People Like Us

[punkin]

The thing i'm impressed with is how similar we are here, worldover, the blokes who are here for making quality spirits at home for ours and our friends benefit, rather than a profit, all share similar interests.

Spirits are not the only things we make.
There's other things that matter to us in life rather than store bought.

Jerky
Sausages
Beer
Wine
preserves
Hunting and Fishing for home killed meat
Smoked meat products
Home made furniture
inventions and adaptions of tools and equipment
Cheeses


There's other reasons to make your own produce;

Quality
Economy
Purity
A knowledge for certain what it contains
The ability to have on hand products you either just can't buy in the shops, or can't justify the outlay for
The lasting quality of the knowledge and skills you gain by doing something for yourself
The abilty to hand down those skills and products to your children/grandchildren


I'm sure there's lots more skills and interests i've missed out there, so lets have em?
Just haven't been able to get over that the same type of person is into all the same interests.

[bronzdragon]

Pastry chef here, so I make all kinds of baked goods, chocolates and other candies on a regular basis at work and home. I have several of the hobbies on your list already. I also make my own candles and metalwork jewelry and chainmail.

cheers

~r~

[As-Ol-Joe]

I work at a large distillation plant, and I enjoy learning about it on a small scale.

I tend to do a fair amount of welding and fabricating. I really like to precision fit parts by hand. A file and some sand paper and I'm happy for hours

I am proud to be a part of the majority of your list punkin, but I haven't tried cheese making yet. I have been studying it and expect to try some soon.

[19Kilo]

A knowledge for certain what it contains
The ability to have on hand products you either just can't buy in the shops, or can't justify the outlay for
The lasting quality of the knowledge and skills you gain by doing something for yourself
The abilty to hand down those skills and products to your children/grandchildren

+1

I like the fact that I can learn how to produce the things I love (of better quality that can be procured on the economy) and pass these skills on, like my parents and grand parents passed on to me.

[stoker]

I would like to make chess pieces in wood.
does anyone have advise, hints and tricks?

[Husker]

Nice list punkin. I do most of that, other than little furnature (however, I do things like cabinets, work benches, desks, but more for the garage and workshop). I have also not made cheese (other than some cottage cheese once or twice which turned out pretty good).

You left out a very big one:

gardening. I bet there are quite a few of us which do quite a bit in the garden, some just supplement, and others probably grow a large percentage of what gets eaten.

H.

[BW Redneck]

You left out a very big one:

gardening. I bet there are quite a few of us which do quite a bit in the garden, some just supplement, and others probably grow a large percentage of what gets eaten.

H.

And at least one of us who grows to export.

[mtnwalker2]

H.[/quote]

And at least one of us who grows to export. [/quote]

Actually, that would make at least 2.

[HookLine]

Not a commercial producer, but I have a handful of fruit and nut trees. Meyer lemon, avocado, fig, mango, papaya (we call them pawpaw here), Carambola, coconut, Okari nut, some local native species.

[Husker]

I imagine there are numerous farmers. Probably some grain farmers, since it certainly is hand and glove with fermentation. I bet there is more than one member who smiles widely when reading about the other of us DIY types running around like a chicken with its head cut off (or that bandicoot thing) trying to find grains to use. Them folks simply amble off to the silo, and scoop out what they need.

H.

[dnderhead]

Husker dream on
but wher grane no frute or cost more

arond hear corn and otes some others
horse and cow feed if want to buy cheep
buy balk.

[Husker]

I can also get horse feed cheap also (bulk). But there are people in places where getting ag products like grains, is not an easy thing to do. That was all I was refering to. People in the city, having a hard time finding materials, while a (grain) farmer, simply goes out to the pile, and scoops out what he needs, when he needs it.

H.

[punkin]

You left out a very big one:

gardening. I bet there are quite a few of us which do quite a bit in the garden, some just supplement, and others probably grow a large percentage of what gets eaten.

H.

You're right of course. The home garden is pretty important round here.
Just got it all pretty and low maintenance for the missus, with the flowers and stuff out the front along with our pecan tree. Round the back we've got heritage tomatoes, corn, melons, herbs, cucumber, greens, salad leaves, onions, limes, lemons, mandarins, oranges, beans....it just goes on with the seasons.
Planted a pineaple guava tree last year that's flowering for the first time this right now, looking forward to trying to ferment it in a month or two.

Recipe for ya if you're brewing UJSM....

This one's out of my trusted folder...

Bourbon Candied Pecans.

Reduce 1 cup of pecan halves in 4 oz bourbon with 2 oz brown sugar and the juice of half a lemon until a light caremelization takes place.
Cool for a few minutes, then toss in 8 oz cane sugar until completely coated.

It keeps for a long time in an airtight jar, if you forget you've got em.

Got more where that came from...cooking is my thing (or one of my things)

[alice]

Recipe for ya if you're brewing UJSM....

This one's out of my trusted folder...

Bourbon Candied Pecans.

