Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

westcoastscot wrote: »

GQ sounds like a fantastic day - wonder why I have the urge to knit you a green ensemble? :rotfl:

Could it be because you're as cracked as I am?

I suit green very well, being a (greying) green-eyed redhead. May I commission a longline tunic with castellated edging to sleeves and hem, matching tights and a snood?

And, to cap a fun day on Planet GQ, in an hour Tosspots will be going on a discounting spree and I shall be there. Mebbe a lot of bargains, mebbe nowt, but I can spare the 10 min round trip on foot to find out.

No point sitting on your arris and grumbling you're poor when there are bargains to be had. I spent £1 at the Magic Greengrocer and came away with; 7 oranges, 2 cooking apples, 3 eating apples, 1.5 punnets grapes, 5 peaches, 2 plums, a big tomato, 4 lemons and 4 kiwifruits.

All slightly biffed about hence the cheapness but mostly edible if you don't mind making your life up as you go along. I don't tend to meal-plan as I never know what bargain might pop up, like the 8p a large crown of broccoli as Tosspots 2 Sundays ago.

If nothing better comes up on YS today, it's lasagne again, with h.g. veggies.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Could it be because you're as cracked as I am?

I suit green very well, being a (greying) green-eyed redhead. May I commission a longline tunic with castellated edging to sleeves and hem, matching tights and a snood?

...
If nothing better comes up on YS today, it's lasagne again, with h.g. veggies.

Wot no venison? :rotfl:

westcoastscot

GQ you crack me up!!! :rotfl:

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

Wot no venison? :rotfl:

I wish!

Muntjac (idiotic critters) have been seen inside Provincial City. Heck, someone I work with, living 1.5 miles from the centre, opened her patio curtains first thing one morning and came face to face with a red deer stag with a full rack of antlers.

Hard to say who was the most startled. This was on a housing estate well inside the city limits, which is itself wrapped in villages which have become suburbs and a small amount of farm land. Hardly enough woods out there to hide a very skinny Merry Man never mind a red deer stag.

A chance convo yesterday revealed someone I know has a wood pigeon surfeit out on the farm, so has offered to bring me a couple when he's shot them. Dunno if he's serious or not, or whether he thinks I'm joshing when I say I know how to unzip them easily to get at the meat.

I'm up for it. I quite fancy walking thru the city streets after work nonchalantly dangling a coupla dead birds from my hand. Oh beggar, that would blow my OPSEC as Norma Normal, better take a bag to carry them in.:rotfl:

Hmmm, can the dismantled bits of pigeon go in the green waste communal bins or should they go in the general household waste communal bins..........? I shall have to consult the leaflet of destructions or study on the website.

One of my neighbours put a dead pigeon * into the recycling bin earlier this year. This was Wrong, apparently; dead uban pigeons can go into the street bins, tho. At least they can here; I did ask at work in case the issue ever arose again.

See, those of you in rural areas have no idea of the complex conundrums urban life can involve, you lucky lucky people.

ETA city pigeons flying into the windows at Shoebox Towers and dropping down dead is a fairly common occurance. They haven't hit my windows as I'm on the ground floor but they're a menace higher up.

BessieBooBoo

Hello all

Nice to see everyone prepping madly (or insanely prepping?); ouch on the cuts! Hope everyone is feeling better now?

I have been cutting herbs to dry in paper bags (home made paper bags, from greaseproof paper, natch) to take advantage of what will probably be our last warm spell of weather. These will wend their way into the kitchen, and also, lavender and rosemary for the wardrobe on moth-repelling duties.

Autumn equinox today everyone....And harvesting green tomatoes for more green tomato chutney. A neighbour came over with the empty jar from last week - to say thanks and how much he liked it! Cripes. I know h-m is supposed to taste better, but, he must have lived on cheese and crackers all week...!

Also, in my insomniac moments, I've been reading a book on storing food (yes, another one). 'Independence Day's, a guide to sustainable food...' can't recall author sorry. Anyway, it's on growing and preserving, with advice and recipes.

