The Bridge Cottage Kitchen - The Bridge Cottage

Kombucha Brewing

January 22, 2023/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen, Indoors, Sustainable Living/by Sue Reed

Kombucha Brewing

Kombucha Brewing

I first stumbled across kombucha, that lightly fermented fizzy drink made from sugar and tea, and a culture called a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) when in November 2019 I gave up booze and was looking for a grown-up drink that wasn’t sweet and sickly and didn’t cost a fortune.

Not that you have to have given up alcohol to enjoy drinking kombucha. Kombucha has health benefits all of its own.

Rather than type out their words and risk being accused of plagiarism, here is a post from those good folk at BBC Good Food, sharing some of the alleged health benefits of drinking kombucha.

Health Benefits of Kombucha

Not being prepared to part with large sums of money for shop-bought kombucha, I set about learning to make my own.

I am sure there are far better guides to making your own kombucha that the one I am going to share with you. When I started, I went to The Happy Pear, a jolly couple of lads from Ireland who are both pleasing to the eye and full of sound advice about healthy living. I watched their YouTube video and it told me all I needed to know.

The Happy Pear Kombucha Brewing Video

However, here is how I brew it.

FIRST FERMENT

You will need:

Kombucha Brewing – A scoby floating in the brew,

A Scoby – Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. This is the being that floats or bobs about, doing its magic to turn sweetened tea into kombucha. With each new batch a new baby scoby is formed, so if you know someone already who brews their own kombucha, then see if they have a baby scoby you can adopt.
Failing that, head online – I got mine from Happy Kombucha who also do starter kits, have full instructions and guides and are generous with their advice.

Tea: You then need cooled, fermented tea. Green tea or black tea – take your pick. I like the freshness of taste that comes with green tea kombucha and like to think it is even healthier. use four tea bags or two tablespoons tea. Use around 2 litres boiled water to make your tea.

If you have a filter jug, kombucha prefers filtered water or spring water – but don’t go buying plastic bottles!! We don’t want any more non disposable plastic in the world.

Sugar: 150g – 180g granulated sugar.

Add sugar to the tea – don’t worry, the sugar is fermented out!

So, brew up a batch of tea and sugar and leave to cool.

Wide Necked Jar: Without squeezing the tea bags, drain your cold tea into a wide necked jar. I’m using these wide necked glass jars that I got from a local delicatessen – they were olive jars.

Top us with cooled water.

Another word of warning – scobies don’t like metal – so don’t strain your tea through a metal sieve or stir with a metal spoon. I’ve found a cotton cloth bag bought for straining nuts of making vegan milk to be great. I got mine from Amazon, but other sellers are available I’m sure. I even take off my rings to be extra kind.

Kombucha Brewing

Then lower your scoby along with around 200ml starter liquid from a previous batch or the liquid your scoby arrived with. Wish him happy brewing, cover and leave in a warmish place for around 10 days.

SECOND FERMENT

Kombucha Brewing – second ferment

You should by now have a healthy-looking white rubbery crust on top of your kombucha. Congratulations, you have made a kombucha baby! This can be popped into a scoby nursery with some of the fermented liquid, passed on to a friend or put on the compost heap. We have a septic tank here, and I like to think that if kombucha keeps my gut healthy then maybe it will do the same for the septic tank. But how can we flush our babies down the loo? Give it a new home, and encourage your friends to take up kombucha brewing too.

Pressure Bottles Into sterilised pressure bottles – like the ones Grolsh use for beer – the ones with metal swing tops. Add a tsp of sugar ( I find coconut sugar works well) and any flavouring you want to add. You can leave it plain, but the addition of some natural flavouring can be fun. As we’re huge fans of seasonal eating, we make this depending on what’s available.

Lime and ginger to flavour kombucha in the second ferment

Flavouring Strips of ginger or lime/lemon zest work well, apple slices or fresh raspberries or blackberries too. – experiment and let us know on social media what you prefer.Now, siphon your kombucha through the nut bag and into a jug, then pour it into your sterilised bottles, making sure any fluid used for sterilising is rinsed away. Leave for another week.

There are two schools of thought on burping. Some burp and some don’t. It depends on how much fizz you want. If you don’t release the pressure, make sure you open your kombucha over the sink.

Then store it in the fridge! This should arrest the fermenting process but still open with caution.

Enjoy the taste, health benefits & sustainability of your home-brewed kombucha.

Kombucha Brewing – the outtake

Now for the outtake! It’s not easy pouring kombucha with one hand whilst taking a photo with the other. Note to self – use a tripod and camera timer!!

In case you’re wondering if I’m still totally alcohol-free? No. I gave up for just shy of a year, and during that time, reset my relationship with booze, but when Tim sold his accountancy business and retired, I shared a bottle of very decent red wine with him and I do still love a gin and tonic!

For other posts on fermented food and seasonal eating, head back to the kitchen, or why not pop into the garden to see what’s growing or what jobs can be done?

If you’d like to join the gentle rhythm of our four newsletters that come out via Substack, on the Spring and Autumn Equinox and Winter and Summer Solstices, then sign up here:

The Bridge Cottage Way Newsletter on Substack.

To follow Sue’s writing journey and hear about other published work, her debut, The Rewilding of Molly McFLynn and other writing, sign up to Sue Reed Writes on Substack or hunt her out on her social media and website of that name.

Want to leave a comment? We’d love to hear from you

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

January 14, 2023/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot.

