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

mardatha

QUOTE - "I lived in Suffolk for 17 years and the summers were just faaaarrrr too long and too hot. I remember one August with practically no rain"
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MOVING! WHERE IS SUFFOLK? PACKING NOW ! :cool:

mardatha

Ooops sent that too soon in my excitement Well we have not had a summer as yet, still waiting. Amazed that you have raspberries already Smiley, ours are nowhere near out. My lilac is just coming into flower now. My chard is like 2" high. very funny year.
IOIWE - let us know how he gets on pet.
ChocClare - I think you've got a cheek calling ME mad ! You lot sound worse! :D

mardatha

Could anybody please post any tips for making cheap food taste special ? Like French cooking, or sauces, or how to add those wee extra finishing touches to jazz up plain basic (aka cheap lol) foods please ?

Kimitatsu

Morning all

Whilst I remember Smileyt you can easily put the jam in Christmas hampers - we are still eating jam I made last year (I went a bit mad I think!) and I know that many people keep their for longer than that.

It was roasting here yesterday, and promises to be another cracking day today, the ducklings were out in the garden yesterday playing in the water bowl which was really nice to see.

Last night we had the first real bbq of the year and I am once again astounded at how much my boys can eat :rotfl: if it wasnt for OS cooking then I think we would be bankrupt!

Today the strawberries are developing runners so I am going to see what I need to do with them (never had them before!) and plant them on as needed. I need to do some baking to replenish the stocks from the weekend and then get the washing out. Got some washer balls from Lakeland in the sale over the weekend, we were there at the reduced section and there was a lady reducing things further, on chatting with her she was telling us that she needed to get rid of some stuff because some of it was hanging around far too long, so bless her she reduced some stuff even further for me. Walked out with 5 washer balls, a new baking tray (one of Lakelands top brands) a roasting dish and a carrier bag holder for £20 :T I was chuffed as I am trying to replace some of my old and worn out baking trays gradually, and I know you get what you pay for but some of it is not cheap.

CC - Friday and Saturday we were all shattered, boys were complaining of being tired and I just crashed about 8pm.....but by yesterday things were a bit better so I am hoping that things have eased up a bit now. Hope DD is alright and I concur that McTimmoney chiropractic is by far the best! I dont do pain or discomfort so traditional chiropractors are my least favorite people!

Hope everyone has a good day and hugs to all those that need them xx

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

QUOTE - "I lived in Suffolk for 17 years and the summers were just faaaarrrr too long and too hot. I remember one August with practically no rain"
***********************************
MOVING! WHERE IS SUFFOLK? PACKING NOW ! :cool:

It's that sticky-outy bit north of Essex, hun, dangerously close to Lunnon.

I didn't get back to the lottie yesterday evening as the heat didn't go over and I was attending to chicken-related matters. Must need my head examined, roasting a chicken in pushing 30 degree heat, but I never claimed to be entirely sane.......:rotfl:

I got a wiggle on this am and was on the lottie by 6.30 to do the digging bit which I didn't get to last night. The heat is overwhelming here. How the heck can it be in the high twenties at breakfast time, it's all wrong, I'm in England not southern Spain fer crying out loud. I had actual drops of sweat rolling off my face.

Back home and having breakfast, bit of internetting, quick bath then off to the office to earn my living.

scottishminnie your post reminded me of Mum who has been grinding granulated sugar into caster sugar in her Kenwood for a few years now; if you go a bit too far you get icing sugar!

Re allotment thefts; we go thru phases of break-ins to sheds and then it goes quiet. The villians seem to be after things like petrol strimmers and have obviously looked to see who is using same and then they get targetted. Out site is on a housing estate and all but the inner plots are visible from the roads, so passers-by can see what you're doing. We've also had thefts of produce from some plots; one guy who had half a plot of strawbs had the nets ripped off one nights and they were all picked. It was many many kilos and obviously not for a single household's consumption. Another guy had a row of potatoes dug up one autumn and they must have had a barrow or a car to cart them away because it would have been a sackful.

I've been spared theft as they're not interested in hand-tools like mine but I have had mindless vandalism; a plastic greenhouse slashed, stamping on freshly transplanted leeks, and an intruder who brazenly walked around my plot and interferred with stuff but did no real damage. It's not nice but mercifully not common. I'd like to have a cheap wooden bench on my lottie but have concerns that I'd go walkabout so haven't got one. Ditto flowerpots/ planters.

jamanda thanks for the input re the Sarpo Mira; I'm growing Kestrels too, they're my fave after much experimentation but next year I'm going to switch to a main crop as have been having such a trouble with frosts in May. Can you think of anything in the maincrop line which is a comparable tattie to Kestrel please?

