It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

Charis

EstherH wrote: »

I have an apple tree and a pear tree in my garden, but the apples always seem to be 'got at' by something, there is a tiny hole and it is brown right through in a line from the hole, so not sure about eating them.

Whatever it was may have already left the apple. I soak ours to evict the critters, then peel, cut up and discard the yukky bits. Once the rest is cooked it's fine. Proper old style. They never threw away good food. The reason it's got lodgers is because it's organic (not been sprayed) and worth eating. I remind myself of the cost of a tiny jar of apple sauce in the supermarket if I ever feel inclined to be fussy.

Also, with the pears, they are rock hard and then all of a sudden they turn to mush with no in between ripe period, so most of them are wasted. I really want to make better use of them this year.

The pointy end of a pear is the first bit to go soft, that's where the greengrocer always used to test first. Some pears never amount to much as raw fruit but poached (especially in red wine) they are delicious. Or you can cut into cubes, part cook and throw a good few blackberries in for the last few minutes of cooking. Our blackberries get a good soak before cooking too, as their 'lodgers' are smaller and can get missed. Once cooked, stewed fruit keeps for ages in the freezer and is a welcome reminder of summer during the winter.

We spend a lot of money on fruit as DS eats loads and hubby has apple, orange, banana and maybe melon and grapes each day. I like to make sure we have at least our five portion fruit/veg, so try to keep stocked up but could do with some cheaper options.
I buy mostly frozen veg as seems to be cheaper and less waste, but always buy fresh carrots and onions.

To be honest, green leafy veg are supposed to be the best of all, for vitamins, minerals and folic acid and they are the one thing you haven't mentioned. Fruit is expensive and can be quite high in sugar. Most of it is imported, so if there is ever a transport crisis we'll all have to get used to a very different diet.

I've found growing my own to be more trouble than it's worth too, especially this year when my beans were smothered in blackfly and my chard was devoured by leaf miners. If you really don't like growing veg just do some salad leaves or a few tomatoes in a pot near the house. Once you get used to the likes and dislikes of plants they seem easier to manage, though they do have good and bad years. In the meantime at least you'll save sometimes but not feel overwhelmed. Someone said on this thread the other day 'Grow what you like to eat' which is good advice, though you might find bananas a challenge with the summers we have these days :cool:

ceridwen

wigglebeena wrote: »

Now planning to make cheap Nutella substitute with Basics peanuts, veg oil, cocoa powder and sugar. Will report back...

:think:
Hmmm....the thought hadnt occurred to me that I might be able to eat anything like that - wonder if I could make an equivalent with the sorta stuff I have in - in my case that would be hazelnuts, sunflower oil, carob powder and honey...:think:. Now thats the sorta thing I might well be able to "sell" through LETS too....

I shall be interested to see the "verdict".

**************************

On another note - I didnt get blackfly (if they're the tiny black insects I think they are...) - though I have got nasturtiums in and I've found before that they LOVE them. Think I must have inadvertently done some companion planting that put them off. I have had problems with slugs and snails - but have been working out how to do things differently next year to minimise places they can find to hide and will do some night-time forays with a torch - so I should be able to keep on top of them. What I've had problems with is tiny faint white speckled-y markings on some leafy type plants (plants where I want to eat the leaves darn it - like mint and basil). I havent worked out what that is yet - and something likes eating tiny holes in the leaves on another plant - and I havent worked out what that is either. Think I'm going to have to swop from spraying these plants at intervals with readymade garlic water from a cheap shop to using sprays of washing-up liquid in water or my own homemade garlic water perhaps.

gailey_2

EstherH wrote: »

I have an apple tree and a pear tree in my garden, but the apples always seem to be 'got at' by something, there is a tiny hole and it is brown right through in a line from the hole, so not sure about eating them. They are only really good for cooking with and I have taken some and cut round the brown but it is a bit of putting as I think it's some kind of grub. Also, with the pears, they are rock hard and then all of a sudden they turn to mush with no in between ripe period, so most of them are wasted. I really want to make better use of them this year. We spend a lot of money on fruit as DS eats loads and hubby has apple, orange, banana and maybe melon and grapes each day. I like to make sure we have at least our five portion fruit/veg, so try to keep stocked up but could do with some cheaper options.
I buy mostly frozen veg as seems to be cheaper and less waste, but always buy fresh carrots and onions. I did try to grow some onions and leeks last year but wasn't successful. Also tried tomatoes, for three years now, but they didn't taste of anything which was very disappointing as was looking forward to wonderful taste. Think it was lack of sun, up here in North West, had really bad summers for last few years. Did potatoes in old dustbin and bucket but tbh seemed to be cheaper to buy them than the amount that I got back, although was very excited at growing my own. Everyone seems to say that even with a little patio you can grow your own, but find that with compost, and feed and cost of seeds plus time, it doesn't seem to be worth it.

