You will need the following to make the Ginger Beer.

1 sachet of brewers yeast

2lbs of sugar

1 jar of ground dried ginger

1 to 2  fresh lemons

1 sterilised jar the hold the ‘plant’

3 sterilised recycled ‘pop’ bottles

Milton sterilizing tablets or liquid to  sterilise the  jar and recycled plastic ‘pop’ bottles

Muslin cloth to  strain the ‘plant’

Ginger Beer Plant

1 sachet of brewers yeast

2 teaspoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of dried ginger

1 clean sterilised jar with cover

cooled boiled water

Add all the ingredients into the jar and stir.

For six days  add

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of ginger

To make the Ginger Beer

Now strain the liquid through some muslin.  Reserve half the contents of the plant to start a new one and pass the other half onto a friend.

Make a sugar syrup using 1 1/2 lbs sugar and 1 pint of water

When the sugar is dissolved add 5 pints of water

Add the juice of one lemon

Add the strained liquid from the ginger beer plant in the jar

Add to the recycled ‘pop’ bottles and leave until the bottles became hard to the touch (this will vary according to the temperature the bottles are stored in),  now place in the fridge or somewhere cool.

Ready to drink now.

The seedlings that were set in March are all growing on strongly, and have all been potted on to give them a little more room to grow, although the house is now looking something like a greenhouse as every window ledge seems to have some seedlings growing on it.

The first photo’ show my Lemon grass, this was grown from a piece bought at the local supermarket and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see it grow.

The second shows some of the squashes in their recycled coffee cups, I just wash them and snip a few holes in the bottom and hey presto they are ready to use to pot up!

The third show various tomatoes, some more lemon grass that’s not quite taken off yet, and some lovage, my new favourite herb.

The plan is now to use another side flower bed as a further bed for the runner or pole beans. It already has some rhubarb in so it is half way there. The flowers are going have some vegetables for company, I sure it will work out fine in the end.

In the Autumn or Fall I will deep mulch all these new beds using the method in Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, which I’m sure  will sort out the weeds and also improve the soil. This style of mulching is sometimes known as ‘lasange’ mulching because of the layers.  When it’s completed the beds shouldn’t need to be dug and that has to be the biggest bonus.

There were so many butterflies in the garden, and it is so good to see them.  Managed to capture an image on a photo’ but it doesn’t really do it justice, they are so beautiful.

This has been an experiment for me and I hope that if you try it you will agree that has been successful.

I will give alternatives to  give quicker results which I will go over in a later post.

I love the idea of using just four ingredients.  Its so simple and is so natural too.

The ‘plant’ is a simple natural yeast culture grow in a glass jar from the ginger.

You will need the following to make the Ginger Beer.

2lbs of sugar

1 piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb

1 to 2 fresh lemon

1 sterilised jar the hold the ‘plant’

3 sterilised recycled 2litre  ‘pop’ bottles

Milton sterilizing tablets or liquid to  sterilise the  jar and recycled plastic ‘pop’ bottles

Muslin cloth to  strain the ‘plant’

So to start the Ginger Beer ‘plant’ you will need the following.

A piece of fresh ginger (a couple of inches in size)

2 teaspoons sugar

cooled boiled water (warm rather than cold)

1 sterilised glass jar and cover

Stage 1

Grate the fresh ginger and add to the sterilised jar

Add the sugar

Add the cooled water

Keep in a warm place but if possible out of direct sunlight.

Stage 2

Stir  a teaspoon of sugar into the jar  everyday for a week

It should start to fizz after a couple of days and will smell lovely, if it does not then it is a case of starting again, none of mine failed but it can happen.

Stage 3

At the end of the week the ginger should be strained through some muslin, collect the corners of the muslin and squeeze out the residue, put back into a sterilised jar and repeat the previous stage again for one more week.

Stage 4

Heat one pint of water and 1lb 8oz sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Add five more pints of cold water

Strain the ginger as before, then add to the water and sugar mixture.

Add the juice of 1 or 2 Lemons

Grate another piece of ginger and strain through muslin and add to the water and sugar.

Taste the mixture at this point you can add more ginger if you want it a bit more fiery.

Bottle in sterilised plastic ‘pop’ bottles.

When the bottles have gone hard put in the fridge.

Its now ready to drink!

If you want to make another batch, save the  half ginger in the muslin mix with another grated piece of ginger  and put in a sterilised jar and add 2 teaspoons of sugar and cooled boiled water and the whole process begins again.

I used the yeast, ginger and sugar plant which I drained and added to some sugar syrup and fresh lemon juice.  Time will tell whether it worked or not.

My kitchen appears to be a working laboratory for ginger beer plants all at one stage or another, and now I have four jars at various stages and with various ingredients.

