Apple Harvest Celebration Day

We're still reeling from how well the Apple Harvest Celebration at Windmill went on Saturday. Around 80 visitors and lots of our volunteers had a great day getting involved in lots of activities and enjoying fantastic food.

The fabulous spread of healthy home-made goodies

Rosy with the apple tasting table. 12 different
varieties from East Markham Heritage Orchard

Which one to choose first?

We were lucky enough to be joined for the day by Mark Manders, a local chainsaw sculptor who made the beautiful bench in Paula's garden, and did demonstrations in the orchard for us during the event. We also welcomed Friends of the Earth, who came with their Bee Cause stall.

Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause stall

Mark hard at work on the chainsaw sculpture

The finished sculpture

Scratting the apples before pressing helps to release the juice

Pressing apple juice was a bit hit with all age groups

Trying out the apple slinky maker (yes, it really does do that!)

New recruit Alex turned up to get the clay oven fired up, so we could have the first cooked food from it during the event. Sibel arrived to demonstrate how to make her famous shepherd's salad, which went down a storm, along with Jeremy's apple pancakes with toffee sauce and a huge range of other food which volunteers provided for the day, including parsnip and apple quiche which was surprisingly delicious and we think may be a new invention! The clay oven was fired properly for the first time, and we used it to cook pizza which disappeared as soon as each one came out of the oven, so we think it was probably quite good...

Jeremy hard at work making apple pancakes

The clay oven heating up - burning well

First pizza goes in the clay oven

First pizza, fresh out of the new clay oven

The site was looking fabulous because we had enrolled the day as an event for the Big Dig Edible Open Gardens project, which meant they helped us to advertise it, and provided some lovely bunting and stickers for each visitor.

The Breathe Easy group made a good start to our well-dressing
showing our Windmill logo

Filling in more detail on the well dressing

You can start to see the picture now - mostly done with
petals and peppercorns.

The finished well dressing - exhuberant rather than 

accurate - but beautiful non the less!

We were delighted at how many people entered our competitions. These were judged by Rosy, which was entirely appropriate as she has just become the Food Initiatives Group worker for the area (or Fig Local as it's known). We were also very pleased at how many people wanted to see how the clay oven was working and those who wanted to tell us about their experiences of using clay ovens in other countries. We are hoping to run the oven again soon, and we'd like to invite anyone who wants to, to bring along food to cook in it (let us know first, if you are interested).

Rosy took her job as judge very seriously!

Some of the competition entries

The winning entry in the best display of fruit and veg category
A well-deserve win by David Wile - 2nd Year in a row!

Stick the worm on the apple game - painted by volunteer Chris



Apple tasting

Thanks to all who attended and a huge thank you to everyone who helped make the day so much fun.



Climate-Friendly Cooking with Forest Fields

Members of the Forest Fields Gardening Club came to visit us today for a really fun session that gave us a chance to try out the rocket stove. We had a great afternoon here getting to know how to use fire safely, and also how to cook in a "climate-friendly" way.

First, we introduced the group to the allotment and explained our views on how to do things sustainably. Then, we helped the group work out where the wood for our fires comes from (our own trees!), and did a little thinking about how this differed from using fossil fuels.

The next bit was fun - first the group helped to build a fire in the fire pit. For many of them, it was the first time, so Tracey initiated them with a promise to only light fires in a careful way, with adult permission. Then we showed them how wasteful an open fire was by demonstrating with a kelly kettle and our new rocket stove, how little fuel is needed if you burn it carefully.

For those of you who haven't come across it before, a kelly kettle, or storm kettle, is a clever beastie. It's a kettle where the reservoir for the water is in a sleeve, wrapped around a chimney. That means if you light a fire and keep it going with small twigs, it will heat the water up in about the same time it takes to boil an ordinary kettle. We used it to boil water to make fresh mint tea, which was a huge hit.

We used the rocket stove to make popcorn, and then used it to cook pumpkin pancakes. Both were huge hits. The group had a great time feeding the fires and seeing how much wood each type used. They also became very good as safe match use and were very aware of the fire risks and how to deal with any accidental spilling of fire.

When the time came to leave, the group really didn't want to go, so we hope they will come back to see us soon.

Build a Rocket Stove, Girls!

On Saturday afternoon, we were delighted to host a Rocket Stove building workshop. This was run by Jen and Tom, and taught us how to create these amazing fuel-efficient stoves which can be made with readily available waste items and a few simple tools. The guys who had booked on the course couldn't make it, for various reasons, so an all female team of trainee rocket-stove builders set too, and managed to make 3 separate stoves, proving that they can be made by those without a huge amount of muscle, or practical metal-working experience.

Here's how we did it!

First Jen and Tom explained the basic principles of the rocket stove. The aim is to create a small fire in a confined L-shaped space with good airflow. The shape of the space also helps, as it draws the fire up, meaning that only the tips of the fuel burn and the gases from the fuel are also burned, which gives a pretty much smoke free fire with minimal residue. 

Step 1: Remove the top of the can 

Step 2: Press in any sharp edges, and clean
out any remaining oil

Step 3: Cut out some sections of can with tin snips, to create
flat plates of metal.

(Some of the group made a much neater job of step 3
than others. This is Jo's reaction to seeing our sheet!)

At this point, you'll notice that there were 2 different patterns of chimney being constructed. This is because one aim of the day was to create a long-lasting stove for Windmill, which meant it was created using a round tubed "ceramic elbow" which will contain the burn area and be more robust in the long-term than the other stoves. Those stoves were created with square-profile elbows which will last for a few years before becoming brittle and needing to be replaced.

Step 4 - round version: Those metal plates were bent around
the ceramic elbow and riveted to create tight-fitting sleeves
for each end.

Step 4 - square version: The metal plates were bent around a
square fence post of appropriate dimensions then cut and
riveted to create an L-shaped chimney with a square
cross-section.

Step 5: Make a hole around 10cm from the base
of the can that the foot of the L-shaped chimney
can slot into.

Step 6: Cut a wind-baffle from another can which
holds your pan just a few centimetres above the top
of the chimney. Cut a hole in the end of the can to
make a slot for the top of the chimney to fit into.

Step 7: Slot the chimney into place and make sure it stops
about level with the top of the main can.

Step 8: Fill the void in the can with vermiculite to provide
a non-flammable insulation. This ensures the heat is retained
in the chimney and means that the sides of the stove stay very
cool, allowing for easy handling of the stove when lit.

Step 9: You have to squint to see this one! Make a "bridge"
that will sit in the bottom end of the L to keep the fuel high
enough to ensure a good flow of air into the stove. The
round chimney stove had a specially made ceramic version.

Step10: Make sure everything fits!

Step 11: Test firing. Another can provides a
useful increase in height to cooking level.
Marvel at the lack of smoke - yes the stove
really was already lit at this point.

Step 12: Eat the freshly-made popcorn!

You do have to make sure you keep tapping the ends of the fuel sticks so that they move forwards as the ends burn away, otherwise the fire goes out, so this isn't a stove to light and then leave to its own devices as you prepare the food. It's not too difficult to keep going though, as long as you just fiddle with it regularly. 

Apart from all the other great features of the rocket stove, the thing that really appeals to us is that it's just the right size for us to use our coppiced willow in it. With any luck, most of our cooking will be carbon neutral from now on. Thanks to Jen and Tom, and the folk that helped them deliver all the kit. We've had some really positive comments about the course, and those who got to take away a stove were delighted with them. We look forward to hearing how they have performed as well.