I think a lot of the apples and pear trees round here are better for cooking with.

Someone suggested stewed fruits here for kids so did stew some apples and plums with sugar and cinnamon that created a syrup which I aslo froze then pur stewed fruit in tubs and froze.
Is lovley with mashed up digestive instant crumble:D or bit of yogurt or icecream, least then they wont go waste.

Hubby grows our veg he enjoys it.
He does different things each year with varying success.
carrots aloways end up deformed but use them anyway.
Potatoes were cheaper to buy.
Onions and leeks grown but slowly and they cheap to buy
pepper and cjilli been very slow.
sweet peas and broad beans a success
cabbages huge
cucumber very slow
tomatoes grown but still green
pumkins-first year we grown these so will see thinking pumkin pie, curry, soup and 1 for halloween if they grow ok.

I buy fresh herbs from lidls 2 for 1.50 then plant them as cheaper than garden centre.

You got an aldis near you as tey have the super 6deal each week.
Lidls good and they have random deals like whole bag of onion 30p, mango 35 p, get bananas small and small bag apples for kids 1quid.
Noticed morrisdions had most berries for quid oter day but dont buy much fruit and veg morrisions as does not last as long no idea why.
local greengrocers and market stalls have far better deals than big 4 with things like punnet stawberries for quid.

Do see whats free around you does your ds like blackberries.

we buy frozen broccoli, cauli, spinach, carrots, petit pois and sweetcorn.


Re nutella loads of hazlenuts trees near me so might try as be cheap if you do have free hazlenuts think eldest would love it so thanks for recipie.

The pasties last night were yum going to double it to 14 next time and will cost less than 40p each makes you realise profit margains and other bakeries have on oasty, hoping will freeze well and be ideal for lunches ect.

Was going to make quiche but running low on butter and run out plain flour.

making pizza tonight.
maybe pasta without meat tommorow garlic bread and cheese hubby will moan.
I still have 15readymeals (homemade in freezer) eggs to make omlette to go with chips, chicken to go with chips, supernoodles, tinned soups ect.

Realised paid early as 15th a sun so paid fri13th so only another 6days.

Only thing find stressful is super amount of batch cooking first week.
Think doing so many places might be tiring but hopefully bring costs down.

Planning on mostly tidying today, hubbys got to go out.
Hes still moaning no choc or biscuits in house.

yesterday I gave him cooking choc well its actually sainsburys basic in white pack largish milk choc 35p what i do is mas it with rolling pin where recipie calls for chioc chips as often cheaper than buying choc chips but it tastes quite nice to eat as well.
Maybe adding hot choc to shopping this month might cure his choc fix hes meant to be on a diet.

We all love sainsburys basic cheap popcorn 98p sometimes shut curtains all sit on sofa watch movie on tv and pretend its home cinima kids love it.

Ahh I have a questions about slowcookers hoping someone can advise.

I want one and want to make xtra so need something quite big so what size does everyone suggest.

Also brand watching few local on ebay but what brands best a freinds got a croc pot which looks good as dish can be used seperatly in normal oven.
I want something big, easy to use and ideally not too pricey doubt I be able to purchase until september anyway.

Another silly question but anyone managed to cook whole chicken or joint in it.

Reason I ask is on river cottage he cooked his young chickens in a pottery brick which also produced a readymade gravy.
Would a slowcooker create a gravy too if I chicken in some veg with the meat as starting to hate instant gravy granules and would love easy lazy way to make gravy myself.

mardatha

I can get a whole chicken in mine if I use snips to take the bottom bit of leg off but I have no idea wot size it is. its big and bloody heavy though.
We never eat fruit, not ever. And we are both still alive (but with him its hard to tell some days). He's diabetic and I just hate fruit.
I found something chewed my turnip leaves to ribbons, they were fancy white italian turnips too but a waste of time. The chard- well that grew to about 2ft high and didnt look very nice so I left it. Might have been weeds in among it, I dono what chard is supposed to look like
Then yesterday I looked out kitchen window and there was a hereford bull the size of a house calming munching my kale !! big sod. But I wasnt going to argue with him cos the fence is only 3 strands of thin wire LOL -then his lady friends came along and took what he had left, then they all had a scratch on my shed and it MOVED. godsake.

