The weather has been pretty hot this week, and if the weather-guesser is halfway accurate it’s set to get hotter through the weekend. It’s great to be outside and in the countryside with weather like this, but as I look at the vegetable garden, it does rather focus the mind on water.
All living things need water, and quite a large proportion of their mass is composed of water, and yet, there is comparatively little water on this small planet of ours. True, three quarters of the Earths surface is covered in water, but slightly more than 97% of it contains salt! This leaves slightly less than 3% which could be considered fresh water. Most of that is not easily accessible, as it’s frozen in places like the polar ice caps!
Now, you can go for sometime without food. It might not be comfortable, admittedly, but you can go for some time. Not so with Water. If you don’t get water you dehydrate quickly, and ultimately you die.
Given the growing population, which has an absolute requirement to hydrate itself, and the need to grow food for itself (which also requires water), I’m surprised no one has taken action to preserve some of that water in the polar cap so that it doesn’t just melt into the oceans and become salty! I don’t mean stop the icecaps from melting, because that’s just nature doing its thing, but if they are going to melt, shouldn’t we be capturing some of that most valuable liquid!?
Anyway, enough of the “big picture” problems…act on the things within your immediate control first.
If you’re growing some of your own food, and you don’t have a water butt, or method of capturing rainwater, then I suggest you move that to the top of your “to do” list. It’s amazing how much rainwater you can capture off a relatively small roof of a shed or garage, but if you can, why not use one of the many kits you can buy to capture the rainwater that falls on your house? After all, having it hit your roof, travel down to the guttering, and then into the sewer is such a waste, when you can intercept as much of it as you can and use it for free in your garden. Believe me your plants will prefer it to mains tap water (if you do have to use tap water to water your plants, let it stand in buckets or watering cans for a day or so before using it if you can).
Don’t forget your own water needs either! I remember as a kid when the local water company told us the tap water was not safe to drink for 24hrs, we struggled a little as there was not so much bottled water around as there is today. Similarly, those people severely affected by the flooding a few years ago had water problems of a different kind. In some areas the amount of flood water caused the sewers to back up, contaminating the drinking water. The authorities responded by placing water bowsers on the streets, however some fool decided it would be fun to urinate in them! (I don’t know if they were ever caught but I sincerely hope they were!) The morale of this story is to maybe be prepared with a contingency plan in case your water supply is compromised. Bottled water that you store, then use and replace periodically would be a sensible preparation.
Water. The most precious of liquids.
So we’ve talked about how debt is bad and it needs to be killed off. We’ve highlighted the need to minimise your Tax footprint, and we’ve provoked a bit of thought about where we spend our hard earned cash.
So let’s say for the sake of argument that we’ve cleared all our debt (or at least we’ve got to the point where we have a reasonable level of mortgage which we are taking steps to pay off early), we’re not wasting money overpaying our taxes, and we’re ensuring that we aren’t squandering our hard earned cash on trivial purchases.
SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT SURPLUS INCOME WE’VE CREATED?
Well, a valid use would be to use it to help pay the mortgage off early, because that is the best option for financial freedom, however, lets park that point for a second.
Our country, many of the individuals in it, and many other countries in the world are in a bad way financially right now. That is mostly down to overspending (often on things we don’t need or can’t afford), and a lack of financial reserves (that’s savings to you and me). We’ve also not got a huge number of tangible assets to fall back on, as successive governments have squandered them. Perhaps the biggest crime is when between 1999 and 2002, the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown sold off half of Britains gold reserves at a time when Gold prices were at a low point. This isn’t the only example, but it’s certainly one that stings when you think about it.
That’s an unforgiveable situation to be in and one that as an individual committed to Self Sufficiency, you must take action to resolve. You need two things: Savings, and tangible assets. Lets look at some of these:
Immediate Emergency Fund – “Cash on Hand”:
I strongly believe you need a cash emergency fund that you can get your hands on physically. Whether you store it in a safe, lockbox, or take other means to secure it, you need to have a small fund of cash (£500 – £1000) that you can get to without having to go to a cash machine.
Long Term Emergency Fund – “Cash Emergency Fund”:
This is what a lot of financial advisors and virtually every authority on finance will have told you in the past. Make sure you have cash savings equivalent to three months income stored somewhere where you can use it if you have an emergency. I’ve modified this slightly. I think you need at least six months equivalent of your essential expenditure in a bank account that you can get to if you need it.
