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

silvermaid

Hi Mardatha - great that you are feeling some improvement. Here's to onward and upward

Just going to pick raspberries, loganberries and check for any last strawberries. Need to check the plum trees as well. We have one melon on one of the plants. Hope we get lots more. This one is the size of a gooseberry at the moment. They are a small variety (but not that small) and should grow to the size of a grapefruit with luck and watering.

[Deleted User]

I`ve been out pottering, more than in but have managed a quick catch up, if I leave it too long then I don`t get to read all the posts. Those of you with potatoes (who don`t know) just make sure that you water from below the leaves, wet leaves increase the blight risk a lot and its pretty common in july and august and the same with tomatoes. I just fed mine today and have a date marker going on the label so that I remember every 2 weeks

I have a lovely trough of thyme but it is so useful and I knew it was good as a companion plant for brassicas but didn`t know that it deterred flea beetle (it makes the dozens of little holes on leaves) and my lovely turnips were like lace curtains so you live and learn. Anyway I sowed another few seeds in a trough today as I am dehydrating as much as I can as it is a very beneficial tea for winter congestion, colds etc

Tomorrow I am picking all my calendula flower heads and de hydrating those for the petals. I am really getting on with my de hydrator after a shaky start to herb drying. You need 95 (low) and about 12-16 hours. There is no scent in the house as all the oils stay in the herbs and I can smell them when I crush them into lock and locks. This house is no good for hanging in bunches to dry as it (the house) is designed to be cool in summer and the lime plaster maintains the right humidity ie they never dried properly. It will work in a conservatory or hanging in bunches on an airer near a stove

Anyone who goes to costco, you should try the salmon in wellington pastry, it was outstanding when we had visitors last week. Fantastic and with a beautiful sauce. lol, I am not os all the time esp when I want to spend time on other things. I have excess charlotte potatoes from the allotment so I fried them in olive oil, they took a while but made the most fantastic addition, I think they might be called game chips

Stage 2 today, ie washing out to dry, broadbeans to blanch for the freezer and gardening stuff to be put away, salad to prepare. Stage 3, Feet up with some celtic music while reclining outside in 12 inches of shade. Stage 4, Later off to the allotment for more produce and to feed with comfrey water and to turn the garlics and shallots we lifted yesterday.

Notice I never mention cleaning: it sort of stays clean as I do the toilets every day and wipe basins. Dh is the one who goes round with the duster and hoover and does the dishes, well it is easy here and I never have to ask. Mottled stone floors and no pets, anyway outside is more important while we can. Lol its amazing what the freedom to go cycling when he likes does to his psyche and I benefit because I am left alone while he is out and then he is so glad to have his `space` that he is incredibly helpful. Win win all round

annie123

kittie wrote: »

Tomorrow I am picking all my calendula flower heads and de hydrating those for the petals. I am really getting on with my de hydrator after a shaky start to herb drying.

Kittie what do you do with them when dry?

I add fresh flowers or petals to salad sometimes but that's about it. This year I have loads and loads of them......got carried with my reduced to 10p pkt from wilkinsons.

GreyQueen

.......and nothing disastrous has happened. It's a Campri Phoenix Mk II, racking brains with parents, we think from about 1979. That chocolate-brown flysheet is interestingly faded. It's in their back garden and I've poured several watering cans over it and the water is beading and rolling down the fly. Took just under 10 mins to pitch, nothing like these thingies you can get now and throw at the ground. Takes me back down memory lane.

I'm less cold-afflicted than yesterday and have had a brill roast dinner with yorkies and all the trimmings so am fit to curl up and sleep.

Tonight, I shall do a little shoe-repairing with the superglue and few other bits and bobs, then off to the new work week and OS-ing all the way.Gonna lift the first root of the spuds....yummm!

Have a good day, all.

ChocClare

Just got a dehydrator so any tips would be gratefully received, kittie!

It is SO HOT here. When it's this hot I really can't be bothered to cook - well, I can, but we don't fancy hot meals as such, if you know what I mean.

When we were in Spain, we had lots of "picky bits"-type meals - garlic prawns, albondigas, salads, cold meats etc. - but this kind of stuff obviously tends to be pretty expensive here. I don't mind buying stuff if it gets eaten though! I was looking at the deli section in Waitrose last night and salivating - but not at the price :eek:

Anyway, my main problem is that DD is veggie, so I can't just rely on meat products + salad. DS will not eat anything which looks remotely healthy. DH and I will eat anything and everything.

So, with those provisos, has anyone got any TNT hot summer eating ideas? If they can be frozen, so much the better, as I don't want to make eg a huge pasta salad and a huge rice salad, only to have the rain set in and it all go to waste (or to be forced to eat it every day whether we like it or not)!

There is nothing I can't cook (sorry because I know that sounds big-headed and I don't mean it that way), so preparation isn't a problem. Just ideas! :rotfl::rotfl:

Any help gratefully received

lizzyb1812

ChocClare - there's a thread a few down from this called Summer Meal Planning that has some good ideas and links, including quite a bit of veggie stuff.

Edit: this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3335120

mardatha

Y'know I've heard that a really good remedy for chest infections is kale, worn like a poultice....
(runs away and ducks for cover )[/QUOTE]
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AYE - THATS THE ONLY POSSIBLE USE FOR THE BLOODY STUFF !

lizzyb1812

I see you're feeling better, Mardatha :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mardatha

:cool: I have baked gently all day and think am just about cooked through now. I could get used to this!
Yes Kittie ta pet - I used to make a fab thyme cough mix when the kids were wee.

Winchelsea

ceridwen and silvermaid

Hope you get on all right with the bread. For conventional bread I heat the starchy water in the micro until about right - just above blood heat (do 20 secs, test, do more if needed).

I make a lot of sourdough though, also the "no knead" bread, and they both work well without it being warmed, as they sit for a long time and rise gradually.

Have started keeping a breadmaking diary, trying lots of different recipes, some cooked in the convection oven of the micro, some in the Remoska, and I take a photo of the batch as it cools. Then I make a note of how it came out - taste, texture etc. (Don't know why I do this - am I obsessive?!)