Spring Greens Tonic

I guess most folk are roughly the same when it comes to Spring's arrival, even though there can be cold and horrid days a fair way in to the new year I personally feel that once we get past February then all is good.

Even on the cold days it's fantastic to see new shoots appearing, early blossom and  maybe tapping a birch tree for sap. I've taken advantage of a few young and tender shoots to make a few spring tonic variations detailed below. Check that you are OK consuming the ingredients listed...

The first one was just nettle tips and cleavers (with added ginger) in apple juice.

For this one I grated the ginger ginger once peeled.

Roughly chop the greens and then blitz with the ginger.

Add the apple juice and a spoon of runny honey the the sludge which will have a greeny grassy aroma. This one was chugged down with the greens mixed in.

One for the family to have a taste of. This was a slightly bigger amount of of cleavers, nettles and ground ivy.

The ginger was thrown in roughly chopped at the blitzing stage and honey added too. Look at that vibrant colour...What's not to like?! You may notice that this drink has been sieved.

This is what I sieved out. Again, what's not to like...

I decided to try and incorporate the sieved greens into a bannock (rudimentary bread). Whilst being a decent bread once pan cooked, the magic of the apple juice, honey and ginger additions is that they hide the spinach like taste of the greens. I'm not a fan of plain spinach so I didn't finish it, but the 'spinach' and ginger tastes suggest that this could be pimped into a basic Asian curried flat bread with a few additions.

For this one it's all the usual suspects plus the addition of chickweed which is one of my favourite salad ingredients (it reminds me of lambs lettuce). I decided on a shot of the bubbly sludge instead of the drink. 

And the final one. This is more of the above but it's bulked out with some finely blitzed porridge oats which were previously soaked in apple juice the night before. This made a lighter coloured and filling breakfast smoothie.

Try them, the equivalent green healthy drink in the chilled department will set you back a few pounds and some pence.

Mobile Phone First Aid App

Professional bushcraft instructor Paul Kirtley recently posted a link from REAL First Aid (this links is are to their Facebook pages) to social media so I can't take credit for discovering this information, but felt it was important to share.

It concerns an individual helping you if you are injured or ill and the ability for them to access your mobile phone to further the help process. The piece quite rightly points out that having in case of emergency or ICE numbers on your mobile phone is totally irrelevant if you lock your phone.

 This includes me and this oversight hit me like a ton of bricks and this is why I am sharing this fact that Paul has flagged up from REAL First Aid. It is already a feature on iPhones and activation of it can be found here, and for Android users like me it is available as a quick and easy download from here. So how does it work and what does it look like and do?

Once you download the app it sets the phone up so that it throws up a pre-screen before the numbers can be accessed to pop in the code. If you look at the left hand picture you'll see a small medical ID screen icon appears just under the time, which accesses the medical app and therefore any details contained in it. The right hand side picture shows part of the information page which includes name, date of birth, organ donation status, address (although it doesn't quite get mine correct and an vary by as much as 12 house numbers), height, weight, blood type, medical conditions, allergies and reactions, medications and medical notes.

Just out the the right hand side picture in the top corner are three tabs to edit, call the emergency services and to upgrade to a premium app. I don't know how much it is but I've included alternative contact numbers in the medical conditions section, and as i'm in rude health I don't feel a fancier app is needed but maybe someone with some medical history would want to consider this. The only down side for me is that I use my mobile as an alarm when I get up early for work and it's another screen to get past to silence it!

I must just finish by reiterating that credit must go to Paul for flagging this REAL First Aid information up. if you are interested the link also posted a useful mobile phone information page on the REAL First Aid website.

Woodlife Trails taster day

With one course already delivered this year, Woodlife Trails held an 'open day' for the general public to swing by and get a taste of what's on offer.

 

With the posters up and the kettle on we sat around under the chute and waited for the general public to swing by. We had one guy who cycled for two hours to see what Woodlife Trails were all about but the morning was a bit slow to warm up visitor wise.

I volunteered to head off to the car park to direct some punters our way, but got delayed because Richard's slow risen Dutch oven bread was happening and is worth a small sub section of pictures... 

 

A liberal base covering of semolina in a hot Dutchie, followed by the slow risen dough in the centre. 

 

Just over twenty minutes later it was time to take it out...Only for it to have to sit to develop it's brioche coloured crust...Then we got to taste it and then I headed off to meet and greet.

 

I'd only been walking for about three minutes before I noticed a tarp flapping through the trees. I thought if individuals were playing around with this sort of kit that they'd be up for a visit to the camp...I was right. These two chaps had traveled from London with their families and said that they'd be over once they had all met up. I offered to take one over to show them the location and then return him to wait for the other family members which I did.

The two guys spoke with a foreign accent and I know he liked what he saw because he spoke in their mother tongue to his friend with wide eyes, moving hands and an animated tone. Their family had arrived from the car and as I walked they explained the camp to the kids because I heard them cheer. It was a good feeling and they stayed all afternoon trying stuff.

 

So up went their tarp with some instruction, spoons got carved, kit came out, conversations were had... 

I'd bought along a couple of bannock doughs (as I usually do) and knocked out a curried one (heavy on the cardamon seed) and mixed with natural yogurt which I'd planned to have with a pouched curry, and a more traditional one with sultanas in. I handed most of them around the team and the punters to have a try.

   

And more kit, technique and talk, and then more conversation and a quick coffee break...

Before JP got his bow drill set out for the waiting audience. A winner every time! I had a tarp and pole plus paracord in a bag to demo a tarp tent and let any visitors make a paracord something or other...Not really needed this time as there was plenty going on (no tracking walks needed either). Details of forthcoming course can be found on the Woodlife Trails website here. Several wild camps are held in conjunction with the National Trust and this was the weekend recommended to most of the visitors and can be found on the NT website.

And so that they don't go to waste, I've included a small gallery of unused shots below...