Savings:
These are your normal long term savings that you need to build and nurture. If you haven’t used your ISA allowance, then wrap them in an ISA to protect the interest from the taxman, but keep a close eye on interest rates as ISA rates may not always keep pace with savings account rates.
Pensions:
I suggest you have one, and I suggest you pay into it, but DO NOT PUT ALL YOUR SAVINGS INTO YOUR PENSION. As soon as you put your hard earned money into a pension, you lock it away until retirement. What happens if you need some of that money in the meantime? That said, a pension should be part of your Self Sufficient savings and investment portfolio. They can be tax efficient, and if you are currently working, and your employer pays in, they can be very worthwhile. With annuity rates as they have been recently, and given the state of the economy I have genuine concerns as to whether they will be a good method of saving for retirement, and therefore I think it is important to have some of your income invested in a pension, and some in other investments.
Precious Metals:
I think it makes sense to have some of your funds invested in Gold and Silver. Both offer a hedge against inflation and given the fragility of the global economic environment, and the potential for rampant inflation in the not too distant future, anything that protects your wealth against erosion due to inflation is a good thing. The ratio of the prices between Gold and Silver is out of kilter at the moment meaning either Gold is overpriced, or silver is underpriced. The reality is probably a mixture of the two, meaning it’s not a good time to buy gold, but it could be an excellent time to pick up silver here and there. You can invest in precious metal funds, mining stocks, or physical gold and silver. Physical precious metal that you control is the best bet in my book.
Land/Property:
For me this is the ultimate investment. If you own rural land, particularly if it has a property on it that you can live in, then this is perhaps the best asset you can have. It is a finite commodity. We aren’t going to magic up more of the Earths surface than we already have. In the future land will become increasingly valuable, and land that can produce food of some sort will become more difficult to purchase.
Other assets:
There are other tangible assets that you can invest in, and I would encourage you to consider what these are. Think of things that you can purchase and use, and which hold their value, or which pay you back in some way on an ongoing basis. In many ways your garden could be considered an investment, particularly if it contains perennial plants that produce food for you. Items you can buy as a hedge against future inflation also count. Don’t go mad here however. This is NOT an excuse to spend. Think carefully about whether you are “spending” or “investing”.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it covers the major points that are worth investigating further. An important piece of advice that we’ve all heard is “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. I think that is as valuable a piece of advice now as it has ever been. Try to diversify your savings and investments. Don’t put everything in a pension. Don’t leave everything in cash. DO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR OWN FINANCIAL FUTURE.
We’re back after a short break, but what on earth happened to the weather? When it starts to rain, after a week of scorching hot sun you know British summertime has arrived!
Our three part series on “Ten practical steps to becoming more self sufficient” generated a lot of interest, but still no comments! So far, we’ve had one comment posted, and based on our site analytics and the use of our contact form, we know we have an increasing number of readers. We can only conclude you are a shy crowd! C’mon get involved! The more we talk, the more we all learn!
In particular, and based on feedback, point 28 “Alternative Investments” generated significant interest and therefore I thought we’d explore self sufficiency from a financial angle in more detail.
As I’ve said several times, if you want to be remotely self sufficient you need to clear your debt. I think that message has got across loud and clear.
You also need to legally minimise your tax footprint. We’ll deal with that another time.
Right now I want to share something very important with you.
This is probably one of the most important financial things I’ve learned. I learned it at an early age and my daughter (she’s nine) has already learned it. Despite that, we all forget this simple lesson and therefore it’s time for a reminder. It is powerful…yet simple, incredibly important…yet obvious. I really hope this article begins to make you ask yourself some questions, and if you do that, and are brutally honest with yourself, this may be the most important article you read in your life!
Here’s a statement that will put you in the right mindset:
“It’s not the person who has the most income who is necessarily the wealthiest. It is the person who hangs on to the biggest proportion of his or her income”.
Let’s explore that a moment.
As people’s income increases, typically so do their outgoings. Quite often this is because we spend our money on “treats” for one reason: “because we deserve it after all our hard work”.
Really? Do we? Do we REALLY deserve to spend our hard earned income on a piece of clothing (sorry ladies), or an electronic gizmo (men, you know this is you!) with a limited life? Think about it. Do we REALLY?
NOW THINK ABOUT IT AGAIN!
