Preparedness for when

mardatha

I can't even sniff cheese - it smells like vomit so god knows what it tastes like.

[Deleted User]

Funnily enough there was an article on micro greens in the last copy of Home Farmer I bought and I'm going t have a go, it seems like a sensible idea for fresh grown things with a good old vitamin content. I don't seem to be able to find the larger packs of seeds the article says are more economical in the garden centres though so I'll do some research online and see what I can find.

I'm really wondering what we can produce that will give us main meals with enough substance to fill our tums and the dried pulses and grains are the most likely things as even the best stored homegrown roots and fruits are past their best by this point of the year. I'm going to have to put on the thinking cap for this one!

Doveling

Pineapple - cod liver oil and malt, butterscotch flavour. Delivered out of a large brown glass jar on a big spoon.

Yummy......or is that just me:D

Is 1/2 tonsil back in Britain or did she stay in Greece? Give us a wave if you are reading.

We always seem to have the odd pack of dehydrated meal (left over from Grunt's D of E and Cheshire hike trips). They are passable and I may get a few more for emergencies.

My strawberry plants in milkbottle racks are looking good and the rhubarb is amazing. Must get out there and get more stuff planted but at present we have hail:eek:

Cappella

French and borlotti beans dry really well as do peas (for dried peas we just plant the marrow fat peas you buy to cook, saves a fortune on pea seed but they're not as tasty fresh). I've got several jars of them all in the pantry, and I've also have had success with dried broad beans in the past and am going to dry them again this year.

We've been eating micro greens grown in a cold greenhouse since early January and are now harvesting full little gems, red and green cut and come again lettuce (very old seed, sorry don't know the variety), rocket, Japanese greens and lambs quarters. We don't buy special seeds, just pop them into seed trays use whatever salads we've got lots of. We're in the north west so it's cold and wet but it's been a mild winter and salad crops haven't suffered at all from the frost this year. Last year we grew them on a bedroom window sill and that worked We've grown micro greens for several years now on the allotment and a micro green salad really adds punch to stored winter foodstuffs.
MrO brought up a bunch of tiny carrots yesterday, the last few from a very late sewing and they were fiddly but delicious.
Our sprouting broccoli is cropping very well at the moment and we still have tons of kale and red cabbage in the brassica cage. We've potatoes planted in huge tree buckets for early spuds but blights been a real headache over the past five years and we've not been able to keep our main crop so it's a blight resistant variety and earlies only this year, hopefully they'll keep through the winter.
Lots of pickled and preserved veggies but it's potatoes that could be a problem for us in a preparedness situation.

[Deleted User]

I think we're collectively talking 'POTTAGE' with pulses, herbs and whatever we can find that is fresh growing from our foraging. Some bacon thrown in for flavour and extra protein and it sounds exactly what our ancestors would have been making from the tail end of their own winter stores. Bread to go with it and perhaps cheese would make a substantial and sustaining meal. Back to the future maybe?

charlies-aunt

pineapple wrote: »

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What will ever 'stick' in the memory though was some gooey, treacly, malty product which I was given regular spoons of - because it was supposed to be 'good for me' .

If it came in a big,brown glass jar and was dished out with a spoon - it was likely that it was malt extract enriched with cod liver oil. It was supposed to strengthen you up and be "good for you"
*Shudder* Revolting stuff!! - I was a very biddable & obedient child but even I couldn't be coaxed/persuaded/bullied by my Mother to take subsequent 'doses' of that 'orrible stuff after the first lot...... my only act of childhood revolt!
I preferred to risk the threatened good hiding for failing to do as I was told - or- early childhood death from vitamin deficiency than swallow it. The taste was outstandingly awful, I think I can still taste that first dose now! My Mother kept the jar for years & years in the hope that I would eventually give in to pressure until I got old enough and sneaky enough to discretely bin it.


Haliorange tablets and Delrosa dished out by grandparents every Saturday were must nicer!

mardatha

Up here according to my book, it would have been barley broth with kale, and oatcakes MrsL. I can manage that if it was that or starve..

Cappella

I like pottage, I cooked it a lot when I was going through a Medieval history phase years ago and there's not a huge difference between it and lentil stew - well, except the lentils which don't grow here of course Sounds ok to me if all else fails.
We'd have eggs as well to add a little interest to our diet, ours are laying well again now.

I like malt extract too, though never had it with cod liver oil. Sounds revolting. I think I'm too old to have had haliborangne but I remember rose hip syrup vividly. Mum used to pour it on our rice pudding and we loved it. Have never made any, might try it this year!

[Deleted User]

Rosehip Syrup is easily made I used to make it when the girls were small. You need to be meticulous when straining the fruit and get ALL the little hairs out. Even if you scoop out the seeds and hairs and use the juicy part of the fruit you still get some hairs floating in the syrup which need removing and I found that several layers of cheesecloth and several strainings were needed. I tried to keep it by sterilizing the sealed bottles in a waterbath and they exploded in the cupboard, stickily!!! I found the best way to keep the syrup was to freeze it in poly bottles (leave an airspace for expansion on freezing) and keeping the defrosted bottle in the fridge when using it, they keep fine for a couple of months.

LoveLifeAgain

charlies-aunt wrote: »

If it came in a big,brown glass jar and was dished out with a spoon - it was likely that it was malt extract enriched with cod liver oil. It was supposed to strengthen you up and be "good for you"
*Shudder* Revolting stuff!! - I was a very biddable & obedient child but even I couldn't be coaxed/persuaded/bullied by my Mother to take subsequent 'doses' of that 'orrible stuff after the first lot...... my only act of childhood revolt!
I preferred to risk the threatened good hiding for failing to do as I was told - or- early childhood death from vitamin deficiency than swallow it. The taste was outstandingly awful, I think I can still taste that first dose now! My Mother kept the jar for years & years in the hope that I would eventually give in to pressure until I got old enough and sneaky enough to discretely bin it.


Haliorange tablets and Delrosa dished out by grandparents every Saturday were must nicer!

It sounds like Virol my mum gave us kids and I quite liked