It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

lucielle

I am going out on Friday night and paid for the ticket with eggs and sticky ginger cake. My OH hurt his back a couple of weeks ago and my friend is a Mctimeny (sp) Chiropractor, she did some work on him in exchange for a food parcel. Bring on the bartering!
L

buxtonrabbitgreen

I have done a bit of bartering in the past. When I worked at the biscuit factory I used to bring home lots of cheap snack and biscuits and swap them for vegetables with the guy round the corner who had an allotment. Don't think I am too good though as I used to keep quite a lot for us too.
Last year someone gave me a load of plums. all he wanted in exchange was a couple of plum pies.

MRSMCAWBER

meanmarie wrote: »

Thanks tiff....have some in glorious leaf in my herb bed, use it as much as I can while its there as it doesn't last long...think that it needs splitting this year when it has flowered

Anyone who is near hawthorn, the tiny buds are lovely in salad...we used to call it bread and cheese when I was a child, no idea why

Marie

:T My dad always used to pick me that when I was a kid...there were a couple of others he used to get too..wish I could remember what they were:rolleyes:
I think we could do with a MSE village - where we could swap and barter to our hearts content

mardatha

I'd be up for that mrs M, if only there was a way of setting it up.

ceridwen

Re the possibility of bartering - I dont know if theres any scope for doing it via people joining Nonnymouse.??

But I confess I cant see my way round how people could send bags of apples or homemade pies via the post

Traditionally in the past I guess maybe an existing community institution would fulfil this function - like the local church perhaps - but as Society has changed a lot then that wouldnt be widely applicable anymore. Maybe somewhere secular - like libraries perhaps?

Guess it would be less of a "Bring and Buy" than a "Bring and take" - bring what you can/take what you need. Cant really figure the logistics of this - amongst the groups I'm in there is a pretty strong ethos of just taking your "share" when the chance is there. There was just one person who was notorious for "hoovering things up" and we did spend some time racking our brains about how to prevent her from taking more than a "fair share" - visions of people attempting to hold her in place with conversations whilst other people got a chance - whilst she stood there looking anxious and visibly "straining the leash" to head for the goods and take her share and several other peoples as well come to mind!!

Some other places I've noticed there is no such ethos - and there are some people who will just take anything they can - regardless of others. I dont know how one would deal with this?

tiff

What is nonnymouse Ceridwen?

Primrose

On the Bring and Take problem with somebody taking more than their fair share it's always difficult, but you could try issuing everybody with one (or more) raffle tickets which they have to hand over whenever they do a swap. When they run out of tickets, they can't do any more transactions unless they "buy" a raffle ticket from somebody else and the cost of it goes into the kitty, towards the charity, or whatever. I used to help organise an annual function at the end of which everybody used to be given a Goody Bag. The first time we gave goody bags, you wouldn't believe how many people queued up twice which meant that supplies ran out before everybody got one. We soon wised up and the next year people had to hand over their invitation ticket to get their bag. It was strictly "No ticket, no goody bag". Then you wouldn't believe how many people claimed to have lost their invitation ! It makes you realise what a nightmare it must have been for grocers and others shops during the last war dealing with rationing & coupons and trying to ensure that everybody got their fair share.

mummysaver

Marie - wow bread and cheese brought back some memories! We used to walk through fields on our way to my nan's house and pick the buds, we also used to gather a sort of wild watercress too, can't remember what we called it, but that had a funny sort of name, and wild garlic, as kids we used to shove each other into it, boy did we smell! My kids find it funny that I have all sorts of funny names for wild flowers, just things like ladies shoes and stockings and stuff, and they found it really funny when I got excited at the sight of milkmaids once!

All this talk of bartering seems to be spreading, keep hearing all sorts of people mention it now! I think lots of people do it without thinking, for instance if they are given lots of apples they bake an apple pie as a thank you. It'd be lovely if it was more widespread though.

As for how to make it fair, perhaps a ticket system could work, we used to use tokens for our babysitting circles, ensured that nobody was allowed to take advantage of other members!

meanmarie

mummysaver...we 'country' people have all kinds of names for things that city folk don't seem to use....in Ireland some of it is connected with the two languages, even people who speak no Irish use the direct translation of the Irish name for something.....we called ladybirds 'god's cows' when I was young which is one such example...pity that these things should disappear so I use them whenever I can...my family think I am mad and they may not be wrong!

Sorry to go off subject, we really should try to do more bartering....would love to find someone who would give me eggs for veggies

Marie

mardatha

Aye, bartering isnt really feasible I suppose- apples and eggs dont travel cheaply or well ! I think a lot of it goes on up here , in the older folk who belong here. If your grandparents werent born here then you've got no chance of fitting in to that crowd though...