hafod

sorry if i have posted this in the wrong place , but does anyone grow their own tobacco for smoking in cigarettes , or in a pipe

as you,ll learn mole catching is not as simple as just sticking a trap in the ground theres a sharp learning curve in the art of setting a mole trap , it takes time to develop but once you learn the trade secrets you can become proficant in the dark arts of mole catching secret no1 buy the correct traps) cheap and nasty traps just dont work and are an expensive mistake secret no2 when you buy your traps they need fine tuning , traps of the shelf seldom catch moles secret no3 theres plenty of dvds for sale on the tinternet regarding mole catching , and worth every penny secret no4 patients , patients , and more patients , after 3 years of practicing the dark arts of mole catching i,m starting to make a dent in the mole population on the 60 acres i,m farming 347 of the velvet overcoated little ******* in the past 3 seasons that i,ve been learning the dark arts LOL .

if the crimes can be proven 100% BEHOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT WITH A CAST IRON PROOF OF GUILT , then well maybe , but there again theres the other side of the coin , you have got to take into consideration the cases of timothy evans , derek bently , mahood matan , and quite a few others from the 1900 / 1966 period , who paid the ultimate price , and were later proved totally innocent of the crimes they were convicted and executed for the 1948 timothy evans/rillington place mudrers in particular , two killers living under the same roof , operating without one anothers knowledge , well that was the findings of the goverment inquiry in 1953 , ( an inquiry carried out one month before christies execution ) what a load of b*****s , john reginald haliday christie had a long record for sexual assault on women , read the case notes its all there because he was a special constable durring the war ( he did kill when he was a special by the way ) but because of his wartime service he was considered an upstanding person durring evans trial , yet three years after evans execution , christie was found to have killed eight women , and hid their bodies in various places in the house and garden , he did confess to killing evans wife just before he hanged , but he denied killing the little girl , though it was later accepted that he killed her as well , jesus christ it took years for the goverment to admit it hanged wrong man in that case , even longer for bently and matan , fifty plus years in these cases . sorry we got it wrong , seems to be the hardest word with politicians and the legal profession . then what about the likes of the birmingham six , if i remember rightly the trial judge remarked durring his passing sentence on them that he would have sent them to the gallows if hanging was still legal , fabricated eveidence put those people behind bars for twenty seven years , so personally i just dont know i,m still 60/40 against the death penatly for the above reasons , BUT I MUST SAY THAT my faith in the legal system is being tried at the moment , by all of the out of touch politicans and judges and so called legal eagles , we have running the show thats called the british justice system .

pete hope there was something of use for you in that little lot , yeah tractors fine LOL , i was mending a puncture in the front wheel , when i was removing the tyre , one of the tyre levers shot out and caught me a beaut , and give me a cracking black eye , everythings fine now , even fixed the puncture LOL .

ordered a fair bit of kit from kranks , never had an issue with them , very good firm to deal with

if your bacons too salty soak it in cold water for 12 hours then cook it boutifull

shotgun pete send me a p/m with your details and i,ll photocopy what i,ve got and i,ll drop it in the post for you , sorry i,ve only just read your post , had a bit of bother with a tractor wheel a fortnight ago , its a long story LOL . andy

i bought a couple off ray mears website last year highly recomended , have used mine for picking whinberries , elderberries , and sloes , and they do the job perfectly , especally good for picking whinberries though , anything up to 10 pounds an hour , a cracking device. andy

heads up boys another book for everyone interested in curing , this one is the dogs do-dahs on the subject , as frank carson used to say ; its a cracker manual of a traditional bacon curer by maynard davies this has got all the information everyone is looking for in relation to all asspects of curing contents include ;dry cured and brine cured bacon and hams , sausages haggis , salamis ,black and white puddings , pates , faggot making , brawn making , homesmoking etc i would urge anyone interested in home curing to buy this one , its a fantastic read but shop around for a copy , RRP is £25.00 i got my copy on amazon for £15.00 andy

