Hard apple cider & apple cake

Bought this for 8.99 from Lulu. Under rm1 per medium apple is a bargain for apples not from China.

Plus it was a mix of sweet red and sour green apples, exactly what this recipe called for...

Two were badly bruised but luckily weren't rotten. I used most of it.

No waste... these bits will be going into the outdoor vinegar I have fermenting... 

The result after running thru the masticating juicer... 974ml. The recipe calls for 1 litre so close to perfect.

The pulp was 114g. It will fo to making an apple cake. The juicer spits out pretty dry pulp so hope it tastes ok.

I scraped quite a bit of juice for the cider and pulp for the cake from the juicer parts...

The hard cider day 0...

20Sep2020 day2 update: Its bubbling! Taste sweet. That's faster than the instruction video (I was going to add a ginger bug if it didnt bubble after 72 hours). All looks healthy on top...

21Sep2020 day3 update: Bubbling well! Taste a lot less sweet. Top still looks good. You can see from this side pic (taken after I stirred)  how high the pulp got pushed upwards by the CO2 bubbles...

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Now for the cake made with the pulp. I used this recipe. Just picked it from the first page of results...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened =113g

1 cup sugar = 200g. I reduced it to 185g

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla. I used artificial vanilla flavour.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour = 150g 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shredded peeled apples. I used 114g pulp 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Replaced that with 61g almond slices

The cake from the pulp...

Baked for 41 minutes at 170C.

The cake verdict? I will let you know in 10 minutes...

10 minutes later update: Nice! The cake was not too dry.

But lots of room for improvement...

- could have reduced the sugar 

- The apple taste was there but I should have added at least 1 normal apple instead of 100% pulp. Anyways it was an experiment.

- More of the sour green apples would have worked well too.

- A bit too crumbly. A quick search led me to this. Too many variables! I will settle for crumbly cake.

Adding another row

I have space for one more row. It will make some veggies less accessible but we will try and see.

This is the plan. I moved the bricks out about 2 feet to the right...

You can see how little good soil there is before it hits clay...

Dug up a little. Not enough bricks.

Planted 2 spinach (i think) and a curly leaf kale.

Mini project - change pump's 2pin to 3pin plug

 The 2 pin plug the pump came with is not made for this country's power points. I can fit but not well. 

I got an old 3pin plug and cord, cut from a spoilt appliance. 

I'm holding here the cut ori pump 2pin plug... 

Joint the blue and brown...

All wrapped in more tape. 

The joint will be in a covered container so no chance of getting wet and water seeping into the wire connection.

Kale Pickle

 There is an abundance of kale now so I want to try pickling it. 

I'm following the Noma Guide. This fellow condensed it really well..

Kale 101g, water 1496ml; non-iodised salt 2% weight of water and veggie 32g

The biggest leaf was placed on top horizontally. Above that was a  Ziploc bag with water to keep the veggie below the waterline. 

Lets see what happens in 7 days.

20Sep2020 day8: It worked. But I didn't like the taste and smell. 

It was softer than fresh leaves, but still a bit chewy. Kale is really tough.

Put the lot in the compost. I will stick to cooking fresh leaves.

Our first tomato!!!

 It survived! That's all that matters. It looked red enough to pluck even though it didn't look fully formed. You can see the sick plant/leaves near it. 

So I decided to pluck it. What a perfect shape from above...

The side view... maybe not enough nutrients contributed to the small size and odd shape. 

Bottom was slightly soft so it was just in the nick of time...

What a beautiful sight...

The freshest taste... minutes old tomato! I had forgotten what it felt like tasting our first kangkung leaf... this was the same feeling :) 

Snake or shit?

This area often has python sightings. I was walking my dog and she pulled towards that. Only then did I take notice of it. Looked like a snake or monitor lizard sticking it's head out. It didnt move from there at all, so it could just be a piece of shit!

This was a juvenile that came into my garden, some 100-200m from the above drain.

To pluck or not to pluck

 I dont know how many more days it can survive. The leaves near it are about toto die out due to whatever is attacking the plant. It looks red enough to eat though. Funny shape.