Preparedness for when

greenbee

Mar will test the sweeties for you MG

ALIBOBSY

RAS wrote: »

Agreed. It seems that learning how to save your own seed and maintain it is alost an act of civil disobedience now.

Good this is that it is possible to save several varieties of many by rotating several different ones over the years. This year was Carlin peas and Tommy's cucumber. Really like the latter as it keeps fresh for two-three months uncut.

What annoys me as well is the fact that we have lost veggies and plants that would be much better for the small scale gardener/allotmenteer. E.G many brassicas were bred by the Victorians to go from perenials to annuals, great for farmers, but perennial cabbages and broccoli would be very useful for the home grower. Plus people used to have "local" varieties that over the years had adapted to the local soil and conditions.


I am still trying to source some seeds for the local "bobby" beans that they get in the farm shop. They are basically French/green beans but a british version and they are bigger and tastier than the foreign versions.


Never been able to get the seeds. Can I plant and grow the seeds from a fresh pod next year? Even if it has to go in late and I don't get many pods, if I could leave the pods on to dry for seed eventually I would get my own version.


Ali x

GreyQueen

AnimalTribe wrote: »

Hi
I’ve been reading this thread for a while on and off. I’ve found it very interesting and informative. I started reading at post 1, but still haven’t gotten through to the end. I hope it’s OK if I join anyway (even if I’m not up-to-date on the discussion).
I am mainly preparing for winter and for a probable reduction in income.
Apologies in advance if posts come out wrongly, but I've never posted to a forum before.

:T Hello and welcome to the madhouse. We're all perfectly sane here, apart from wee Madarthur, who is absolutely bonkers, but don't tell her I said that, OK? We're living several hundred miles apart but you never know.............:rotfl:

ALI, how frustrating not to be able to get your mitts on the seeds you want. My instinct is that beans picked when ready to eat won't be mature enough to grow on next year, but if there is no other way, it wouldn't hurt to shell them and let them dry out and give it a go.

I save runner and broad bean seeds, and peas. I call them "Nan's Beans". They were saved for decades by my late Grandad. We think that the broad beans are actually two varieties jumbled together, as some are 4-bean pods and some are 6-bean pods. The runner beans are red-flowered (as indeed are most runners) and purplish-podded, and the best guess of experienced gardeners who have seen them is Scarlet Emperor.

Big seeds, like peas and all kinds of beans are easy to save, although it seems best if you can let them dry out on the plant, then pod them and bring them indoors to dry in the warm.

One think I discovered accidentally is that when I let a row of Bright Lights rainbow chard go to seed, I ended up with a lot of volunteer plants the following year. As in carpets of the things. Only the self-sets defaulted down to 90% silver:10% ruby chard. They're pretty frost hardy and look out for themselves and make a useful perennial veg which can be left to get on with it and just harvested at random. Perennial spinach is similar in habit.

They strike me as very good choices for the home grower. Unlike a lot of seeds which are designed to mature all at once rather than bit by bit, for the commercial grower. I know you can sow plants in successions but when I did this with peas, four batches at 2-weekly intervals, the beggars all came at once anyway. :mad: Nature will find its own timing, bless its little cotton socks.

Righty, off to get my tea on the stove. I have de-shooted all the HG spuds this evening. I hope fellow potato-hoarders are keeping an eye on their sacks. Oh, and if you can get hessian sacks from the bootsale or wherever, do so, they're almost extinct and well worth stockpiling in case the ubiquitous double-thickness paper potato sack becomes scarce. Plus they don't disintegrate when they get wet.

The Joy of Sacks..................you know it makes sense.

DawnW

GreyQueen wrote: »

The Joy of Sacks..................you know it makes sense.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mardatha

Originally Posted by GreyQueen View Post
The Joy of Sacks..................you know it makes sense.

And in a posh Morningside accent, it even sounds right! lolol

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Originally Posted by GreyQueen View Post
The Joy of Sacks..................you know it makes sense.

And in a posh Morningside accent, it even sounds right! lolol

I've been there...........there's a certain kind of Morningside lady, isn't there? Prolly the one looking at me like I was something to be scraped off her shoe............:rotfl:

Memo to self; do dress a bit more smartly next time in Auld Reekie.

DawnW

mardatha wrote: »

Does anybody know the best way to store lentils and barley? Is in the bottom of a fridge ok?

Mine just live in jars in the larder, and before I had that in the kitchen cupboard. I am guessing you don't mean huge quantities if they are in the bottom of your fridge?

I think just somewhere dry, coolish and out of direct sunlight is fine.

kezlou

i just keep lentils in the packet, then when i've used the amount i want. I decant the rest into a sealed glass jar. They last really well.

mardatha

I've got a big american fridge and loads of room in the bottom, so I put the packets in there. Around 9 kgs lentils and 2 of barley. It works then I suppose because no beasties in a fridge

DawnW

mardatha wrote: »

Husband says sweets were rationed until 1953 but I dont know..

My Mum said that as well. She showed me once the ration book she had been sent for me (I was born in 1953). Rationing was apparently discontinued before I was old enough to eat any of the foods concerned though. She used to keep this thing in her handbag when I was a child, just as a kind of keepsake. I looked for it after she died, but couldn't find it.