NOW THINK REALLY HARD ABOUT IT YET AGAIN!
The average person spends the majority of their time each week working. That is lost time, spent on a worthy endeavour, but it’s probably not something you’d choose to do unless you are one of the enlightened and lucky people who is living their dream, and is passionate about what they do! Good for you, if this is you! We’re all trying to get to where you are.
So for those hours spent, you get paid an amount of money. Your job over the next month is to work out how you can hold on to as much of that money as possible. This is your escape route. This is your opportunity to work towards a happier self sufficient life.
Why are you doing this? Well, every pound you save is a seed. It has an opportunity to be invested in something that can provide you with freedom and a benefit for the rest of your life.
How much does that Starbucks coffee cost? How long does it last?
THINK ABOUT IT.
Preservation is the key to storing your produce until you need to use it. There are many ways to process your produce, such as pickling, smoking, and freezing, however one that seems to have lost it’s popularity in the UK, but which is well used in other parts of the world is dehydrating.
Dehydrating is the slow drying of your produce to remove the moisture in order to allow for better preservation and long term storage.
This is a simple process, however there are a few rules to learn, and a number of techniques to master in order to be successful.
One of the best resources for learning about dehydrating is Dehydrate2Store.com. Tammy who created this site and the associated YouTube channel knows pretty much all there is to know about dehydrating and long term storage of food.
I need to declare my limitations in this area: Having always loved, but felt equally challenged by seasonality, I thought I ought to make some attempt at learning the art of preservation. One of the tasks I’ve set myself is to learn how to dehydrate. I’ve learned a lot from watching Tammy’s videos not least of which is that the quality of your equipment is crucial. To this end I recently purchased an Excalibur dehydrator, which from my research I believe is THE dehydrator. I fully intend to practice with this piece of kit in order to perfect the technique.
I encourage you to check out Tammy’s site and in particular her YouTube videos which contain a wealth of knowledge and experience concerning dehydrating. I will document my progress and post details of the results!
Continuing our series on practical things you can do to increase your level of self sufficiency. I haven’t had the opportunity to write as much as I’d like over the last few weeks, however from your feedback I know you find the practical articles useful, so here goes with ten MORE practical steps. If you haven’t tackled the first ten, then go back and start there first. Some of the financial elements may be less exciting than the things we are moving on to over the next few posts, but unless you develop and execute a plan to deal with them, you are not going to achieve your self sufficiency goals. Anyway, here goes with ten more practical steps, enjoy:
11. Increase your own food production
Whatever you did in step 8. You now need to do more of it! It’s that easy. If you set up a couple of pots or a window box, do a couple more. If you cultivated an area of garden and started growing fruit or veg, increase the number or type of crops. Be careful though. Don’t get over excited and plant up too much at the same time otherwise you’ll have a glut of some things and you’ll be unable to use them all!
12. If you have space, start a compost heap and/or wormery
We talked about how to make compost previously. If you have room, identify a space in your garden and start a compost heap with a couple of bays. Consider also, a wormery. These are great if you are space constrained, but they are equally useful if you’re not. Once set up and populated with worms, you feed them your veg and fruit scraps from the kitchen. Without being too graphic, they turn these into worm casts which can be added to the garden, and into a liquid which once diluted can be used as an excellent liquid fertiliser!
13. Assess your skills and Identify new skills you’d like to develop
Consider what skills will help you become more self sufficient. Make a list and start to think about how you can develop those skills. For example beekeeping, fishing, carpentry, etc. Consider who you know who has skills that you’d like to learn. Can you spend time learning from them in return for a beer bought, a meal cooked, or a day free labour?
14. Protect your identity and privacy
This may sound like a strange “practical self sufficiency” step, but I think it’s important. Building on the financial elements in the first 10 steps, I would encourage you strongly to think about your privacy and your “identity”. This step is about making your life more resilient and preventing someone using your identity for fraudulent purposes, or even stealing from you. Consider what information you supply to web sites and questionnaires. Take steps to protect yourself from fraud. If you’re someone who normally throws financial statements in the bin when you’ve finished with them, invest in a shredder (spend extra and get a cross-cut one that shreds documents into little diamond shapes, rather than long thing strips), or burn any un needed/out of date confidential documents.
