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

Emptynester

Sorry nothing exciting to say but I like to pop my head over the fence every now and then because I find this thread so helpful and don't like to take it for granted. Tea this evening included homegrown chard, which was yummy, woopsied new pots and some diced pork which was delicious after 20 minutes in the pressure cooker. Looks like we're in for a damp weekend but I've weeding to do and I should be able to do that even if it is a bit soggy.

Good wishes to all.

Empty

HariboJunkie

Emptynester wrote: »

Looks like we're in for a damp weekend but I've weeding to do and I should be able to do that even if it is a bit soggy.

Good wishes to all.

Empty

Nice to see you Empty. I am maybe slightly odd but I like gardening in the rain. Especially in the autumn when the rain makes the garden smell all leafy.

I'll get my coat. ;):D

greenbee

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Nice to see you Empty. I am maybe slightly odd but I like gardening in the rain. Especially in the autumn when the rain makes the garden smell all leafy.

I'll get my coat. ;):D

... Sounds like you'll need it ...

Pink.

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I am maybe slightly odd

You said it darling! xxx

floss2

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Nice to see you Empty. I am maybe slightly odd but I like gardening in the rain. Especially in the autumn when the rain makes the garden smell all leafy.

I'll get my coat. ;):D

HJ, there ain't nothing wrong with gardening in the rain, I seem to remember Geoff Hamilton and Alan Titchmarsh both did it regularly on the telly and it's a darn sight easier to weed in damp soil

Hope things pick up soon for you & your family :grouphug:

Charis

Emptynester wrote: »

I like to pop my head over the fence every now and then because I find this thread so helpful and don't like to take it for granted.

Good wishes to all.

Empty

Good evening Empty and if you pop your head over the fence you might well see me on the horizon waving, I'm not that far from you and my daughter lives even closer to you. The rain hit here around 6pm and was most welcome, mainly because I had a pounding headache and my new neighbour was slicing concrete slabs for his patio just a few feet from my back door. He gave up when it began to pour and stayed inside. The headache has gone now

HariboJunkie

Pink-winged wrote: »

You said it darling! xxx

Runs in the family darling. :D xxx

floss2 wrote: »

HJ, there ain't nothing wrong with gardening in the rain, I seem to remember Geoff Hamilton and Alan Titchmarsh both did it regularly on the telly and it's a darn sight easier to weed in damp soil

Hope things pick up soon for you & your family :grouphug:

Thank you Floss. I appreciate that. xxx

LilacLouisa

Charis wrote: »

I like mine too and was told by someone in the know that it has suction as good as the most expensive machines of the same type.

My one gripe is that the hose has split at the top end, near the bit I hold. I've had it a few years but it's not been subjected to violence. In fact it mostly hibernates in the cupboard until my conscience stirs. As someone else once said, my dust bunnies have names.

The place looks clean but I'm an old broom and know where the dirt is, :rotfl:. I've mended the hose for now with some sticky tape but will have to get a new one before long. It's on my list of things to do.

This made me quite nostalgic, my Aunt was always hard up and used to do a bit of DIY when she could, this mainly consisted of binding things (dog leads, vac cords, anything that had split, handbag handles etc.) with amalgamating tape.

It usually worked quite well and the repair lasted for ages.:)

suzitiger

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've often thought that our foremothers invented technology, for the purposes of harvesting and storing food, since it's a rare climate where you can forage/ hunt 365 days a year. I'm grinning at my fat hen on the lottie, my most successful weed, and recalling how it was cultivated in neolithic times as a food crop.

I found out about Fat hen for the first time today, i would love to try some. Any advice from where i can forage for it? Also I love the idea of foraging, have any of you got any tips about where to find things at this time of year? I am very new to foraging and only know about wild garlic really

GreyQueen

suzitiger wrote: »

I found out about Fat hen for the first time today, i would love to try some. Any advice from where i can forage for it? Also I love the idea of foraging, have any of you got any tips about where to find things at this time of year? I am very new to foraging and only know about wild garlic really

suzitiger, you can come forage on my lottie, I have LOTS of "fat hen".......:rotfl:I calls it weeding!