As I sit down to write about making my own fermented vegetable stock, a weak winter sun peers through the pines opposite. It doesn’t even clear the tops in these long dark days, and in this Northumbrian frost pocket, warming food is called for. Tim’s just come in from the garden rubbing his hands that have gone white with cold on the ends. He’s been pruning the apple trees. ‘Soup’s ready, I say’.

It’s a lentil soup today, make with a tablespoon of fermented vegetable stock, leeks, carrots, celery and red lentils. I wrote last week about the basics of soup making in Seasonal Eating with Warming Winter Soups, with a recipe for Parsnip and Chestnut Soup, but as promised then, today I’m going to talk about the stock.

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

If you open the fridge, you’ll find a jar I call the ‘fizzing stock pot’. It’s a jar of fermented vegetables blitzed to a fine paste that has been allowed to ferment with the addition of salt water.

The ancients used fermentation as a way of preserving food and drink before fridges came on the scene. Here’s the science: there is controlled microbial growth and enzyme action in fermented foods that simply put, change some of the food’s parts into others. Microorganisms, bacteria, yeast or fungi convert organic substances like sugars and starch into alcohol or acids which act as natural preservatives as well as enhance the taste and texture.

Fermented foods have a distinctive strong, salty, slightly sour taste. If you watched the Hairy Bikes ‘Go Local In Northumberland’ last night, you’ll have seen them visit Belle and Herbs Fermentary in Wallsend and talk about fermented foods and their kimchi in particular. We are lucky to have both Bell and Herbs and Meraki Cacao from last night’s programme come to Hexham Farmer’s Market.

Health Benefits of Fermented Food

Fermentation gives us probiotics from bacteria which can restore the balance of bacteria in your gut, supporting digestive health.
Fermented food is easy to digest as some of the natural sugars and starches are already broken down.
The vitamins and minerals produced by fermented food are easier to absorb,
Understanding of the link between gut health and mood and behaviour is an evolving science. It is believed that some of the strains of probiotic bacteria found in fermented foods can help with anxiety and depression, and may produce cortisol, minimising the physical symptoms of stress.
Fermented foods can reduce blood pressure and address cholesterol balance, improving heart health.

That’s quite enough explanation of fermented foods for one week. Back to our stock pot!

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Packaging and transportation besides, most commercially produced vegetable stock contains additives that I don’t want in my food. Once you start making your own fermented veg stock, you’ll soon realise how much the taste not to mention the health benefits of your soup is enhanced by it. And it’s easy to make! You’ll need a jar with an airtight lid.

Ingredients for Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Ingredients

I don’t want to be too prescriptive here – use what you have in! Experiment and don’t be too exact!

In this latest batch of stock, we used:

Onions – a medium-sized brown and small red

3 sticks celery

2 carrots

A slice of celeriac

½ small parsnip (we find the taste of parsnip can be overpowering is too much is used)

Couple cloves garlic

A few leaves each of parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary

A pinch of pink peppercorns and a couple of black,

½ tsp each of coriander, fennel and cumin seeds

Sea salt.

2 large or 3-4 small bay leaves

Chopped vegetables for Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Method

Roughly chop all the veg and blitz in a food processor with the green herbs.

Pestle and Mortar for grinding spices for Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Dry fry the spices and seeds in a small pan over low heat then grind with a pestle and mortar, coffee grinder or whatever you have to hand. A lump hammer might have to suffice!

Mix into the veggies.

Weigh the mixture and calculate what 4% of this is – ie if you have 100g, then you will need 4g of salt. Add 4% of the weight in salt and mix well. Pack into the jar until the paste comes about half an inch or 1cm from the top. Cover with bay leaves.

Fermented Vegetable Stock Pot

Press down on the bay leaves to get a briny liquid from the sea salt and veggies. If this doesn’t appear, make a bit of brine yourself – 2g sea salt and 50ml water should do the trick.

Pop the lid on and stand on a small plate or saucer.

We now pop it in our airing cupboard. It needs to be somewhere warm but not hot: ‘room temperature’ but here at Bridge Cottage most rooms are Baltic by day!

Leave it now for a few days. You can leave it for over a week. Once it starts fizzing, you may want to ‘burp’ it from time to time to release any built-up gas. (Nowt worse than trapped wind).

The longer you leave it, the stronger the flavour. Once you are happy with the taste, pop it in the fridge to stop it from fermenting further.

As a rough guestimate, (followers of the Bridge Cottage Way know I’m not one for exact measurements) use about a tablespoon of fermented stock in a pan of soup or stew.

As I type, I’m sipping on a glass of homemade kombucha, another fermented favourite here at Bridge Cottage, so while we’re talking fermented foods, I’ll make that the next post. Look out on social media for that coming up next week.

Fermented hot chilli sauce

Other posts on fermented food:
Make Your Own Fermented Hot Chilli Sauce

Homemade Yoghurt and Soft Cheese

Thank you so much for reading, and happy fermenting.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list by this link:

Newsletter sign-up form link.

This will go out four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

You can also use the form below to ask us to sign you up for the newsletter, or just a message or comment on this post. We’d love to hear from you!

Seasonal Eating with Warming Winter Soup

January 10, 2023/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

I have been thinking over the past week and chatting with followers on The Bridge Cottage Way’s social media pages about our favourite warming winter soup and wondering which recipe to share with you. However, I wonder if we could think first about the basics of soup making to give you the confidence to experiment with what is to hand? I hardly ever use a recipe but look at what is in season in my local market, what vegetables are locally produced, what ingredients are lying lonely in the fridge and need finishing up or have been reduced in the shops and can be put to good use.