Plus a useful comparison of methods. And a way of storing cheap, long lasting, nutritious, food you don't have to cook (enough for one person for a month) on a budget - ok $5 a week (yes, American author but good sense) for short-term crisis which you can then build on:

Week 1-3

15 lbs Rolled oats (not instant) - with milk, dried fruit, yogurt, in museli, even with fruit juice, and you can cook it to porridge too. I've just bought 1 kg (about 2lbs) at Ald* for 75p. So a bit more dosh at £5.25. Possible subs are sunflower seeds (unroasted and unsalted) or Scandinavian crispbread (wholegrains)

Week 4-8/9

30 x 16 oz Tinned beans: not baked. Plain & mixture of: black beans, kidney beans, white beans, pinto beans, etc. Meal bases including salads, cold dips, but again, can cook in many recipes. E.g. black beans have 315 calories a can, 24.5 g of protein + 8 ounces of oats = 1183 calories. Again, ok for emergency/short term. Not up on prices, but, sure I've seen them fairly cheap.

Week 8/9-11/12

GQ will love this!

30 x 16 oz tins of stewed chopped tomatoes! To help you eat your tinned beans.... Prices?

Weeks 12

30 tins of fruit, various sizes and mixture of types e.g. small ones for singles, including pie fillings/applesauce. Prices?

Advice is to then keep topping these up, and obviously, this is just for one person, so you need to double or triple as needed.

She then lists:

Raisins
Skimmed milk
Oil
Brown sugar
Herbs and spices

And none necessarily need cooking therefore no cooking smells detectable (flatulence, however, that might be another matter!)

Then you can add other things, like grains, including rice, pasta, etc. making sure it is what you and your family like. Obviously if they hate beans, then, there is a bit of a problem!

Other suggestions: low cost/high nutrition

Peas
Lentils
Brown rice
Wholegrain flours
Root veg
Whole foods

And ways to eat these or heat these quickly/cheaply.

I was really interested in this as our income has fluctuated so much.

OH is full time, but, suffers ups and downs in health. I've gone from permanent to redundant, to temping, to zero hours contract, so we can't rely on my income any more. I can walk in one week to be told I've lost hours on the whim of the administration...

And the book recommends following much of the MSE ways; just wanted to share as I felt this was very doable for us, in such tight financial circumstances.

I feel we are definitely turning away from the industrial and post-industrial ages, with all of us having to re-think the idea that we will all retain full time, permanent jobs; now thinking of other ways to earn, to save cash, to stretch it and make it work it's socks off, to be able to be home based, make the most of growing, etc, and hopefully get a different & better life.

Phew!

Keeeeppp preeeeepppping!

BBB

elona

Got up early to make dd boiled egg and toast and DH drove her to the station to get train to London, then tube to Gatwick as she flies off to Estonia and Latvia this week on business.

Made casserole of pork cheeks with onions, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms for lunch with roast potatoes, yorkies and green beans and carrots. Used the brambles DH had picked to make a huge apple and bramble crumble with custard.

Looked at local supermarket for bargains and got mackerel for 79p
so made mackerel pate and have a rapid loaf in the breadmaker.

Have fish pie leftover from the other day so finishing that up tonight and have leftovers from today's lunch to have when we get back from the hospital tomorrow.

Enjoying the latest Jamie 0***** book and the fish pie is gorgeous even though I amended the recipe a little bit and used smoked haddock and plain mash for topping.

Went on a family walk yesterday on what was supposed to be a four mile walk around Captain Cook's monument. It took us nearly three hours as terrain was very uneven and I fell over at one point :eek: The views were spectacular and worth the effort.

Seems strange with just one dd, me and DH and very quiet!

