Espaliered apples:



I reckon espaliered apples at 1500mm and 1800mm along the north wall of my house will look good. Especially as part of a trellis that has wisteria as well. Easy to net, pick and prune.

Hmm looks like berries and currants need espaliering too.

Maybe stepover McIntosh apples as well. Make the trellis 2m wide be a nice place to have lunch in spring & summer.

Grow my own granny smiths—pick in May/June not March, get the real flavor.

Cider apples v eating aka desert apples

While you can eat a cider apple you are unlikely to eat more than half a one: like grapes, cider apples contain tannins (bittersweets) and some are very acid (bittersharps) and most ciders are blends. I have bittersweets and bittersharps plus a sweet and a sharp. Note that “bitter” bit—these are not eating apples!

Be a fun day when tasting is needed to blend ciders. I think that any juice from the sharp and the sweet not needed to be fermented would make a nice juice when canned.

The ciders I taste here in SA are all pretty unmemorable and bland. That is because they are made from desert apples, no tannin, not enough acidity. That said, a small amount of eating apples can be added to cider apples when crushing: granny smiths add acidity and Jonathan (a cooking apple that does not store well, not sold by “the Fresh Food people”  ) adds complexity. Crab apples have lots of acidity—another possible addition to a crush, lots of pectin too and pectin can cause hazes.

Oh yeah, we test the apples for ripeness by doing an iodine test. Anyone know what that tests for??

Been working on the plan of my house—now, the house will likely turn out rather different by the time a professional does the drawings, but it will have to achieve what I want the house to achieve.

I reckon for the cost of just a downstairs loo and loo + bathroom upstairs I can have BR with a dressing room and on the other side of that ensuite toilet & bathroom.

Windows in northern wall and maybe even in the roof will maximise natural daylight in lounge, BR and kitchen.

Doable I reckon.

Zero Energy Houses, a concept whose time has come?

Quote:

(Amazon)

Dunno.

Will read the passive solar house and investigate the buried pipes heating and cooling. Will have to dig the trenches for it in winter, in summer the clay would be rockhard 

Earlier I asked:
Quote:


Starch! Apples pressed before the starch has all turned to sugar will yield less alcohol—and the starch will create a permanent haze. So all cider apples are stored until the iodine test is negative.

Budding mash brewers are urged to do an iodine test. The grains contain starch and if the mash is too cool the amylase enzymes (that convert starch to sugars and dextrines) won’t be activated or if the mash is too hot the amylase enzymes are denatured and stop working before all the starch is converted.

The covered atrium will have plants in it: dwarf lemon and lime trees, flowers etc but it will be a living space. The greenhouse will be much more just growing veges, sheltering some more frost–tender plants over winter etc.

As to plantings outside, tulips should do well. For the rest, have a wander around Hobart etc, see what people with the best gardens have planted, chat with any I see outside working on their garden. Maybe I can get some cuttings that way?

Plenty of native Tassie fruits:

http://www.leatherwoodonline.com/tastes/2006/wild/

http://www.potn.com.au/edible_plants.html

Interesting.

Solar house needs windows—but also a thermal mass wall behind glass on the northern side of the house. Called a Trombe wall.

Had a quick look at the fireplace book. intro re role of fire from prehistory to now interesting if a bit irrelevant.

Some photos of spectacular chimneys and fire places.

Finished the book.

Will go through it again and copy out some of the recipes.

Think I will need to add a damson plum tree to my collection. Then again, A Table in the Orchard says damsons are plentiful. Will have to find out.

Will need to explore, see if there are hedgerows, abandoned orchards where I can forage. There is an orchard near my block—wonder if it is abandoned? 

A greenhouse—NOT made out of CO2  —will be necessary. A cheaply made polytunnel will do, initially anyway. “Earth sheltered” greenhouses do well but I don’t really feel like digging down a metre! Maybe dig rather shallower trenches, pile the soil where it won’t really block the sun and have a fishpond dug into the floor. A fishpond, with fish and some plants, is a useful thing to have: lovely water rich in nitrogen and phosporous, rejuvenates an ailing plant like nothing I know!

Can grow more veges than I thought and rhubarb does really well there. Oh boy, 6 rhubarb plants. Strawberries do well there too, and asparagus. More lists to make. Tomatoes too, but plant in like October—sometimes the growing season is short enough that only green tomatoes can be harvested  Better look for early maturing varieties.

Quite an eye opener this book. Less glass, angled to suit winter sun etc. Insulation on south end, around the circumference, etc.