As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

EstherH

Glad you had a good time tonight Jedi. Hope you get some sleep. Esther x

Broomstick

Kimitatsu wrote: »

Broomstick - you need to post us a picture love the concept though. That has got me thinking tonight and I may well be following you.

I need to consult DS2 (my technical wizard) to see how to do that

Haribo, how lovely to have the jars on open shelving. That's brilliant. I don't know about you but I think that another thing about being able to see the food without labels is that there's a sense of abundance about it. I think it's about seeing the food with all its lovely textures and shapes and colours first and not really noticing that it was a supermarket basics bogof and has just gone past its sell by date.:D It's reminding me that we are lucky to have food, of any kind and it makes me want to cook too.

I don't know how you can keep things like marshmallows in those jars. We don't eat them because they aren't veggie but I know that if I put treatsy snacks in see through jars they wouldn't stay there long!

B x

[Deleted User]

I would love to keep foodstuffs in jars on open shelves but light causes food spoilage, it causes photodegredation and vitamin loss. I still haven`t got round to making space under the stairs for food storage but I will as that is the one area that I have, which is cool, dark and dry. I came very close to open storage in my kitchen last week but decided to be sensible after I had had a good think. The closest I will get is by braiding some of my garlic and hanging that in the kitchen. Doh, its a pity as there is something very comfortable about rows of jars

ceridwen

kittie wrote: »

I would love to keep foodstuffs in jars on open shelves but light causes food spoilage, it causes photodegredation and vitamin loss. I still haven`t got round to making space under the stairs for food storage but I will as that is the one area that I have, which is cool, dark and dry. I came very close to open storage in my kitchen last week but decided to be sensible after I had had a good think. The closest I will get is by braiding some of my garlic and hanging that in the kitchen. Doh, its a pity as there is something very comfortable about rows of jars

Darn it!! I had an idea I cant keep dried food out on open display because of this and I know I have to keep nuts in the fridge - but I thought I could safely keep pulses/pasta/grains/etc out in the open???

Do you have any links about info. on that Kittie?

I have to keep Kilner, etc, type jars of dried food out on worktop and kitchen windowsill in my kitchen - as its too small to be able to put them away neatly in the cupboards. When I tried to - I just forgot what food I had crammed into them and didnt use the stuff nearly as much, whereas this way at least I remember and DO use the stuff.

I was planning - if/when I have a big enough kitchen ever to just have specific open shelves for my Kilner jars and get the "best of both worlds" - ie stuff out in sight and all neatly sitting on shelves in one place in my kitchen together.

YOu've now got me wondering whether I should cram the stuff back into my cupboards or no - and, more to the point, mentally replan my "future - if/when I can - kitchen".

freudianslip

Good Morning

Oh to get rid of labels! My cupboards are full of brightly coloured fonts. It shouldn't bother me but it does because each of those labels has been designed with greed in mind 'buy me, buy me so my makers can make money out of you!' There's something fair and innocent about plain packaging. You have spurred me on to get my grains, beans, pulses and cereals in containers.

Is Ikea any good for cheap containers? I've a trip planned for next week anyway. I know you can get kilner type jars for pence as I am after two so I can buy bigger supplies of sea salt and pepper corns.

I'm going to collect my reserved copy of Kath Kelly's 'How I lived a year on just a pound' I'm sure it will have a couple of ideas in there that I can adopt or adapt. Thanks for the heads up

We had some heavy rain overnight and happy to report we have more pea pods growing, blackening blackcurrents, redcurrents are starting to turn (strawbs a disaster this year ) flowers on toms and on blackberries, broadbeans are eventually starting to come through, neighbour has too many broccolli so getting a couple of those to plan and I have leeks to go in today Also my current cuttings I took last year have rooted which i'm thrilled about. I'm going to plant them in the front garden and plan to put strawbs in there too if the runners root.

Gardening for me has become purposeful and enjoyable. I enjoy reading about it and learning. My strawbs are driving me insane though, we've had flowers but no strawberries forming. I posted on green fingers that I thought it might have been because I planted them near a shaded fence but I just don't think it can be that, there's got to be something wrong. I'm wondering if I've bought last year some bare rooted plants that were coming to the end of their fruit producing life? As I say they fruited last year.

Anyway, I'm encouraging the runners from now on to hopefully get some new plants.

