No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

charlies-aunt

Where is time going to?

I rarely have time to touch the laptop nowadays . . . . its chaos here - I am working full time, sorting the livestock (cats, dogs, ponies, horses and rabbits), tending the garden/allotment, freezing, pickling,washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, shopping, mending etc.... and trying to spruce up and prepare the house for winter . . and our first grandchild arrived at the end of July . . . . phew!

I am the odd one out at work as I don't follow the soap sagas! My bum never touches the sofa until 9-9.30pm but I don't think I'm missing much.

I love being OS but my word, its labour and time intensive!

scottishminnie

Congratulations on your new grandchild Charlies Aunt - that will certainly take care of what little spare time you have:D

I know what you mean about the soaps - the last time I watched them I'm sure Pauline Fowler was still in Eastenders and Bet Lynch was behind the bar of the Rovers Return. I suspect things have moved on a but since then!

It's been a busy old weekend here and I'm between piles of ironing and sewing at the moment so I'm off to concentrate on them and not be distracted by my laptop. I hope to have some free time tomorrow so I'll be back with an update then.

scottishminnie

so much for me getting some free time yesterday. I had a day holiday from work however I pootled about in the garden tidying and so on, made a trip to the big DIY store to get some timber stain and made fish pie and apple crumble. Before I knew it my day was gone:eek: To be honest though I enjoy having a day when I don't have anything specific planned. I must also confess to wasting 45 minutes watching Countdown, although in my defence, I did repair the hem of a pair of trousers while watching:o

It's very wet here this evening so I didn't have to water anything in the garden. A friend gifted me 6 red cabbage plants over the weekend so they are planted and I hope they will be ready about Christmas time. I love red cabbage and apple - I would be thrilled to say I'd made it with my own cabbage and apples. I haven't managed to store any apples in the past - I've just used them all up straight from the tree. What is the best way of storing them? I did see special wooden crates online but I thought they were pricey and there was probably an MSE way of keeping them for a few months after they have been picked.

I'm not sure I have enough blackcurrants for much jam so I need to investigate what else I could mix with them to bulk it out a bit. We could have some "mixed fruit" jam by the weekend!

Onwards and upwards as they say - off to empty the dishwasher - my least favourite task:D

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone, I've heard from FTM and her computer is currently broken so she has no way of joining us in posts on here but all is well with her and the family, the girls are enjoying life and lessons, Jack the new puppy is 99% house trained and fitting in very well with the family, and her DS has got himself an apprenticeship with a Joiner and is loving every second of it and liking having a wage coming in too, so all is well with the world.

We had a poorly lurcher yesterday he was kicked by a horse when out on his morning walk and very stiff and sore and sorry for himself but the vet checked him over thoroughly and gave him a pain killing injection and today he's much improved and walking almost normally and has been out with his Dad and got slightly resentful at not being let off lead for a run, so I know he's feeling much better. Harvesting is continuing apace here and the freezers are rapidly filling up with produce of all kinds, the outside tomatoes are beginning to ripen so it will soon be all hands to the deck for making chutney and then down into Autumn and winter but, hopefully this year with enough home grown to see us through to next summer, look after yourselves, Cheers Lyn xxx.

katep23

Thanks for the FTM update MrsLW. Glad to hear her DS has got himself an apprenticeship - there is a lad with a work ethic!

SM, hope you get some downtime soon. I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday next week after the bank holiday and it can't come soon enough!

We are drowning in courgettes here (and marrows!) Dried a load, used some up in batch cooked mince last weekend, stuffed a couple and had fried courgettes with most meals. Quick question, do you blanch them before freezing? I always have but I read somewhere that you don't need to which would save a lot of time.

Also lots of tomatoes but I won't complain about them!

Next lot of wine is brewing and once that is done I will be trying elderberry wine as we have a bush in the back garden and have found a load of ripe elderberries where we usually collect blackberries.