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

I can get a whole chicken in mine if I use snips to take the bottom bit of leg off but I have no idea wot size it is. its big and bloody heavy though.
We never eat fruit, not ever. And we are both still alive (but with him its hard to tell some days). He's diabetic and I just hate fruit.
I found something chewed my turnip leaves to ribbons, they were fancy white italian turnips too but a waste of time. The chard- well that grew to about 2ft high and didnt look very nice so I left it. Might have been weeds in among it, I dono what chard is supposed to look like
Then yesterday I looked out kitchen window and there was a hereford bull the size of a house calming munching my kale !! big sod. But I wasnt going to argue with him cos the fence is only 3 strands of thin wire LOL -then his lady friends came along and took what he had left, then they all had a scratch on my shed and it MOVED. godsake.

...:think: Wonders how long it takes for holly to get established as a hedge - or summat else prickly. Of course nettles might also be offputting to our four-legged "friends"....and you can eat them.

Re wondering what chard (or anything else either) looks like just put "chard + images" into Google and up will come some photos of the plant concerned for you to study.

gailey_2

mardatha wrote: »

I can get a whole chicken in mine if I use snips to take the bottom bit of leg off but I have no idea wot size it is. its big and bloody heavy though.
We never eat fruit, not ever. And we are both still alive (but with him its hard to tell some days). He's diabetic and I just hate fruit.
I found something chewed my turnip leaves to ribbons, they were fancy white italian turnips too but a waste of time. The chard- well that grew to about 2ft high and didnt look very nice so I left it. Might have been weeds in among it, I dono what chard is supposed to look like
Then yesterday I looked out kitchen window and there was a hereford bull the size of a house calming munching my kale !! big sod. But I wasnt going to argue with him cos the fence is only 3 strands of thin wire LOL -then his lady friends came along and took what he had left, then they all had a scratch on my shed and it MOVED. godsake.

Oh dear. The way milks going in this house I would have run milk them:rotfl:

Hubby eat much fruit and hes ok just.

mardatha

Dont want nettles Ceridwen I hate them. I will maybe just leave a space of a foot or two between the fence and where I start to plant... unless that annoys him. LOL!

culpepper

Thankyou very much for all the good wishes regarding our cat.
He was one of the family.

Today I need to catch up with hoovering and tidying.
We have our once a week chocolate treat to look forward to later on.
It used to be quite hard to keep to once a week ,when we were popping to the shops two or three times,it would be too tempting, so now I only shop on Sunday and avoid the chocolate/sweet aisle and hubby buys a chocolate bar each when he goes to his Karate class on saturday afternoon. Making it a habit has saved some money and its easier to keep snacking under control.

Chipps

Hi

EstherH - re your tomatoes not tasting of much, it may be the variety. Some taste better than others. (Mind you, I can't remember what we grew this year! We usually have some gardeners delight which are fine) Look out for free seed packets on some of the grow your own magazines, or sign up to the BBC dig in campaign in the spring for freebies.

Gailey - we have finally solved the problem of funny-shaped carrots! DH managed to scrounge some of those blue barrels (I think they are used for transporting foods of some sort - you see loads of them on allotments as waterbutts. Anyway, we have 1 as a waterbutt, but the other 2 are on the allotment (obviously would also work in the garden) He put some drainage holes in the bottom, filled them up to half full with soil, then about half again with used compost from pots & growbags, finally the top bit with fresh compost. Then planted them with carrots. The carrot flies can't get at them (it apparently doesn't occur to them that carrots might be hiding so far up!) and because it is nice soft compost with no stones, the roots grow straight down. This year we have had the nicest looking carrots ever! And it hasn't cost much, because most of the seeds were freebies, the barrels certainly were (the man who gave them didn't want anything - they just get dumped - DH gave him a drink) so the only bit we had to buy was the relatively small amount of fresh compost. Next year we will just replace the top portion of compost, because that's the bit the carrots are actually in.
Slow cooker - mine is a morphy richards big oval one, big enough for whole chicken. Do use the juices for gravy - once the chicken is cooked, I either thicken the liquid with cornflour or good old fashioned bisto powder. TBH I don't like gravy granules, they often seem a bit fatty. Usually use bisto anyway.

mardatha

Does anybody else get really sick fed up of never going OUT ? And I dont mean nights out, I mean out anywhere!! I sit in this house day in day out week in week out and I never go ANYWHERE and today I am ready to SCREAM. But if I whine at rattyknickers all I get is the "no money for petrol" story..