Looking at Leeks: Growing and Eating

The Bridge Cottage Way is all about reducing the drain on our planet’s precious resources, so we want to encourage folk to eat with the seasons, to eat food that has been locally produced where possible and not grown under plastic thousands of miles away, shipped over here by boat or plane and wrapped in single-use plastic. We talk about this a lot, and instead of thinking of it as a limiting practice, try reframing it to bring seasonal delight and variety to your diet.

It is midwinter here in the UK, and the only crops we have in the veg plot to use are leeks, kale and if the shrews have left us any, some Jerusalem artichokes (though beware of the latter – my mother-in-law calls it arty farty soup for good reason. The wind can be crippling!). In the local market, there are leeks, cauliflowers, carrots and parsnips: all perfect for winter soup.

The Basics of Soup Making.

Clean, chop and sweat vegetables.

Place a small amount of olive oil or a knob of butter in the base of a heavy pan on very low heat then add chopped vegetables. Place the lid on and sweat for five to ten minutes. This draws out the flavour.

Add stock.

We keep a jar of homemade fermented vegetable stock in the fridge. Or you could make a batch of vegetable stock and freeze in ready-to-use portions. You could try this vegetable stock recipe from our friends at River Cottage: River Cottage Vegetable Stock. (I see I need to add stock-making to the list of posts to write this year.) Or use a stock cube or spoon of Bouillon powder. Add enough stock to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil. You can always add more hot water if needed.

Meat eaters may also have stock in the freezer from boiling a chicken carcass or keeping the stock from boiling ham or cooking up lamb bones with water.

Cook & Blitz

Cook your vegetables until soft – meaning a sharp knife point will go in easily, then blitz with a hand blender if you like smooth soups. To blitz or not to blitz, that is the question and a bone of contention in this house. Tim likes chunky soups and I like smooth. Or you may not own a hand blender ( a potato masher will break up big chunks). When the kids were small all soup had to be blended within an inch of its life or our daughter would not touch it. The grandkids are just the same. It’s also a cheeky way of getting veg into them unawares. Though to this day, our daughter can sniff out a pepper at a mile.

So that’s the basics, now I will give you a recipe. Doing a shop in a local supermarket, I saw chestnuts had been reduced post-Christmas, so grabbed a few packs to put in the store cupboard. They marry so well with parsnips in soup, or with leeks in risotto.

Warming Winter Soup. Parsnip and Chestnut.

Parsnip and Chestnut Soup.

1 kg parsnips

Knob of butter or 1tbsp veg or olive oil

180g bag whole chestnuts, rough chopped

1 pint veg or chicken stock

1 pint milk – oat or dairy.

Peel and chop parsnips then sweat in a tablespoon of oil or knob of butter with a lid on for five mins. Add stock and cook for fifteen minutes. Add chestnuts and continue to cook until the parsnips are soft.

Add milk and bring back to simmer.

Blitz and serve!

An alternative to chestnuts might be ginger – parsnip and ginger is another winning combination and most definitely warming for these cold January days. OR maybe bung in some carrots? There really are no rules. Meat eaters might like to start with finely chopped streaky bacon at the beginning, reserving some for croutons on the top as I have done in this photo.

I’m off to the fridge now where I know there is a sad-looking cauliflower and some Stilton left over from Christmas. I may add a leek and a few chopped potatoes for body too. Go experiment with your soup-making, but please, keep it seasonal, and do let us know how you get on!

Sue and Tim from The Bridge Cottage Way

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list by this link:

Newsletter sign-up form link.

This will go out four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

You can use the link above or the form below to ask us to sign you up for the newsletter, or just a message or comment on this post. We’d love to hear from you!

Christmas Needn’t Cost the Earth. Part Three. Christmas Brunch.

December 19, 2022/0 Comments/in Sustainable Living, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Last week, in Part Two of Christmas Needn’t Cost the Earth, we decorated the house with gathered grasses and seed heads, and during the cold snap in part one, we made ice art for the front door. This week, we share some Bridge Cottage recipes with you for making your own Christmas morning brunch of home smoked salmon, homemade cream cheese and freshly baked bannocks.

Christmas Needn’t Cost the Earth. Christmas BrunchLast week, in Part Two of ‘Christmas, Needn’t Cost the Earth’, we decorated the house with gathered grasses and seed heads, and during the cold snap in part one, we made ice art for the front door. This week, we share some Bridge Cottage recipes with you for making your own Christmas brunch of home-smoked salmon, homemade cream cheese and freshly baked bannocks. Vegans look away.

We have a family name for a full English, and that’s a Daddy breakfast – the works, sausage, bacon, eggs, beans, but this is known as a Tommy brunch after our eldest son, who loves the tradition of smoked salmon as a treat on Christmas morning. In the past we’ve wrestled with bagels, proving them overnight and popping in a pan of boiling sugar water to glaze and then baking – quite a phaff! This year, we’re going with bannocks. Easy, cheap and quick to make. Of course, had to do a dummy run to get the photos for you and test that all was delicious.

Christmas Needn’t Cost the Earth: homemade bannocks for brunch

The recipe for bannocks, from the Gaelic bannach comes courtesy of Felicity Cloake who writes for the Guardian.

Felicity Cloake – The Perfect Bannocks.