for anyone interested , from amazon uk , written by **** strawbridge ( big moustauche fame ) and his son james , called curing and smoking isbn no ; 978-1-84533-657-8 176 pages hard backed £ 12.99 some interesting info on homesmoking and curing meat & game air dried ham , salami making , pastrami , beef jerky , smoked pigeon breast ,dry cured duck breast , and fish curing and smoking etc , might interest someone wanting to start doing a bit of home curing and homesmoking andy

as miniross said earlier do not use steel , use a modern press or one made out of hardwood , apple juice contains high amounts of acids that will dissolve steel at an alarming rate , as the acid in the juice corrodes the steel , the cider will turn green in the barrel the cast iron screw was the only iron part of the press , the rest was made out of oak , when cast iron presses were first used in the mid 18 th century many hundreds of people died as a result of drinking cider that was contaminted with dissolved cast iron , cider colic i think it was called ( the cider was green by all accounts ) the modern cast press you can buy today are safe to use as there is a coating on them , so the juice as its being pressed does not come into contact with the steel . ..... good luck .....

zapp i,ve had another look through my curing notebook , and found a curing recipe that does NOT include saltpetre , its called suffolk treacle cure that can be used for bacon or ham , this sweetcure takes roughfully about a fortnight to three weeks for a flitch of bacon depending on the thickness of course , i,ve not tried this one myself though , if your interested p/m me

i,m sorry zapp i cannot be of any help , i,ve looked through my curing notebooks i do have a sweet cure mixture , but it does contain saltpetre ( potassium nitrate )

for those interested in making there own , salami , chorizo , and countless other recipes i would like to recomend the following book HOME SAUSAGE MAKING , by susan mahnke peery & charles g reavis ISBN NO 1 - 58017 - 471 - X published by storey books as with all american books it goes into great depth on the subject ( 283 pages ), it is a very good read , i think i bought my copy from the smallholder magazine bookstore about 10 years ago as there seems to be a great deal of interest on the subject of making air dried chorizo and salami it gives you the basic steps in making it safely , there,s also a lot of recipes for game , pork , beef , lamb , poultry ,fish ,shellfish ,and vegetarian sausage , that might be of interest to a lot of people , theres even a recipe for rabbit sausage in there somewhere . i dont know if you have this book already jonty , thought it might interest you , i,ve tried quite a few of the sausage recipes and they were rather good , the cajun andouille sausage was my favorite , though i didnt have any pecan wood or sugarcane for smoking them though LOL .

M . I . A i tried fireforming 303 brass in a webley and scott bolt action years ago and failed , not the best of guns to use for the purpose i grant you , the problem i found was the area where the necks were , was being split only tried doing half a dozen , only two turned out to be of any use , the other four were knackered , though to be fair i did not anneal the cases before reloading so that didnt help , but i did not reload metalic back then so if i were you i,d only anneal the neck and shoulder area of your cases before trying to fireform , use a fast burning powder to blow out the neck and shoulders out of the case , good luck .

i reload 1/2 oz 410 on a mec 600 jnr , i use 70 mm cheddite cases ( also have a few winchester AA case too ) but i reload using plastic wads with alliant 2400 powder . clayandgame would be your best bet for fibre loads , when ian charlton owned clay and game reloaders as it was back then he had quite a few loads using fibre wads that he used to publish in his catalouge . to reload 2 1/2 inch cases on the mec 600 jnr you will have to use a riser kit ( can be bought from cgr ) , because the 600 jnr only loads 2 3/4 and 3 inch cases

corr 500 quid in 1985 the no 4 could be bought out of the shooting times mail order for 65,00 and the smle for 75.00 plus 4.95 carraige , if my memory serves me right the firm selling them had all marks and models of enfields they even had a few long lee enfields ( boer war era ) for the princely sum of 225.00 , a lot of money back then , i always wanted a smle or no 4 , but was put off by people that had them , some claimed they were not a lot of good , no choke , poor paterns , etc does your no4 use cartridges made out of 303 brass or 2 1/2 inch plastic shells as everyone i,ve had the good fortune to hold has used the brass 303 case .

