Preparing for Winter V

Laura_Elsewhere

@boazu - I think I only ever use powdered ginger in baking - for everything else I use fresh root, frozen root, root crystallised in syrup... 

My black cherry conserve turned out to be black cherry concrete But I have worked out why, and will definitely give it a go again next year. But using my own old recipe to make black cherry jam, and not trying a fancy conserve recipe... 
It tastes delicious - you have to chisel a couple of lumps out of the jar onto the buttered hot toast and then ping the lot in the microwave for 11 seconds, and then you can spread it  

thriftwizard

Oops, missed rather a lot - 272 posts! - but my mind has turned to winter preps again today, having stashed a load of pallet-spacer-blocks in the woodshed today. The DDs & I are constructing a sort of garden arbour out of bits of my mother's old shed & some pallet wood; the big cubes of well-seasoned pine used to space the two layers out are excellent fuel in either the woodburner or the pot-belly BBQ, as long as it's an untreated pallet. We're quite well off for wood, but it's not a full winter's worth, so I'm working on that.

I'm actually holding back on the preserving front so far this year; we currently have too much in store! So I'm taking a jar of jam or chutney to give as a thank-you every time I pick something up on Freegle - there's a lady clearing her mother's bungalow just now who's giving away loads of crafty stuff like wool & part-done tapestries, which is keeping my 94 y.o. mother wonderfully busy & entertained; she won't start a new project in case she doesn't get to finish it, but is happy to complete part-done ones - and I'm making lots of scones etc. to encourage the family to eat some of it up. Then I can make more from this year's bounty & fill the shelves back up. I'm seriously tempted to invest in a canner, but suspect the DDs wouldn't eat the resulting produce; they do eat dehydrated fruit - mango & apple particularly - but rarely think to use any dehydrated veg except mushrooms. That said, food preservation is one of my interests so I might just have to save up & get one anyway...

New curtains have been made for our kitchen, and I'm about to line the drop of the shop-bought blinds that match them, to keep some of our hard-won warmth in. I'm looking forward to finding out whether the Chancellor's largesse on the home insulation front from September might be helpful to us; new double-glazed windows here & there would make a huge difference to our drafty old home in winter!

Laura_Elsewhere

@thriftwizard - this little flat is my first experience with good double-glazing - any double-glazing, actually, as most of my life has been lived in an 1880s house with the original wonky rattly sagging-wood framed windows with their single-glazing, visibly thicker at the bottom than the top, and so draughty that in my old smoking-days I often had to light a cigarette under the bedrclothes (!) because a Clipper lighter would blow out in my bedroom with the windows closed and latched and the heavy, fully-lined, velvet curtains with extra weights in the hem pulled shut!  

On stormy days here I often stand and marvel at the way the weather all stays outside... even after half a decade it still astonishes me...!

Incidentally, the flat across the landing, identical to ours, has single glazing and various tenants, as they move out, have told us they were paying a huge amount on heating. We haven't switched ours on in five years and more, even when both flats below us were unoccupied. Good DG makes a *big* difference!

[Deleted User]

8 jars of rhubarb and ginger jam made with garden rhubarb yesterday afternoon are going into the store for the winter today.  In a couple of weeks I shall make a batch of rhubarb chutney when the plants are ready to harvest again. I love to see home made jars on the shelves, makes me feel 'all is safely gathered in' for the colder months.

thriftwizard

I've been making rhubarb champagne, which is delicious, and of course rhubarb has a much longer "season" than elderflowers, so I could end up with rather a lot. However one blew up under the table last week; it's powerful stuff... another swing-top bottle bites the dust!

MingVase

I've got 5kg of dried veg for soups and stews. Husband asked what the hell we needed all that for but it's better to have than to not have. And I like soup and stew, easy to make and good for you. Next on the hit list is brown sugar and coffee beans.

Primrose

I suspect dried veg are good for soups and stews as the linger cooking time is ok.  If yiu use frozen veg you'd probably cook them to death and really only need to throw them in towards the very end of the process to avoid cooking them to a mush.  I balanced my French beans for 2 mins before freezing yesterday and really they were nicely al dente and now just need reheating in boiling water.

[Deleted User]

I've got loads of rainbow chard to harvest so will be dehydrating some of that today to add to the dried veg stores 😉 I have enough lentils, beans and grains to see us through the winter now and should have enough veg in one form or another too. Herb and spice wise, I've got plenty growing - I am going to freeze the summer herbs in oil (I've got one of those silicone mini-muffin trays and pop them into a bag when they are frozen) and as my thyme, sage and rosemary are productive all year I don't need to worry about them 😉
I'm going to make myself a list of stuff I could still do with - although I know I can easily manage on what we have, I still like to have additional backups of oil, balsamic, sugar, coffee etc 😉
I'm pretty well stocked on laundry and cleaning products along with toiletries (although if I can do another suma order at some point, I'll buy additional toiletries)
I am going to do another oil order once dh has fitted the new gauge and get a few more bags of coal and logs - I don't really have anywhere to store them in decent quantities but I'm hoping to rectify that next year 😉 

Helebore

Mar, if you have a Lidl close by their brown sugar is just over a pound for 1 kg of brown sugar, as is B&M. Much cheaper than other shops! Cannot remember the actual prices though but well below other shops! 

boultdj

Having got a bag of brown sugar at Lidl today I can tell you it's £1.55 a bag.   Plus side for me was they had SR and Plain flour back in, so got 2 bags of each, neighbours have been helping us move gravel and they like cakes and scones but don't bake, so I'll be doing some baking for them as a thank you.