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

shegar

Ive been reading your posts on all the people on here waiting for a allotment, have any of you thought about asking an elderly neighbour if you could use their garden in return for free veg for them letting you use their garden to grow in?... Alot of people with ill health etc etc....would love someone to look after their garden for them , Ive heard a few people in the next village to us doing this, and I think its a good idea , its helps you both out...........perhaps if you have someone in your street/road that you could ask , , knowing that they would be kept in veg, plus their garden will be well looked after does appeal to some folks..............

I bought some peas in the pod to cook for tea tonight but they didnt get cooked cos I ate the lot as I was trying to get them out of the pod but Ijust cant stop eating peas raw, ohhh they were lovely and sweet and so delicous , result one empty sausepan...:eek::eek: ended up getting some frozen ones out of the freezer......Did I feel guilty . like heck....:)...

Thanks Jackieglasgow for letting us know that madarther is off line temporary, I did wonder why she didnt reply to my private message I sent her, hope you wont be off for too long.......

redlady_1

Mad Bird probably ate some Kale and is just having a reaction to it!

Shegar - I lurrrve raw peas. Yet cant stand them cooked. Work that one out. But needless to say if they are grown then they are eaten straight from picking. Can't get much fresher than that Mr Birdseye! :rotfl:

scottishminnie

Popped into my local co-op for a newspaper on the way home from work and they were selling off strawberries at 10p for a 454g pack. I don't know what I was thinking about - only bought one. I'm kicking myself now for not buying half a dozen and making jam. I must get my act together and plan ahead a bit more.

I think my salad potatoes may be finally ready to harvest so tomorrow I will pull one lot up and see what I get. I'm hardly self sufficient but it's quite exciting:)

I bought some snazzy swarovski crystal buttons to update my winter coat so this weekend I'll get it dry cleaned and then get the buttons on. That coat should do me for another 10 years or so now with the makeover.

I must get some weedkiller down over the next few days though. That's the one thing that has been thriving recently, they are popping up between every single monoblock and paving slab.
My husband's friend is a tree surgeon and has offered us free bark chippings provided we collect them so that's great news and will let me touch up borders and rockery area. I used to wonder how bark chippings seemed to disappear however having watched my semi tame hare "throwing" them onto the driveway I'm beginning to understand!

I can see a busy weekend ahead - hopefully a warm and sunny one so I can flit from inside to outside as I please. Well - I can only hope:)

Softstuff

wmf wrote: »

Thanks for this softstuff - I've just made it and it's lovely. I added some of a HUGE cauli that I bought in a Polish shop near me - also bought massive tomatoes and a few tiny cucumbers. Will have a side salad with my curry - bit odd but yum yum. I have enough for the next couple of days as well as DH isn't keen on veg curries - he likes a good chicken madras!

Glad you liked it WMF. Hubby is a bit miffed he's having it for lunch at work today again, but he didn't tell me he wasn't in the mood for it until 3 minutes after he was due to leave for work, so I can't be blamed.

Must make a few lunches to go in the freezer today for just such an occasion.

I'll post my cheats "satay" later for anyone who's interested. It's a way I found of making those cheap minute noodles into something a bit better.

ceridwen

Softstuff wrote: »

I'll post my cheats "satay" later for anyone who's interested. It's a way I found of making those cheap minute noodles into something a bit better.

Yes please - I've got your chickpea curry recipe written down for trying out for dinner tonight already.

Last night's recipe was one from a new cookbook I have and boiled down to being a frittata recipe with cooked noodles in. I sorta alternate between "my own" type of food and doing recipes based on cheap supermarket ingredients. So - last nights frittata I guess is an anglicised version of the spaghetti omelette Italian mommas make with leftovers. So - I did the same as the recipe and used cheapie noodles (flavourings packet thrown away) and it was okay. Basically some sauted onion, some precooked noodles (my version for myself in the future will be some leftover wholemeal organic spaghetti broken up:)), a large tomato and throw 4 beaten-up eggs with a tablespoon of water over the top and some grated cheese over that. Saute and then brown/cook the top under the grill.

If in the future I change my cookery blog from private to public setting - then I have it in mind to maybe do 2 versions of each recipe - ie a healthiest possible version and a more "standard" version. Thusly peeps will be able to choose between healthiest possible eating and cheapest possible eating. Sound like a plan to you maybe???

[Deleted User]

I am feeling excited today, lol the little things count and I like positive stuff. I have picked and packed dwarf french beans into 2 jars and am waiting for brine to cool. I have nothing whatsoever to lose as I just chucked the beans into re-used compost in a plastic planter. I got a lot of beans into 2 x 500 ml kilner jars and the younger beans are curly so they were made for this. I am trying the recipe on p77 of the preserving book I just bought. Only brine and beans and nothing else. I will have to wash the salt off before use but they will be good in winter soups.

