Month: October 2016

From my Owslebury blog – http://owsleburyhants.blogspot.ca/

Shepherd leading a flock c1950 through Longwood Beeches, Hants.
Photo by Dennis Kendal

This photograph was given to my Dad by the photographer and it has hung in our house for many years , a glimpse into the pastoral life now gone but not forgotten.

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The article that follows is thanks to – The Shepherds Hut Company it provides an insight into the important roll of Sheep and Shepherd on the Hampshire Chalk Down lands , one which is completely lost today.

 History of the Shepherd’s Hut

In the nineteenth century, farming customs on the light chalky soils of

southern England were far different to modern day practices.

Labour was cheap and plentiful and sprays and artificial fertilisers were 
unheard of.

 

In order to get any kind of production from these thin and often impoverished

soils, fertiliser in the form of farmyard manure had to be applied. However,

the physical problems and cost of hauling vast quantities of manure from
the farmyard to the distant fields were too great.

To overcome these problems, farmers employed animals to do the work for

them – sheep. The era of ‘The Golden Hoof’ had arrived.

History of the Shepherd’s Hut

The sheep that were used to perform the task of fertilising the uplands were

very different from those you see on the hills and downs of southern England

today. Almost every farm with downland or chalky soil would have had a

flock of downland sheep – Hampshire Down, Dorset Down, Oxford Down,

or South Down.

These sheep were not allowed to roam free but were kept tightly enclosed

behind hurdles. Once the forage crop or grassland had been grazed, the

hurdles and flock would be moved on to new pasture, leaving behind manure

that would be ploughed in ready for a crop of wheat, barley or oats.

Without this organic fertiliser, it would not have been possible to grow these crops

in such light soils.

If you owned a downland farm in the 19th century, a well managed flock of sheep

and a hard working shepherd were essential, so much so that your shepherd was

the most important worker on your farm. As most downland villages were set in

valleys and downland fields were the farthest away, the shepherd had to have

somewhere to store his tools and medicines.

It was hard, physical work with flocks having to be moved daily and the

shepherd also had to have somewhere to eat, rest and sleep, especially during

the lambing season.

Thus, the Shepherd’s Hut was borne.

The shepherd’s hut was a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, sitting room and

storeroom all rolled into one. The designs vary but all were constructed to

provide the shepherd with practical and durable accommodation.

The old huts had a stove in one corner for warmth and cooking, and a

window on each side so the shepherd could see the flock. A hinged stable

door, which was always positioned away from the prevailing wind, enabled

 him to hear the flock, and strong axles with cast iron wheels were used to

withstand the constant movement from field to field.

The durability of these huts is evident today with many fine examples still

being used by farmers, mainly as storerooms, and can often be seen parked

up alongside fields. Many more have been consigned to agricultural

museums giving testament to days gone by.

The pub ” The Shearer’s Arms  in Owslebury Bottom (sadly closed in 2004) has a long history back to the Doomsday Book and Henry VIII was thought to have hunted rom there. Its name speaks to the importance of Sheep and Shepherding on the downs over the past 800 years.

Now a residence but once a popular pub with an 800 year history

Tomt

Courtesy of – The Shepherds Hut Company

David

David Cherrington

01822 612 720

07966 593 208

www.shepherd-hut.co.uk

18th Oct 2016

Whisky is Brown Vodka

Bottled from the first batch of CC produced in BC

This story was prompted after watching a BBC Infodoc “Scotch – The Story of Whisky” and goes back to the early ’70’s when I lived in Kelowna BC.

Let’s begin wee a bit of Whisky’s history : http://www.whiskyfacts.com/whisky-history/history-of-whisky/.

Hiram Walker had just built a state of the art distillery in nearby Winfield and were looking for an engineering type to record all the “As Built “drawing corrections to the project . I applied and was given the assignment .

When I joined Hiram Walker’s staff I was offered an opportunity to try out for a position on there product testing team . In these initial tests in their laboratory each candidate was presented with 5 glasses of water from different local sources which you were only allowed to sniff. If you were able to differentiate or recognise these again in later tests you became a candidate for further tests on their products . This testing is called Organoleptic Testing and is the standard method used throughout the distillate industry.

Following a long series of these tests I was told that I had a very good nose and was to join the Organoleptic Panel. This meant that not only did you go to the lab several times a day to sniff and compare samples of every sort of liquid, but you had unprecedented access the production process .  The secrets !

While what is described following was the practice of Hiram Walker, since the modern distillation processes are all based on the same science you can be pretty sure it universally true for all except gin.

Fermentation – This is a continuous process carried out in a pipe where some form of starch bearing organics ( Barley ,Wheat , are classics but also Adjuncts as they are known are added such as Corn or Rice ) are milled then inoculated with special high tech yeasts and water (the liquor ) to make a mash which is heated and converts the starch to sugar which then ferments to convert to alcohol.  Then end product is run through a centrifuge to separate the liquid from the solids . These solids are then toasted like pocorn and sold for animal feed.

Distillation – The liquid now passes onto the distillation department and is run through a giant still 50  plus feet tall . Condensates taken of at various heights and temperatures have differing properties . Many of these are used for other purposes other than making ” Vodka” . The distillers do not call their alcohol Vodka but New Product meaning raw alcohol at 180 proof. This is placed in oak Sherry casks for a number of years , in this case seven for maturation.

Blending – After the predetermined maturation is completed the casks are emptied and the contents filtered and the process of creating the “finished” product begins . This is carried out under the supervision of the Master Blender.
He uses his knowledge and experience to combine a huge variety of ingredients to create a replica of the “standard” of the product . This initial blend is the subjected to noses of the organoleptic panel for comparison with a sample of the “standard “.  any discrepancy mean  back to the blending room for amendment. the the process is repeated until the standard is matched perfectly.

However, some of the ingredients are known because we also tested them , organoleptically of course 🙂 for Canadian Club, such as Irish plum wine was included to provide colour and character.

That said, the recent so-called “rye renaissance” that never really happened, drew attention to the fact that in North America, Canadian rye whisky consistently outsells all of Scotch whisky, Irish whisky, Bourbon, and American rye combined.

Should you be further interested here is a link to the BBC webpage :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07zk5cx

tomt