Preparing for Winter V

[Deleted User]

It just makes sense to provide for yourselves doesn't it? I hate the thought of only having enough for the next meal in the cupboard or relying totally on takeaways and ready meals from the supermarket.  We were hungry often enough in childhood to make it a priority to have a good store cupboard in older age.

[Deleted User]

boazu said:

It just makes sense to provide for yourselves doesn't it? I hate the thought of only having enough for the next meal in the cupboard or relying totally on takeaways and ready meals from the supermarket.  We were hungry often enough in childhood to make it a priority to have a good store cupboard in older age.

I can completely relate to this - I've always had a large stash of food, if it goes below a certain level I get very twitchy! 🙈 my kids think it's hilarious as I'm known for having very unusual eating habits (I sometimes don't eat for days!) but I am also a bit of a feeder! 😂 I can't cope with the idea of being cold or hungry so they are the two things that I will never scrimp on (my house is generally like an oven!). I'm sure this is a throwback from my childhood - money was very tight for a variety of reasons and I do remember having to make very little go a long way - I also remember waking up cold and I would never want my kids to have similar experiences....
Now it's a case of going to the other extreme - perhaps one day I'll find a happy medium but I'm not holding my breath!! 😂

elaine241

Hello All
The veg patch has gone bonkers so it looks like plenty of veg to be stored for the winter.
 I went shopping today and although the shelves seem well stocked looking closely there seems to be decidedly less of everything and noticeable gaps. I was shopping for a shielding friend and got the last two boxes of icing sugar in Lidl and there was no plain flour or dried yeast. Popping into Morrison s again no dried yeast but some plain flour but very limited bread flour.  If it is of any use to anyone bakeries have to provide fresh yeast if you ask for it, some very very old law apparently. I asked the bakers in Morrisons and they came back with three bags of fresh yeast 20p per bag. 
I managed to meet the groundsman of the brain injury/addiction hospital that is just up the road from the farm. My terrier had done a runner after a rabbit straight into the grounds. I will now have as many apples as I can manage as he is always trying to find takers for all the fruit trees around the grounds of the hospital. We are not allowed into the grounds but it hasn't stopped my boys scrumping in the past!! They have been chased by several patients/staff but were able to jump the wall and escape! I have set up a very large freezer in the old dairy and this will store my produce from the garden. 
I am interested in the no waste app although I have so much in the pantry and cupboards it may take days to list it all! I suppose once entered it would be just a case of topping up every week.

jamanda

My daughter went to Sainsbury's on Sunday morning, and she commented that the shelves were looking sparse.  Don't know whether it is a blip.

Wraithlady

No, don't think so - my OH shops weekly, and often things are missing, usually flour and raising agents, to the extent that part of the shopping list is 'if in stock, get some' even if we don't actually need it. Fortunately, I have over 20 kg of bread flour, though yeast may be a problem as I'm on my last tub.

Laura_Elsewhere

We have 3 or 4 bags (1.5kg) of bread flour and a couple of plain flour, and enough yeast for a while... but its only recently that there has been any flour at all - 5 weeks ago? - round here. And not much, even as recently as last Friday... 

missychrissy

I was on Amazon a few days ago looking for something else but I noticed that you could get quite large bags of bread flour. Give them a try. Well done elaine241 for asking in Morrisons and getting yeast. I’ve heard people say before that they could get fresh yeast on the bread counters.

VintageHistorian

I was off work last week so I went through the larder cupboard, took everything out, gave the shelves a wipe down, and then reorganised some of the contents.

We've now got some big spaces on some of the shelves so I can slowly restocking with winter bits over the coming weeks. It was amazing what was in there - including two empty Marmite jars (I always intend to scrape the last tiny bit out and then never do).

Also found some tinned soups that I bought when we first moved in for DH, but it turns out he doesn't like them much. They weren't damaged and two still had long BB dates (one had just gone past BB) so I listed them on Olio. Someone came and picked them up yesterday, so hopefully they'll be suitable for their winter prep!

Laura_Elsewhere

You can use the last-scrape-of-Marmite in stews - pour a couple of tablespoons of boiled water in, put the lid on and shake well to get it all off and then tip the diluted Marmite into a stew... 

dreaming

I found some tins of soup in the stash that are nearly out of date. I bought them when eldest lived here a couple of years ago but she went off them and I'm not a great fan of soup. I decided though that they can be added to some winter casseroles so they have been kept. I'm still annoyed about the flour I had to bin because of bugs, and decided that I would only buy a small bag of plain flour from now as I hardly bake any more and mainly use it to thicken sauces etc. but last week Morries had quite a bit of flour in the big bags but no small ones. I was quite shocked at what I spent though as I didn't even fill a shallow trolley and it was mainly what I consider "basics" - milk, cheese, bacon, cereal, etc. I did buy 2 pieces of steak and 2 packs of bacon but froze one of each as I am cutting down on meat - they were both on offer but the bill was nearly £70! To be fair I won't need to shop for another 2-3 weeks (other than milk) but it was still a surprise as I'd reckoned it to be about £50 (and I checked the receipt very carefully but it was right). The only other expense recently has been some much needed underwear but I figured the savings on petrol recently would cover that.