Prepping for Brexit thread

GreyQueen

If anyone is concerned about the supply of celery and lettuce post Brexit, and they have access to even a smallish amount of ground, may I recommend chard?


It looks after itself, grows year round, produces celery-substitute stems, lettuce-substitute leaves, is frost hardy, will grow easily from self-sown seeds, requires zero maintenance, is big enough and pretty enough for cottage garden type gardening and is highly nutritious. You can eat it raw or stir-fry with it. You pluck leaves as needed, no need to ever uproot a plant.



I bought a packet of seeds in 2009 and have never needed to buy another (if you start with Rainbow Lights they seem to devolve to silver and ruby chard on the second year).



Since I am no longer buying celery or salad greens for my twice-daily salads, it's saving me money year round. It will keep for a couple of days in a vase of water, too. HTH

[Deleted User]

That's the thing GQ, we rarely buy lettuce specially in the winter because we grow our own in the summer and winter salads are always either white or red cabbage based because they're inevitably much fresher than imported and tasteless iceberg lettuces. I love winter salads made from celery, apples, pears, grated carrots and dried fruit added in and nuts/seeds too. Spinach is a lovely base to winter salads and we even like salads like Russian Salad which are made from leftover cooked veg anyway. Salad as we know it in the warmer months and home grown is a staple of our warm weather meals but winter salads are much more interesting and substantial. I try to buy British when I do have to buy in fruit and veg and try to be seasonal with the meals I make which mostly enables me to do just that.

Jazee

No need to worry about stocking up on baked beans as the haricot beans are imported from the US, and according to news reports this morning the good old US will save us post brexit anyway.....

LaineyT

Totally agree MrsLW, it’s so much nicer to eat seasonally and much cheaper I find.
Had to smile at a lady in W8rose the other day who was moaning very loudly over the lack of British apples and that she wasn’t going to buy those on offer from New Zealand, the temptation to point out that the UK growing season has only just started was overwhelming but I didn’t like the size of the handbag she was wielding :rotfl:

C_J

Last year I invested in a couple of these Garland indoor grow light systems, and use them to grow lettuce, baby spinach and various microherbs all year round ..... they've been great.

https://blog.gardeners.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wp-my-greens1.jpg

ivyleaf

Oh Lainey, you should have said something I bet it hadn't occurred to her. Same thing happened to me in Morrison's once, someone complaining that there were no English apples and when I told her why not she looked surprised and said "Oh!" She just hadn't thought of that!

DigForVictory

I'd hesitate to opine in Waitrose even the lady is carrying nothing more than a clutch! It is remarkable how people can loose track of when to expect things. Harvest Festival, anyone?! Terrifying fleet of tins and not a sack of apples or a jar of home made jam or even the traditional sheaf of cereal (might have been wheat, might have been barley) of my youth.

I *miss* the villages annual flower & veg show. It went with the Falklands- the Army needed the marquees down there, but there were the fruits & vegetables of the valley in their season, and more jams and home baking than even us greedy children could imagine. Some folk were walking without a stick for the first time in years having taken first in the runner beans, or an honourable second to Mrs Jones in the welshcakes (she only competed every other year to give the other ladies a chance). Others were muttering that the pub gossip was right & that so and so Had been forcing his carrots in drainpipes.

It'll take a bit of work to get back to that, but a worthy ambition I think. Says she off to inspect an old sink & see about converting it to chard.

dandy-candy

Eating local produce and seasonally is good for the environment so maybe some good might come of it all

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I had a satisfying tidy-up of my Brexit/Ebola cupboard last night, and wrote a proper inventory. Bought some onion granules following earlier debate here, and a jar of garlic paste which has a long BB date.


It will be interesting to see what non-preppers panic buy in the last week of October; bread and milk like when a few snowflakes fall in London?

Primrose

GreyQueen wrote: »

If anyone is concerned about the supply of celery and lettuce post Brexit, and they have access to even a smallish amount of ground, may I recommend chard?


It looks after itself, grows year round, produces celery-substitute stems, lettuce-substitute leaves, is frost hardy, will grow easily from self-sown seeds, requires zero maintenance, is big enough and pretty enough for cottage garden type gardening and is highly nutritious. You can eat it raw or stir-fry with it. You pluck leaves as needed, no need to ever uproot a plant.

HTH

I second this recommendation. I always grow Chard although I find the varieties with coloured stems taste a little too earthy for my liking. I grow FordhookGiant which is a huge leaf white stemmed variety and it,a lovely to pop out Into the garden to pick a few fresh leaves whenever they're needed. And apart from leeks they seem to be the only greens in the veg patch the cabbage white butterflies leave well alone.

Apart from using the young leaves in salads they're also nice wilted down in cheesy sauces with pasta, and in risottos.