The bannock recipe calls for buttermilk, but we’ve used the runoff we get from our tub of homemade yoghurt. It’s known as acid whey, and if you make your own yoghurt, you can collect this clear yellowy liquid in a jam jar in the fridge. We make a 3-pint tub of yoghurt every week and use any leftover to make soft cheese.

I’ve shared this in what has become a very popular post: Homemade Yoghurt and Soft Cheese.

Soft cheese is so easy – it’s just a case of hanging yoghurt in a piece of muslin overnight and collecting the drips in a bowl. We like it plain with our smoked salmon, but can have added chives

That’s the bannocks and soft cheese took care of, now to smoke our salmon!

As I said, Vegans look away.

Sustainably Sourced Salmon

Farmed salmon is getting a lot of bad press now, and quite rightly so in some cases. You might like to look at a more sustainable fish such as mackerel, but we’ve checked carefully and are assured that our salmon comes from a sustainable source. We have a wonderful old-fashioned butcher/fishmonger/veg shop in Haltwhistle, Belly Bell’s. It’s proper old school. Our granddaughter, Daisy loves a trip on the train (it’s only ten mins up the line) to go to Billy Bell’s for a pie. ‘Good old, Billy Bell’ we all chant.

Making fish stock with the salmon head

With the salmon collected from Billy Bell’s – you might like to get a smaller fillet, half a salmon perhaps rather than a whole fish, we set about preparing it. This is the point at which I leave the kitchen. I’m not happy around fish heads. The only time in my life I’ve ever fainted was in a Spanish fish market when all the gaping fish mouths, and glassy eyes became too much for the pregnant me.

Tim chops the head off and fillets the salmon, putting the head and bones in a pressure cooker to make fish stock which is frozen in bags when cool and saved for a fishy risotto. If you don’t know how to fillet a fish, head over to YouTube and Gordon Ramsey will show you how.

How to fillet salmon by Gordon Ramsey.

Christmas brunch: Salmon fillets

Next, we decided on what proportion of the fish will be smoked and what will be chopped into fillets to freeze just as they are for the year ahead. It works out so much cheaper than buying individual fillets. And comes with less packaging.

In the summer months, we hot-smoke salmon on the barbeque and this is another option and another post altogether to be written. The method I’m writing about today is for cold smoked salmon.

You can weigh the piece of salmon you’re about to smoke at this stage. This is so you can work out the moisture content before and after curing and how dry your smoked fish is. I’m not a numbers person so don’t really bother with this. I just go by the feel.

Christmas brunch: curing salmon

Using the dry salt method to cure, lay your salmon fillet on a thin layer of cooking salt in a non-metallic container, preferably with a lid. Then rub a good handful of salt and soft brown sugar over the top. You can add juniper or fennel seeds if you have any to hand, although as the moisture is drawn out, I’m not convinced as to how much flavour this imparts. We used fennel seeds this year as we had some growing in the garden. You can also add a small amount of white pepper – just a pinch.

Cover and leave your salmon fillet to cure in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Then rinse off the salt and immediately pat dry on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper. Place on a cooling rack so the air reaches the top and underside and leave on a cool place to dry. The outside should look sealed when it is done.

It is at this stage that you can measure your moisture content and repeat the curing process if it isn’t dry enough.

Homemade cold smoker

You now need two things: a smoke generator and a container with a hole in the top. When we started, we used a strong cardboard box, a wine box, with a punctured hole in the top. Then Tim got clever and used some discarded plywood to build a smoking box. It really is just a box with a door and a hole in the top. He’s put runners in so we can fit three wire cooling racks in. While the salmon is smoking, we add a block of cheap cheddar to make smoked cheese, or chillies or garlic.

Cold smoking coil

The smoke generator isn’t cheap, but it could make a good gift – I bought it for Tim as a Christmas present some years ago from ProQ Smokers. It’s a metal coil container that is filled with sawdust and has a place for a tealight. The coil is placed at the base of the box, with the sawdust burning slowly, with the smoke escaping through a small hole at the top. Tim reckons it takes two rounds of the coil or a few hours, to smoke a large fillet. You then need to leave the fish to mellow overnight. If it’s cool, and another reason why this is a great midwinter make, just leave it in the box outside.

Christmas brunch: cold smoked salmon, bannocks and cream cheese

All that’s left now is to slice thinly, and once we’ve rushed downstairs to see if ‘he’s been’, and opened our stockings (we’re still very big kids at heart here), then Christmas breakfast brunch can be laid up.

Merry Christmas

I’ll leave Tom, of the Tommy brunch fame and his fiancée, Rachel to toast you.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ll be putting out the Winter Solstice Newsletter in a few days, so if you’d like to add your name to the mailing list, let me know using this comment box or sign yourself up using the newsletter link:

Bridge Cottage Quarterly Newsletter.

Make Your Own Fermented Hot Chilli Sauce

October 17, 2022/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Ring of Fire Chillies

Are you a fan of hot chilli sauce? Do you grow chillies? Here at Bridge Cottage we make our own fermented hot chilli sauce which has no nasty additives, is sugar-free, great for your gut health and very easy to make. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll be producing food at home, without lining the coffers of the big food corporations who push their plastic-wrapped, shipped foods full of additives, preservatives and goodness knows what. Sure, it takes a bit of time and effort, but isn’t that worth it in the grand scheme of things?