15. Learn to bake bread
You’ve got to learn to bake bread. Even if you don’t do it on a regular basis, it’s a great skill to have, and it’s incredibly satisfying and quite liberating to bake your own bread. I added this to be symbolic, and to show a practical demonstration of the self sufficiency mind set, rather than as a practical skill, but it works equally as well there too!
16. Learn to make wine or beer
I’m not going to go into detail here as I’ve already written about this a few times, and I’ll be adding recipes and further articles in the future. Have a go, even if you start with a commercial kit.
17. Develop alternate income streams
Try to identify other opportunities for financial income. I believe strongly that to be self sufficient you need multiple (and ideally diverse) streams of income, which you ideally “own” yourself. Do you have a skill or asset that you can use to build an income in addition to your main occupation? There has never been a time when it has been easier to start up an on-line business, and the cost of entry is low compared to a traditional “bricks and mortar” business. Consider what you can do and take some steps to build an income stream of your own.
18. Take on small livestock (Chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc.)
This one will require a bit of space, but the average suburban garden ought to have space for a couple of chickens, so unless you are severely space constrained you can take action on this one. I’d recommend starting with Chickens so you can become self sufficient in terms of egg production.
19. Plant some perennial crops
OK, I’m cheating a little here by adding a second point on “growing your own”, but I wanted to be very specific about ensuring you have some perennial crops. Even if you get a blueberry bush in a pot, strawberries in a hanging basket, or plant yourself a small orchard. Whatever works for the space you have available! Just plan something that is going to produce for you year after year with little further work on your part!
20. Wild Food
Buy yourself a field guide, and get outdoors. We recommend Food for Free (Collins Natural History) by Richard Mabey.
See how many edible plants you can identify. Aim to be able to identify at least three types of wild food in your locality. Blackberries don’t count! WAY too easy!
WARNING:DO NOT CONSUME ANYTHING UNLESS YOU KNOW PRECISELY WHAT IT IS, AND THAT IT IS SAFE TO EAT!
Well, thats your second set of ten practical things to do. I’ve tried to make this a list of things that are both practical in their own right, but also serve to illustrate the way of thinking that you need to develop in order to become more self sufficient.
Please let us have your feedback. Please ese the comment option in the post footer, rather than the contact form. Enjoy!
I thought it was time for a series of articles that give you some practical things you can do to increase your level of self sufficiency. Remember, when we talk about Self Sufficiency we are talking about a change of mindset, taking responsibility for our own, and our family’s needs. To that end here are ten practical steps you can take if you are starting from zero. These steps are for everyone, not just someone with a couple of acres in a rural location (although if that is your position, then you’re way ahead of the game).
We’ve talked about some of these previously and we’ll explore them further so I won’t go into huge detail here. Some of them are going to seem boring and you may wonder how they make your more self sufficient. The simple answer is that if you are starting from zero, you need to get into a position where you have the fundamentals under control otherwise you’ll be unable to build on this start.
1. Understand your financial position
Sit down and write down your incomings and outgoings, debts, assets, etc so that you have a complete picture of your financial state. If you have the means and can get this in a spreadsheet, then that would be ideal. If it helps, and I recommend you do this anyway. Keep a diary for a month and write down everything you spend. You may scare yourself!
2. Pay off ALL Debt
Make and execute a plan to pay of all debt be they credit cards, loans, etc. If you have no other debt except a mortgage, then develop and execute a plan to “overpay” it. It will cost you less in the long run and you’ll pay it off earlier.
3. Make sure you have an emergency cash fund
Create a savings fund equivalent to three months worth of your outgoings, and put it in an account that pays interest. Take an amount of money equivalent to 10% of this and keep it at home in a lockbox or fireproof safe. Do not touch this fund unless you have a genuine emergency and need it.
4. Minimise your tax exposure (legal means only please!)
We are not encouraging you to defraud the tax man here. You must always pay taxes you are legally required to pay. BUT, you can take steps to minimise the amount of money you pay in tax. For example, put savings in a Cash ISA which protects interest payments from being taxed.
5. Take small practical steps (insurance, AA/RAC membership)
Protect yourself in small practical ways. Make sure you have adequate life insurance, particularly if you have a family. Consider practical steps like AA or RAC membership if you are a car driver.
6. Shop/Trade locally: Support your local Community
“Just in Time” inventory used by amongst others, chain stores and supermarkets is a fragile system. Consider moving more of your shopping to local businesses. Get to know your local butcher, baker and green grocer, or shop at farmers markets. Small businesses are the backbone of their local community.
