Homemade Sloe Gin.

I went down to Somerset a few weeks ago and I tried some of my Dads 7yr old homemade sloe gin, which was phenomenal. It was nice and sweet and it didn't pack too much of a punch.

After trying his it spurred me on to make some for the first time and try and out do him.

It's an easy process, the only laborious one being pricking each berry with a pin. Oh, also living in london and not having a Sloe bush growing in my back garden or anywhere near the vicinity of my house.

Props to my mate Sara though for having some in her back garden in Wales and giving me enough to make a nice size batch, Which fingers crossed should be ready for a first tasting at Christmas.

Here is the process if you feel like making some yourself.

1IB of Sloe Berries (prick each one with a pin a couple times each or if you want to cheat just freeze them.)

6 to 12 oz of Caster Sugar depending on how sweet or dry you want it.

1 Litre of gin (try and get one which is at least 40% proof.)

Once all is combined in a jar or bottle store in a cool dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week. then shake once a week for at least 2 months.

"Up in smoke", Mike Hands and the Inga foundation

"Up in smoke" is a documentary following one mans struggle to change the way the slash and burn method is being used in agriculture today.
Slash and burn agriculture and its associated pattern of shifting cultivation have been practised for centuries in all three of the world's great tropical regions.
Today, the practice is failing widely and leading to the seemingly remorseless destruction of both primary and secondary rainforest; and while it has been reported widely that slash-and-burn practices in the past could guarantee the farmer a food crop, it is also widely acknowledged that the practice maintains them in poverty.

Over the last 20 years Mike Hand's has been working on ways to reduce the destruction of the rainforest by setting up demo farms in the tropics, so that farmers can see the benefits of his sustainable methods and the use of the Inga plant. His foundation the INGA Foundation are working to make slash and burn agriculture a thing of the past.

"Up in smoke" is on 4OD at the moment. Check it out, very inspiring. It led me to a concept for a chalk mound wildlife habitat I am doing a planting plan for at the moment.

Up in Smoke 2' trailer from Adam Wakeling on Vimeo.

Battersea Power Station- A landscape to power people past and present!

Myself and a group of people from college came together to produce this short presentation on what could happen in the 6 acre plot surrounding Battersea Power Station.