Mash

As mentioned yesterday, MrB returned today with two more barrels of chestnuts which we fed through the shredder. I then showed him how to play conkers. The chestnuts have been in salted water for a year now and are actually quite soft. The result seemed to be - nothing. I think it was like hitting sponge against sponge. Perhaps if they were now dried they may become really hard. Not sure how many chestnuts were shredded in total, but probably over 200kg.

MrB mentioned something interesting - quite a few deer are killed in winter on the roads as they go there to lick the salt left over from de-icing the roads. So although the majority of the salt water is tipped away, there is enough salt in the chestnuts to make them particularly interesting for the deer. This evening he had wanted to collect some dried grass from the factory I mentioned on Tuesday. This is the same as the pellets we collected but just not pressed in to pellets. This will come in to the finished mash. Tomorrow he will collect the brewer grains.

A wet rainy day with the very occasional sunny spell. At least it was dry when we shredded the chestnuts. Pleasant phone call with UK this evening, both of us were cooking as we spoke, both waiting for wives to come home from yoga/fitness. His was critical - fish, so as his wife came home we had to end quickly. They will be in Germany in a few weeks, she singing in a choir. Sadly it takes place in northern Germany so we won't be able to meet up.

Thursday done, nearly there.