Prepping for Brexit thread

[Deleted User]

We'll have to get used to a limited range of UK grown veg in season and use every scrap of what we can get so zero waste of both produce and the cash that paid for it.  It goes without saying that if you can, grow your own and if you get more than you can use and it WILL freeze or dehydrate then do it and don't waste any of the work effort that went into growing it.  The future might be more meat and two veg than Paella and Jambalaya!

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

boazu said:

We'll have to get used to a limited range of UK grown veg in season and use every scrap of what we can get so zero waste of both produce and the cash that paid for it.  It goes without saying that if you can, grow your own and if you get more than you can use and it WILL freeze or dehydrate then do it and don't waste any of the work effort that went into growing it.  The future might be more meat and two veg than Paella and Jambalaya!

We try not to waste food anyway but I definitely think that when you have gone to the effort to grow it yourself you really do make sure that not a scrap is wasted. 

Nargleblast

There is always scope for imagination and improvisation in cooking, if certain key ingredients are missing. For example, if you like pesto on pasta, it's normally basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil. If you couldn't source one or more of those ingredients then you could improvise. Instead of basil, use any homegrown herbs and green veg. Instead of pinenuts use whatever nuts you have. Garlic comes in different forms, powder, purée, fresh. Use any strong cheese and whatever oil you have to hand. I have a small batch of pesto in the freezer which I made using kale, leftover rocket, some herbs from the garden, ground almonds, grated cheddar and some Parmesan-like cheese, garlic and olive oil. It is lovely and packed with antioxidants and vitamins.

Also if you like hummus/houmous/never know how to spell that word, but can't get tahini, I have heard peanut butter makes a decent substitute. Now that is something you can make from scratch.

Any home grown veg, cooked lightly and tossed with various seasonings, can be appetising and nutritious. We don't know if there will be shortages of anything, I am sure there will be rising prices (never an excuse needed to put up prices). If we make sure we have basic ingredients that can be used in several ways then we can still eat well.

MrsStepford

Organic veg is much more seasonal than conventional, so if I want leeks in July they have come from a supermarket. Prices are rising now. It's harder to find bargains since mysupermarket folded in March. Supermarkets have dropped many offers and products. Demand for organic is growing according to Mintel.

I bought some books on wartime cookery from charity shops before lockdown. The recipes are horribly carby and many reheat leftovers. 

missychrissy

I recently bought ‘the hungry student cookbook‘ by Charlotte Pike. It was written by someone who spent 4 years at uni with limited resources but wanted to eat healthy and tasty food. It has some lovely recipes. 

[Deleted User]

By nature of rationing and having to use any and everything you could get your hands on to feed yourself and your family heating leftovers or making a new dish from them had to be part of life.  No one was allowed to waste, there were even cases of people being prosecuted for feeding the birds in their own gardens.  The wartime recipes are full of carbs because potatoes weren't rationed, neither was flour and the amounts allowed per person of core ingredients like meat, cheese, fats, sugar, bacon were very small and the carbs were necessary or you'd have been perpetually hungry. 

GreyQueen

There's always ways of getting extra in any rationing situation, if you have cash/ goods to trade/ friends in interesting places/ loose morals. Real WW2 domestic history wasn't as rosy as the sanitised version we've handed down to ourselves as part of our national folk story. One side of my family are East Enders, the other side country bumpkins. Both sides can tell tales........... but only one of the city slickers ever got caught.

MingVase

Family folk lore is that my granny read people's (Tarot) cards for coupons...

VJsmum

My mother wouldn't be talking about war time rations in rosy tones that's for sure - her own mother went terribly hungry in that time to ensure her children were fed...  I don't know the figures but i don't think we grow enough in the UK to feed all of us anyway, do we?

I like paella 

Emptynester

Growing up in the 1960's any tales of rationing I heard where from the women who had been on the kitchen front. Without exception they had hated the experience. Had found the restrictions, the hardships and the food awful and we're aghast at the thought of ever having to attempt it again. I doubt they could, they were worn out and old before their time.  I would dread having to go through any like that.