Preparedness for when

D&DD

Morning all just a quick one from me as I've got a busy day in the kitchen planned! Sainsburys have their turkeys less than half price so I got 3 last night plus two huge bags of tatties knocked down to 49p so I need to sort my freezers out again!
I still have a huge drawer full of fruit that I froze before I got the Excalibur so planning a day of jams and leathers.
I have blueberries,cherries,loganberries,strawberries,raspberries,
gooseberries,jostaberries,blackberries,rhubarb and god only knows what else to do


Not quite sure where to start...

GreyQueen

DD&D, could I come to your kitchen and be a taste-tester? Pleeze?

Sounds delish and well done on the turkeys. The smart and savvy shopper can usually pick up these immediately post-crimble and post-easter so it's worth checking this out. Helps the budget.

Have just been out to Tosspots to buy some bread because I CBA to bake and need some for lunch. Tis a grey and dreary day, spitting rain, and chilly. I have the first stages of a cold and feel totally un-motivated. Will try to find my Mojo in the next couple of hours (if you see it, kick it my way, I imagine it as a psycotic Pomeranian, if that helps ).

Don't want to waste the whole day lying on the couch as the allotment is probably knee-high in weeds by now after being left for 10 days. Will only do a little if I continue to feel ruff but a little is a lot better than nowt, hey?

Everything I bought at Tosspots had a money off voucher from ClubCard on it, so that makes it better. My ambition is to use the money off vouchers on YS goods, end up with a negative value and walk out with cash. I suspect that never happens IRL but we can but hope.

pineapple

Has anyone used a dehydrator to make jerky?
Ta

mardatha

Warning on the Scots weather forums of much colder weather coming for next week, Scotland looking snowy on higher ground...watch the wee baby plants.

[Deleted User]

I've just made the first batch of jam of the year, it's rhubarb with a twist. The original recipe called for 3 lbs of rhubarb, 3 lbs of sugar and the juice of 3 lemons. I didn't have 3 lemons so I used what I did have which was 1 lemon, 1 orange and 2 limes and it's the nicest rhubarb jam I've ever made. It's almost like marmalade so I'm calling it Breakfast Jam and I've now got 5 decent sized jars cooling on a tray on the freezer top.

3lbs rhubarb cut into thin slices
1 tablespoon water
the juice from 1 lemon, 2 limes and 1 orange
the shells and rind from the fruits
3lbs of granulated sugar

Put the rhubarb , water and juices into a heavy based pan and add in the fruit shells left after juicing. Bring to the boil and cook until the rhubarb is very soft and goes to pieces in the liquid. Add the sugar and keep stiriing until it has dissolved completely. Bring to the boil and simmer at a good rolling pace until the setting point is reached and a teaspoonful on a cold plate forms a wrinkly skin when you push it with a finger. Remove the fruit shells at this point. Pot it up in sterilized hot jam jars and put the lids on straight away.

I'm going to make some more of this as we have lots of rhubarb to use up on the lottie.

Cheapskate

That sounds lush, MrsLW! My rhubarb died a few years ago and I've never seen it in our garden centres to replace it. However, my plum and apple trees appear to have much blossom on them, so am hopeful of a few this year.

My kelly kettle is on its way, and going to place an order with real seeds on Monday when their office is open. I found some petits pois that I thought I'd given away, so they're going in next week. They are a self supporting variety and sound fairly sturdy, so I'm going to try clumps of a few dotted around the garden - no allotment *sob*!!

Mar, hope you don't get too much weather next week, and fingers crossed it doesn't come down here.

A xo

[Deleted User]

CHEAPY a couple of years ago I found a plant in Wilkos when I was staying with DD1 and she was just beginning to plant up her garden. It was a sad little thing with 2 leaves and reduced but I popped it into her fruit bed and this year it's like a triffid. It might be worth a look to see if they have them this year. Don't forget though that you can't pull the rhubarb in its first growing year, you have to leave it for all that first season to establish itself. After that however, anything goes!!!

candlelight_2013

Lyn the jam sounds delish. I don't have any rhubarb in my garden, but I know someone who does (my sister), I shall go begging next week, with the promise of giving her a jar.

Thank you for the recipe.

Candlelightx

GreyQueen

:mad: I'm going to get a hammer and smash that blasted mobile (already has a cracked screen) into smithereens. Seriously p'ed-off woman here.

So I takes its SIM out and put the new one in. To check that it works before porting the number. And it keeps telling me to Insert SIM and try putting the old one back and its more Insert SIM. I'm no stranger to taking SIMs in and out of phones but now my phone doesn't seem capable of recognising it has a SIM at all.

I blame Mr Fatman at the bus terminal last summer who squashed the phone in my pocket against the armrest of a seat in the waiting area when he lumped down beside me without a moment's warning to get my jacket out of the way.

I've decided (after about an hour's fiddling and mucho cussing) that I shall get a new phone which isn't broken and won't remind me of Mr Fatman everytime I use it. Then I can go onto "3" and have their cheapy PAYG package 321. Which is half the price of ASDA now anyway. They have a shop in town and I may just go up there now.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jazee

GQ - that's the package I've got. Cheapest I've ever had.