There are other ways to preserve chillies: they freeze well, and a bag of frozen chillies will keep well all year round, ready to pluck from the freezer when a recipe calls for a whole chilli. Dried chillies are great too, chopped finely for chilli flakes, and keep well in a jar in the spice cupboard, but by far the most popular method of using chillies here at Bridge Cottage is by making fermented chilli sauce.

saving chilli seeds

It’s early autumn now and the chillies have ripened in the greenhouse. Time to pick them and freeze a few but use most of them for a handy hot chilli sauce which is incredibly easy to make. (Don’t forget to split open a couple of your favourites, dry and save the seeds for next year).

Bridge Cottage Fermented Hot Chilli Sauce

You will need:

A large glass jar with a screw top lid

A circle of plastic cut from the lid of a plastic tub

Water

Salt

Chillies

Ginger

Garlic

Fermented hot chilli sauce

Wash them and pack your jar with whole chillies, a couple of cloves of garlic and a couple of chunks of root ginger.

Add water so the chillies are all covered.

Pour out the water into a jug and add 4% salt – weigh the empty jug first, then weigh the water and add 4% of the water’s weight in salt. Dissolve the salt then our back over the chillies.

Fermented hot chilli sauce

Place a disc of plastic over the chillies – this is important and is to ensure all the chillies are kept submerged. This is anaerobic fermentation, meaning starved of oxygen. Alcohol and pickles are made this way and the airtight condition creates ethanol and lactic acid. The addition of salt is important as it raises the acidity and to cut a long story short, prevents you from catching botulism.

Place the lid on the jar and leave somewhere reasonably warm.

Your chillies will soon start to ferment, so once bubbles appear, it is important to ‘burp’ them every day to release the gas. You don’t want an exploding jar of chillies up your wall. This is done by carefully unscrewing the lid and allowing the gas to escape. There’s nowt worse than trapped wind!

Screw the lid back on, and burp daily til the bubbles stop. You can leave them like this for as long as you want. Some people leave them for months. We tend to wait til they have stopped fizzing and then move on to the next stage and make the sauce.

Strain the contents, making sure to reserve some of the liquid.

Put into a food processor and blitz.

BE CAREFUL – YOU NOW HAVE THE EQUIVALENT OF PEPPER SPRAY.

If it is too thick, add a dash of the reserved liquid, and pour it into sterilised screw-top glass bottles.

Here is a timely reminder to never throw glass bottles away. We like to bottle our chilli sauce in small bottles and give some away as gifts.

It is important to remember with fermented sauces that they are live. You will need to loosen the lids from time to time to let the gas escape.

Fermented Chilli Sauce

Once opened, we keep a bottle in the fridge and add a dash to soups, stews and curries. A Sunday morning breakfast of smashed avocado on toast with grated lime zest and a dash of chilli sauce is divine. Non-vegans can add a poached egg.

I’ll be writing more on fermenting foods in due course, but in the meantime if you want to find out more and get some fabulous recipes, look no further than the River Cottage Handbook No. 18. Fermentation by Rachel de Thample.

It’s October as I write this, and we’re saving seeds for planting out next year, chillies being the first crop that gets sown in the greenhouse in the New Year.

Growing chillies

This old photo did make me laugh! How earnest did I look? It was taken for the old Bridge Cottage Way blog I first started on BlogSpot over ten years ago when I left teaching, (but it no longer exists) and harks back to my Woolly Pedlar days when I make clothing from recycled knitwear. I also dyed my hair back then, but now embrace the grey, having ditched the need to try and look younger. I’ll make sure there’s a post on growing chillies in good time for the new growing season over in the Bridge Cottage Garden section of this new website.

October in the veggie garden

I’d better get this article finished and published, and go and join Tim, who is outside in the veggie plot planting out winter kale and getting sections ready for garlic and onions which can go in any day now.

The seasons are rolling on, and there’s always something to do here at Bridge Cottage.

We still haven’t finished making apple juice, chutney or jams jellies.

Autumn’s Bounty: Apples.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list by this link:

Newsletter sign-up form link.

This will go out four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

You can also use the form below to ask us to sign you up for the newsletter, or just a message or comment on this post. We’d love to hear from you!

Autumn’s Bounty: Apples.

October 8, 2022/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen, The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Autumn Bounty: Apples

Apples are in abundance this autumn. As I write, it is October 2022 and the apple trees are full, the boughs bent with the weight of fruit like I have never seen before. We inherited six old apple trees when we moved here, twenty years ago, varieties unknown, and have planted half a dozen new ones since in what is known as ‘the chicken field’ (though we gave up having poultry this year after 35 years of keeping hens). Last year we did not have a single apple. We had sharp frosts throughout the whole of May, which killed the buds that had formed. This meant trees got a rest, and so this year produced apples in abundance. It was the same with plums, our single tree was dripping with plums, so much so that a bough broke under the weight. I must remind myself to prune it hard early next summer. We have a mixture of cookers and eaters, and as I said, names are mostly unknown. I do know one tree gives Bramleys, and another with an apple like a Cox is known as the ‘little apple tree’ because it gives thousands of small apples. The taste however is wonderful, especially with a good chunk of strong cheese.

Picking, Cooking & Preserving, Late Summer’s Plums

I wrote another post about plums, which includes Mrs Portly’s wonderful plum chutney recipe:

Picking, Cooking & Preserving, Late Summer’s Plums

We have a mixture of cookers and eaters, and as I said, names are mostly unknown. I do know one tree gives Bramleys, and another with an apple like a Cox is known as the ‘little apple tree’ because it gives thousands of small apples. The taste however is wonderful, especially with a good chunk of strong cheese. We have the ‘septic tank’ apples, not because they taste like sh*t but because the tree grows over the place where the septic tank is emptied. There is the ‘soft’ apple tree because when cooked the apples go to a frothy pulp. Coincidentally, today at Hexham Farmer’s Market, you can take your apples along for someone to identify. Maybe you have a farmer’s market near you that is doing the same? We’re not that bothered – we know our trees, which cook up well, or make the best juice.

