THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

Just looked at what mstsm wrote - yes, I live alone, thats probably where it comes from, this is meant to be a family house ...

jk0

I take it you all saw this today. Isn't this wicked: http://news.sky.com/story/surgeon-ian-paterson-found-guilty-of-carrying-out-unnecessary-operations-10854386

I have found the medical profession rather over-keen on operating for all sorts of ailments, in my view. The above is an extreme case, but I wonder how many less egregious unnecessary surgeries are carried out.

Cappella

Mrslurcherwalker wrote:

Time is what is missing from our lives in 2017, time to do the daily shop but I'm pretty sure there would be ways round NOT having cold storage available like dried milk instead of fresh, tinned meats/fish instead of fresh and most veg/fruit would last a few days not refrigerated. Ideas???

I'm not sure that it's just time that's missing MrsLW. When we moved onto this inner city 1930's estate in 1984 the small parade of shops built at the same time as the estate comprised a butcher, a fishmonger, a greengrocer and a newsagent. There was also a small co-op shop. Now ALL of the shops have closed and been turned into private houses and our nearest shops are 1.6 miles and a £4.30 return bus journey away so shopping daily just isn't an option unless I want to spend over £28 a week on bus fare.
However cold storage IS possible if the fridge fails, as I discovered last year I don't keep fruit and veg in the fridge anyway. In the cooler months it keeps perfectly well in the garden shed, and even in the height of summer it will keep for a week in the pantry (cupboard under the stairs) which has a north facing outside wall and is very cool. We still have a milkman who calls every other day, and the glass bottles keep cool on the slates behind the shed as that area is always in the shade. Cheese lives in a very old cheese dish in the pantry, and fresh meat could be kept in our ancient meat safe overnight. Fresh meat would be very difficult to keep n summer though so tinned would be the better option.
I tendo to use olive or rapeseed oil rather than butter, our pantry is so cold that the olve oil solidifies in winter, but is fine in summer whatever the temperature.
It's possible to manage without cold storage, but we're so used to fridges these days that they've become a necessity rather than the luxury they once were.

[Deleted User]

OK that's a very valid point Capella, there aren't the shops locally that there used to be which will pose difficulties in shopping daily but how about a weekend shop and a midweek shop which might be affordable. The meat safe in a cool place overnight would give the capacity for 4 meat/fish meals a week, one on the day you bought the fresh meat and one the next day too and having a proper ventilated pantry on the north side of the house will also give a cooler spot to store perishables. Most houses these days have central heating does that make your pantry less effective in the colder months when the heating is on? or are you like us and not using the heating other than to heat the hot water tank twice a day? We don't have a pantry as we're a 1970s build but I do have a very cold bedroom over the garage , too cold in actual fact to use as a bedroom where I store all the tinned and dry goods and our equipment not in use at that time. I've wondered over the years if an alternative to the freezer for produce might be a root cellar or the equivalent which seems to be a container sunk into the earth and insulated on top with crops stored in nets/baskets inside it. My no fridge thought came along with the thought that in the future possibly the electricity supply might become erratic/not there at all or the price of electricity may become so high that the idea of anything running full time may not be feasible.

A belated thought to give is that we are trying to incorporate many more VEGAN dishes into the weekly repertoire of things that we enjoy eating, I've accumulated a fair few vegan recipe books over the years (health issues with the girls when they were younger) and I've never made anything that wasn't actually very pleasant to eat. Tonight we are having a Chilli Mole all made from store cupboard foods and some fresh onion, chilli (although I do have varieties of dried), garlic (I also have dried), capsicum, carrots and celery all of which will keep for a good week at room temperature (although some would be sad at the end of 7 days). I'm even making cashew nut cream to top it with. Life without a fridge I think needn't be boring!

moneyistooshorttomention

Karmacat wrote: »

Just looked at what mstsm wrote - yes, I live alone, thats probably where it comes from, this is meant to be a family house ...

Basically yes - there is a "single person premium" of 25% added to the total per hypothetical "missing person" so to say.

I've just turned it on its head and found a way to deduct excess population and spread remaining available carbon balance out between "optimum population" for Britain.

At optimum population levels - many of us would be in the clear for not using more than "our share" as available resources would "go further" iyswim.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm in a ground floor flat and I don't have a loft to insulate, there's another flat up there, and so on and so on until you get to the roof of the block (which doesn't have a loft either).

So, not only do you not have any loft insulation, but you are also providing free heating, to the people above?

As someone who lives on the first floor, I'd like to say thank you (on behalf of myself, and all other upper floor dwellers), to all you downstairs neighbours, for the free heat.

GreyQueen

My parents' home is an early 1960s council house. The planners obviously hadn't expected working-class people employed by the local factories to run to any such extravagance as a fridge as there is a small larder (about 2 ft wide) up the corner of the kitchen, shelved out and with one of the shelves a concrete slab alongside the airbricks.

Although not as comely as a marble slab, this simple bit of concrete keeps items pretty cool and, although we always had a fridge in the time we lived there, we used to keep an old meat safe on this shelf and it would sometimes be used for storing something like the remains of a cooked chicken carcase overnight, or cooked fruit pies.

When Nan was having a clear-out a few years before she died, one of the things slated for disposal was one of these meat safes which I snaffled and which I use in my lottie shed to store seeds (vermin-proof, should any vermin get into the shed). The back-up plan is that it could always be strapped to the pushbike and brought down to the flat where it could sit on the counter and do for some kinds of storage.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

So, not only do you not have any loft insulation, but you are also providing free heating, to the people above?

As someone who lives on the first floor, I'd like to say thank you (on behalf of myself, and all other upper floor dwellers), to all you downstairs neighbours, for the free heat.

Actually, each and every one of us pays for our heating via a fixed (and identical) service charge and it comes off a communal heating and hot water plant. So they pay, and I pay and we may exchange some heat via the concrete slab between our flats, but it's of no import to me.

The heating pipes are embedded in each flat's concrete floor, which means I have underfloor heating and their underfloor heating is my ceiling heating - winning!

[Deleted User]

I was looking online this morning to see if there was a plan available to make a meat safe and on Pinterest there are loads and then there's always the Zeer Pot which is the two terracotta pots one slightly smaller than the other nestled one inside the other with a layer of damp sand between the two of them. Then a wet cloth is covered over the whole thing and it is stood outside in the shade where the water evaporates and cools the pots so it's a tiny fridge. You have to keep the sand and the covering cloth damp but it would keep things fresh for longer than just storing them in a cupboard.

Cappella

Mrs LW asked

Most houses these days have central heating does that make your pantry less effective in the colder months when the heating is on? or are you like us and not using the heating other than to heat the hot water tank twice a day?

Our sitting room - which is where the cupboard is - is arctic in the colder months. We usually run our heating for an hour in the morning and for two hours in the evening but it doesn't even begin to warm the pantry :cool: We are lucky enough to still be able to be quite active during the day but are used to layering up and snuggling under blankets in the evening. We do have an open fire though in the living room, and light that if it's too cold even for we northerners. We can burn well seasoned wood and smokeless fuel here, and are lucky enough to be good friends with a local tree surgeon.
MrC is from Carlisle. He says that I am nesh (soft) and reminisces nostalgically about the brake fluid freezing in the buses when he was a little lad, but I suspect he exaggerates. I certainly feel the cold though since the heart issue, and am careful not to get too chilled in the house.