Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Love the idea of frozen slugs, not sure I could cope with having them in the freezer.

I used to have a lottie neighbour a few plots down who kept chickens. With her agreement, I'd collect grubs found when gardening and take them to her chickies. I love the warbling they make when you approach the run with some extra-mural treats.

Lottie was badly abused and neglected before me so I garden with several receptacles; bucket for glass, nails etc, bad weeds trug and good weeds trug. Lottie neighbour sadly gone so no chickies so the bad grubs I turf up in the soil get squidged. I much preferred the little bit of effort getting them to the chickens, it seemed an excellent recycling of protein. Lovely lady would even give me the odd half dozen eggs if she had a glut....... happy days.

[Deleted User]

Morning all, I was having a little ponder today, life in general and what the future holds. Am I alone in looking to the future and trying to be ahead of any potential disruptions and get used to a situation that is likely to happen before it actually does? We worked out that fuel and the utilities were going to spiral up in price and made the decision to run with the woodburner as our only source of heating, I have to say we are now used to the house being much cooler and find we tolerate that very well. I am thinking that if the power supply does become erratic in the future we might have to adapt our day and do like the ancestors, be up with the sunrise and work like hell until nightfall and use the solar lamps to do anything we need after dark, which will be limiting. Food is another thing that is likely to be more and more expensive in the future so I'm trying to get us used to smaller portions and adding to my preserving techniques trying to use methods that only need processing for storage and not using energy to store them, i.e Dehydrating, pickling, jams and chutneys. We've grown and dried borlotti beans for a number of years now very successfully, anyone have thoughts on this or am I just worrying myself unnecessarily? Lyn xxx.

mardatha

Me too Mrs L but without the preserving cos I canny be a$$ed with that Def feel there's a lot of changes can be made re electricity use. People use far too much - not in here but outside in the big bad world. I'm doing more washing by hand, trying (and failing) to make bread by hand. Cooking healthier meals using the wartime cookbooks.
For the first time in 30 years we're going to let the fire go out this summer and only use small fires at night.
I think 90% of prepping is in attitude, and being happy/able to do with less, to make do with what you've got etc. The RV whines like hell about other people not living like this but I've ignored him for 47 yrs and am coping with it

Butterfly_Brain

Lyn I quite agree, this government has taken away our safety net that we have paid into all of our working lives and with PIP, the bedroom tax and UB coming in this year, I am really worried, so we have made a concerted effort to fill the freezer and keep it full of meat, keep the store cupboard filled up and adding more, keep enough stores of toilet paper, shampoo etc for at least a year we are aiming for 2 years worth if we can, ordered plenty of seeds from real seeds, DH has swept the chimney and we are looking for a wood burner as soon as we can.
The gas will only go on for an hour once a day for hot water.
I have told my two that if I find any of their stuff left plugged in I will take it away from them.
Kelly kettle arrived yesterday and DH has built the rocket stove in the garden opposite the back door and he is looking at building a shelter over it, so that we can use it most of the year. Just got to get a Dutch oven now.
Like mardatha I am using wartime cookery books and have bought slightly smaller plates, which has so far fooled the menfolk into thinking that they are getting more than they really are

2T I hope that you are calmer today, I can't stand petty little bureaucrats either

Popperwell

All the above is scary BB.

Was watching the tv series Food and Drink on Monday. One reporter was criticising our return to "Comfort" food. Well, I like it. It is simple, tasty...often less expensive and it does not necessarily mean it is unhealthy.

Even Michel Roux Jr made a version of Shepherd's Pie mainly vegetable based. Then we had some pretencious wine expert suggesting what drink to have with it and one was some fancy Champagne. How often would you get "Champers" out to drink with such a meal?

Probably costing for one bottle what people may have to spend for a week or more on food.

The other night I took ages to decide if I should treat myself to some cider £2.49 for four cans...They will probably last me at least a month.

I would love at least one cooking programme that would do quick and simple food. Thankfully, I know most of this anyhow...but a lot of the charities, their hearts are in the right place but there is a limit what they can do...