Juicing apples

Juicing apples was a family affair this year with all hands on deck. We’ve bottled getting on for a hundred bottles, buying in boxed of bottles but also using screw-top wine bottles. We treated ourselves to a pasteuriser from Vigo Presses and this is worth its weight in gold. It heats the pressed apple juice to 75 deg which means all the bugs are killed and the juice will keep without fermenting. Be careful if you are making juice – without pasteurising you either must freeze it in plastic bottles (empty milk cartons are great for this) or keep it as cold as possible, ideally in the fridge, and drink it fairly quickly. You do not want exploding bottles!

An Apple Scratter

Two other pieces of kit are a scratter and juicer. The latter is important, though a scratter is not vital, but will save getting arm ache from pounding apples in a bucket with a fence post. To make juice, you need to pulp your apples. They then go into the press. We’ve inherited an old one from Tim’s parents, but it is rather small. We are indebted to our neighbour this year who has lent us a jumbo-sized press. Much better! Vigo Presses again would be where I’d head for a press.

apple press for making juice

The grandkids love the apple juice but do let us know if it is too ‘winky’, our family word for tart.

This year, I’ve followed Pam Corbin’s method for making fruit leathers and played with a dehydrator to make this one. However, they are very easy to make by just leaving in a warm place to dry. The top of a log burner overnight is ideal. Apple crisp or dried apple rings are another way of making chemical-free and sugar-free treats for kids. I’m actually sending the dehydrator back. I don’t think the use it’ll get warrants the expense.

raspberry and apple fruit leather

At the same time as the apples start falling from the trees, the fennel seeds are ready. Apple and Fennel chutney is one of our favourites and I’ve written this up.

Apple and Fennel Chutney

Green tomato chutney gets made too as we clear the greenhouse ready to plant winter salad crops and perpetual spinach that will overwinter. I follow River Cottage’s Glutney recipe which, as long as the right ration of cider vinegar and sugar to fruit and veg is followed, pretty much anything can be bunged into it.

Apple herb jellies

We’ve made apple jellies too, adding herbs or chopped chillies. Apples are high in pectin, so when cooked with pips and skins and then strained, they make a clear set jelly that can be sweet, as with the plum and apple jelly, or savoury – this year we’ve made apple jelly with sage (fab with cheese and fish), mint (to go with roast lamb) and chilli (ideal in a cheese sandwich). If you add the chopped herbs or chilli, leave it to cool for 20 mins or the bits with just float up to the top. They are so pretty, like snow globes and I’m planning on giving these away, and some of our chutney as Christmas gifts to friends and family.

There are two buckets out the front of the house for walkers and passers-by to help themselves to cooking or eating apples, and a sign asking for jam jars. We’ve made so much jam, chutney, and jelly that we’ve run out for the first time ever!

Storing apples

Of course, apples can be stored as they are if you have a dry, dark shed. Make sure there are no bruises or blemishes. Only perfect apples will keep and make certain they cannot be got at by mice. You’ll find, if stored correctly, they’ll last right through the winter.

I’ve yet to make the mincemeat for Christmas mince pies, but I will, adding homegrown apples to it. I will continue to make apple crumbles and baked apples for puddings, and freezing bags of cooked apples, marrying them up with raspberries, blackberries and plums frozen earlier.

We are so grateful to have this abundance of apples this year and are more than happy to share if anyone local wants any. It is a lot of work to cook, juice and preserve, but worth the effort when we can go to the pantry or dive in the freezer for a bag of cooked fruit to go with our winter porridge and homemade yoghurt, or some beautiful plum and apple jelly to spread on our toast.

Nothing better than a crunchy apple

Of course, as our granddaughter here demonstrates, the best way to eat an apple is plucked straight from the tree!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list by this link:

Newsletter sign-up form

This will go out four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

You can also use the form below to send ask us to sign you up for the newsletter, or just a message or comment on this post. We’d love to hear from you!

Plums: Picking, Cooking & Preserving Late Summer’s Bounty

August 30, 2022/2 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Plums

Plums always remind me of a good friend who, when wincing on a hospital bed after a vasectomy gone wrong was bought a pair of plums in a brown paper bag by his visiting mate.

A pair of plums

Enough! Sorry. Are your plums dripping this year? Last year we had four, whereas this year we have four thousand, or thereabouts. It’s a great year for plums!

It’s been a great year for plums!

The tree is so overladen, that one of the boughs has snapped and we have made a mental note that we must do better with the pruning next Spring. I’ll make sure I put a post over in The Bridge Cottage Garden section in plenty of time next Spring with photos when we do ours.

Pruning Plums

Plum trees should be pruned in Spring or early summer to avoid the frost getting in through open wounds and causing silver leaf damage. It’s the usual pruning advice – take any growth that is crossing or growing inwards and cut back other branches by a third. You are aiming for a goblet shape. However, here’s a link from the good peeps at the RHS who will be far more expert at this than us.

Pruning Plum Trees from the RHS.

