moist to start it was a pleasant day in the woods.


I was there to make besom brooms and put into practive everything I learnt from Alan on the recent course. Ben and John were aiming to make charcoal in an oil drum as a demonstration so it was a bit of a bus man's holiday for me. The oil drum is a quick demonstration in comparison to the large kilns or an earth burn and it will make charcoal in the small quantities used in the museum work to fill in between other burns.

You may have heard of horse logging and even oxen logging. This week was donkey logging as the donkeys hauled out poles for the hop field and delivered loads of split firewood to the houses.


This english oak frame being put together has given me a few ideas for the new garden shed I'm designning, although not on quiten the same scale and probably not with the complicated joints. which I'm told are dovetail lap joints originating from Germany.


Ben was working on various wagon parts and John made a birch whisk for the tudor kitchens in between the donkey logging and charcoal making. The birch spray had been boiled for hours the day before to help remove the bark. This picture was taken before the head was trimmed.

And of course nothing much can happen in the woods without a fire.

I did actually get to make a few brooms despite my interest in all the other activities in the yard. For the next 3 days I will be demonstrating in my normal pitch by the smithy at the museum.

A visit to the Fire Station

On Saturday I was demonstrating at a new local event, one that we hope will become a regular fixture, the Heathland Wildfire Awareness event at Haslemere fire station.

Heathland fires are a regular problem at this time of year in Surrey and Sussex. Many are small, but with a breeze and the right conditions the heath can burn fiercely turning into a dangerous and destructive inferno.

I've not tried to demonstrate on tarmac before and it was a bit of a challenge but it all went off well in the end.


There was an interesting range of displays including the animals and plants that colonise or graze the heaths as well as the crafts and products from them. The HCT displayed snakes and lizards, and Dave Elliot (who supplies me with bees wax) had some of his bees there and gave a talk. Unfortunately I was busy on my stand and couldn't get to the talks. Hopefully next year.

We had a small fire last year , the result of people camping on the common overnight and not taking care to put out the campfire.



I have a friend who used to tell me it was good for business, but not many people are building and selling fire engines to replace those lost in heath fires.

OK, I admit it. It was all an excuse to take pictures of Haslemere's fire engines, including their Landrover seen here with the monster new machine intended to cope with the heathland terrain. In fact when we were clearing up I noticed that what with the red landrovers, green ones, brown and blue ones, it seems admission was by landrover. Mine was by far the oldest though.

Well done to Mark Busby and Haslemere Fire Station for organising an excellent event. We're looking forward to next year's show. Now where was I....Pew, Pew, Barney, McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.........................

Lynchmere Common - Letting the Wolves loose

No, we've not gone mad. But if I've got this right, the class of Camelsdale primary school that was let loose on the Lynchmere commons on Friday is called 'Wolves'. I had one bin burning when they arrived and then we opened up the three that I'd burnt the night before to find the charcoal.




The artist's charcoal worked well and it was a hit with the class. I particularly liked this selection of pictures drawn on one of the boards I use at the site.

We went to find some more willow sticks to make more artists charcoal as the had class managed to use most that I'd made. We finished with a group photo on the trunk of a windblown birch tree.


Once the Wolves had left I was able to get on and burn the rest of the bins. The breeze was quite fickle and kept changing around. When it does this the smoke can get hung up in the trees creating some fantastic effects with the sunlight.


With all the bins going it was time to relax for a bit and cook my favourite meal - all day breakfast in the woods.

Lynchmere Common - It's all going green

Everything's going green, or is that growing green. In just a few weeks so much has changed on the commons. The brown colours of winter have burst through the riot of spring colour and now are moving into the mass of green-ness that is summer. It seems much harder to take good pictures as everything just turns out green.

Now that there is plenty of lush vegetative growth the cows have been let loose on the commons. They have been off over the winter to let the vegetation recover and avoid overgrazing.



This year the cattle on the commons are very young and extremely inquisitive. They are attracted to noise and activity. While I was splitting wood and then setting off the charcoal bins on Thursday evening they browsed around me for a couple of hours.

The Shetland cattle are very well suited to browsing the wide range of vegetation and seem as happy grazing through the young birch, gorse and holly as they are with grass. No doubt it's their background coming from the Shetland isles where they evolved to cope with little to forage other than heather during the harsh winters.

In our experience the cattle soon learn a wide and varied taste for plants on the common. We're very interested to learn which plants the cattle browse during the year and are encouraging everyone to record and tell us when they spot them grazing.


The afternoon was windy and sunny which pushed the smoke from the charcoal bins through the woods creating patterns with the light.




In preparation for a visit from a local primary school on Friday I decided to try making artist's charcoal using some willow cut recently. After packing tightly into a tin and binding with wire the box was placed into one of the bins once it was burning well.










As usual time flew by and it was close to sunset before I was able to shut down the last of the bins for the night. The intention was to be able to empty the bins for the school visit as well as set off another burn while they are there.

Polelathe - A star turn

I'm going to get my posts a little out of order. Over the last few days I've been quite busy including a number of shows and events which I have yet to post on. But today was the Surrey County show and Merrist Wood invited me to demonstrate polelathe turning on their stand and to represent the countryside management courses on one of which I teach polelathe turning.

I know the award winning team, Derek and Spanner, are expecting me to put up a post this evening and I'd hate to disappoint.

I've not attended the Surrey County show before, and to be honest I've steered clear of it as its a bit big, commercial and a lot of hassle for a one day show. But Derek talked me into it, and so today was something of an experiment.




Despite dark skies and an early rain shower the weather brightened up and it was a hot day, ending the run of bad weather for the show in recent years.

I prefer not to hog the limelight, so I hadn't been expecting the pleasure of a 'star' turn with a radio mike, working against the clock to do a solo log-to-leg race. But one good turn deserves another as they say and in the end things went very well.





A log to leg race is where we start with a round log, split out a blank and then make a chair leg on the lathe as quickly as we can. Normally we make 2 legs together, but on this occasion I made one leg for each session.


There were several of us with short slots, including Keith, shearing some of the college flock of black sheep and Zak with chainsaw carving.





My favourite tractor at Merrist Wood, where it's known as Number 6, was used to make a giant crane game for the kids. Just like the old arcade games but a tonka toy version. There was a queue for this game most of the day. Here Joe is helping the children from the safety of the cab pick up and move the brightly painted pieces of wood.








The Merrist Wood College stand won a first place at the show and well deserved congratulations to Derek, Spanner and the whole team who put on a great show for the crowds. It was great fun to be a part of the team.

Greenwood - The Moracle

I came back from the bodgers ball with more than I bargained for.


Is it a new eco-friendly roof box for vintage landrovers?

No. it's another project that I will need to fit into the next few weeks somehow.






It turns out that Barry was halfway through making a coracle.

But in true Barry fashion it is a strange mix of the modern and the traditional - sort of a modern coracle, or as Alison told me - 'the moracle'.

I quite like the pink baler twine, but I think the softwood plank will have to go. The stitching of the fabric around the sides remains to be completed and then tarred.

An excuse to make a paddle or two I think.