Got a new (to me) car last weekend which clever OH has spent the week working on as it needed a new clutch, spring and a whole service. This will be our "runaround" as it is an estate and does 50mpg where my lovely sporty but not very mse car does 30 (fine when I had a short commute but work is a 45 mile round trip every day). My car will be parked up until we know what is happening with me work-wise.

Talking of which, I have an interview for a permanent job next Tuesday. It's not in the sector I currently work in but sounds interesting.

I'm really grateful to my old company for helping me out (which helped them out when they were really short-staffed) but I need something which is my own role rather than covering for other people and something which is permanent. I also am waiting to hear about another job which is in my sector and which sounds like a really good fit for my skills and experience so fingers crossed please!

After asking on freegle for apples, we now have 8 mushroom trays full! I'm chucking them over the fence to next door's chickens as well!

Hope you are all well and the weather is good where you are x

the_cake

scottishminnie: I store our apples on the 'dimpled' cardboard sheets which the supermarkets use for fruit, then put them in a frost-free place. That means they never touch each other ... keep checking them and remove any with soft or mouldy patches immediately. They wrinkle slightly after a few months, but depending on the type should keep well for quite a time. HTH!

scottishminnie

the_cake wrote: »

scottishminnie: I store our apples on the 'dimpled' cardboard sheets which the supermarkets use for fruit, then put them in a frost-free place. That means they never touch each other ... keep checking them and remove any with soft or mouldy patches immediately. They wrinkle slightly after a few months, but depending on the type should keep well for quite a time. HTH!

:TThank you so much - such a simple idea but so obvious now that I think of it:o. That sounds like a very straightforward option, I'll start gathering up the cardboard pieces from now on.

charlies-aunt

40-odd years ago ...... pre-loft insulation - we used to store apples on either straw or newspaper laid between the loft rafters.

Now that we have nice and cosy loft insulation, we use big strong cardboard boxes - banana boxes are good as they stack neatly and as long as you put the apples in so they aren't touching each other, you can use double thickness newspaper to separate the layers if you can't get your hands on any of the pre-moulded fruit trays from the supermarket - as long as they are somewhere cool and airy they will last for months Use any bruised or damaged fruits first as they won't keep well. Traditional English varieties store best IMO

Don't worry if the skins of eating apples get a bit puckered during storage - they are still perfectly fine to eat and they are actually at their sweetest at that stage. My grandparents wouldn't eat an apple unless the skin had started to shrivel as they considered them not to be ripe when the skins were smooth and shiny

The courgettes, runner/French beans, cabbages, beetroot, shallots and onions are coming thick and fast and our home grown spuds are also cropping heavily, so its all systems go to get them harvested and in the freezer/store cupboard ready for winter.

:T What a fab growing year its been so far :T Very MSE!

If you have a Wilk0's nearby - its worth popping in as they are starting to mark down their gardening things. I got a small but sturdy propagator today - reduced from £11 to £2, a set of solar garden lights reduced from £5 to £2.50 and fibre seedling pots reduced from £1 to 43p Lots of seeds and other bits and bobs were half price or less

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend everyone - just going to wrestle with two rogue courgettes that have successfully eluded being picked and have swelled to marrow size!

katep23

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend everyone - just going to wrestle with two rogue courgettes that have successfully eluded being picked and have swelled to marrow size!

Having used one marrow / courgette for ratatouille today and processing a load for the dehydrator, leaving only yellow ones for frying in butter and garlic (nom!), 3 round ones for stuffing and a few marrows for keeping I was feeling really smug until the in-laws came for dinner bearing a bag full of courgette marrows which my brother in law wanted us to have :rotfl:

Not wishing to repeat myself but when you freeze courgettes, do you blanch them first or just freeze?

[Deleted User]

KATE either way they are mushy when you defrost them so we don't bother trying any more. If you freeze them in dishes like ratatouille they are still ok to eat but softer than they are when it's just been cooked. I've been dehydrating ours and they go very crisp and reduce in bulk so much you can fit many dry discs into a big jar, much the easiest way to store them in my view. You cna always use them for chutney, interchangeable with marrows in all recipes, hope that helps, Cheers Lyn xxx.