Jesting aside because I'm nowhere near you, fat hen is a weed of cultivated ground therefore you are more likely to find it on the lottie/ garden or, if you have no access to either, I would look on field margins.

You may have seen it already, but Ray Mears has a book called Wild Foods which I once borrowed from the library and I am sure that there were refrences to eating fat hen in that. It's a while since I read it but I have a vague recollection that the seed heads, which are lots of little bobbly green bits, were parched, ground and eaten as a flour by the neolithic Britons. It is because they brought fat hen in from the wilderness that it's so ubiquitous.

Anyway, my lottie site was neolithic farmsteads and the place is heaving with it. I also have a lot of common mallow which I believe has edible seeds, too. Of course, you should forage carefully to avoid taking protected species, to avoid taking anything poisonous, and to take only a little from each plant so that you don't fatally weaken it. (I tolerate the mallows because the bumble bees love it so very much, but not nearly as much as they love a sage bush).

I have eaten fat hen lightly steamed as a green veg and was underwhelmed. You can kind of see why it was classified as a famine food.

I was a bit disappointed a few weeks ago when I borrowed the DVD of the Wild Foods series from the library (haven't got telly but have a PC with a DVD drive) but it was so scratched that the drive wouldn't even recognise the discs.:( Took it back and they could see what I meant and refunded my fee and then took it out of circulation. I may buy the book if it tips up again in the discount bookshop; kicking myself for not buying it last year when I got the chance.

mamaninie re excess of basil, one of the geezers on the lotties deliberately grows an excess and makes his own pesto. Maybe that is something you could use?

Culpepper, Ceridwen and HJ, many thanks for the fruit and freezer tips there, I have cut-and-pasted them into Word and saved them into my Recipes folder.

Honeydew Melon Rind; can you eat it in any way, shape, manner or form?

I had a small honeydew among my loot from the Magic Greengrocer yesterday and have cut it into quarters and diced the flesh, half eaten last night, half to go today. I gave the skin a good scrub before I prepped it and rinsed and air-dried the rinds and have them in the fridge whilst I see if any wise old head up here knows if they're edible; I'm guessing it would be in a recipe, rather than raw?

I didn't get to the lottie last night as was falling-on-my-face tired and it looked like rain (raining outside now but shall go to pick peas and beans, need to get them into freezer before they get too old).

SuperGran found yet another druggie on her stairs, well, the ones nearest her flat, not her personal property, y'unnerstand. He had a tinnie, some "apparatus" on the ground in front of him and was moaning and groaning. She called the Police and a little later he was carted away in a paramedic car. ((Sigh)) wish people wouldn't do such things to themselves. The "friendly neighbourhood drug dealer" referred to with heavy irony a few days ago, doing an indeterminate sentence for nearly killing another dealer with a knife, has died in his cell; SG saw it in the paper. Bloke was my age but had been using and dealing heroin for 30 years. Nasty nasty piece and we were glad to see the back of him but you have to feel for his family; no one deserves to have their little babby turn out like him.

Charis re your vac hose having a split, is it possible to ask on Freecycle to see if anyone has one? I believe you're in a rural area so it maybe that it's harder to access a group, but perhaps someone has a dead Henry in their garage with a hose going begging? I have fixed up semi-disabled vacs by going to a repair shop; the little ones on the backstreets are often run by the most terrible hoarders and they may well have 2nd hand spares going cheep-cheep. I once brought a Dyson DC 01 back into use by getting a missing plastic 'ponent for a fiver from such a place. The funnelly upside-down bit in the clear plastic bit. It came off a DC 04 but worked perfectly. My mate has it now and it's been running perfectly for several years. We found the Dyson abandoned on the street when the students left and wombled it; Gawd only knows what they did with it to lose part of the dual-cyclone thingummy.

Have found another wotsit in the shed which is surplus to requirements and have just offered it up to my Freecycle group. I'm aiming to get rid of a few usable bits and bobs which aren't really c.s. suitable, in ongoing pursuit of a clutter-free life (hee hee;))

Hope everyone has a good day and that those rotten so-and-so's pay Mr HJ what they owe, get so cross with people who do that to the self-employed.

Put the kettle on!