Hugs to all

BessieBooBoo

Whoops

Forgot preserving methods she recommends in terms of cheapness (cash & energy):

For those with gardens/lotties:

Store in the ground e.g. roots, they will keep with insulation on through the winter
Root cellar
Extend growing seasons Spring and Autumn

Without:

Dehydrate
Salt (although health issue on salt unless you rinse)
Lacto-fermentation
Alcohol - as in preserving in
Bottling
Canning (I have to put 'Jarring or Jamming' as I keep imagining buying a machine to put stuff in tins!)
Freezing - in terms of having to keep a freezer running

I got over-excited by this book, so had to share some of it's top tips. It does go into a lot more details about methods, sustainability, recipes, etc. so glad I bought it.

HTH

BBB

metherer

Thanks Bessie, a v useful list. Am about to put a Mr T order in, so will add some extras

nuatha

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

...
The other way of preserving that none of us have thrown into the debate is canning in tins, I know lots of produce was packaged in tins in WW2 usually by the WI ladies, and again there would be the need for a pressure canner to process it but it is an alternative to canning in jars, The downside is I suspect lack of availablilty of the machinery needed to seal the tins and indeed the empty tins and lids themselves, I'll think on and see if anything else pops out from under a pigeon, if it does I'll post it (the thought, NOT the pigeon!!!) Cheers Lyn xxx.

Another possibility is retort pouches, which have the advantage of being lighter and more compact than jars or tins.
I suspect that jars are less likely to go wrong than tins, but I've never seen a more modern tin press and could well be wrong. (I've seen how tins were made in the Victorian era, which were basically hand soldered) Jars have the advantage of being reusable.

jk0 wrote: »

I still haven't put up solar panels, even though my roof is ideal, mainly because I do not see that I should profit at everyone else's expense.

As far as I can find out, the subsidised PV installs don't work unless the grid is functioning in your area.
From the POV of prepping against SHTF scenarios, that makes them useless. Independent PV installations may not attract subsidies or earn money from a feed-in tariff but would have the advantage of generating some electric when the grid was down.

GreyQueen wrote: »

I wish!

Muntjac (idiotic critters) have been seen inside Provincial City. Heck, someone I work with, living 1.5 miles from the centre, opened her patio curtains first thing one morning and came face to face with a red deer stag with a full rack of antlers.

Hard to say who was the most startled. This was on a housing estate well inside the city limits, which is itself wrapped in villages which have become suburbs and a small amount of farm land. Hardly enough woods out there to hide a very skinny Merry Man never mind a red deer stag.

That would certainly wake me up.

A chance convo yesterday revealed someone I know has a wood pigeon surfeit out on the farm, so has offered to bring me a couple when he's shot them. Dunno if he's serious or not, or whether he thinks I'm joshing when I say I know how to unzip them easily to get at the meat.

A similar conversation last year filled one of my freezers with pheasant, when the first half dozen didn't phaze me, several similar deliveries followed. Apparently its become trendy for businesses to have executive team building exercises which include a days shooting, but there's no interest in eating the "bag."

GreyQueen

Nice one.

There are one or two butchers in this city who sell game as well. One of my cousins in very droll on the subject of "crunchy gravy" from birdies shot by her Dad (the lead shot, natch). Not enough meat on them to be worth buying, IMO, but I'm up for freebies. There's plenty of pesky pigeon protein on the wing in the burb where the lottie is, fattened on cabbages and other good things - barstewards.

I'm still nursng a grudge agin them from summer 2009 when they ripped the centres out of my textbook perfect half dozen sweetheart cabbages.

Well, the discounts were not to be had today, so I will be eating lasagne again and baking bread rolls this evening. Hung fire on the latter in case I could get another loaf of bread for 10p.

Question for birders; how do city pigeons and woodpigeons sort out who lives where?

F'rinstance, in the centre, you never ever see a wood pigeon. A few hundred meters out, where the cycle paths start, you get the wood pigeons but never the urban birds. How do they decide whether to draw the line? Has anyone got a sensible answer (or failing that, an amusing one? ).