Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE have a look in the Victory/Jubilee cookbook in the first part We'll Eat Again in the Make Do chapter at the end of the first section of the book and you'll find instructions on bottling fruit without sugar using CAMPDEN TABLETS which you can still get from WINE/BEER MAKING SHOPS. I've not tried this method myself but I know it was used when sugar was rationed. Have a read up and see what you think and perhaps try a small batch to see if flavour and texture are OK?

Missed a trick yesterday when we were talking about clamps etc. for root veg. I dug out an old veg growing book and came across the sand box storage again. Literally dig up the roots, trim off the leaves as close to the crown of the root as possible choose a sturdy box (wood is apparently best) and line it with dry clean sand then layer the roots making sure they don't touch cover them with sand and repeat finishing with an inch of sand and no roots showing. Store in a dry, cool shed. Sounds more like it for the small amounts (relatively) that we grow.

mardatha

MrsL, that sounds the sort of thing that the Romans did, I love the simplicity of that.

ivyleaf

Apologies for my confusing post yesterday, some of it referred to something that had been said on the Garden Fence thread

mar I hope your poor face feels better today x

mardatha

Yes pet ta, just feeling flat today but I can cope with flat. A good horrible book with loads of supernatural demons and loads of tea

nuatha

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Missed a trick yesterday when we were talking about clamps etc. for root veg. I dug out an old veg growing book and came across the sand box storage again. Literally dig up the roots, trim off the leaves as close to the crown of the root as possible choose a sturdy box (wood is apparently best) and line it with dry clean sand then layer the roots making sure they don't touch cover them with sand and repeat finishing with an inch of sand and no roots showing. Store in a dry, cool shed. Sounds more like it for the small amounts (relatively) that we grow.

That's what I know as a clamp (though I've also seen dry peat used as an alternative to sand) I'm now curious as to what other forms of clamp there might be?

[Deleted User]

GARDEN Clamps are built with raised earth beds, a layer of straw and then layers of roots and layers of straw and eventually covered over with a deep straw layer followed with a good layer of earth and they are built outside in the garden. You have to leave a 'chimney' a tuft of straw and a gap at the top of the clamp to allow it to breathe or you lose the crop as it gets hot and sweats. It's an art to build one and unless you know how (I've never done it)you stand to get it wrong and lose all your hard work. I think the sand boxes are a more practical and neater solution in 2016 and most folks could construct one.

Cappella

Rhubarbs acidic enough to bottle without sugar, just like tomatoes but you'll need a really good seal on your jars. I used to bottle it with, and without Suarez, but just cook it and freeze it as a compote now. We grow an old Victorian variety which is ready at the same time as Timperley early. We sent some to the National rhubarb collection at Harlow Carr and they identified it for us.

That's odd I posted this early this morning and thought I'd lost it but it's just popped up here, out of place. No idea why.

We keep dahlia tubers in boxes of sand or peat over winter, in the front bedroom which is warm(ish) and dry. Carrots have over wintered there in dry sand too. Moisture is the biggest problem, and can lead to rotting. The sand/peat needs to be dry, but so do the tubers. I'd store them in a greenhouse rather than a shed or garage. They're usually too humid we've found, but it does tend to rain a lot here. Would probably be fine further south.

nuatha

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

GARDEN Clamps are built with raised earth beds, a layer of straw and then layers of roots and layers of straw and eventually covered over with a deep straw layer followed with a good layer of earth and they are built outside in the garden.

Thank you.
I hadn't come across them. Both my Grandad and a friend of my Dad's used similar systems. box frames that were assembled from slats on a solid base which stood on a slatted shelf over a solid shelve with a back and sides and a low lip at the front. As the clamp was assembled more side slats were added, the sand came from the shelf below. As the clamp was disassembled the sand was brushed through the shelf slats at the side onto the lower shelf. I can also remember boxes of sand being dried over 4 inch cast iron pipes in their greenhouses.

[Deleted User]

It's because we live in the warmer south, I know you have to be careful of frost damage and get enough insulation inside before you put the final earth layer on so perhaps northern Britain is just too cold for the method to be used?

ivyleaf

nuatha I wanted to ask you about something which is off topic (sorry) but which is puzzling me.

My brother lives in Germany, and can (and does) buy books through Amazon UK, but of course the postage is an added cost and in any case he and his wife are trying to get rid of stuff so they can put the house on the market, so he'd prefer not to bring more books into the house.

So he thought of getting a Kindle. He had assumed that if he were to buy one in this country while he's over for a long weekend in the near future, and registered it here too, he should then be able to buy Kindle books from Amazon UK when he goes back to Germany. But Amazon UK say that's not possible, even if the Kindle is registered with Amazon UK.

Would you have any idea why that would be? I'm asking you because you are the most IT-savvy person I know I'm wondering if the person at Amazon UK who answered his email is simply mistaken.