Friday 12 August 2016

Beetroots Onions and Saturn Solar Powered Lights


Emma decided that she didn't want her old shoe rack so I have repurposed it and it's now an onion drying rack which fits just nicely in the outside store overnight and when it's raining. The ample onions were donated to me by Joe one of my plot neighbours at Spencer Road when he found out I had a bit of an onion disaster growing from seed this year.


We finally got around to pickling the beetroot and this year we tried the microwave. It's not much faster but it's cheaper and less stream producing

Get one Pyrex dish with a lid
Prick the Beetroot so they don't explode!
Add 13mm or 1/2" of water and place the beets in the dish, put lid on.
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 10 minutes
Turn beets over 180 degrees, put lid on
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 10 minutes
Turn beets over 180 degrees, put lid on
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 20 minutes
Test to see how easy the skins come off and if necessary
Turn beets over 180 degrees
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes, put lid on 
Rest for 10 minutes


The solar lights on the fence with the adjustable solar panel tops came from PowerBee and is called the Saturn and I have been most impressed with them, in fact I think they run rings around the cheap £1 shop ones I have bought in the past, OK OK I couldn't resist 

One was sent to me by PowerBee as a thank you for adding a link to their web site on the left panel of the blog.

As you can see they are much larger than the cheap £1 shop lights that have only lasted two years and were in need of replacement.

You can angle the solar panel on the top so that it picks up maximum power from the sun. They are particularly bright and last all night only going off when the sun returns in the morning.

The original one sent to me for review was placed in a flower pot that is fixed to a wall and I was so impressed at how long and how bright it was that I contacted PowerBee to see how much it would be to purchase another three to replace the four on the fence.

There are holes in the base plate that allowed me to screw them to the timber capping plated of the fence posts.

They are sold in even numbers and there is a discount structure based on quantity. See Here for more details.

Having had them in use for some time, I would highly recommend them. It will be interesting to see how they cope with reduced sunlight over the winter months and how durable they are?

I will try and update you on their performance same time next year.

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