Newsletter
Help put the fizz into the Flower ShowBy Jon Swain
Know your onions? With only a fortnight to go ’til July 15th mine are still too small to become acquainted with. Are your courgettes lacking in the ‘Cor!’ factor? How do your broad beans look? Mine are somewhat narrow, and as for my runner beans, they are not yet under starter’s orders!
Don’t worry if your produce is suffering in the drought, there are lots of other classes to enter. Why not enter the baking classes or the handicrafts?
I note that class 75 is a bottle of Ginger Beer. I have got my back-up team investigating recipes: this one is from the W.I.:
25g
(1oz) root ginger, 15g (½ oz) cream of tartar,
1 lemon, 5 litres (1 gallon) water, 450g (1lb) white sugar,
dried yeast (a sachet).
Put crushed ginger, cream of tartar and thin strips of lemon rind in large bowl,
cover with boiling water, add sugar and stir till dissolved.
Cool, add yeast and lemon juice; measure the quantity of liquid
and make up to 5 litres (1 gallon) with water.
Cover with a thick cloth and leave in a warm room until fermentation starts.
Skim off scum. Siphon off liquid WITHOUT disturbing yeast deposit.
Bottle and cork a.s.a.p. Make sure bottles are sterilised.
The beer is ready to drink as soon as it is charged with carbon dioxide.
Drink soon!
1 lemon, 5 litres (1 gallon) water, 450g (1lb) white sugar,
dried yeast (a sachet).
Put crushed ginger, cream of tartar and thin strips of lemon rind in large bowl,
cover with boiling water, add sugar and stir till dissolved.
Cool, add yeast and lemon juice; measure the quantity of liquid
and make up to 5 litres (1 gallon) with water.
Cover with a thick cloth and leave in a warm room until fermentation starts.
Skim off scum. Siphon off liquid WITHOUT disturbing yeast deposit.
Bottle and cork a.s.a.p. Make sure bottles are sterilised.
The beer is ready to drink as soon as it is charged with carbon dioxide.
Drink soon!
If you don’t have traditional glass bottles for lashings of ginger beer, those plastic fizzy drinks bottles may do instead (be sure to put lids on very firmly). The recipe is suitably vague as to how long it takes, but the yeast started acting within an hour.
Wanted:
BOOKS for book stall – John Cameron 864790.
CAKES for teas – Marilyn Burrows 837434 (better still donate half your cake after judging).
CHILDREN’S TOMBOLA – toys, crayons, books, etc. NEW (not second-hand please) to Anne Kenyon 862585.
And don’t forget the dance – tickets phone 837450.