After the floods a week or so ago the ground here had started drying out really well and I was getting quite optimistic about the chances of getting some veg in the ground early......but now it's raining and has been on and off for a couple of days so the ground is waterlogged again.
We're back to mud everywhere and washing hanging all over the house drying, oh well summer can't be that far away now. Now that it's warmed up a bit we're using less firewood and not lighting the wood burner through the day, which also means we need to cut wood less often. An essential for surviving the winters here is a good chainsaw ans the knowledge of how to use it safely.
There are no health and safety guidelines in place here and I imagine there are quite a few accidents due to carelessness. Living here sometimes reminds of years ago and the old fashioned way of life. Horses and carts are still used daily as transport in the villages, people keep animals close to their homes and rear them for food plus grow most of the vegetables they eat. Everything is then jarred/canned for winter consumption and the home brewed wines and rakia helps them stay warm during the colder months!
I'm hoping to use some of the rakia we've been given to make liquer this year and have been browsing the net for recipes.
Hi Suzy,
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in this rakia liquor recipe. I extracted from my book "Simple Treasure In Bulgaria" -
- Malomir Liqueur Recipe -
Ingredients (measures for 1-litre batches are given but this can be
doubled, tripled or quadrupled for larger batches):
700 ml homemade wine (white or rose)
200 ml homemade sliva (plum) rakia
1 kg sugar
3 drops of vanilla essence
Preparation: put all the ingredients into a 2- or 3-litre plastic bottle and
shake gently until all the sugar has been dissolved. You can place the
filled bottle in a bowl of warm water for 15 minutes before shaking to
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help the process. Leave standing overnight and check in the morning that
there is no sugar left in the base of the bottle. If there is, shake again and
leave to stand for another 24 hours. Re-bottle the clear liqueur into
airtight clean glass container(s) and store for two weeks in a cool dark
place before drinking, accompanied by an ice cube or two.
Notes: The wine and rakia used in this liqueur has to be homemade
country wine and rakia, as the wine and rakia from commercial suppliers
give an inferior taste and poor end result! (This is local Bulgarian
advice.)
Take care
Martin
Thanks Martin I'll give that a try, will have to wait until we get given some more rakia though, all the stuff we had here we combined yesterday into a 3 litre smirnoff bottle to use when we have some fruit to pop into it.
ReplyDeleteActually mixed together the rakia tasted much better than it did beforehand!