Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Not just us who are tuned in to the possibility then is it?

Maybe she's a prepper too.

[Deleted User]

She's a fairly successful artist BOB and in her 80s grew up using manual household machinery. She said people got a really good work out by either turning the handle on the big old heavy mangle in the yard on washday or by using a hand push lawn mower to mow a fair sized lawn. She's just old school and has a great deal of common sense, feet fairly on the ground and head anchored firmly in real reality! She did tell me she has still got all her fathers and grandfathers tools in her garage but most of them were too heavy for her to use and they were in dreadful condition!

AnimalTribe

Hi still following the thread, just not had much to say.

I came across a couple of recipes for green leaf curd, which I hadn't heard of before and thought it might interest some of you. One of these days, if I ever get the time, I might try making it.
http://fergustheforager.co.uk/2009/06/208/
The author says not to use a dehydrator, but I'm sure I read on another site to use a dehydrator (I can't find it now though).

[Deleted User]

I've found a new recipe today for Bubble and Squeak Soup which I'm making for our lunches for the next couple of days, very easy, short list of ingredients potatoes, cabbage, onion, streaky bacon 1oz butter and 1 litre of stock. Got me thinking that barring blight it might be useful to have some similar recipes under my belt as cabbage, potatoes and bacon are peasant/subsistence foods all over the planet. I put in a google search for cabbage and potato recipes and there are oodles of really tasty sounding meals that can be made from such simple ingredients that grow happily in this country. Everything from bubble and squeak through pasta dishes, through gratins and bakes and even Ethiopian wat dishes and curries. I'm going to explore this route thoroughly as it's healthy eating, things that are easily obtainable and cheap and will fill us up and keep us going even in the coldest weather. Us peasants know a thing or three and are going to know lots more in the near future.

Karmacat

Thats a good idea! I'm getting together a list of storecupboard recipes - flour is such a compact carbohydrate to store, for instance, but I only have about four recipes I know well am definitely getting a few more together.

Supermarket delivery. I have more toilet rolls :j

elaine241

Hello all

Just popping in as I'm supposed to be ermmm.................working shhhh!
Just found an interesting way to filter water although not sure it would work on really "bogging" water!

"A researcher in Singapore at the National University has discovered that tomato is an efficient adsorbent for water purification, and apple peel a biomass for water purification. Try soaking your leftover tomato and apple peels in alcohol for a day to remove the micro-organisms, then let them dry. Soak the peels in a bowl of tap water for one hour, then remove the peels."

Then it occured to me the whole article would possibly be of interest as its using up leftover peels for lots of different/weird uses. I'll try and post link below but never done it before so except my apologies for any c*ck ups"

http://experthometips.com/2015/10/16/25-astonishing-uses-for-your-fruit-vegetable-peel/

milasavesmoney

AnimalTribe wrote: »

Hi still following the thread, just not had much to say.

I came across a couple of recipes for green leaf curd, which I hadn't heard of before and thought it might interest some of you. One of these days, if I ever get the time, I might try making it.
http://fergustheforager.co.uk/2009/06/208/
The author says not to use a dehydrator, but I'm sure I read on another site to use a dehydrator (I can't find it now though).

Very very interesting article. Thank you for sharing. The pictures are helpful too. I loved reading about making this curd.

Cappella

Thank you for the links to green curd and water purification; both well worth reading.

MrsLurcherwalker - that's a good idea. I've got a lot of recipes for tinned and dried store cupboard ingredients but very few interesting one for seasonal fresh peasant produce. Which cookery book was the soup recipe from? I'm interested partly because one of the Sunday papers had a 'seasonal' recipe for soup with 27 ingredients in it. Only 3 of which could easily be grown/ harvested here in the north west.
I wondered which spices and herbs people here would hate to loose in a preparedness scenario? For me it would be pepper, coriander and cumin, though we have successfully grown coriander so maybe that wouldn't be a problem? And cinnamon and ginger. Whole spices keep well, and for quite a long time but not forever so I'm curious as to which you'd miss most?

[Deleted User]

Hi CAPELLA the bubble and squeak soup recipe is in the National Trust Complete Country Cookbook by Laura Mason and a google search for Cabbage and Potato Recipes will give many, many delicious sounding recipes that I shall be trying out over the next few months.

I've grown coriander here in the UK and left it to go to seed then ground the seeds successfully, cumin and caraway will grow well here to to harvest seeds from. We grow basil and marjoram in the polytunnel, it's too cool even in the high summer weather to get basil growing outside but we have bay, mint, sage, thyme in the garden and bronze fennel too which obligingly goes up to seed which I collect in the autumn. Dill grows well outside too and we always have a row of garlic on the allotment and chillis in the greenhouse along with a BIG patch of curly leaf parsley in the polytunnel. What we wouldn't grow is cinnamon, nutmeg and mace and cloves but you CAN grow ginger in a pot if you find a piece of root with buds on, it needs to be kept warm but you can do it! all is not lost!!!

AnimalTribe

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

you CAN grow ginger in a pot if you find a piece of root with buds on, it needs to be kept warm but you can do it! all is not lost!!!

Thanks Mrs LW - I think I'll give this a go, just need to find some budding roots next time I go shopping.

Although I have a garden, which I am slowly trying to bring to life (by making rabbit proof enclosures), I still pot up bits of kitchen waste. The bottom section of onions and leeks being most successful. Not enough for anything major but enough to snip with scissors to add to sandwiches or scrambled eggs etc (and they keep growing for a very long time).