Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

Ooooh just found that my area has 24 bodies per sq km. I don't know how to convert that to miles.

Just over 62 per square mile.

pineapple

thriftwizard wrote: »

Going out foraging this afternoon, before cleaning out my chicken shed; I wonder if there'll be more people out there scrumping than there have been for the last 10 years or so?

I seem to have been the only one, in this neck of the woods, picking blackberries, but I'm sure their costly supermarket punnets will taste better! :rotfl: At the mo I suspect foraging doesn't cross many peoples minds - no matter hard up they are. However the times they are a changing .
As for farm theft - we have a farmwatch sticker up. Not sure what good it does though. The farmer has built a big gate across the access lane though sometimes he just parks his tractor across to stop vehicular access. The other big business hereabouts is landrover theft. I used to quite fancy one but the village garage warned me against it.

ginnyknit

Just taken DGs home and as we pulled out saw armed police round the corner so we scooted away as fast as we could - very scary :eek: but sadly nothing new.

Had great success with my seed sprouter, am going to source cheap seeds now. The trays make it easier to keep the seeds hydrated so well worth the £6 I paid.

I think if I really got organised my garden could produce quite a lot so next year am going to really go for it. Still can't find any apples locally but managed to buy a good few pounds for pennies from Mr M. Am trying the apple peel in the de-hydrator now. Who was it on here that uses it? cannot for the life of me remember, do you zuzz it in a processor.

boultdj

All the apple tree's I normaly forage from have been striped this year, but then again in 4 month's we've gone from 1 food bank to 5, the latest in the next village started 3 week's ago.

[Deleted User]

I'm certain we lost most of our apples from the front garden tree this year, there were so many and very few drops but every morning there were less than there had been the night before. When we finally decided to pick the crop there were less than a cratefull left. If people genuinely needed them I'd have been the first to offer, but theft? no, it can't be right to take under cover of darkness again and again until there is nothing left can it?

parsonswife8

Lucky for us, my MIL has a few apple trees and plum trees in her back garden, so we have had a fair few Bramleys to make apple crumble, together with blackberries foraged from the bramble on the field outside.

DH also made a gallon of plum wine which is doing nicely.:j

thriftwizard

Lots of little green crab apples have found their way back to our house! There's an enormous tree on one of our regular walks, so we took bags today & filled them up just from the windfalls. Several people asked us what we were doing, and sounded quite disbelieving when I came up with several possible uses for them - "But don't you need special machinery for that?" was my favourite, when I mentioned making cider.

Didn't see a lot else out there; the elders seem only to have had a few berries, despite the masses of blossoms in late Spring. Pollination problems, perhaps? And there weren't many hazels, but that said, we weren't in the best spot for them. Hopefully we'll get back out there towards the end of the week, weather allowing. I could do with more blackberries, too.

lillibet_dripping

mardatha wrote: »

Scotland would have to be separate CTC, cos we are much more empty and would mess up the figures. But also much harder to live off the land here, and some areas close to impossible. Somewhere there are figures of pop per sq mile (or km or whatever hell it is now).
We had huge skeins of geese going over south last week, the old folk here say that means cold weather in a fortnight. So if the geese are right then it will get colder here next week.
Am actually wondering if people's health would improve if we all did have to live more off the land and more simply. Maybe soup and home made bread and less junk would see an improvement??
edited to add - we have a growing prob of sheep rustling here.

Mar,
Looking at the Countryfile week ahead forecast last night, the old folk are indeed correct. There seems to be a huge cold front approaching up your way (ooer missus:p) moving southwards towards the end of the week. Time to get the woollies out peeps....

[Deleted User]

We had skeins of geese arriving on the river and salt marshes here over this weekend, in fact they came in low over our house early on Saturday morning, I love the honking that goes with the fly past, and always rush to the window to watch them go over the allottments and down on to the river, it's always the sign that summer is gone, Cheers Lyn xxx.

thriftwizard

We've had the geese over here too; last stop before A Corunna! They were really noisy this year. There are lots of "hips & haws" which, as my neighbour's Glaswegian mother always used to explain, means "lots of snaw"... so maybe it will be a cold winter. Tempting to follow the geese...