Eggless tea cake (literally- tea)

Another British recipe from WWII. I love that this one uses tea, although since it also uses wheat flour I'll never be eating it. I may try to find a way to substitute in for the wheat somehow. Kitchen experiment time.

Eggless Fruit Cake

• 1.5 cups self raising flour (or plain flour with 3 teaspoons of baking powder added)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup of black tea (cold)
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup dried fruit

Plant-based rennets for cheese

The Medieval Cheese Blog is an amazing resource. I'm planning on trying a couple of these suggestions for making cheese- Plant-based cheese rennets

The most accessible plants mentioned are nettle, thistle, cardoon, sorrel and lady's bedstraw (that's a very multi-purpose plant!). The other option she mentions is the sap of a fig tree. While it's possible to grow those in Ontario, unless you live in zone 7 it's a serious pain to try and keep them.

I've harvested a few early sorrel leaves from the garden, so I'll see how it turns out.

Keeping bees

I've decided to go in with a few friends and keep a hive of honeybees- only one for this first year because it's a bit expensive to start. It's illegal to use the medieval-style of hives (because they aren't as good for bee health), so I'll be using the modern Langstroth variety. It's the most popular and has the most information for beginners. If all goes well we might add another hive next year.

I admit that I'm a bit daunted and nervous. There will eventually be a LOT of bees. There are so many things that can go wrong. Bees have been under an unprecedented amount of stress from disease and parasites. I don't think they've had so much to deal with at once in all their 40 million year history.

Those pictures of foulbrood that I've seen on the 'net turn my stomach. If that happens I might just set the whole hive alight... Unfortunately, that's the best method of keeping the bee-eating bacteria from spreading to other hives and wild bees. The second best method is burning the frames and thoroughly scorching the inside of the hive bodies. The spores live up to 40 years in a dormant state. Once a colony has it, that colony is dead. I refuse to administer antibacterial treatments which become something you have to give that colony indefinitely. That's just breeding a super-bug. Plus, it gets into the honey you will be eating. Again, breeding super-bugs and damaging your own immune system. No thanks.

In my head I have this beautiful idea of a large garden of flowers, herbs and vegetables, drenched in sunshine and humming with bees. It's my idea of heaven on earth, actually. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to have that.