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

ceridwen

Softstuff wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing a trick by trying to get rid, when what I've actually got is a source of free meat.....

No, I'd give up my weekly bottle of 2 quid wine before I'd eat mice, and that's saying something

Well - my memory is nagging at me here - that the Romans ate dormice (in honey) I do believe. Go on Softstuff - do an O.S. experiment for us:rotfl:

HariboJunkie

elisamoose wrote: »

Just foraged a bowl of sour cherries.any ideas for recipes- preferably not jam?

Sour cherries go really well with chocolate and I serve them with dark chocolate mousse or torte, or you could try a cherry pie.

Thanks for the tip Redlady. I'm a big HFW fan.

Up with the lark today, or should I say blackbird as one of the 3 blackbird families in the garden has fledged it's second round of babies and they are VERY noisy. :cool: So I've spent nearly an hour in the garden with a pot of coffee trying to forget that our clients haven't paid their bills on time and watching the harbour come to life. I have managed to count my blessings while sitting in my productive little garden. The hens are delighted that the weather has picked up and dozed off at my feet. So the greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are watered, the fruit cage is fed and I picked another lb of raspberries for breakfast. The sea is like a millpond this morning and is already busy with yachts gearing up for a race so we will head down to the beach with a picnic at some point.
There. Blessings successfully counted. The clients WILL pay eventually and we won't starve in the meantime.

Will waken the girls in a bit and get breakfast as they're requested a lesson in porridge making.

Softstuff

ceridwen wrote: »

Well - my memory is nagging at me here - that the Romans ate dormice (in honey) I do believe. Go on Softstuff - do an O.S. experiment for us:rotfl:

Reminds me of when Weezl had that pigs head a couple of years back and was attacking it with a razor, as an OS experiment. I recall thinking at that time that it didn't matter how skint I was I couldn't shave my food. And this coming from me who loves offal. I guess you have to draw a line somewhere and my line is somewhere before mice and pigs heads.

I oiled my deck this morning, and the first coat of the darned stuff still isn't dry now, so it looks like I'll have to do the second coat tomorrow. I guess I did lay it on thick, but this drying time is silly. So I've sat around like a bored housewife and watched a library DVD. I could have done something more productive

GreyQueen

I am now an unofficial broad bean processing factory; spent an hour on the lottie picking and shelling a carrier-bag full (4lb shelled weight) then came home and had a simple supper of steamed h.g peas, a few slices of h.g beetroot and half a small whoopsied quiche lorraine. Thought to myself; "Must grow quiche next year, they're delicious!" Worked out that supper had cost under 40p so felt pleased that I had eaten well and relatively healthily.

Whilst I was blanching beans, I was debating putting them into plastic bags from the plastic bag drawer or plastic containers from the stash in the cupboard. Each has benefits; containers are easier to stack in the freezer but take up the same space full or half-empty. Poly bags shrink down with their contents but waste odd corners due to not being rectangular. My freezer is a counter-top model, all I have room for, and space is very limited, so this is a valid use of my brainpower.;)

:idea: Then, I had a thought, which I'd like to share in case it helps someone else. Apologies if everyone else in the world worked this one out before me. I put the plastic bags into plastic trays (250g mushroom trays from the supermarket) and then packed the beans in and sealed with a twist tie. I have just de-trayed them and now have frozen stackable bean bricks....yayyyy!

Will be up there again tonight for the next batch......does anyone ever have enough freezer space at this time of the year?!

Ceridwen if you like chill-out Enya/ Clannad type music (and I have quite a bit of this ilk myself, for those frazzled moments) may I recommend the Deep Forest selection of CDs. They're "world music" and very relaxed and interesting. I got mine from c.s. You also must check out Kate West's "Hearth of Hecate - Earth Chants" which is fantastic. Lots of good stuff - one of my all-time faves - AND your namesake Ceridwen gets namechecked in some of them, so it's effectively your own personal soundtrack.:rotfl:In fact, I have it on my player now.

Growing veggies in the front garden

I followed that linkie which Mardatha posted yesterday and my bloodpressure probably went thru the roof; we truly live in a world gone mad. I wonder if you could get away with veggies if you were a bit sneaky and grew them jumbled together in a herbaceous border sort-of style? After all, runner beans were imported from the New World as ornamentals and only later did some brave soul think about eating them. They are my personal favourite veg, both to look at and to eat. I love to see them growing up teepees.

We had a call at work a few years ago from a gentleman (I use the term loosely) furiously demanding that the Council pay him £10k compensation as the estate agent had told him this was the loss of value to his ex-council house due to our tenant next door to him growing veg in the front garden. He got nowhere with that but it gave us a good laugh behind the scenes. As my supervisor said, the tenant ought to be commended for their initiative and the private homeowner ought to count his blessings; garden could have been full of weeds, furniture and old appliances.

Actually, depending on the orientation of your home to the sun, the front garden may be the one which is suitable for the veg since there's few which will thrive without full sun for most of the day.

I'm having a bit of a no-spend sort of month in July and have, apart for a very few £ on groceries, bought only 3 things; a secondhand DVD cabinet to use as a sewing cupboard, a new battery for my my 4.5 y.o Nokia and an 80p p.j. top from the c.s. Next week will have to shell out for the re-doing of a filling, the one above the tooth I had all the fun with in Spring, presumably also damaged by stress-toothgrinding. Other than that, I am trying to be really thrifty; just so long as I don't get anywhere near a bootsale.......;)

Hope everyone has a good day and does anyone have any good recipes for mice?!:rotfl:I believe the Romans used to eat baked dormice stuffed with honey and nuts but these were a different and much larger species than our British dormice (which are lovely and rare and so protected that it's a sin to even imagine eating one).

mardatha

I'd end up feeding the poor wee mice instead of eating them
HJ, I wish I lived where you do, not managed to get up there this year as no money. I miss the harbour and the ferry. The RV is a grumpy nightmare just now and today I'm taking off to the daughters to get a breathing space. Is amazing how easily somebody can drain your energy and pull you down innit :mad:
The menu planning is going to hell (again) - i'm very good at menu planning but not so good at taking stuff out of the freezer in time for it to thaw oot!
The Victorian Kitchen book says they kept a tub in the corner of the kitchen and all scraps went into that for soup and stock making. I find that works. Started giving it to the hens but I seem to have cordon bleu chickens who turn their beaks up at scraps. reverted to feeding us with it instead. So the hens are on grade A mash and we are eating the scraps. Sorted. :rotfl:

HariboJunkie

mardatha wrote: »

I seem to have cordon bleu chickens who turn their beaks up at scraps. reverted to feeding us with it instead. So the hens are on grade A mash and we are eating the scraps. Sorted. :rotfl:

It must be something about Black Rocks as mine won't eat scraps either unless it's something partiularly tasy like creamy mash or pasta. They refuse to eat peelings so they go straight in the compost now although they did eat some veg peelings in the winter when I boiled them up and mashed them with butter.

mardatha

Ahh that's what I did wrong ! I must sautee them lightly in best butter and add a soupcon of herbs. bad me !

HariboJunkie

mardatha wrote: »

Ahh that's what I did wrong ! I must sautee them lightly in best butter and add a soupcon of herbs. bad me !

I hope you're still refering to the scraps and not the hens. :eek:;):D

mardatha

Welllll.......... I'll let them worry about that. Then they might behave themselves !

grandma247

I have just read an email about this book and also found it here
Some of you might find it interesting.