Preparing for Winter V

Primrose

That,a interesting Laura.  I do recall years ago there was a series on tV where volunteers lived in a medieval round hut and tried to emulate a whole year lived under medieval conditions,  The  technologies of modern day food,preservation have caused many of these early food preparations and preservation to be lost or abandoned but this doesn,t make them irrelevant.  There may yet come a time when natural disasters force us back to relearning some of these early techniques. We forget the past at our perit and never know when history' s lessons have to be revisited.  

I do remember making copious amount of damson and quince cheeses in my early married life..  It certainly had a very long storage life and various pots extracted from a dark cupboard years after they,d been made were  still in very good condition.

Jellytotts

I freeze my beans without blanching.  They get chopped and bagged into large freezer bags, a quick bash on the worksurface and they free flow quite nicely.  

Found some decent stainless steel travel cups in Wilkos, wide enough to be a food flask but with a decent securing drinking lid.  Will test them out this evening when we sit out to watch the bats and stars come out. 

Si_Clist

Ref storing beans, we've finished bottling this year's runner and French beans ... but we're still eating the last of last year's

Fiona236

Im so chuffed with myself for making the stray cat winter box from wombling the wood and using an old paddling pool to waterproof it and saving polystyrene. The cat was so warm inside im sure he will be snug even if it snows.  
https://ibb.co/VDhdRFQ

https://ibb.co/CskSsVY that cat bed with the newspaper print is waterproof so ideal for stray cats

The hedgehog lives in the tub below it.

Primrose

Si_Clist said:

Ref storing beans, we've finished bottling this year's runner and French beans ... but we're still eating the last of last year's

I haven heard of this method being used for a long time. Does it work well?
As a small child during World War II I recall my mother salting down runner beans in a large earthenware crock.  The idea was that the salt eventually dissolved and preserved the beans in a salty liquid. The problem was the beans turned an unappetising poo brown colour and were so salty they had to be soaked in cold water for 24 hours before they were edible enough to eat.

Also after one season of salting the salt solution dissolved all the inner crock lining and this liquid seeped out and ruined whatever surface it was resting on.  I think glass jars are probably the only suitable vessels for vegetable salting but during the war everything was rationed and even they were hard to come by. 

Si_Clist

Primrose said:

I haven heard of this method being used for a long time. Does it work well?

By "bottling" we mean preserving in Kilner jars using the pressure canner method, and this works a treat for beans. 

We tried salting them years ago but soon gave that up for the very reasons you mention.  Even after soaking and rinsing till we were sick of doing it, they were still a waste of time!

Si_Clist

Hah!

https://news.sky.com/story/customers-face-permanent-food-shortages-fuelled-by-lack-of-lorry-drivers-warns-industry-leader-12403956

"However, Downing Street has rejected the idea that shortages will be "permanent" and insisted the UK food supply chain is "highly resilient"." 

Don't know about you, but to me that quote reads as "The supply chain is indeed on the verge of collapse so stand by for empty shelves and an announcement from Doris that it'll all be fine so don't worry."

maryb

Don't worry, they are rushing through a new shortened testing regime for HGV drivers.  So there will be lots of newly qualified inexperienced drivers on the road in a couple of weeks and it will all be hunkydory.  What could possibly go wrong?

nannygladys

Ref beans, I used to blanch them years ago but I haven't bothered for ages, I just wash, top and tail, slice them up and freeze on a tray and then bag them up. They last me until the next bean season starts and I've never been poorly after eating them.
This year I have been chopping cabbage and open freezing, but I haven't tried any yet and to be honest they take quite a bit of room up in the freezer, so at the moment I've gone back to eating them fresh.
I have started to buy something each time I go shopping to put by for if we have any shortages but only the usual bits and bob's. I like to keep a pantry, but it's really the cupboard under the stairs, and its only tins and bathroom stuff in there, unfortunately there's not enough room for another freezer but this year I am growing a few winter varieties on the allotment, so hopefully there will be some fresh bits down there.
Anyway going to have another g&t, only the tinned variety but I found them at the back of the cupboard so put them in the fridge earlier!! Yay 
Nannyg

MingVase

Just waht we were saying maryb!