Picking Plums

Tim’s Plum Grabber

Watch out for wasps! Tim’s made a handy grabber using a recycled milk carton with ‘monster’ teeth cut in and stuck it on a pole. Heath Robinson would be proud. Who was Heath Robinson you ask? It’s a saying, isn’t it, and a quick look down the Google tube and The History Press tells me, ‘ William Heath Robinson remains one of Britain’s best-loved illustrators and has embedded himself into English vernacular, inspiring the phrase ‘it’s all a bit Heath Robinson’ to describe any precarious or unnecessarily complex contraption.’ But it worked! I also made it a reel on Instagram – how cool am I?

Cooking and Preserving Plums

Nanny’s Shop

So, what to do with all these plums? This year we’ve had so many, that we’ve simply halved and stoned several bagfuls and popped them straight in the freezer to be dealt with later. We’ve popped a table out front, and my granddaughter is very excited to be helping with ‘Nanny’s Shop’. Takes me right back to my childhood when I’d help my grandmother sell her spare garden produce and bedding out plants. ,

Plum Jam

There’s jam of course, and plum jam is a favourite, spread on crumpets or hot buttered toast, taking me back to my mother’s Victoria plum jam of my childhood. I’ve made a double batch using 4kg plums and 4kg sugar. I followed the Good Food Recipe. However, I see from Pam Corbin’s new book of Preserves that there is a lower sugar version with her plum spread. I’ve been a fan of Pam Corbin’s original book of Preserves for years, and love this new edition, with lots of lower sugar and up-to-date recipes.

Plum Compote or Stewed Plums

Plum compote is a must, or what my mum would call stewed plums in a more down-to-earth manner. We have homemade yoghurt right through the year with cooked fruit and I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, you’ll be so glad you went to the effort of cooking and freezing bags of fruit in February when the winds are whistling through the cracks in the door and the snow is piling high outside. We like to add star anise and or cinnamon to our cooked fruit but be careful to pick out the star anise before you munch. I think it has a taste of the dentist about it if you crunch a piece.

Plums can be baked whole in the oven, making it very easy to plop out the stone. Or you can halve them, remove the stones and cook in a pan. It’s up to you, but I do like the flavour gained from roasting.

Picking, Cooking & Preserving, Late Summer’s Plums

Plum chutney is a lovely alternative to mango chutney with curry and we have two recipes we use. This year, we’ve made Mrs Portly’s Plum and Ginger Chutney. Linda Duffin aka Mrs Portly’s Kitchen is a wonderful source of inspiration for seasonal recipes and eating. Do check her out – she’s on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Nigel Slater is another favourite chef in this house, and his plum chutney and Chinese Plum Sauce are both delicious. Our daughter particularly likes the plum sauce – great in a stir fry. Nigel Slater – Plum Recipes

The Bridge Cottage Way Amaretto and Plum Crumble

I asked a question over on Twitter this week from the domestic goddess that is Nigella Lawson (if I ever met her, I would have a total fan girl moment) after I was experimenting with plums and a bottle of Amaretto. I asked if she would put meringue or crumble atop of cooked plums? ‘I’m old school’ she replied and went for crumble. Another follower suggested a frangipane, and that’s this afternoon’s job – to make a plum frangipane cake. If you follow me on social media, I’ll share the result.

So, here’s my plum crumble recipe. It’s a favourite and any leftovers can be had for breakfast with yoghurt. My question to you would be, custard, cream or ice cream? My father would just say, yes, please!

The Bridge Cottage Way Amaretto Plum Crumble.

Half kg ripe plums

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

4 tbsp Amaretto liqueur (optional – 1 tsp cinnamon would be an alternative)

150 g plain flour

75g butter

2 tbsp soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180 deg/160 deg fan/ gas mark 4

Wash then halve plums, removing stones. Toss in a bowl with Amaretto and sugar, then place in an oven proof dish in the oven while you prepare the top.

Rub the flour and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs using your fingers, and then stir in the sugar.

Gently spread over the plums and bake for a further 15-20 mins or until golden brown on the top.

Serve with natural yoghurt, cream, ice cream or custard!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Raspberry Vinegar. Season: July and August.

July 14, 2022/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Have you ever made your own raspberry vinegar? What a wonderful year for raspberries 2022 is! We’re picking around a kilo every day here in the Bridge Cottage Garden. Do you grow raspberries? They are very easy to grow and here in the northeast of England they are very well suited to our climate.

Growing Raspberries

Raspberries in the Bridge Cottage Garden in July

Raspberry picking takes me back to a summer job I once had, travelling by train from Worthing to Inverness as a seventeen-year-old to work on a fruit farm in Inverness picking raspberries. It was hard graft, with a double bucketed punnet tied around our necks. The boss would rattle out tents, and we’d emerge, hungover from a night at the local pub, The Bogroy, and traipse into the raspberry fields. We were a mixed bag, and I’d joined the party element – we shocked the straighter students by holding a naked raspberry picking day, wearing nothing but our wellies!

Raspberry vinegar

But enough of naked raspberry picking. What to do with all these raspberries? Jam making and ice cream spring immediately to mind, and I’ve already written pieces on that, which you’ll find along with lots of other seasonal recipes in the Bridge Cottage Kitchen.

Summer fruit ice cream

Raspberry Jam

Health Benefits of Raspberry Vinegar

However, that’s quite enough of naked raspberry picking. Time to get back on track. Today’s writing concerns the making of raspberry vinegar. Not only is it delicious, but it’s healthy too. Raspberry vinegar is an age-old remedy for sore throats, coughs and colds, did you know? It contains ellagic acid, a known cancer fighter and has antioxidants by the bucketload. Pam Corbin, in the River Cottage Series No. 2. Preserves, ( a kitchen bible in this house) writes: ‘During the nineteenth century, raspberry vinegar, in particular, was recommended as a refreshing tonic to overcome weariness.’

