Preparing for Winter V

Cherryfudge

I love that, @Laura_Elsewhere! I wonder if my descendants will log on here, or find the calendar I write the harvest on, and be amazed that I bothered to weigh 10g of red currants!

Primrose

Interesting reading about your grandad,s runner beans during the war.  No freezers then so preserving a real problem.  I was s small child then but recall parents acquiring an enormous glazed crockpot and salting them down in this on an unused fireplace in a bedroom.  Unfortunately the glazing was faulty, the salty liquid leaked out and damaged all the tiles of. The fireplace hearth,,  the beans were pretty inedible too. So salty that they had to be soaked overnight fi but you couldn't waste anything in those rationed winter months.
Twe're so lucky with today,s freezers. Preserving vegs is so much easier.

Laura_Elsewhere

I think in 1943, probably Gran would have bottled the runner beans- lots of W.I. leaflets and Ministry of Food advice on how to bottle beans. 

It explains why one of the things I have of hers is a hand-crank automatic bean-slicer that clamps onto the side of a table- having only ever dealt with a couple of pounds of runner beans at a time, usually much less, I had wondered why she bothered with a fiddly gadget- but those quantities...! 

And yes, hurrah for freezers- runner beans are one of the relatively few veg my husband will eat, so I blanch some every summer when the British ones are in, and we have them with roast dinners over the winter, and esp for Xmas dinner!

Cherryfudge

At the shops today I saw a display of wardrobe dehumidifiers - these are always on my winter list, though we have small electric dehumidifiers for the upstairs rooms.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

At the shops today I saw a display of wardrobe dehumidifiers - these are always on my winter list, though we have small electric dehumidifiers for the upstairs rooms.

If I were you, I would save the money and not buy them- instead on a sunny dry day before winter, midwinter and late winter, I would lift everything out of the wardrobe and pile it on the bed, and pop the electric dehumidifier into the wide-open wardrobe for a whole day, or two if possible, before putting everything back in. 

Cherryfudge

I do take everything out from time to time and air it Laura, and it's a good idea to put the dehumidifier in the wardrobe (if I can get the flex to stretch) but I think I will still need backup as the air really doesn't circulate. It's an old wardrobe (wedding present to my grandparents in 1918!) and doesn't have the depth of a modern one.

I will try to get the dehumidifier in, though - it will certainly help! And thanks for the reminder to get everything out, it's not been done over summer so once the weather settles down, I must do it.

Jellytotts

@Cherryfudge Next time you empty it, drill a couple of holes in the back board top and bottom to allow the air to circulate.

Cherryfudge

Jellytotts said:

@Cherryfudge Next time you empty it, drill a couple of holes in the back board top and bottom to allow the air to circulate.

It's a practical solution, @Jellytotts but it's been in the family a hundred years and more, so I couldn't bear to! The other side of it, of course, is that nowadays we have far more clothes than our predecessors did, and a lot of the issue is that air doesn't circulate so well between them, which is why I get them out and put them, on their hangars, out on the washing line so they get fresh air and sunlight.

I maybe need to persuade my husband to store some of his family history research elsewhere than in the bottom of the wardrobe!

weenancyinAmerica

@Cherryfudge - If it gets too damp in the wardrobe, he shouldn't be storing the family history there. Moisture can destroy copies made on a printer and photographs themselves. Make sure he doesn't have any paper clips or staples holding documents together as these will rust and ruin a lot.

Cherryfudge

Thanks @weenancyinAmerica, I think he probably needs to go through them anyway: a lot will be his own notes (thankfully photos are stored elsewhere) and he could digitise them, but there are also things my parents wrote or pertaining to my side of the family. Some of these are getting fragile through age and some got damp at my parents' house.