Preparedness for when

1Tonsil

I have to admit that I like my fruit very ripe , especially bananas which have more potassium when the outside is going black. I buy my veg fresh at the market every week from the farmers who produce them.. The only thing I buy unripe is avocado, as I like it to ripen as I need it. I had half a dozen given to me this week from a friend of mine, along with three carrier bags full of oranges, mandarins and grapefruits from her trees.

I gave half the oranges and grapefruits away to old folks near to me and friends who are short of money. One brought me big bags full of her green beans and tomato juice as a thank you. It was fun giving things to folks who needed them and I am glad they will enjoy them.

Flu is going around and a nasty cough, so I am eating tons of fruit and veg and drinking gallons of freshly squeezed orange juice I made myself. I do have a lot of allergies but I am very good at not getting germs that are going around. My doc wanted to subdue my immune system with steroids but I have refused. It works great at stopping me catching things.....

Right , off to take photos of the pantomime rehearsal in town...my friend has put it on for charity and today is the dress rehearsal.......oh no it isn't, oh yes it is! LOL:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

womble_lancs

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

There are days when I despair of the human race <snip> Oh what a monster we have created with our litigious society and health and safety rules, I really worry for humanity should there ever be a SHTF situation for real, they will all be running round like headless chickens and probably if that conversation is anything to go by will very quickly starve to death!!!

I'll 'unlurk' for a moment to share your despair. I have had this argument with people so many times that I could cry. Over 25 years ago, an ex's mother threw away half of my shopping straight from the bag because it was on its BB date and reduced in price (which is why I'd bought it). She informed me that it had all 'gone foisty'.

I have always been one to trust my senses. I've eaten yoghurt which was 2 months past its BB date because it was perfectly fine, yet I've opened a yoghurt carton with a week left on the date, only to find it covered in mould.

About 10 years ago, whilst out walking with friends in the countryside, we came upon an apple tree. We picked a few fruit and were immediately pounced upon by one of the parents with us, who informed us that we should not each those apples because they would be poisonous, and asked how could we be sure that they were actually apples and not something else. They said we were setting a bad example to their children. I countered that it was they who were setting the bad example, but it didn't go down well, and the rest of the walk was rather more silent

womble_lancs

Apologies if this has been posted here before, but I think this speaks volumes: 'Ugly Fruit' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXrem9s9fWY

I tend to buy my food from the local market rather than the supermarket anyway; it's fresher and considerably cheaper. For example, pointy peppers are 7 for £1 on our market, and 90p each in the supermarket. Bacon is 3 packets for £6 on the market, but the same number of equivalent sized packet in the supermarket would be 11.40. The market ones have less water in them and don't shrink as much. There's also a massive Asian cash & carry on my way home from work, where I can buy an enormous sack of onions for £4, as opposed to £1 for three onions in the supermarket.

It's a no-brainer, really. If you are able to use a market, it works out far better. I am lucky that my town is blessed with such a superb, and large market supplying fish, meat, poultry, fruit and veg.

[Deleted User]

We have in the local centre a superb independent greengrocer whose produce is first class and whose prices are also amazingly affordable. We also have an independent butcher who makes his own faggots, black puddings, many varieties of wonderful sausages and hangs his meat properly and his prices while not being ultra cheap are certainly affordable and his meat is second to none and 'dry' when you take it from the packaging. I shop in these shops for preference and save money as none of it is pre-packed and it seems to keep so much longer because of this. Best bargain at the moment is 5 x whacking baking potatoes (chosen by me from the big box) for 90p which is enough for 5 meals for the two of us as they are HUGE and stewing steak at £4.76 for 500g which is totally lean and gristle free and cooks up to a melting loveliness with no waste whatsoever. Supermarkets DO have their place in life but as you say markets and good independent shops are where the best things are to be found.

Frugalsod

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

On a simular theme OH and I couldn't believe the young american guy in New York, on the news who said he and his girlfriend had prepped for the coming storms by buying $40 of food and they would pass the time at home watching Netflix!!!!

No thoughts of if the power went off or anything and how long would $40 of food last :eek:.

Ali x

Yes but they were advised not go make unnecessary trips. So they prepped. You may not know what else they had organised as back up. They may have had torches, lanterns, board games and playing cards as backups.

In a snow storm you just have to sit it out.