Culinary Uses

Nigel Slater advises us to pour it over ice cream and use it to deglaze the roasting tins of lamb or liver, giving a ‘fruity depth to the caramelised juices in the pan’. My husband, Tim, drinks it with fizzy water/soda and it goes equally well with tonic – very healthy. I love to make a fruity salad dressing mixing equal parts with olive oil. It is the perfect accompaniment to cheese, and delicious drizzled over a goat’s cheese and beetroot salad. (Thought Tim says beetroot is the food of the devil).

Method.

Raspberry vinegar

So here’s how, and it’s really easy!

Makes 1.5 litres

1kg raspberries

600ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

Granulated sugar

Put the raspberries in a bowl and crush them with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the vinegar. Cover and leave to steep for 4-5 days, stirring occasionally.

Pour the fruit and vinegar into a jelly bag, or piece of muslin suspended over a bowl. We use a piece of cheesecloth, tied at all four corners and hung off a kitchen cupboard door, with a large bowl underneath to catch the drips. Leave to drain overnight.

Measure the liquid then pour it into a saucepan.

It’s important you use a stainless-steel saucepan for this next bit and not aluminium as that would react with the vinegar. For every 600ml fruit vinegar, add 450g of sugar. Boil for 8-10 minutes, removing any scum as it gathers. Take off the heat and allow it to cool.

Bottle in sterilised glass bottles (we save these all year round for such times) Will keep for 12 months until it’s summer again and time to make some more.

Variations

We’ve made fruit vinegar with elderberries in autumn, gooseberries and blackcurrants and blackberries. All delicious!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list below. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Sign up to quarterly Substack newsletter

Homemade Yoghurt and Soft Cheese

July 15, 2021/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Homemade yoghurt

We’ve been making our own yoghurt and soft cheese for years here at Bridge Cottage. The Guardian even got in touch a couple of years ago and interviewed us about switching from commercially bought yoghurt to making our own: Culture shock for ‘big yoghurt’ as foodies switch to DIY

So why bother? for one, we get through about four pints of yoghurt a week so can make it in bulk. We have it for breakfast most days with fruit either fresh from the garden in summer, or from the freezer in winter.

There is the plastic issue – we use the same tub, and so are reducing our plastic consumption by not buying new every time.

It’s delicious, good for us, with live bugs that do our tummies good!

It’s not delivered on lorries and saves us driving to the shops! So that’s reducing our carbon footprint.

It’s also really easy to make. Here’s how:

Homemade yoghurt.

Homemade yoghurt

(makes 2 pints)

Heat 2 pints whole milk in a large pan to 95 degrees. (almost boiling if you don’t have a thermometer)

Whisk in 2 tablespoons dried skimmed milk. (this makes it thick and creamy)

Place saucepan in a sink of cold water and cool to 45 deg (blood temperature)

Whisk in a small pot (2 tbsp) live yoghurt.

Place in a clean container with a lid and put somewhere warm for 4-5 hours. an airing cupboard is ideal.

Save 2 tbsps of the new yoghurt for next time, in a sterilised container in the fridge.

It is important to pour boiling water over all equipment before use, to make sure it is clean.

homemade soft cheese

To make soft cheese, simply place yoghurt in a muslin or cheesecloth, tie and hang over a bowl to drip for about six hours. Keep in fridge.

You might like to add chopped chives, garlic, or other herbs to your soft cheese.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Do let us know how you get on!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Pickled Wild Garlic, Ransom and Chive Buds

April 2, 2021/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

Have you, like us, been enjoying the tender young leaves of the wild garlic, Allium Ursinum? We shared information on recognising and how to forage responsibly for this pungent plant, plus some of our favourite recipes for using these delicious leaves in a previous post back in March: Wild Garlic, foraging and cooking.

Now April is upon us, and the wild garlic is sending up its buds, soon to burst into beautiful white flowers. There is a window in early Spring when the buds can be harvested to make a deliciously simple pickle. I noticed too that the chives that are growing in a bucket in the greenhouse are also showing signs of buds. Both ransoms, aka wild garlic, and chive buds are delicious pickled. You might also like to try other buds, such as sage? Pep up your salads and add them to sauces for an extra layer of flavour. It’s only a ten-minute job, so why not give it a go?

Pickled Wild Garlic Buds

Ingredients:

Handful wild garlic or chive buds

50g cider vinegar

50g sugar

50g water

Pinch pink peppercorns

Pinch salt

Method:

Begin by making the pickling liquid.

Put vinegar, sugar and water in a pan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool.

Once cooled, place wild garlic or chive buds in a sterilised jar and pour over pickling liquid. Place in fridge & leave to pickle for three days before using.

Lasts for up to six months in the fridge.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

See also the post on making floral vinegars for when the flowers burst open!

We do hope you enjoy foraging for or picking wild garlic, but please remember to forage responsibly, leaving plenty for others and for wildlife.

If you have a shady spot in your garden, you might like to consider growing your own wild garlic. We have! A quick google and I see it can be bought in the green or by seed. Here’s one such site, from garden supply direct.

Anyone close to us, do pop over and I’ll give you a clump of ours!

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tim & Sue in the Bridge Cottage Way garden