I cleaned up all my picked shallots, got them in just before all the rains and they have been hanging in a draughty shed but it isn`t good enough and I peeled back and did a good sort out 1 by 1. I ended up with a bowlful of iffy ones for the freezer and the many good ones are now bunched in 5s with 6" stems. I have found a novel way to get them dried and I`ll write up later, I have to test it first

I am finishing the mustard tonight and will report back on that too

Loads more sungolds to pick and I`ll do a quick fry in olive oil, to join the hm pesto. Mouli arrived yesterday and it is an awesome piece of kit by kuchenprofi. Good old internet helped me save money on that one. I can see it being very useful in future for making fruit compotes. I love this preserving malarky, it is very grounding

CRANKY40

Good morning,

It's so good to be able to go out in the garden first thing and pick raspberries and blueberries. I have some rhubarb and some beetroot also nearly ready. Before you imagine a proper garden, I have a paved yard, with a flowerbed down one side. That's where the raspberries, blueberries and cherry tree are (together with some roses and assorted flowers). The beetroot are in a container, as are the rhubarb and some wild flowers that we grew from seed for the butterflies. The strawberries and tomatoes are in hanging baskets (very good for stopping anything from eating them before I do :rotfl:)

I've been trying to keep an eye on our gas and electric useage. The fact that the autumn raspberries are ready so early says to me that it's going to be a bad winter.....so I need to be getting the gas in credit ready for the huge winter heating bill. I'm on a fixed rate until March next year thanks to a timely reminder from Ceridwen a good while ago, but I still think it's going to cost a fair bit!

Take care all of you....I'm off to make cakes with the house elf.

londonirish_3

After weeks and weeks of just sitting there looking green, I was able to pick my first ever 2 tomatoes yesterday morning. A proud moment lol :rotfl:

I have been growing sweet peas too, they smell gorgeous, and I am cutting those every few days instead of buying flowers for the house, saves me a fiver a week. I am off to town to look for lettuce seeds. Next year I aim to grow alot more. I did have a sprout plant that grew, but I wont go into that, it was a failiure .

Am getting a pile of bits to be ebayed, have started buying christmas gifts, and am adding to my penny jar daily ( this is a huge clear cola bottle 2ft, which when filled will be used to keep the gas meter fed at christmas time.

I keep reading posts saying this winter is going to be really bad, that worries me because of the pre payment costs had last christmas. Anyhow, every little that goes in the pot helps.

I made my first ever chicken soup yesterday, in the slow cooker, I plonked in all the leftover veg. It tastes ok for a "throw together" going to try my hand at homemade rolls to go with it.

scottishminnie

Well I did my Asda shop before 8 this morning which is all good and well but not so great for whoopsie hunting as they seem to get reduced throughout the day.

In case the bakers amongst us are interested Asda have the big (907g) tin of Tate and Lyle Syrup for £1 so I bought 2 for my store cupboard. BB date was 2013 so plenty time.

That was my sole find though - I nearly fainted at some of the price increases since last week
Smart price chocolate digestives - last week were 36p now 50p. Almost a 40% rise and the finest range jam has gone from £1 to £1.38, again almost 40%. They must think we are so stupid we don't notice.I don't think I've every varied my choices so much as I simply won't buy things with that kind of a hike. I'll go without first.

Glorious sunshine at the moment here but also raining at the same time. 4 seasons in one day is bad enough but now they are coming at the same time!!

LI - I love sweet peas but don't really have anywhere to grow them up if you know what I mean. They smell fantastic and are just so pretty. My neighbour lets me pick hers which is really nice of her.

Fingers crossed this rain goes off so I can get the grass cut before dinnertime tonight. I had big plans for the rest of the evening on the gardeining front.

[Deleted User]

oh well I have to recommend brining green beans, it is so easy and must work as that is what all our families did just 2 or 3 generations ago. The hard part was trying to stop the top beans from floating then I remembered a lakeland sale buy from 2 years ago, bought and put away and unfortunately just one packet. Called preserving plungers and just a circle of open plastic with a spike on top. When you put the lid on then the plastic pushed down on the contents and they stay submerged. I want/need more but oh no I cannot get them anywherem so have e mailed lakeland with a plea to get some in. Something as cheap as that will be so important to us as we delve into preserving again.

I was thinking about my Polish peasant grandmother who I never met and that is what she must have done, no electricity, just salt. It was such a hard life for her as she and her husband and children were taken into a forced labour camp in Russia and the children were piled into rooms with no love, whilst the adults were forced out to slave on the farms and trainlines, while starving. I always did think that two of my dads siblings looked Russian and I think I know why, very different looks to the others who had dark hair and little neat faces. They had a small farm before it was stolen from them. I have to stop thinking about it, it always gives me heartache

Starbor kale is up after being sown only 3 days ago and it will need a boost, as it is very late with already shorter days, so I am going to give the raised bed a dose of blood fish and bone fertiliser now and in two weeks will chop the phacelia (green manure) growing in there, into small bits. I am hoping to make sure that I don`t encourage disease hence the crop in the middle as it has produced cabbages since april

Oh nearly forgot, I know some people have grown onions and will be lifting them soon and it is very difficult to get them hung wide enough apart so they dry. I have several clothes airers, including two that expand both ways and they have slim rails, so I bought shower curtain clips that have a hook top and bottom. I bunched my shallots into 5s and tied with twine and have, just now, hung these little packages all over one airer and that is in my lounge as it is wet outside. I am absolutely made up because previously they were too close to each other. If we have more wet weather when the onions are up then I will do the same. I am being ultra careful because of memories of shallots rotting as they hung in a garage

I would like a crockpot to make fermented veg, I remember those pots. I have a rumtopf (can`t spell it) and may well make preserved fruits in kirsch as the book recommends. I need a costco trip but the motorway will be hellish this weekend