my food and growing diary

carrieon

Hope you and yours are ok Nikki. Well done and keep up the good work.

OrkneyStar

We seem to struggle to grow much here, our summers are not always that warm, and I ended up spending much more on getting seeds, planters etc than we got back in produce. Sad but true. Also difficult with a dodgy back ....wonder if I could barter any home made (knitted/crocheted) things for home grown produce :rolleyes: ? Was thinking of growing mushrooms though....anyone got any experience of that ?
OS
PS Nikki, hope I am not high-jacking......it is about growing stuff so might be useful to you too ?
x

pagangirl

Good Luck with the new thread Nikki :hello:

have subscribed, and will be following with interest (but have limited resources as live in 2nd floor flat at mo, really frustrating, as I love gardening) !!!

conradmum

Hi Nikki. Thanks for posting this thread. It's been really interesting reading it.

I thought I would tell you about a website where you can get very cheap, very good quality seeds. It's

http://www.alanromans.com

You'll get many seeds there cheaper than you get them from the seller on ebay. There are other places where you can buy cheap seed too, such as Wilkinsons, but I find their horticultural products (unless its hardware) very unreliable. Buying a packet of cheap seeds where more than 20% of them fail to germinate is a false economy.

His seed potatoes are also excellent (he's a potato expert - I met him once! )

Another couple of tips I'd like to offer is to grow mizuna for salad. It will also stand through the winter very well and is good for cut and come again.

And finally to anyone who wants to grow tomatoes outside in the summer, choose Ferline as your variety. It's blight resistant and tomato/potato blight is becoming more and more common with our wetter summers. There's little more disheartening than raising lots of beautiful tomato plants from seed, only to lose them all just as they're fruiting.

nikki20022008

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Being pedantic here, :rolleyes:, is lunch really 'free' or does the childminder include this in her charge to you ? If so should you be counting something.
Just a thought, not a criticism, to help make things dead pin accurate .
Also, do you count seeds, compost etc. in costs anywhere ?
x

I do try to include seeds and compost etc and meals are free yes shes a friend os mine and I pay the same as none meal parents but she feeds my daughter with her teo kids that's why I decided not to include this.

nikki20022008

Hi everyone I've not been well got hit with a cold but back now I haven't done a food diary as to be honest I haven't felt like eating. Here's todays:

bartered lasagne 0.20
bartered chocolate cake 0.20
bartered Milk 0.06
£ porridge 0.06
£ apple 0.23
home grown salad 0.03
home grown tomatoes 0.02
home grown peppers 0.07
home grown egg 0.05
home grown carrots 0.04
£ whoopie orange juice 0.04
Total 99p

Ok I've gone for a bit of a cheat as I forgot to freeze the lasagne :mad: and really needs to be used up by today and the apples are looking a bit sorry:rolleyes: so going to use those up too.

Menu

Breakfast porridge with grated apple
lunch egg salad, orange juice
Dinner Lasagne and chocolate cake.

Fruit and veg:

Apple - one
Orange juice - one
Lasange - one - or so I have been reliably informed by the cook lol
Salad - one
Tomatoes - one
Carrot - one

bay-tree-cottage

Hi Nikki, Glad to see you back.

Just sat reading Carol Klein grow your own veg to get inspiration. Wood arrived for beds but under 6 inch of snow now. Order some seeds via ebay and visited netto to buy the 19p seeds twice but due to the weather no deliveries so have to try again tomorrow.
Keep up the good work:T

Alwaysthebusybee

Hi Nikki, Hope you are feeling better.

Thanks conradmum for the website I have ordered some this morning from Alan Roman. I paid 50p a packet each for 1500 Lettuce seeds, 500 lettuce seeds and 65 tomato seeds. 99p postage for all three so i didn't think that was bad. Hopefully my spare room which gets the most sun will be my starting point until the snow clears up and I can get my greenhouse sorted.

Gettings loads of ideas and have even started my own spends journal to see how i'm doing.

Keep up the good work - you seem to be managing fine so far!!

Sarah

izzwizz_2

conradmum wrote: »

http://www.alanromans.com

You'll get many seeds there cheaper than you get them from the seller on ebay. There are other places where you can buy cheap seed too, such as Wilkinsons, but I find their horticultural products (unless its hardware) very unreliable. Buying a packet of cheap seeds where more than 20% of them fail to germinate is a false economy.

His seed potatoes are also excellent (he's a potato expert - I met him once! )

QUOTE]

Thanks for this, looks like a good site & I noticed he sells British Queens seed potatoes. As an english person living in Ireland I am still learning that there's more to spuds than King Edwards, and cooked my first Queens this year. What a revelation! No wonder I couldn't match mil's spuds in England!!!

Maxjessdru

Hi Nikki

Good luck with the thread - will be reading with interest x