Preparedness for when

Shropshirelass

No more complaints about TPTB tonight from me, as my grandma used to say: don't try to change other people, change yourself woman I'm feeling much calmer and less liable to rant now I've had my tea anyway :cool: Keep calm and carry on...

Can I ask .. we planted potatoes in January, and kept covering the sprouting tops with mulch as advised, till they sprouted too fast for us to keep pace. Now the tops are about 5 inches, no flowers. Do we have to wait for flowers before digging them up? Can I just have a peep? Its the first time we have grown them, if successful, think it wont be the last time.

[Deleted User]

If I am thinking right Simon Fairlie was involved with the 'Tinkers Bubble' alternative lifestyle group in Somerset? I am one of the lucky people who actually was taught home economics when I was at school and given some idea of nutrition. I hate it when politicians and journalists jump on the bandwagon of the latest fad and speak without checking out facts. I've no doubt that in an idelogical world we would all subsist on a home grown vegan diet and then we would bring down the wrath of the animal rights lobbyists upon our heads because there would be no need for animals. There surely must be a happy medium between the two points of view, where some animal products and mostly vegetable foods are consumed. I know that you can feed many more people on the area of land that it takes to grow a kilo of beef if you grow soya beans, but surely that doesn't take into account the fact that some areas aren't suitable for growing soya beans, only for grazing animals. I think that a varied diet, with sensible amounts of all available foodstuffs makes much more sense than being told not to eat certain items, what will they do with all the surplus animals, process them and send them to Asia no doubt, as they have more ready money to spend that us in the UK? Call me a cynic, but I wonder?????

mardatha

You need to wait until the flowers wither and drop, then they're ready.
GQ I have a cupboard full of tinned tatties as well, they're very handy.

mardatha

Mrs L - just ignore them. They're wittering as usual. Some bright spark with a computer and a pencil is re-designing the world.
Again!

[Deleted User]

Do you think we should be involved with the decisions MAR? We seem to be more tuned in than the average poilitician and much more in touch with reality?

mardatha

Well we're the last people they want. Anything connected with reality they canny cope with!

[Deleted User]

All the more reason to hold our opinions then petal!!! being a thorn is as good as being a rose. yes?

D&DD the Elderflowers are only just beginning to bloom down here, and I think we have one of the most benign climates in the country, but at the moment it's only the odd cluster of flowers, by no means the majority of the crop so anyone further north than Hampshire might have a little while to wait, Cheers Lyn xxx.

D&DD

An awful lot of policies from all governments I find are kneejerk reactions to what they presume to be public opinion,most of the time they get it woefully wrong..I'm going to read the whole report so I can get the full bumf rather than the usual DMail hysteria angle will let you know if it's worth a read or not.

Shroppy I'd be tempted to have a little furtle Annie has just dug her first lot up for a small crop she's having techie troubles atm so not sure what variety they are.What ones did you put in?

ETA GQ I straightened my tins earlier and am happy to report 23 tins of tatties safely stashed in the kitchen cupboard,12 more upstairs and a massive box of dehydrated shredded ones and just a few packs of smash we'll survive lol

Hope yours are ok this year mine have been slow to get going but really growing daily now

maryb

Most of the commentators saying it's wasteful to raise beef instead of beans are American where it may well be true, since a lot of their beef is raised on feed lots. I buy grass fed beef - from Aldi!

Plus the greens who advocate organic farming AND vegetarianism must be in a bit of confusion about the fact that true organic farming is mixed and animals are an integral part of it.

Mrs L I went out looking for elderflowers today and there are hardly any. There is a country park near us in one of London's green suburbs where I usually manage to get enough but there were only little green blobs. And most of the best bushes are already behind a cordon sanitaire of nettles

[Deleted User]

I wonder in my innocence why it is that we, the general population get the blame for all the food problems, and never is the finger pointed at food manufacturers, particularly the BIG multi product companies who apparently have more clout with thier opinions than the entire population of GB?