Even though I hate this Government and what they are doing and they won't be worrying about what they eat or heating their homes etc...even they could be doing more to promote healthy easy eating on a budget either in leaflets, on websites or other ways...

ginnyknit

Im off the same mind too Lyn, Im so careful with everything now and wont spend money unless necessary - its better saved than spent to me. I have cut back the hot water and am very frugal with it. Im on economy 7 and now switch the water on to heat for however many hours I feel necessary in the night instead of letting it run itself.

Yesterday got myself in a frazzle, I made 2 fruitcakes and there was a space in the oven so zapped some spuds to bake and popped them into finish off. Perfect spuds and cake. Then the cakes came out before the spuds so put in some pork loin I got very cheaply. The spuds came out and just the pork left so threw together some more cakes using up some sweet mincemeat and finally I was done .....breathe :rotfl: But I felt as if I had used the oven the best way I could and it wont go on again for a week with any luck. I know have a freezer basket full of cake for OH's snacks.

You cannot help but worry Lyn and use that energy to prep and prep again. If its home grown and you can preserve it then do. Obviously with health issues like many have on here you have to work out a slightly different list of preps but we are all doing similair. The price of food is frightening- I came out of Mr T last time feeling very low but soon got a grip and started working out how to juggle everything.

the_cake

I feel I am prepping for something, but not quite sure what! Just know that I feel more secure in my new habits (only heating the house with the woodburner, being very frugal with heating the water, building up my store cupboard) - luckily my OH is absolutely on board and we have some very interesting discussions about the way the world turns at the moment.... today I was delighted to find a new, boxed, really good quality mandolin slicer in my local c.s. for £2.50, all ready for this year's veg. I plan to grow, to go in the dehydrator I plan to buy! Quite time-consuming this life style, isn't it? But feels much more worthwhile than most other distractions, especially aimless shopping, which I hate with a vengeance.

[Deleted User]

Hi GINNY nice use of oven heat, and nice full cake tins to show for it. In the last war the advice was to double up with a neighbour and use one oven to cook two meals for two families, we might find that useful in the future too. I know before I met He Who Knows and I was in a bedsit one of the other girls and I used to cook and heat our room for one night on and one night off so we could both afford a hot meal and stay warm, just couldn't afford to do both rooms every day. I'm staggered at the Mr T prices these days and noticed that most of the value range was more than I'm prepared to pay. I'm going to the farm shop with the butchery this week and getting a nice big piece of Brisket and doing the old fashioned thing of cold on Monday, Shepherds Pie on Tuesday, Hash on Wednesday etc. etc. and definately plumbing in a couple of lentil meals each week, I'll see if that works out any cheaper.

POPS I'm surprised to hear that you don't have champagne with every meal - I thought we all did on the OS board, I assume you have the odd pint of vintage Brandy instead??????? SORRY!!!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

Butterfly_Brain

We already eat veggie two or three times a week. I already buy joints of meat and slice with the slicer or mince with my Mum's trusty old metal mincer.
It is not just Mr T Lyn it is all of them, we went into Asda spent £30 and only came out with only 2 carrier bags of stuff :eek: (Things that I can't get in Aldi) prices have climbed rapidly this year and are set to continue to do so with the way that fuel prices and utility prices (Shops have to pay them as well as we do and guess who will pay for that....yes, you guessed it, us the consumers) not to mention other things like shoes and clothes are rising too and have you seen the cost of wool lately :eek:

pineapple

Just to help balance the bad news (and I'm sure there'll be some along in a minute) this week's feel good story has to be the homeless man who inadvertently received someone's diamond engagement ring as a gift - and who returned it! He is now at least $150,000 richer after a grateful fiance set up a fundraising page for him
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/billy-ray-harris--homeless-man-in-kansas-city--missouri--returns-diamond-engagement-ring-to-sarah-darling-164608860.html

So maybe there is hope after all :T