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

Hippeechiq

Shegar - I'm so pleased that you've turned the corner and are feeling brighter hun, and are getting some practical and beneficial help. You certainly deserve it

I mentioned earlier in the month that my lovely Dad has ordered me a load of plants. 12 of them are tomato. 6 Cherry and 6 Standard. I'm giving 4 to DDs boyfriends family but that still leaves me with 4 Cherry & 4 Standard.

All are looking very healthy (some have even started to flower) and I'm beginning to wonder what to do when they start bearing fruit.

I'm very grateful to my Dad, but we are only a family of four, and only myself and my OH eat tomatoes.

Obviously we will eat some, but, I've never made a chutney in my life - and am not a huge fan to be honest - so was wondering (and hoping) if there is some way of turning them into the consistency of tinned chopped tomatoes with a view to possibly freezing them (given that I don't have a canning factory at my disposal ) as I get through a huge amount of tinned tomatoes a year.

So would/is it possible at all?
I regularly freeze ½ tins of tomatoes, and some shop bought frozen stir fry veg have whole frozen cherry tomatoes in them.

I'm not as OS as a lot of you and really have no idea how to go about it if it is, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

bertiebots

Hippeechiq I dont know if this is right or not but I would put them in the slow cooker for a few hours ,if you are thinking of using them in the same way as tinned toms then I would imagine this would work? I was given a load of tomatos peppers etc a while ago and just made a slow cooker full of sauce and froze it-ready to use on its own or for adding to recipes .

Hippeechiq

That sounds like a good idea hun, but unfortunately I don't own a slow cooker

grandma247

Hippeechiq I used to freeze tomatoes whole then drop them in boiling water to split and soften the skins so they are easy to remove. I save the skins and dehydrate and powder them to add to spaghetti sauce etc.


I bought my dehydrators from here (scroll down to the last one). I got one then a few months later bought another and I just used the trays from it to make it ten tray instead of five and have a spare motor and bottom tray. You have to "babysit" it because you have to rotate the trays every so often to even out the drying but I find it is a small price to pay for being able to dehydrate now rather than wait till I could afford a better one.
I love dehydrated winter squash and sweet potatoes in stews.

stiltwalker

Hi guys,

Got the last 10 pages to catch up now but TBH thought you would have racked up more while I've been away.

We went into to the hospital on Friday morning to be induced as was overdue and to cut a long and very painful story short baby Joseph (7lb 11oz) was finally born at 5.22 on Saturday afternoon. There was a bit of drama when he didn't want to breath on his own but thanks to the fantastic staff at our local hospital our little man was absolutely fine, he was checked out for a little while in special care but back with me by early Sunday afternoon and we both came home this afternoon. There are some wonderful ladies and gentlemen who work for our oft maligned NHS and we got to see some of them at their very best this weekend. Just have to get used to being a family of 4 now. DD very pleased with her new brother, she just keeps patting him and smiling!

Will have to go out tomorrow and see how my garden has grown in my absence, from a brief look when we got back it seems to have done well and get back to cooking and eating some decent food (sorry, but NHS - you really fall down here!) We had our first salad leaves from the green house with radish from the gardens on Thursday before we went and hope to have a lot more before long.

Right back to see what you lovely lot have been up to without me.

Hugs and milky baby snuffles to anyone who needs them from me and baby Joe and the rest of our family.

ETA: Caught up now. Yay! sammy kaye, That's fab, hope all goes well for you tomorrow, it's so amazing when you get the right place, so keeping my fingers crossed for you.

ancientmum

Hello everyone,

I have been reading this thread with interest and coming out of lurkdom to confess to being almost as excited as sammyk about her new house and looking forward to seeing the pictures. It does not seem right somehow to remain anonymous as you all show such great support and kindness for each other. If only the real world was like this...

kidcat

hi ancientmum -:)

Stiltwalker - many congratulations I have to admit I get so excited when I hear of the safe arrival of babies, having had some scary moments I never take it for granted. Now dont forget to get plenty of fluids and rest:)

shelley_crow

I'm in awe of you ladies (and gents) on here. Times are tough for everyone I know in RL but no-one seems to talk about how they are coping with the cutbacks, unemployment, rising prices and general having no money at the moment.

I left a job to go on maternity leave and find that I have no job to go back to. My other half is a mature student (it's debateable) and he is struggling with rising fuel costs. I'm in the process of clearing out food cupboards in an attempt to cut down on the amount we spend on food, I'm getting there.

I've decluttered our house (almost there now) and sold a lot of stuff we don't use, isn't it surprising how it builds up! I've made £140 so far, the majority of which has been spent on a new carseat for ds2. I'm selling ds2's old clothes as I go to pay for new ones, it's been very effective so far. ds1 is very tall for his age and luckily I have neighbours that have kids quite close together. My eldest's old stuff goes to my neighbour for her youngest and her eldest's stuff comes to me, then goes back to her. I do top up his wardrobe but it works very well. I can't remember the last time OH and I had new clothes, I don't find it very high on the list of priorities.

I'm in talks with a lovely lady who knows someone who wants to do a mutual housing exchange, she needs to downsize and I need somewhere bigger, fingers crossed this turns out ok.

I hope everyone is ok. Tonight is quite a bit cooler than it has been in the not so warm midlands.

trifles

Helped out at friend's childrens party yesterday-think we and other adults had as much fun as kids! Very o/s as all food and decorations home made.Some large trees in her garden so I made some(very amateurish) pinata from large balloons papier mached stuffed with wrapped sweets.Kids decorated these with paints etc before hanging from branches to be bashed open.We also made clown icecreams by putting icecream cones in a saucer upside down,squirting cream blobs on cone to look like pom-poms and at the bottom of the icecream scoop to look like a ruff.Each child then decorated and made face on icecream using small sweets eg smarties,cherry lips.The huge jelly made had penny-mix jelly creatures sunk into it to look like a sea,and islands on top made from pineapple rings(1 for each child) and some jelly babies placed in hole to represent people.Lego ship on top of squirty cream sailed on top of jelly! I think everybody enjoyed it so much because it was all so casual-dress code jeans and t-shirts,and no keeping up with jones-just lots of silly games and everyone involved.I much preferred that kind of spontaneous enjoyment than spending lots of cash eating out or similar.:j

smileyt_2

Ouch, I need some sympathy! I was on my allotment tonight and one of my dogs decided to chase one of the allotment cats. I was hanging onto his lead so he didn't manage to hurt it, although he did succeed in getting its tail in his mouth :eek: but puss escaped minus a bit of fluff, thankfully. However the cat was on top of a woodpile at the time, and Bruno dislodged it and a huge log came toppling down and landed square on the top of my foot. Nothing is broken, amazingly (had it fallen a cm further forward I would have been in casualty with broken toes) but it is very sore, bruised and swollen. I have put lavender oil and arnica gel on it but oh boy is it throbbing! I have to take the dogs out now for their 'bedtime wee' and I'm not sure I can squish my boots back on. I tried to get some sympathy from my Mum but all she could do was hoot with laughter down the phone!!

Bruno is 13. At his age he shouldn't be able to bound up woodpiles to chase cats!! I am thankful he is in such good health but we will be having very short walkies tomorrow!

I suppose I should be thankful that I have no vet's fees - at least the log landed on me and not on the dog. I am cheap to fix lol as I'll just grin and bear it, but would be taking Bruno to the vet's for painkillers if it had happened to him!