Frugalsod

womble_lancs wrote: »

I'll 'unlurk' for a moment to share your despair. I have had this argument with people so many times that I could cry. Over 25 years ago, an ex's mother threw away half of my shopping straight from the bag because it was on its BB date and reduced in price (which is why I'd bought it). She informed me that it had all 'gone foisty'.

I have always been one to trust my senses. I've eaten yoghurt which was 2 months past its BB date because it was perfectly fine, yet I've opened a yoghurt carton with a week left on the date, only to find it covered in mould.

About 10 years ago, whilst out walking with friends in the countryside, we came upon an apple tree. We picked a few fruit and were immediately pounced upon by one of the parents with us, who informed us that we should not each those apples because they would be poisonous, and asked how could we be sure that they were actually apples and not something else. They said we were setting a bad example to their children. I countered that it was they who were setting the bad example, but it didn't go down well, and the rest of the walk was rather more silent

I have a cousin who throws everything away that is past its use by date. She even refrigerates ketchup which does not need refrigeration. I have used items years past their use by dates and while they might not be perfect they are acceptable.

Personally I love sell by dates as I get so many bargains this way. I went to my local Tesco Express on Christmas Eve and bagged what amounted to two weeks food for £8.

As for wild food the only thing that I avoid are mushrooms as I am not expert enough to identify the dangerous ones. Others like crab apples need to be cooked before eating. Kids need to learn what is edible so that they remain safe. Avoiding everything is not a sensible option.

thriftwizard

About 10 years ago, whilst out walking with friends in the countryside, we came upon an apple tree. We picked a few fruit and were immediately pounced upon by one of the parents with us, who informed us that we should not each those apples because they would be poisonous, and asked how could we be sure that they were actually apples and not something else. They said we were setting a bad example to their children. I countered that it was they who were setting the bad example, but it didn't go down well, and the rest of the walk was rather more silent

Think I've mentioned before that I used to lead foraging walks with my friend's local Brownie pack in autumn. Until the year she had to tactfully tell me that they'd been ordered to stop, in case one of the kids ate something dangerous from a hedgerow when we weren't with them... how on earth are they ever to learn what's dangerous & what's safe, and what needs some kind of treatment before it's safe, if no-one can show them?

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Think I've mentioned before that I used to lead foraging walks with my friend's local Brownie pack in autumn. Until the year she had to tactfully tell me that they'd been ordered to stop, in case one of the kids ate something dangerous from a hedgerow when we weren't with them... how on earth are they ever to learn what's dangerous & what's safe, and what needs some kind of treatment before it's safe, if no-one can show them?

I despair of this molly-coddling. We will truly raise a generation of fools, weaklings and whiners. Well, a second generation, anyway, the horse has well and truly bolted on the first one.

I can vividly recall being shown deadly nightshade as a child by my Dad in the garden with the exhortation never to eat its berries and, if I had to touch it, to wash my hands afterwards. I also went on my own foraging walks as a 10 y.o. with my Observer book of wild plants and another book of trees.

Very few things in the British countryside are deadly poisonous. Plenty are bitter and unpalatable, and I speak as someone who decided to try a nibble off a horse chestnut just to check Dad's advice, having done the same thing as a child; yes, they're unpleasant. As are unprocessed acorns but beech mast is fine, although madly fiddly.

We need to know how to interact with the natural world at a very basic level, and that included eating bits of it. What better way to learn than a supervised walk with a guide and how wicked that the neurotic and lawyer shy are depriving the kiddies of thriftwizard and her ilk.

As a kid I loved the Arthur Ransome books. How was it put when the childrens's mother in Swallows and Amazons was seeking the opinion of their absent father about them sailing on the lake; Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown is what I recall the response being.

lillibet_dripping

Just de-lurking to mention ....
I've just heard on the BBC news that a company in Stockholm is 'micro-chipping' its employees so that they can do away with card swiping or code-entering. The micro-chipped employee can do everything from gain entrance to the main building, their office and the photocopier plus buy their lunch in the canteen simply by holding their hand against the reader.
This makes me feel very uncomfortable - what do you think?

GreyQueen

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Just de-lurking to mention ....
I've just heard on the BBC news that a company in Stockholm is 'micro-chipping' its employees so that they can do away with card swiping or code-entering. The micro-chipped employee can do everything from gain entrance to the main building, their office and the photocopier plus buy their lunch in the canteen simply by holding their hand against the reader.
This makes me feel very uncomfortable - what do you think?

:eek: I think that it's the step into hell. :eek: