really old style living?

ginnyknit

kittie wrote: »

lol Annie. They might just come back and also communal baths and wash houses (the posh called them called laundries)

The old laundries were fabulous places where the older women helped the young ones and everyone had a laugh despite the very hard work. I used to go every week when I was 14 because my Mum worked in a factory and didnt have the time or energy to go. I learned a lot about life from there. Could you imagine some of these yummy mummys in there :rotfl:

As for rationing, Im sure right ceridwen it will hit those of us on low incomes. What next I wonder bread? When they said times of austerity bloomin heck its worse than we could imagine. :eek:

mardatha

Anybody know how to build a guillotine ?? I'm already sorted for the knitting :rotfl:

aeb_2

kittie wrote: »

I see that we shouldn`t preserve veggies via the water bath method. Doh we need to be able to access canners

http://www.vegetableexpert.co.uk/how-can-vegetables-from-your-garden.html

Good evening, can I join in please?

I remember learning about the danger of bottling vegetables at school. I think it's just not safe in the home unless you really know what you are doing. Botulism is not just a tummy bug - it's a seriously dangerous toxin which can kill you.

As for bottling, I do bottle all sorts of fruit. I use ordinary jam jars. I use the oven method. I put the lid on and turn it back 1/3 of a turn. After heating I re-tighten the lid and leave to cool. So long as the lid is perfect it works. **caution - I have noticed lately that some jam jars are made using thinner glass so may not stand the heat** I don't put them in a hot oven but bring the temperature up from cold.

Have been making marmalade today. I paid 72p lb for the oranges. Was that the right price or was I done? Can anyone compare this year?

ChocClare

annie123 wrote: »

Found this link on another forum, Red Indian gardening guide,
Buffalo Birds woman's garden, ca 1839-1932 published 1917

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html#XI

Not the easiest read (the index is long enough!) but there are some old photos and after a quick read of a few chapters, some very interesting info. But I won't be singing whilst thrashing the corn

I thought this was absolutely fascinating, annie123, thanks for that. It's amazing to think that, when this woman was young, they didn't have metal and were therefore using animal bones as hoes. It kind of reminded me of the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, where the Kalahari bush tribe is living a happy life until someone throws a Coca Cola bottle out of a light aircraft, and everyone wants it because it is the hardest thing they have ever come across and therefore the most useful. I loved the descriptions of drying sunflower heads on the roofs of the lodges. Can't say that the food they produced sounded as delicious as she clearly thought it was - parched corn with dried squash, peas and beans all in a pot with no seasoning or salt. Mmmmmm????

kittie wrote: »

hells bells. I have just seen something about energy rationing tokens and petrol at 1.80 a litre by summer

Flipping heck, we`re back to the dark ages soon. I`m going to learn more about food preservation without freezing thanks to RAS. Who on earth would have thought that we would be back in the kitchen so much in 2011. Mind you, I do enjoy it. Nice with my radio on and the sun coming in

DH has obviously just been reading the same articles as he is all doom and gloom and should he buy a load of biodiesel now while the going's good? I am all for preserving food without freezing, which is why the pressure canner will be pressed into service later in the year. I'm just making marmalade, and have bottled some apple pie filling for later use. There are onions and potatoes in what we laughingly call the cottage in the garden, which is brick-built and fairly frost-proof, and we have a good store cupboard on hand, but it does worry me that we may have to choose between heating and driving fairly soon. We are in very remote spot, so a car really is necessary, but as I've just said elsewhere, if there weren't so many cars on the road, it would be quite easy to cycle from here - not very appealing when cars are bombing along at 50 down country lanes however. Our opposite neighbour, who has lived here for 40-odd years, showed us a photo the other day of beaters waiting in the road outside his house (he was gamekeeper) while they were getting the wagons ready for the shoot. That was only in the seventies, and there must have been 20 or 30 of them stood about in what is now an EXTREMELY busy road. If you did that now you'd be squished under all the lorries. Last time when there was petrol shortages, the trip to school with the kids was an absolute joy - took no time at all, and hardly saw any other cars. I could (sort of) live with that part of it very happily!

mardatha

My nearest shop is 11 miles. This village used to have vans in the "old days" - a grocer who also had amazing things like towels sheets and even a wallpaper pattern book , a fishmonger, a butcher, a baker all came round here. Life here then would have been a lot slower and more peaceful.

queen_of_string

Please, please, please read this post before you can stuff.

http://doomerincanada.blogspot.com/2011/01/canning-basics-types-of-canning.html

Then go and read lots more VERY UP TO DATE stuff too. I know we all used to do stuff that is now considered unsafe, but knowledge has moved on.

On a side note, what's your canning gear made of? Might be worth updating there too, some metals leach into acidic mixtures and a lot of old canning gear is susceptible.

