THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Margaret54

Hi Bob We have a combi boiler too. What type of camping stove would you recommend please? It would be a good thing to buy, if a situation came about.

FairyPrincessk

I tend to prep for life's general ups and downs, for basic emergencies (docs all assembled, extra water, & tinned food for short term water or power/gas outages) and to try to insulate our budget--i.e. I prep for the seasons so we can use less energy in winter, enjoy the garden in summer etc. I try to keep spares of batteries, candles, matches, first aid in stock. I don't prep for apocalypse situations (zombie or otherwise) but I do like to lurk when others discuss it.

Today I've been doing a bit of research. Each summer I've learned to make preserve something new. My plan this year is to learn to make some sort of pickle/chutney/savoury spread to go with HM bread, cheese, soup etc for our Sunday night meal. I also tend to stock the freezer in late summer as we both work on term time schedules and it helps to have easy meals. This protects the budget as we don't head out for ready meals or takeways and saves time when we're both working late. Today I've been looking at various recipes and planning what I'll make. I tend to make and roll out pastry which is then frozen individually to make quick pies out of leftover stews, make soups, veggie chilli, and a few other things.

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

The weather here can't decide what the flippity-flip it wants to do and is cycling rapidly between bursts of sunshine and apocalyptic churning clouds which look as if they're about to dump a month's rain on you in about 3 minutes' time and never actually deliver. I've got tired of trying to second-guess it.

I just gardened and thought if it rained, I'd carry on regardless as my Sunday routine is to sling my clothes into the washer and myself into the bath tub when I come in from the lottie.

maryb, sorry to hear that the spuds seem a little bit insufficient. Is it possible to leave them until the leaves are all completely died back, in case they can make some more growth on the tubers? And it may be that there were some spuds out of reach and that you'll be pleasantly surprised when you dig the root out.

I keep looking at my spuds and marvelling that I have never seen second earlies so fabulously, verdantly green as these ones. Normally, the tops would have gone over before now, but these ones are determined to keep on growing and are covered with flowers. I hope they're developing 'effing potatoes' underground.

That being the phrase borrowed from a rather uncouth lad passing by my lottie a few years ago as I was harvesting a particularly bountiful crop of huge spuds (a single one of them weighed in at a kilo). He enjoined his companion to look at the size of those effing things!

Runner beans are sulking and falling down off their canes and there will be very little produced in that department. I have dug up the stumps of the feral chard. Had to use a mattock, the rootstocks were mahoosive, great lumps 8 inches across.

Still, that's gardening for ya, win some, lose some.;)

maryb

sadly, there are no tubers to grow. I dug out the plants as I picked and forked over where they had been to make sure but each plant produced one largish potato or two smaller ones, never more.

They were Charlottes, the same variety I grow each year so puzzled. Although I normally buy the seed potatoes from Marshalls whereas I got these from the garden centre. Think I'll go back to Marshalls next year.

Fortunately I had planted more than normal so even with the poor yield I may just have enough for the summer. One end of the plot seems to have lusher growth which hasn't gone yellow yet so maybe, just maybe, I'll get a few more from them

Cheel's rabbit is safe for now:D

ariarnia

GreyQueen wrote: »

I have dug up the stumps of the feral chard. Had to use a mattock, the rootstocks were mahoosive, great lumps 8 inches across.

You going to try the root?

I've heard slow roasted with a joint or boiled like a turnip is the way to go.

[Deleted User]

Margaret54 wrote: »

What type of camping stove would you recommend please? It would be a good thing to buy, if a situation came about.

Something like this is what I have.

The exact brand is irrelevant, as most are simply badge engineered.

Available from £9>, from B&M Bargains, Asda, Winfields etc.

They're very stable (due to their wide, squat design), powerful (~ 2KW), and the cartridges are available all over the place, for ~ £1 each.

Oh, and there's a twin burner version, if you want to be really posh.

Needless to say, when using portable gas appliances, ADEQUATE VENTILATION IS ESSENTIAL.

GreyQueen

Ahh, pants. I had a lousy potato crop last year, too.

In 2015, the weeks when the spuds should have been really making were virtually rainless and all the haulm had died back to dead brown wisps before the rain came good. Pitiful crop, the worst since the first year on the lottie, when the soil was rubbish and I actually achieved negative spuds (got back nowt from some roots and about 1-3 from the rest).

I planted the first batch of 2nd earlies (Maris Peer) on 21st March and there's still no sign of them going over. Beggars are all over flowers, too, never seen the like. The second batch, and the maincrop Desiree went in exactly two weeks later and are still going strong. Never known the like, frankly.

Good tip if you are planning to grow spuds is to decide where months before and have any bonfires on that piece of ground. Spuds love the potash, something I've noticed. I had two bonfires six months apart where my earliest Maris's were sown and they're lovin' it.

I've sown three more rows of beetroots today, with the intention that they will see me through the autumn/ winter.

ancientofdays

Have you rotated your cropping areas? I'm not growing at present though I usually do, and I mostly found that I did best if I swapped the types of cover around. I wasn't very scientific about it though. Even a change of type of spud can help. There's got to be a reason for that but not sure what.

Hoping to move and start growing again, though I'm doing well with herbs and salads

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

The weather here can't decide what the flippity-flip it wants to do and is cycling rapidly between bursts of sunshine and apocalyptic churning clouds which look as if they're about to dump a month's rain on you in about 3 minutes' time and never actually deliver.

It's just been heaving it down here, and now it bright and almost sunny.

GreyQueen

ariarnia wrote: »

You going to try the root?

I've heard slow roasted with a joint or boiled like a turnip is the way to go.

Are you pulling my leg?

Nope, I didn't even think about eating the darned things. Putting one on Mum's wood lathe and turning it into a bowl is probably more plausible, given the texture.

I've slung the on a heap at the top of the plot. I'm drying some things out with a view to exercising my deep and abiding love of pyromania, come October when the burn-ban is lifted. Plants like the potash and I like playing with fire.