Preparing for Winter V

[Deleted User]

Well done Laura, if you ask and they say no you're no worse off than if you don't ask so always ask!

Laura_Elsewhere

That was what I thought, nothing to lose! And she was so nice, seemed really pleased they'd get used. I offered to pick some for her while we were at it but she just doesn't like them... I suggested tomatoes if I get any and she did jump at that, so fingers crossed my little tomato plants produce some nice ones for her! 

boultdj

My next door neighbour has just moved out, we were going to have the apples off their cooking apple tree, in return I was going to do them some apple crumble's, the new neighbour has said she also does not bake, so I'm going to ask if we can do the same deal, or let her have some of my eating apples, pears or plums.

[Deleted User]

I got another 3 bags of dried apple rings to store in our Tesco delivery yesterday and some tins of fruit, evaporated milk and potatoes too, I'm trying to put a little store food in every order these days as I just cannot see what this winter will bring with covid and brexit both in the mix.  It's all stuff we use in everyday eating anyway so if we don't need it in the winter it will keep but it's a bit of a worry trying to second guess what will happen and where we will all be come November.

Laura_Elsewhere

boazu, we use a free app called NoWaste which lets you list everything with its expiry date - it has helped us build our stocks without wasting any of it. 

Being in a tiny rented flat, we just can't do a lot of the things you can - it's a smaller-than-usual fridge-freezer to fit into the galley kitchen, and no room for anything like a drying-device... but i do have a little set of stacking trays tucked into the sitting-room beside my treadle sewing machine, against the north-facing wall, and that holds a lot of jars of jam, jelly and fruit-cheese (sort of like sieved jam only thicker), as well as bottles of elderberry syrup and rosehip syrup. 

boultdj

I'm looking forward to making fruit cheese, also called lazy jam in my family, I've got plums, apples and pears and it looks like it's going to be a good crop of pears.

Laura_Elsewhere

Fruit cheese is only lazy in the last stage, though - all that sieving gives my arms and shoulders a good workout!   

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

boazu, we use a free app called NoWaste which lets you list everything with its expiry date - it has helped us build our stocks without wasting any of it. 

Being in a tiny rented flat, we just can't do a lot of the things you can - it's a smaller-than-usual fridge-freezer to fit into the galley kitchen, and no room for anything like a drying-device... but i do have a little set of stacking trays tucked into the sitting-room beside my treadle sewing machine, against the north-facing wall, and that holds a lot of jars of jam, jelly and fruit-cheese (sort of like sieved jam only thicker), as well as bottles of elderberry syrup and rosehip syrup. 

We have two areas of overflow storage: the bottom couple of shelves of a bookcase takes most things, while a handful of jars of preserves are stashed on a shelf in the downstairs loo.  (Also where the potatoes are currently stored, since it’s the coldest room in the house.)

- Pip

[Deleted User]

I'm lucky enough to have a small store room  which we've shelved so I have storage space but I've also cleared the book case in the childrens room because they can't come to stay while the pandemic continues and have set it up for the dry goods because the room is cool and they will keep better in there.  I've also been saving the boxes our weekly pub delivery comes in which are sturdy cardboard affairs and they can't have them back because the delivering firm won't take them so the alternative would be to recycle them.  They are like the banana boxes from the shops but without the lip at the side and exactly a large tin deep so they take lots of stock and stack on top of each other and they are in the childrens room too and hold tins, jars and some boxes and packets too and have increased storage capacity by quite a lot. I want as much in store as I can get before the colder weather sets in again so we don't have to take the risk of going to the shops if covid continues or if we get any sort of flu rife in the community, having been out of circulation for as long as many of us have and with it being quite likely we'll be out of circulation all through the summer too I think we'll catch everything going because our immunity will be down from non exposure.

Laura_Elsewhere

To be honest, thinking it over, we probably have bigger stocks than most people in our situation - the bedroom is only a bit bigger than the standard-double, but my chap fitted shelves right up to the ceiling and across the upper wall over the bed-head so we have ninety-six foot of shelving, 20cm or 30cm deep... and the second bedroom, which is only big enough for one child or two toddlers, is entirely filled with shelving units, which he catalogues brilliantly (because you can't see most of it!)...