sugar

907 days ago

Photo article from the Welsh Hovel - preserving the last of the radishes, South East Asian style

It has been a bumper year for radishes here at the hovel but all good things must come to an end so I picked the last of them at the weekend, freeing up space to complete a new herb bed. The radishes were cleaned, sliced then put into a hot pickle of cider vinegar, sugar, water, mustard seeds, a couple of ground chillies, ground black pepper and some salt. What you see should last up to three months in the fridge and the pickle does taste awesome, if I say so myself.

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969 days ago

Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - Making marrow jam

So what to do with the other half of the smaller of the two ginormous marrows from Joshua’s garden? My mother-in-law thinks I am joking but the answer is marrow and ginger jam.

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1305 days ago

Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - welcome to the gin factory

The two bigger jars were made earlier and already my damson and rhubarb gins are starting to take on a colour. The smaller, later batches of apple and pear are not colouring yet. In fact, I am not sure they ever will. The next steps: shake each jar once a day for a week so that all the sugar dissolves. Then store in a cold dark place, not hard to find here in Wales, until Advent when all four batches should be ready.

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2573 days ago

Diary of a Diabetic day 6 - a very up and down 48 hours, here and in Shipston

I loathe flying. The truth is that it frightens me a bit. And so I usually have a drink or two in the hope that it knocks me out on the plane. But taking this type 2 diabetes seriously, there was no alcohol for me at Bristol airport on Friday. The place was crammed, largely with fat people flying Easyjet for stag and hen parties across Europe. The rotund stags and porcine hens were already drinking heavily by noon when the Mrs and I arrived and they were also stuffing their fat faces with processed junk food, aka sugar filled suicide sandwiches. I had a coffee.

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2576 days ago

Diary of a diabetic day 4 - I think I am getting better and so is my father

Day 2 of my battle to tackle type 2 diabetes showed just exactly why there was no way I could do so without shoving my keyboard in a cupboard and changing every aspect of my life. I had to go to London to do some expert witness business for a friend. So it was all on board the 4.47 AM having done a very early morning blood test which came out at 11.7 down from 15.3 the night before. I know that post fasting measures will be lower but even so: I was told those new zappo pills would work fast!

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