They are as follows:

• Fresh ginger and sugar – bubbling away happily having added more fresh ginger and sugar and water. It smells divine.
• Fresh ginger and sugar now drained of the fresh ginger and have added ground ginger and sugar, this is the second stage and the next will be to make the ginger beer.
• New plant started with brewers yeast, ground ginger, sugar and water.   I am told this will not taste so yeasty.

• Halved plant used to make the first batch of ginger beer, which I have added ground ginger, sugar and water to make another plant.

I had to go to the local brewing shop to buy the brewers yeast, and met the owner, who is such a very nice guy, he was so helpful.  I have promised to give him a fresh ginger plant when I half it.  He has not made ginger beer before so I would like his opinion as an expert home brewer of wine.

Should you need any home brewing produce or equipment or just advice he can be found here http://burghley-homebrew.com

The ginger beer that I have bottled today will be ready in a week or so and I can hardly wait.

I have planted out lots of the perennial geraniums that were grown by my late father-in-law, it gives me so much pleasure to have them in our garden, it brings him close and I’m sure he would be pleased to see them too.  He, of course would have known all their names and the Latin too, where as I,  I’m afraid to say only know them as perenial geraniums.  There were also other things that the geraniums had growing with them, like violets (the scented one) these too went out and fingers crossed will survive and flourish.

The garden furniture, now probably in its fifteenth year, had its yearly scrub, and some of the potatoes have been planted.  Hooray!

The carrots are showing signs of growth, and all the seeds in the house are growing rapidly.  Such a wonderful time of year, new beginnings and all that.  The pear trees are now all in bud, but no bullfinches spotted, we haven’t seen them for a few years now and always hope that they will appear again.

The daffodils are out and the tulips are not so  far behind them, I put in a few new tulips this year and can’t wait to see how they will look.

The shrubs are all starting to bud also and the mahonia is almost out in flower, it has a lovely scent.

There are several others also, but will get to those another day. I have some more lemon grass rooting and bought some elephant garlic too. Oh and the horse radish! Of course there was the rhubarb….what can I say, I just can’t go into a garden centre and come out with what I went in for, it just doesn’t happen and I’m sure I’m not alone in that! The temptation to try new things is over whelming.

The problem with this situation is that you have to find somewhere to put the plants later, but we have a lot of as yet unused space and the vegetable garden in now beyond its border and moving up the lawn with each year. Less mowing and more growing, that could be a new slogan for me. Think I’ll ‘tweet’ that one, moving forward towards permaculture.

The book I am reading is called Gaia’s Garden, a guide to home-scale permaculture by Toby Hemenway, It was recommended to me and is proving to be a inspiring read, even the forward by John Todd. How I wish I had had teachers like him. He tells of a fabulous experiment, done by filling a glass jar with samples from three or more water sources, seal on the lid, turn it upside down, leave on a sunny window ledge and watch life evolve. He says he has had his for years, and now I want to try this and watch a micro world evolve.  Well,  I believe it to be  worthwhile read,  even if you aren’t into gardening.

It’s a small step I know but a start, and once I start to build knowledge it will improve but until then I still have to work our beds in the same way as we always have.  Another half of one dug today and the ongoing  fight with the ivy which is killing the haw thorn hedge.  I bought some more hedging plants this week,  it will be more of a mix, black thorn, buck thorn, wild rose, elder black thorn and common dogwood.  It will make for a more diverse hedge row and also offer the opportunity to make jams and jellies from the fruit and berries it will produce.  I might also mention that black thorn is where sloe berries come from and they do mix exceedingly well with gin if left for some three months or so and the fruit that has been steeped in the gin then goes on to make absolutely wonderful liqueur chocolate.  So the fight with the ivy is not in vain it’s for the chocolate!

On the not so good side the aubergine seedlings have all died,  it was a trail, and as with all things some you win and lose some . The chilies are doing really well and now up to six leaves and will shortly need to be potted on.  The seeds that were  for free come out on top.

Have now interested my Mom in a window sill garden, she has  mustard and cress and some mixed leaf salad.  I cant think of anything more satisfying then to see seeds growing, even on a such a small scale, to me,  its such a worthwhile exercise.

If you are interested in finding out a little bit more about permaculture this site should give you an insight

I have also been trying to sort out the old compost heap.  I really would like to make it into a raised bed. At the moment it is full of bindweed and nettles, I really don’t mind the nettles to much but the bind weed is a plague and every piece has to be removed or else it just grows again. I wish I knew of some use for it, it would surely make me rich.

One of the other fascinations I have at the moment is the concept of permaculture, so very eco friendly.  It also  cuts  down on the labour needed too,  using lots of perennial plants.  Some we already have in the garden,  such as artichokes (globe and jerusalem), asparagus. Not forgetting the nettles, these are good to use up until June, as  a spinach substitute. This year I am determined to try and use them.