Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

camelot1001

Well done Fuddle, sounds like it's all hands on deck. I think you'll be surprised what you can grow between now and the end of September, good luck and keep us informed!

It's raining here so all the little plants outside are getting a good watering. I'm glad as I have such a bad back at the moment I can't even bend down to get the watering can!

Making pasta sauce for DDs tea, she can have it with twirly pasta, it's a meat free day as we have had quite a lot of it lately, she made jerk chicken last night which was delicious but we had 2 chicken legs each!

fuddle

Rhubarb Curd http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2955676/rhubarb-curd

It's bizarrely pale yellow in colour :cool: but tastes blooming lovely. Bread is cooling along with the 2 jars of curd... roll on supper time!

Floss

Fuddle, Rhubarb & orange jelly is also really nice if you have a glut; it also freezes well, just rinse it and cut into chunks then chuck into a polybag.

Also, if you can let one of your leeks go completely to flower & then seed, it will have what looks like grass on the top...these are tiny leeklets and can be carefully potted up, nurtured in a larger pot, then planted in your leek bed on your new shiny allotment in the autumn

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE if you can find the ready grown young plants and find some bean sticks/cadge some old bamboos from fellow allotmenteers you could make yourself a wigwam of runner beans, ours have only just gone in and are just beginning to think of starting to put out the climbing tendrils. Boot Fairs are a good source of surplus plants if you've got a weekend one near you. You should get a flowerpot full of healthy young plants for not much cash and the return in beans will save you ££££££s.

Floss

And if you grow runners & have a glut, runner bean chutney is lovely in the winter! Also things like fennel, herbs, french beans and all salady things won't mind being sown now. Another thing if you are offered a new plot is purple sprouting brocolli - it does nothing except take up space until February / March, but rewards with the most tasty, irony fresh veg when there is little else available! And that freezes too

fuddle

The possibilities feel endless. There are loads of bamboo canes on the plot Lyn. We gathered them before we came home so they're ready to go. No go with the leeks this time round then but if we can use the seed part again well that's great news.

I don't actually think I have ever had a runner bean you know. I'm really ashamed to say that!

Erm, as the curd only uses the liquid I had the pulp left so I have made a crumble and ate that too.



The girls and I will head over in the morning (2 minute walk) with spade, fork and their kit for their patch. DH will use the work van and drop off the palletts tomorrow too.

[Deleted User]

Very FRUGAL dear, top marks for being a clever cook!!!Runner beans taste just like green beans, they're just bigger and have flatter pods. You have to slice off the very outside part of the long sides opf the beans as there is a stringy bit on both sides (sometimes they're actually called string beans) and then chop them into pieces before you cook them. They give you a really big yield most years and they freeze for the winter too. We always grow at least one wigwam and live off them while they are in season, easy, cheap and delicious. I've got a runner bean chutney recipe if you decide to have a go at growing them and get lots of beans.

iamsalt

Brilliant ideas for the rhubarb. I got a book for 10p at the library when they were getting rid of stock and it's all about jams, jelly, curds and butters,lol I need now is someone to give me some unwanted rhubarb.
Janb- I don't think I can make the meet up as I will be working and then heading back from London to rehearsal. I pass through Bromley south at 5pm so will wave as I go by!
Made do this evening- pork left over from a hog roast at a party, home grown leeks - the last of the winter, and some limp celery. All wrapped up in home made mustard pastry. Yummy but late supper after work.
JackieO St Margaret's bay is wonderful to visit, I often go there, the book of the week on radio 4 on Monday was about it. The book is a chap who rode his bicycle along the English Channel, and I found it fascinating, despite having lived in East Kent all my life I learnt more about the area.
Off to get on with crochet while the cats are out so I don't need to hide the ball of wool!

[Deleted User]

had a great day with my DGS I had quite a bit of running around to do banking and topping up the car etc then after seeing the diet nurse (and yes I have lost around 2lbs ) I took the boys into Wilko's and bought some tennis balls.Then we went to Dobbies and sat outside in their garden, and I had my freebie Dobbies coffee and the boys asked for and had iced water (free ) and we had a nice half an hour, then to the library for them to pick up some books.Back to their house for lunch, then up to the park with their tennis raquets and balls and a free knockabout in the hard courts there (I love little local parks in Medway they haven't yet started charging children for using the courts there :):)) so a freebie days entertainment.I have the day off from the children tomorrow as my son-in-law is working from home and his Mum is coming down from London to see them .so its last minute packing for the hospital and feet up and relaxing,probably in the conservatory with my Library books
Night Night God bless all here
JackieO xxx

carolbee

iamsalt wrote: »

JackieO St Margaret's bay is wonderful to visit, I often go there, the book of the week on radio 4 on Monday was about it. The book is a chap who rode his bicycle along the English Channel, and I found it fascinating, despite having lived in East Kent all my life I learnt more about the area.!

I agree with you and JackieO, St Margaret's is lovely. I'm in Kent too, near Margate, I caught a snippet of that book of the week and thought it sounded as if it was there, will find and have a proper listen, thanks.