7. Start to create a “home grocery store”
Start to store food and household items that you use. Pick only items that store well. Remember to store what you eat and eat what you store. Build your food storage slowly, a little at a time. Use it in rotation and when you use an item replace it. Determine how much you should store based on the length of time you believe you may need to use this store to sustain you and your family. That’s a personal decision, but if you started with two weeks worth of supplies, you’d be doing well. Think how much time and money you can save by not rushing to the shop every other day, and by buying when offers are available.
8. Start a garden (no matter how small) and produce SOME of your own food
If you have a balcony or window box, try growing some herbs or salad leaves. If you have more space, decide which fruit and veg you eat, and start to grow some of your own. Start small and slowly. Use succession planting for a continual supply.
9. Learn to make one new meal a month from food you have stored, or produced.
If you don’t cook, now is the time to start learning! If you do cook, aim to increase your repertoire. Use ingredients you have in your home grocery store, or can produce yourself. Aim to learn one new meal a month and practice, practice, practice.
10. Create a vision of your ultimate self sufficient lifestyle
Dream. But be realistic. Consider what your ideal “self sufficient life” is like. Where do you live? What do you do? How self sufficient can you or should you become? Write it down and put it somewhere you will see it regularly! Start to think of ways you can make your vision real and take small positive steps!
Now, stop reading this and go and take action on some or all of these steps. Please tell us how you’re getting on. I promise you, that sharing your thoughts and experience will inspire other people just like you, and they will in turn share their story. Together we can help one another build a more sustainable, self sufficient, happier life!
 Photographs by clix.
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Do you take the Blue Pill or the Red Pill?
If you’ve seen the movie “The Matrix” you’ll be familiar with this reference. For the very few of you who haven’t (where have you been?):
The film is set in a future where humans are kept alive in pods, connected to a giant computer that creates a virtual reality. This is “The Matrix” of the title. Machines use the humans as a power source and individuals are blissfully unaware of their real state as the Matrix feeds them input and stimuli to keep them in a dream like state where they believe they are experiencing a “normal” life. The films main character “Neo” is offered a choice. Take the blue pill, and everything will be as it has always been. Take the red pill and find out the truth.
This struck me as a good analogy. Let me explain.
I’m in the middle of a two week period of travelling at the moment (hence the drop in frequency of posts. Rest assured normal service will resume very shortly). Last week I was in London and had to travel using the tube during rush hour. I can tell you that is the definition of “the rat race”. As I looked at peoples’ faces, it dawned on me that they did not look like they were living in the true sense of the word, but were enslaved to a machine. The machine in this case being the modern culture that tells you to work hard at school, get good grades so you can get a good job, work hard at work so you can save for retirement. Finally, retire and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
The problem with this culture is that it’s indoctrination into voluntary slavery. You need to get a job so you can pay taxes. The Government makes money on all financial transactions and they need to keep the money moving to make more of it. There’s nothing wrong with working hard at an honest job, but does that have to be slavery? If you don’t enjoy it, and it isn’t something your passionate about then it does.
You have a choice. “Take the red pill” and choose to see the world differently. Develop a self sufficient way of thinking and living that allows you to avoid being enslaved by any person, or organisation, voluntarily or otherwise. Develop your own systems of support to sustain you, your family, and your loved ones, and you will find yourself healthier and happier! In time you will find yourself in a position of abundance, where you have one of the most important things in the world. Free choice.
The freedom to spend your time doing something you are passionate about. I believe a self sufficient lifestyle can bring you more fulfilment and happiness. Simply to take back control of your life is an empowering thing.
Or…..”Take the blue pill” and go back to living how you have always lived.
The choice is yours. I hope you take the red pill and have the fantastic life you deserve.
 So you’ve read the previous article on home brewing and you want to have a go at making wine. This post will give you more of the “how”. It’s lengthy, as I’ve included a description of how to make my favourite Elderberry wine.
Wine Kits
As I explained previously, kits are a good place to start. Here are a couple that I’ve tried and would recommend:
Beaverdale Sauvignon Blanc
Beaverdale Merlot
These are fairly widely available, but I can recommend both Brew UK (www.brewuk.co.uk) and Art of Brewing (www.art-of-brewing.co.uk)
Each kit will come with its own instructions, however you essentially add water to the kit keeping it as close to 20degrees as possible, give it a good mix, sprinkle in the yeast, cover it over and add an air lock to prevent contamination, then wait for fermentation to take place.