I know it's a pain and a big expense to invest in all this stuff, and your gran probably did all kinds of things that are now considered dangerous and got away with it. However, that's exactly what she did, she got away with it. As a novice, or even with experience, you may not. The way they know these bugs happen is that they did, and they do still, and they still kill people.

Canning is like a favourite pastime in North america and there's loads of bloggers and good info out there.



You might want to think about dehydrating too, it's simple, fun and a great way to preserve stuff.

*relurks*

ceridwen

ginnyknit wrote: »

As for rationing, Im sure right ceridwen it will hit those of us on low incomes. What next I wonder bread? When they said times of austerity bloomin heck its worse than we could imagine. :eek:

I believe it is envisaged that the fuel rationing will be per household (presumably a basic amount - to allow for the fact the central heating/fridge-freezer have to keep going anyway regardless of the number of people per household. This having a small amount added to it per extra person in the household). In the longer-term the "ration" per household would likely get reduced - and this would probably be in accordance with more "extra" people in the country. That is - the more people the country has - then the thinner the country's ration would have to spread. Everyone already here would have to take a "smaller slice of the cake" BECAUSE of the "extra" people born or let into the country. Now do people see a primary reason why I am so strongly against people having more than a replacement number of children (ie women having more than 2 children) - because child no 3, 4, etc would be those "extra" people who would be claiming part of the ration that those of us already alive have and we would dip out accordingly.

Hence - why I tend to think that there would be such huge amounts of protest by people who have 0, 1 or 2 children at being told their ration would be subsequently cut to allow for Mrs Bloggs down the road having just had a 3rd, 4th etc child - that for Mrs Bloggs' own safety (assuming she had still decided to get pregnant with child 3, etc even though she knew that would mean other people getting a lower fuel ration because of it) it would probably get turned round into "rationing by price" instead - ie so that it would be Mrs Bloggs herself who would suffer from her actions (by not being able to afford the extra costs of the "extra" child she had just had) and not other people because of her IYSWIM. The ONLY way a WW2 style rationing scheme would work was if it was in conjunction with a population policy that ensured no-one had more than 2 children (and an effective immigration policy - but I dont anticipate that one happening....darn it..).

We ARE going to enter an era very shortly where there simply is not enough fuel available in the country and one of these two actions will obviously happen (unless the miracle we are all hoping for as regards other sources of fuel supply happens). Hence I would think it will turn out to be rationing by price - a. in order to protect the Mrs Bloggs' of this world from public anger and b. because the rich will "play their usual card" (ie the one that goes "If the Government doesnt make it rationing by price then we will leave the country - and bang go the taxes we pay"). In this day and age - with greater information available - people would find out if there were a lot of Mrs Bloggs' blithely going ahead and having a large family on the one hand (and realise she was the reason their fuel ration was about to be cut) or the rich were trying to "get round" WW2 style rationing on the other hand.

<goes off thinking "Any minute now someone will probably shoot the messenger">

ChocClare

queen_of_string wrote: »

Please, please, please read this post before you can stuff.

http://doomerincanada.blogspot.com/2011/01/canning-basics-types-of-canning.html

Then go and read lots more VERY UP TO DATE stuff too. I know we all used to do stuff that is now considered unsafe, but knowledge has moved on.

On a side note, what's your canning gear made of? Might be worth updating there too, some metals leach into acidic mixtures and a lot of old canning gear is susceptible.

I know it's a pain and a big expense to invest in all this stuff, and your gran probably did all kinds of things that are now considered dangerous and got away with it. However, that's exactly what she did, she got away with it. As a novice, or even with experience, you may not. The way they know these bugs happen is that they did, and they do still, and they still kill people.

Canning is like a favourite pastime in North america and there's loads of bloggers and good info out there.



You might want to think about dehydrating too, it's simple, fun and a great way to preserve stuff.

*relurks*

Don't worry about lurking or not, you haven't offended me! If you look at some of my earlier posts, you'll see I'm the anti-botulism queen too.

I have a Presto 23 quart pressure canner - the pukka article, bought last year from the states. Yes, I had to lie down at the cost, but I agree it's not worth risking anything else!

Thanks again for the reminder

I have thought about dehydrating stuff but so far only in a warm oven as I haven't convinced myself I want to buy MORE equipment...

mardatha

Am reading a book on the London blitz and just found an ARP warden grilling his lamb chop in front of an electric fire, dangling from a bit of wire tied to the window catch, and with an empty tin can under it to catch the drips .. Magic !

[Deleted User]

why in heavens name can`t we get canners like this

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-23-Quart-Aluminum-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B0000BYCFU

edit: lol, I just kept on clicking and I bought one!!! Total cost £91.,59 and I`ll expect some tax on top

So now I`ll be able to preserve meats as well as veggies

another edit: no I flippin won`t. I just realised that being aluminium, it won`t work on my induction hob so I cancelled. Good job I didn`t realise that in a few hours. Drat and double drat