It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Draagonfly

Just had some of the homegrown spuds for dinner....YUMMY!

All this talk of apples has reminded me that I still have some stewed apple portions in the freezer from last autumn that I haven't gotten around to using & it's nearly apple time again...do you think they'll still be ok to use?

JillS_2

Draagonfly wrote: »

Just had some of the homegrown spuds for dinner....YUMMY!

All this talk of apples has reminded me that I still have some stewed apple portions in the freezer from last autumn that I haven't gotten around to using & it's nearly apple time again...do you think they'll still be ok to use?

Mine are, so yes.

NuffinisFree

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but you all seem really nice and helpful.

I wonder if anyone has any good ideas with what to do with gooseberries? I've made some plain gooseberry jam and it was really sweet nd a bit blah, personally i perfer something with a bit of kick.
can anyone think of something i can mix it with in my jam making?

kate1974

NuffinisFree wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but you all seem really nice and helpful.

I wonder if anyone has any good ideas with what to do with gooseberries? I've made some plain gooseberry jam and it was really sweet nd a bit blah, personally i perfer something with a bit of kick.
can anyone think of something i can mix it with in my jam making?

Hello!
How about "Tzar's Jam"-it's a bit expensive to make and time- consuming(hence the name) but it's very unusual and tasty.
You'll need some walnuts and roughtly 1kg of sugar per 1 kilo of gooseberries.
Carefully take out the gooseberries seeds-try not to damage the skin-and put piece of walnut in instead.
Slowly mix gooseberries and sugar and bring the mixture to the boil,reduce the heat and slowly cook until gooseberries are soft and transparent.
Kate

3v3

Draagonfly wrote: »

Just had some of the homegrown spuds for dinner....YUMMY!

All this talk of apples has reminded me that I still have some stewed apple portions in the freezer from last autumn that I haven't gotten around to using & it's nearly apple time again...do you think they'll still be ok to use?

A year on, they may not be at their very very best, but, they are still in good shape and useable Methinks time for some crumbles :drool: but, only to make room for the newer crop

3v3

NuffinisFree wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but you all seem really nice and helpful.

I wonder if anyone has any good ideas with what to do with gooseberries? I've made some plain gooseberry jam and it was really sweet nd a bit blah, personally i perfer something with a bit of kick.
can anyone think of something i can mix it with in my jam making?

There is a post currently running in OSMSE called Gooseberry Studel (or somesuch) which is a wonderful looking recipe for fresh gooseberries (posted yesterday, I believe; at least, I responded to the post yesterday LOL )
I'm also thinking: gooseberry pie (with cream!); gooseberry crumble (with ice-cream or custard)

lizzyb1812

Did a decent bit of foraging yesterday, 2 boxes of blackberries and a bag of field mushrooms. Not so much today on my usual dog walk route - cos a rather large chap had half-filled an Argos carrier with blackberries by the time I got there. Hope he wanted them for jam cos the ones at the bottom were going to be puree by the time he got home :rotfl: No worries - there's going to be a bumper blackberry crop round here this year and there'll be enough for everyone and the birds too.

I have my fruit with my breakfast - I'm not really a snack fruit eater - stewed fruit on yoghurt in summer and porridge in winter so will packing up large quantities of blackberries and stewed apple, along with plenty of home grown rhubarb. Hopefully next year there will be sufficient raspberries to freeze as well.

Another BNS baby appeared today :T - I'll need to find some tiles or something to keep them off the soil. It doesn't have to be done just yet, but if I do it now I don't risk getting caught in autumn when the soil is wetter.

I'm going to research bean growing tonight - stuff like haricot, cannelinni, butterbeans. Made a fab butterbean "mash" tonight and it got me thinking about growing my own beans to dry - anyone done this successfully?

hornetgirl

lizzyb1812 wrote: »

Another BNS baby appeared today :T - I'll need to find some tiles or something to keep them off the soil. It doesn't have to be done just yet, but if I do it now I don't risk getting caught in autumn when the soil is wetter.

I use bits of broken terracotta plantpot for this.

smileyt_2

Could you put them on an old mirror to reflect the light back up to the squash? It's supposed to help them ripen evenly.

Does anyone know if blackberries can be dehydrated? I have just bought a dehydrator as I am due a wodge of money back from Southern Electric (:j) so have decided to splash out and invest. I would love to dehydrate lots of blackberries to have on my cereal in the mornings! Ginnyknit, I could do some for you too!

I've been accepted onto the tenants' involvement panel of a local social housing association consortium today. Hopefully I'll be on the green group so I might have some input into energy-saving measures for tenants, and possibly stuff like solar panels. I might push for new builds to have inbuilt pantries too. I find doing stuff like this suits me better than regular hours of voluntary work as that puts too much pressure on me with my depression. A couple of hours a month where I can use my brain is much more manageable and means I can contribute to society a little rather than consuming resources all the time. The depression is one of the reasons why I can't work full-time, although I would love the chance to earn a full-time wage! Maybe doing the tenants' stuff might make me more marketable in the jobs market too.

One of my little hens is poorly again so we are off to the vet tomorrow They always seem to get sick after I have just spent my money on something (like the dehydrator), sigh. I hope she is going to be OK. This will be the third time in as many months that she has needed veterinary treatment, poor thing .

Oops I have wittered on. Sorry about that.

ChocClare

We use a decommissioned freezer for storing animal feed and it's brilliant - will definitely use the fridge for storage once it dies.

Re storing apples - I got a load of those blue/purple trays that apples are displayed in at the supermarket by just going and taking them - they were in a pile underneath and were marked to be chucked. I said, may I have these? and the answer was, help yourself. I stored a load of apples on shelves in the shed in these last year. It was good - you could spot and chuck dodgy ones very well using this method.

However, if you're short of freezer space, and you're going to be using your apples for making pies or crumbles, then you might just as well bottle them. It is a piece of cake, and then they can sit on your shelves rather than taking up freezer room. This is a very good site for step-by-step instructions - it's American, but don't let that put you off. If you click on the bars at the side, you can find preserving methods for just about anything you can think of, so it's jolly useful.