50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

shaz_mum_of__2

Pooky you could do away with the lids and use the film covers these form an airtight seal and are ok for home use .............lakeland do sell lids but they aren't cheap

have you tried bicarb or mild bleach?


I too do a bit of foraging and think our road has a row of rowns but need to check in the book if so rowan jelly on the cards here already made elder cordial and rose petal jam got some sloe gin from last year to dig out and the elderberry wine desoerately needs bottling ................still not tried nettles though


Shaz

Confuzzled

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Hey confuzzled, sounds like a very productive day!
If you aren't fussy about what was in the jars have you thought about the really cheap morrisons curry sauce jars? It was about 8p last time I bought it and if you compare with other branded sauces the ingredients are remarkably similar... So, for less than the price of a jar from the charity shop you could have 2 jars of curry sauce

ooh i'll have to look for those next time i go to morrisons. we unfortunately don't have the best choice of shops here: tiny tescos express, morrisons, aldi's (good for some but not enough can't even get decent ketchup there!), and then spar etc so i do online shops at approved foods and asda. it did occur to me after posting i should look at the jar foods at AF more closely next time, shame they've run out of that polska sausage and beans stuff, nice big jars and lovely food for 25p a jar!

i take it the curry sauce at morrisons would be in the foreign foods section?

Confuzzled

Pooky wrote: »

I noticed a load of rosehips this morning - will be going out for them tomorrow, they do seem very early this year though....either that or last years were really late!

We made rosehip wine last year and it was to die for -

how did you get rid of the fine prickly hairs in the rose hips? also, when are the hips ripe? we've got a fair few that are a decent shade of orange now but not full red yet but yes they have come on earlier than i remember seeing... oh well nothing wrong with autumns bounty a bit early!

if anyone has any experience with rose hip syrup or jam making or any other uses please do share this will be my first year actually getting around to using them...also curious about fuchsia hip use too!

Confuzzled

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

I too do a bit of foraging and think our road has a row of rowns but need to check in the book if so rowan jelly on the cards here already made elder cordial and rose petal jam got some sloe gin from last year to dig out and the elderberry wine desoerately needs bottling ................still not tried nettles though


Shaz

ooh rose petal jam sounds great we've tons of dog roses around here (and regular ones too) i've been thinking of trying rose water so i can make cheap turkish delight, my daughter is keen on that one!

also i'm looking forward to trying rowan jelly again and rowans in chutney though i'll be adding a touch of bicarb to them to cut the acidity and thus the amount of sugar needed to make them more palatable.

i've made wild cherry jam and chutney before (they arent as nice for eating as is as cultivated varieties) and i'm really looking forward to those, quite a few of the cherries we saw today were already at the orange stage, the hot summer has brought the fruit on nicely this year!

i'm so looking forward to all of this, can you tell? :T

nopot2pin

Confuzzled wrote: »

i did a google search and the urban dictionary said it's the horse mussel (it also says its a term for erm well what mussels look a bit like )

i did some googling and now i think we could manage to get some razor fish here, i've eaten them before and they are lovely. we have two beaches here and the one farthest from us always has tons of razor fish shells on the beach so i'll wait for a low tide and take us down there to do some hunting, we might get lucky and find some clams too!

i briefly did some winkle picking years ago but i got paid for those i never actually ate them. i'd be curious if anyone has any good winkle/whelk picking and eating tips/recipes as those are usually easy enough to find. also, can one eat limpets? there are always tons of those around here...

besides my daughter finding it a lot of fun to forage i also want her to be able to fend for herself should things all go horribly pear shaped with oil and all. we've seen what has happened the few times they've had oil tankers striking, can you imagine how scarce food will be when the oil runs out? probably won't happen in my lifetime but it may in hers. regardless it's good to know what's living all around us and nice to have some different tastes and learn to live more seasonally. foraging is also very ecologically friendly, you can't get more local then your back garden or neighbourhood park! forget low food miles we're talking NO food miles :T

I think we must have come up with the same results on google :eek::rotfl:

All I can remember about whelks, was helping my mum...
We used to go down to either Saltcoats, or Seamills to get them.
She used to boil them in a massive pot. I cant remember how long for ect ect
I remember taking them to scool, in a bag... that was my playtime snack

I have seen people near me looking for clabbys... so maybe I will give it a try soon. The more I think about it, it really does make sense to take up fishing, as I do eat quite alot of fish... and it is so expensive.

Confuzzled

speaking of consuming flower products, i just tried the Hib hibiscus and peppermint drink i got from approved foods...quite tasty and refreshing!

it's an unusual flavour but quite nice and once it's ice cold i suspect it will be even better. i might even water it down a wee bit... so if anyone is hemming and hawing about ordering it why not give it a go? you could always add some orange juice or apple juice to it if you don't fancy it so much... really lovely and the wee one doesn't like it so it's ALL MINE :rotfl:

....makes mental note to add hibiscus to her foraging list!

Frugalista

Pooky wrote: »

I've tried cleaning up the jars from the curry sauce and although the jars are fine, I cannot get the smell out of the lids.....I've soaked them in soda crystals, they've been through the dishwasher a few times but still a bit curry...don't want it to taint my jam......anyone have any other ideas I could try to get them clean?

I run mine through the dishwasher a few times and then soak them in Milton overnight - it has worked for me.

Also, because I am making chutney rather than jam, I am not so bothered about a slight curry odour as the vinegar seems to cancel it out. HTH

Confuzzled

nopot2pin wrote: »

I have seen people near me looking for clabbys... so maybe I will give it a try soon. The more I think about it, it really does make sense to take up fishing, as I do eat quite alot of fish... and it is so expensive.

i'm thinking of asking for some fishing gear on freecycle, we have plenty of spots to do sea fishing here and finding bait on shore isn't too hard so it could be totally free for us to do so. as i recall my ex still has a book i picked up in a charity shop about fish identification and recipes i should ask him to give that back...

we don't eat as much fish as we'd like BECAUSE it's so expensive, i do my best to not buy any meat that costs more than 5 quid/kg so that rules out a lot of fish... we do get the odd bit on clearance but i'm VERY picky about buying fish that way after getting too many packages of clearance salmon that smelled strongly of cat wee when opened at home :eek:

Herewegoagain

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Pooky you could do away with the lids and use the film covers these form an airtight seal and are ok for home use .............lakeland do sell lids but they aren't cheap

have you tried bicarb or mild bleach?


I too do a bit of foraging and think our road has a row of rowns but need to check in the book if so rowan jelly on the cards here already made elder cordial and rose petal jam got some sloe gin from last year to dig out and the elderberry wine desoerately needs bottling ................still not tried nettles though


Shaz

How do you make rose petal jam, sounds yummy

HWGA xx

I really want to do some foraging, but so far it's just blackberries as I def recognise them. It's a pity some of you don't live close to me as I need a bit of moral support to give me confidence, don't want to kill anyone do I doh!

loocyloo

Herewegoagain wrote: »

How do you make rose petal jam, sounds yummy

HWGA xx

I really want to do some foraging, but so far it's just blackberries as I def recognise them. It's a pity some of you don't live close to me as I need a bit of moral support to give me confidence, don't want to kill anyone do I doh!

exactly what i was going to ask! and say! i have picked blackberries, and nettles, and despite being pretty sure what are rosehips & elderflower, i'm not confident about picking or cokking them! and i'd love to make rosehip/elderflower cordial !