Different kits take different times, however for the ones listed, it should take a couple of weeks for fermentation to take place, before you siphon the wine off into another container and start the clearing process, before finally bottling.
Note of warning: If you haven’t made wine before, read the instructions that come with the kit carefully and do precisely what it says.
If you follow the instructions to the letter, and provide the right temperature during the fermentation, you will have a very good reproduction of a commercial wine.
Serious Stuff
Making wine from a kit is fine, and if all you ever do is make wine from a kit, you are still lowering your costs significantly, and taking more control of the end product.
But for some the ultimate in self sufficiency is making wine from raw ingredients from your own garden.
Wine is basically made from four things. A flavouring (i.e. fruit or vegetable), water, sugar and yeast.
I’ll give you a generic overview here and will add future articles with specific recipes and appropriates quantities.
For those interested, I’m going to add wine, beer, and other food and drink recipes and gradually build up a library of them. Feel free to use them, experiment with them, and adapt them yourself. Please feel free to comment on your successes and failures (we all have them from time to time) and submit any that you’d like to share yourself using the site contact form and I will publish them.
Now, down to basics: Before you start doing anything, you should sterilise your equipment using a sterilising solution such as VWP or Camden.
If you have grapes, you’re very lucky and you should definitely try making your own wine with them, but you can use all sorts of things (Elderberry wine was the first “country wine” I ever made and to me it tasted exquisite although I’m sure in reality it wasn’t that hot! I’m going to use it for our example here). You do need to make sure you use the best quality fruit or vegetables for your wine. Discard anything that looks bruised, damaged, or past it’s best.
The finished flavour and quality of your wine is influenced by the proportion of the flavouring, the yeast and the sugar. Too much sugar can overpower the yeast, too little will not encourage fermentation. For our example, Elderberry works well with equal proportions of flavouring and sugar. For five “normal” sized bottles of wine made in a standard demijohn aim for about 2.25Kg of elderberries and 4.5 litres of water. You’ll lose a bit along the way, but this should be good for five bottles.
Put the fruit and an equal amount of sugar in a large saucepan (a large stock pot works well) and pour on boiling water. Stir well and leave to cool.
High temperatures can kill off the yeast. You’re aiming for around 20 degrees.
Add the yeast and give the wine a stir.
Stir the wine for a couple of minutes each day for the next seven days and keep it covered in a place around 20 degrees.
At the end of the week you need to strain off the wine into another container (remember to sterilise). Muslin is traditionally used but there are fine sieves that work just as well and are easier to handle.
Next siphon the wine into a sterilised demijohn (as we said previously, either the traditional glass ones, or the plastic equivalent. You’ll see why plastic can sometimes have advantages in some cases in a moment) using a (sterilised) plastic tube. Add an airlock, half filled with cold water. The airlocks are typically mounted in a rubber bung, or in the case of plastic fermenters through a hole in the lid. I find it useful to mark my demijohns with the 4.5 litre level using a marker pen.
Keeping the wine covered and adding the airlock is critical to prevent contamination. It also helps you to see if air bubbles are rising through the air lock so you can confirm it is fermenting. Again keep it in a place about 20 degrees. You’re looking for “warm” not “hot”.
Elderberry can take a long time to ferment (months), and you need to be sure it is finished before you bottle it. You’ll be able to tell because bubbles will stop rising through the airlock.
Now, a word of safety – well sort of. Remember I said plastic demijohns can sometimes have advantages? Well some wines can become a bit “explosive” during fermentation. Elderberry is one of them, and I’ve found the plastic containers handle this better than the glass ones. Whichever you use you probably don’t want to leave it next to anything valuable.
Once you are sure fermentation is complete, you can bottle it by siphoning using plastic tubing into bottles ensuring everything is properly sterilised first of course. It’s helpful to have a sediment trap on the end of your pipe to stop you siphoning the sediment that has settled on the bottle of your demijohn into your bottles. A sediment trap is usually like a plastic tube with one end closed and holes about half an inch from the end. This is the end that goes into the bottom of your demijohn whilst the other clips onto your siphon tube.
Close your bottles with corks, or use bottles with flip top stoppers and put them in a cool place. The longer it’s left the better it will taste.
Enjoy. Look out for wine recipes appearing in the future.
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