Prepping for Brexit thread

Zentimes

Thank you for the welcome, GreyQueen


Yes, I already discovered thanks to this thread that one can freeze grains for a couple of days to kill weevil eggs, very useful to know. Also I am looking into dehydrating fruit/veg, sounds like a good way to avoid wasting unused food.


How lovely to have an allotment! We don't have much suitable garden (it's very stony), also I've a bad back so can't garden now but am going to get some potato tubers and some dwarf runners and tomatoes to put into pots on the patio. I've someone to help out with that so at least we'll get some tasty fresh food at some point. Let's hope we have a good growing summer!

GreyQueen

Thanks, Zentimes.

I actually have 1.5 allotments, the second half-plot being acquired 11 months ago and is right beside the first plot which I've had since 2008. Keeps me out of trouble.

If you've got somewhere you can run a string up, like a nail in the wall, you can grow runner beans succcessfully in the smallest of spaces. In a tiny concrete back yard, I once grew them in those flower buckets, with strings leading up to old nails embedded in the mortar of the old townhouse. They produce a lot of lovely veg as long as you keep them watered and the flowers and leaves are very attractive, too.

You can even get ones with two-tone flowers, a variety called Painted Lady, if you wanna be proper posh.

Zentimes

I have grown the tall ones back in the day when I had a good back, I do love the flowers, red, white or whatever! But here we get a lot of wind and it can make life difficult, so dwarf anything is my preference these days.

This time of year I get all inspired by the gardening catalogues coming through my door and it's very, very tempting but I know I can't manage more than a few pots! Also we are slug central - with the exception of last summer, it was so dry early on they never got into much of a reproductive cycle and we had hardly any! Heaven!

melanzana

I have decided to just have one week supply + whatever is already in the freezer/stocks. Just me.

Can make darn good soda bread so will buy some buttermilk which will last forever, it is soured milk after all, two litres decanted into half litre tubs and freeze if not required within a week. And I have bicarb and salt, + flour, that's all you need. So lovely with real butter and no kneading required.

There is a recipe on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/irishsodabread_67445

Other than that it is tins of red salmon, tuna, corned beef, and soup. Spuds in a paper bag out of the light too.

We will survive.

Zentimes

I've just discovered a plant called Tiger Nuts - apparently popular to grow during the war, the plant produces small sweet tubers good for snacking. They're not actually nuts, but the underground tubers of a grass. Easy to grow apparently and classed as a 'superfood'. I think I'll try growing those as they sound nutritious and won't take up a lot of space.
Also found Cucamelons, grape sized cucumber-like 'melons' that have a lemony taste and grow prolifically on climbing vines that are pest-resistant. I think I'm going to enjoy this summer's crops.

EachPenny

cuddlymarm wrote: »

I remember having toast cooked on a toasting fork on the open fire in the 70s. No toaster makes toast as yummy.

Living in the countryside we often had power cuts, so even if we did have a toaster (we didn't ) the open fire and toasting fork was an essential.

I'm sure these days the 'elf and safety brigade would be having palpitations about the burnt bits, and any chemicals that happened to be in the fuel on the fire.

We would also have baked potatoes done on the fire... wrapped up in a couple of layers of tin foil and then placed on the embers at the edge of the grate. Sometimes the middles were still a bit crunchy, but that just added to the fun.

GreyQueen

When bonfire season is on at the allotments, 1st Oct to 31st March, a pal and I will be sure to take advantage of the heat by baking spuds in foil in the bonfire itself. Food of the gods.

Farway

Zentimes wrote: »

I've just discovered a plant called Tiger Nuts - apparently popular to grow during the war, the plant produces small sweet tubers good for snacking. They're not actually nuts, but the underground tubers of a grass. Easy to grow apparently and classed as a 'superfood'. I think I'll try growing those as they sound nutritious and won't take up a lot of space.

We used to buy Tiger nuts as kids in the 50s, along with Spanish sticks [licorice root]
Both were /are woody and IMO not worth the space of growing them when that space could grow something much tastier, just saying, worth a go just to try

You can also grow peanuts, but again hardly worth the effort

Zentimes

Farway wrote: »

We used to buy Tiger nuts as kids in the 50s, along with Spanish sticks [licorice root]
Both were /are woody and IMO not worth the space of growing them when that space could grow something much tastier, just saying, worth a go just to try

You can also grow peanuts, but again hardly worth the effort

I'll be growing them in containers as (apparently) they can be invasive plus our stony garden isn't really suited to crops - I use pots on the patio for everything. Peanuts are out due to currently having histamine intolerance (most nuts are out, for the time being).


Having health issues is one of the reasons for me to prep in the first place, I can't easily make do with just any food if the one I tolerate vanishes off the shelves for awhile. The only grains I can tolerate are rice and quinoa so it makes sense to stock up on those (I'm gluten free just to add to the challenge!).

markin

The is almost certainly going to be a temporary shortage... From panic buying like when snow is forecast. Other media will follow the BBC on reporting of stocking up as it gets closer, leading to more people panicking and stocking up at the last 3 daays.