Reduce 1 cup of pecan halves in 4 oz bourbon with 2 oz brown sugar and the juice of half a lemon until a light caremelization takes place.
Cool for a few minutes, then toss in 8 oz cane sugar until completely coated.

It keeps for a long time in an airtight jar, if you forget you've got em.

Got more where that came from...cooking is my thing (or one of my things)

Awesome, keep 'em coming...

[birdwatcher]

I would like to make chess pieces in wood.
does anyone have advise, hints and tricks?

I play chess all over the world on a site called Chessworld. Super site. If you are interested PM your e mail address and I will send you info.

We have a wonderful company in Canada called Lee Valley Tools and they carry a book on making chessmen. http://www.leevalley.com/home.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Have a good day.

G

[stoker]

thanks for the link, I've found the book, might be a good chrismas present
but it's called turned chessmen, and I don't have such a device.
I'll think about it.

and about playing, I prefer it in real life. but good opponent are rare
but thanks for the offer.

[Butch50]

I would bet that there is a major tendency among the folks on this forum to be interested in all forms of self sufficiency. The kind of people who, in years gone by, were the leading edge of the pioneers, moving into previously unsettled areas and making a life there - then moving on again when it got crowded. I am an inveterate DIYer - I would rather make something myself any day than to purchase it. My tendency is to learn how to do things that other people prefer to pay for.

I would not be surprised if there are more than a fair number of people involved in this hobby that could easily survive in most situations that would send the general masses into starvation mode. One of the stray thoughts that I have had (and I have a LOT of stray thoughts) is that if we were for some reason to lose our society as we know it now, and currency wasn't of any use - that homebrew would be at the top of the list of items in demand for bartering. Hence a survival tool par excellance.

How many of us have made at least thought about this?

[Husker]

How many of us have made at least thought about this?

I have. I want to learn some black smithing also. I image that a booze making blacksmith would be pretty high up in the pecking order in whatever world there would happen be.

H.

[punkin]

Anyone here like Chillies?

Got some good chillie recipes.

[Butch50]

As in Chili?

Love Chili - send that prescription on in!

[Uncle Jesse]

I love hot foods. Nothing like a freshly picked thai or jalapeno cut up into my food. One thing I grow in the garden every year is hot peppers.

[BW Redneck]

Even bell peppers are too hot for me. (They have no capsaician)

My definition of chili is probably what a Texan would call "beef and bean soup"

[As-Ol-Joe]

Blacksmithing

[blanikdog]

(or that bandicoot thing)

blanik

[Aidas]

if we were for some reason to lose our society as we know it now, and currency wasn't of any use - that our product would be at the top of the list of items in demand for bartering. Hence a survival tool par excellance.

How many of us have made at least thought about this?

Strangely enough I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday while having a calm smoke watching my all barley whiskey violently fermenting in the demijohn. I was thinking that this hobby is low-tech enough that even after disaster, I'll be able to distill and that in a post-apocalypse world I would quickly be rich or very important.

Yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of us out there who are interested in being sustainable. However, it could be that the forum is drawing us into that more and more. I started making my own bread after reading a thread on sourdough bread. Now the wife can't imagine life without my fresh-baked bread.

Basically what I'm saying is that it's all UJ's fault -- it's like a sustainability cult, and UJ is the leader Just don't offer us any cool-aid, OK?

Aidas

[alice]

Anyone here like Chillies?

Got some good chillie recipes.

Damn, You sure we're not related or something?

Put 'em up. I have six different varieties of chili flowering right now - along with every other slightly hot vegetable known to mankinf...

[punkin]

Anyone here like Chillies?

Got some good chillie recipes.

Damn, You sure we're not related or something?

Put 'em up. I have six different varieties of chili flowering right now - along with every other slightly hot vegetable known to mankinf...

Well ther ya go, only growing birdseye and the beautiful little orange capsicums i cal HABERENERO this summer....


The eprovette is on it's way to your place dude, should be there this week.

[alice]

To borrow a phrase from our trans-pacific cousins: You da man, Punkin! No doubt about it

[junkyard dawg]

I just finished making a batch of chipotle... thats a jalapeno thats smoked and dried. I leave em on the bush till they turn red and then cool smoke them and finish drying in the sun. I grind 'em in a blender and they are so good for chili, fajita, puttin in rice or on pretty much anything... Holding off till they turn red makes for sweeter and hotter chilis. This batch will blow your head off

[Butch50]

Here is one of my favorite snacks:

Get fresh green jalapenos.
Slice in half lengthwise.
Remove seeds and veins.
Fill with cream cheese with real bacon bits mixed in. (or crabmeat or shrimp or whatever else sounds good to you mixed with the cream cheese).
Put on the smoker when you are nearly finished cooking whatever meat you were cooking.
roast gently until the jalapeno is just cooked thru, a bit of brown on the bottom makes it even better.
eat whil hot.

Removing the veins removes most of the peppers heat and leaves them fairly sweet. If you want them hot, leave the veins in.

Delicious with an ice cold beer!

Blacksmithing and moonshining - now that would be a totally winning combination.