skid would it not be possible to replace the hotplate on the new one you bought off amazon with the old fashioned boiling ring .

yep jonty your bang on , once people have ate there own cured bacon , they will never buy that shop bought **** again thats cut that thin you could read the paper through it . a lot of older friends who have ate the bacon that i have done in the past , have all commented that its the same tasting bacon they ate in the in the 40s and 50s when they were kids , it makes its own fat in the pan when frying , little tip from my mother , strain the bacon fat out of the pan once you,ve cooked the bacon to make welsh cakes or bakestones as we call them in my neck of the woods , they taste beautifull try it .

my nephew and neice both went to welsh school when they were younger and are fluent in welsh , and i,m ashamed to say i couldnt understand a bloody word they said in my mother tongue , they could have been calling me all the ******g ******** going , but saying that i met an italian once whilst out shooting one day , he could not speak a word of english and i certainly couldnt speak italian , but we got on like a house on fire , and managed to get through to one another somehow , he calls me now and then , he speaks english like a native now , he said he learned english durring his national service in the italian army , as for my italian well

jonty from what dad told me when my grandfather killed the spare bacon pig he always kept hidden durring the war , and hung the cured whitewashed sides of the pig aginst a newly whitewashed dairy wall , the food inspectors during a raid could not see it hanging up because it blended in so well with the newly washed wall , by all accounts thats why my grandfather kept the dairy empty , so that when the food inspector looked through the door and seen it was empty he would not bother serching the dariy because as far as he was concerned the place was clear , i wonder if they,ll show that one on the wartime farm ...

pob you need pure dried vacume salt , ( dont know if i spelt that right ) anyhow if you have a countrywide store,or any agricultrial store nearby they should have some in stock or at least can order it for you , it should cost anything from £ 6.00 to £ 8.00 a bag , it comes in 25 kg bags , this salt is pure so no additives in it to help it flow , ideal for dry curing flitches of bacon etc etc . block salt was traditionally used for curing but is no longer manufactured i belive so pure dried salt is the alternative good luck .

jonty another trick my father taught me with regards to protecting bacon , gammon , ham etc from drying out , was after it finished curing , was to wash off the excess salt ( dad always dry cured flitches of bacon and brine cured gammons and hams ) ,he would then hang it up to dry , when it was dry he then painted it all over with melted lard allowing the lard to go hard forming a protective shell over the cured joint he would then mix up a barrel of stiff whitewash , ( the type of wash used to whitewash walls ) he then dunked the cured joint in the barrel allowing the coat of whitewash to dry before applying another coat , ( if memory serves me right 2 or 3 coats were needed to ensure a good even coat ) then it was left hanging off the beams in the dairy untill required , the whitewash formed a protective shell around the bacon,gammon,ham ( the remaining whitewash was then used to whitewash the dairy ) tapping the whitewash off the amount you were going to cut off the cured joint with the back of the knife before slicing ,the wash would easlily break off allowing you to cut off what you needed , the lard acted as a barrier to the lime in the whitewash from comming into contact with the meat . according to my father this method was very popular by all accounts up untill the1940s , though he did show me this method for old times sake and i must say the method worked very well indeed .

go with the deuce colin , i roll my own , never had an issue with my own ammo ,my weirauch loves 55 grain pills 1/2 inch groups at a 100 yards , you,ll love it , trust me , lol

colin what your describing there my father used to call it ,chook , that was my job when we killed the yearly baconeer , to cut off the cheeks and cure it , when it was cured we used to cut and use it like streaky bacon , your spot on it tasted fantastic ,though the cheeks off a big bacon pig were usually about 8-10 lbs in weight ,we ate that when waiting for the rest to cure