Josie Jump hello to another pressure cooker-phobic! I saw one explode about 30 years ago and have been too nervous to be in the same room as one since. All that hissing...........

lizzyb1812 I had to smile about your neighbours barrowing gravel in the heatwave yesterday. A friend of mine had a long-standing plan to buy-in topsoil for her raised beds and I had given her a long-standing pledge to help her by bringing my lottie barrow and shovel down when she got it delivered. The hottest day of 2010 came out of a run of otherwise cooler weather last year and guess what I was doing........:rotfl:

Kittie couldn't agree with you more about how outrageous it is for food crops to be turned into biofuels; it's nothing less than obscene IMO. I have read that the realistic poplulation estimate for self-sufficiency in the UK is 15 million only, but we could all help ourselves by Digging for Victory type endeavours and, if transport costs make food imports unfeasibly expensive, we probably will have to do a lot more locally.

Right, more tea and I wonder if we'll overtop 30 degrees today?

culpepper

Bleugh too hot already!
Yesterday I went over the veg plot and hoed all the weedy bits with our old wheel hoe.
It took an hour just to get it back to managable.
Then I spent another hour picking the remaining raspberries.
Ours are usually ripe by the end of may and over by the start of July (Kent).
We have a few potatoes growing from tubers that got missed last year so I am leaving them in, just in case they come to anything.

Our big side gate needs remaking as it is all warped and split. OH went to look at wood a few weeks ago and balked at the prices. We have a large pallet (some bits are over 6 foot long) all in pieces in the old shed and he took it out and removed the nails and laid it on the ground and he thinks it will make the major part of a replacement gate so that is DS job today.

We eventually will dismantle the old shed as it is falling apart and the wood is like weetabix.

westlothianlass

Good morning all,
Well it's not raining (yet) but looking a tad grey.
Mardatha the only thing that has popped into my head so far is i try and add fresh herbs to most things, especially gravy's and sauces and find this takes the taste up a notch. Chives in gravy, thyme and oregano in tomato sauces and of course a dribble or two of wine if available, plus giving them enough time to cook through, which is great when using cheaper cuts of meat.
We managed to cut the grass yesterday (the royal we :rotfl:Well i watched with a trowel in my hand as DH pushed the mower around) so looking a bit more respectable.
Blackcurrants are ready for picking but lost all the whitecurrants to the million and one sparrows who have decided to move in, thinking of giving them an ASBO as they are a noisy bunch:D.
I know i moan about the weather up here but i'm pretty rubbish in the heat so maybe it's just as well i live in the frozen north.
Right off to pretend to tidy etc as took a day off today in the hope i would be productive:rotfl:.
x

Larumbelle

mardatha wrote: »

Could anybody please post any tips for making cheap food taste special ? Like French cooking, or sauces, or how to add those wee extra finishing touches to jazz up plain basic (aka cheap lol) foods please ?

What foods do you need to jazz up? I've probably got tricks but I can't think without a prompt lol

Well, docs again this morning, to get signed off cos of stupid work. She's given me a number for a government agency, she says they are more from the angle of getting jobs for incapacity claimants but they might be able to help. She said it's getting ridiculous now and if we need any help from her in pursuing it at a tribunal to let her know as it's not looking like I'll improve any time soon

But it's roasty toasty already outside, I guess I should at least feel smug that my colleagues are all in the office and I'm not (silver lining and all that...) I'm loving the fab washing weather, have washed everything and am considering doing the duvets and/or curtains today. My washing machine is huge and I have two lines now (got a rotary one reduced to £3!!!!! from Wilkinsons a few months back) and an urge to fill them both. I love laundry!

Otherwise not too much to report. Someone included one of my notebooks in an Etsy treasury which is cool. Does anyone else sell crafts online? I currently sell on Etsy and Dawanda, but I'm thinking about trying Folksy or Misi instead. I know I can ask on other threads (and I probably will a little later) but I was wondering if anyone here had an opinion?

lizzyb1812

Mardatha - head to London but turn left before you get there and I'll get the spare room ready:rotfl:

I'm from oop North originally but I've been in Suffolk for 21 years now and I love it. Driest part of the country (I think) but I can't remember ever having a hosepipe ban because the water company know they have to manage supplies properly. We didn't have rain at all April/May so I do have to do a fair bit of watering but shan't be moving any time soon

stiltwalker

Morning all, hot and muggy here and waiting in for a delivery so going to try and get a bit done in the garden if DS lets me, he's having a clingy day so he'll just have to cling to his daddy - lol! I often wonder why the things you want to grow grow so much slower than the things you don't!

As far as pepping up food goes I often use a dollop of sweet chilli dipping sauce as this peps it up without adding heat. I aslo use good old worcestershire sauce (as long as you're not proper veggie) or mushroom soy sauce (if you are). I also make a lot of fresh herby sauces - either white sauce with a good bunch chopped in or a tomatoy sauce the same, fry off an onion and a clove of garlic really slowly add a tin of toms and am splosh of red wine or port (if you have, I keep a cheap bottle just for cooking and cheap vermouth for recipes that say white wine), reduce and add a good handful of finely chopped herbs, whatever suits the meal.