I'd best sign off, get my little people ready and dodge the showers to get to school. Looking forward to see what we discuss today

redlady_1

Hi FS - how did the exam go? Can I sit on your couch yet?

I have some of the jars from Ikea and I also have some of the glass bottles as I want to make elderflower fizz.

Am feeling a bit flat today and not really sure why. My sense of drive seems to have driven away at the moment. I am hoping it is just a blip.

Oh big news! OH and I love camping and we have a lovely tent but it doesnt have a fixed groundsheet for the living area so can be a bit wet sometimes. Last time we were away in Lyme Regis we suffered from "tent envy" from next door. We have done a bit of research and have just purchased an Outwell Oakland XL, the side porch, carpet (yes I now but this is the OH) and table and chairs. I used my John Lewis card and went through Quidco so will get £63 back from that plus another £10 min from the JL vouchers and the card has 6 months interest free on purchases (although it will be repaid pretty much straight away) Then I will sell the other tent on ebay too. I cant wait to use it.

mardatha

Am wondering if this might cost me a fortune, looking for nice glass jars. Surely if they were inside a cupboard kittie then they might not ruin food? And esp if you only did it with stuff you use often. Or even if you stuck coloured cellophane round the jar to keep light out - would that work? LOL picturing rows of lovely deep purple and midnight blue and bottle green glass jars sitting neatly in rows on shelves now!

LittleBrownFrog

One thing I'm very excited about in the new house is the two big built-in cupboards in the kitchen - proper old-fashioned cupboards that are crying out for paper-lined shelves and to be filled with all my jars of things. I totally agree about de-labelling things as much as possible - those rows of jars do feel 'abundant' as Broomstick says

taurusgb

redlady_1 wrote: »

Oh big news! OH and I love camping and we have a lovely tent but it doesnt have a fixed groundsheet for the living area so can be a bit wet sometimes. Last time we were away in Lyme Regis we suffered from "tent envy" from next door. We have done a bit of research and have just purchased an Outwell Oakland XL, the side porch, carpet (yes I now but this is the OH) and table and chairs. I used my John Lewis card and went through Quidco so will get £63 back from that plus another £10 min from the JL vouchers and the card has 6 months interest free on purchases (although it will be repaid pretty much straight away) Then I will sell the other tent on ebay too. I cant wait to use it.

Same here - we LOVE camping. I only have to buy a new camping mug and I get holiday fever and a desperate desire to sleep in the tent . We've had to buy a new tent this year as our old one was 12 years old and starting to leak in various places (we had a very interesting holiday last year!) Like you, I can't wait to try it out.

Up until now we have had a tent with sewn in groudsheets for the 2 bedrooms but only a separate groundsheet for the living area so have suffered mightily from drafts on windy evenings and the odd paddle on very wet days. The new tent has fully sewn in groundsheet for the whole tent and the bedrooms so should be very snug :T. It also has an add on porch that is big enough to use as a kitchen - we've always just erected a gazebo onto the tent exit with a windbreak round it for a cooking area before....I shall feel so spoilt. We bought it in the sales in January - should have been a total price of £495 but only cost £125 :T:T:T

My family laugh at us for camping, but it has meant we have taken our children on holiday every single year - maybe not far away, and sometimes with no spending money other than the food budget, but we have had some fantastic times that we have many "do you remember" conversations about. A lot of my family on the other hand never go away because the cost of hotels (and even caravan hire) is so high. Think we're the winners there! Mind you, I love camping so much I'd still go sometimes even if I was a millionaire :rotfl:

HariboJunkie

kittie wrote: »

I would love to keep foodstuffs in jars on open shelves but light causes food spoilage, it causes photodegredation and vitamin loss. I still haven`t got round to making space under the stairs for food storage but I will as that is the one area that I have, which is cool, dark and dry. I came very close to open storage in my kitchen last week but decided to be sensible after I had had a good think. The closest I will get is by braiding some of my garlic and hanging that in the kitchen. Doh, its a pity as there is something very comfortable about rows of jars

I am lucky in that my shelving is in an area stepped down off my kitchen which has no natural light at all. We glorify it by calling it a utility room but it's where I have all my white goods and these shelves I'm talking about. I also use up my stores regularly so nothing really has a chance to spoil. I would have thought that as long as they are out of direct sunlight they would be fine anyway.
I have open shelves in the kitchen too but they are reserved for cook books and things I like to display. They are reall dirt magnets though.