The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

maryb

Wildes Cheese in North London do a cheesemaking class which lasts a day. It's great fun and gives you a real insight into how cheese is made. You make three or four different cheeses. Well worth it for a fun day learning something

DigForVictory

D&#8517 wrote: »

I do still need to have a go at making hard cheese although it does sound a bit of a faff...

My experiments crumbled when the offspring (also called livestock & them b*ggers) found where I'd left the supposed to age cheese.

I suspect the cool storage is the biggest faff! This website seems helpful & familiar - I may have been here before.
We found a press in a charity shop but where shaping cheese in beach buckets (Yes, I had a cheese castle, briefly) with a weighted tile before then. Just scrub like a Macbeth as cleanliness makes a lot of difference.
Have fun!

D&DD

OMG Mary cheese heaven... Will look into going there I think when I'm able to travel further.At present 30 mins travel time in a car is pushing my limits and that's a little further away but have bookmarked it thankyou!!


I'm attempting to remember how to post a pic as photobucket have ruddy watermarked all my images unless I cough up cash so I made a new account shh..


I took a pic of the squash/grape arch in all its glory to inspire those of us with a teeny patch


Is it the top middle or bottom thingy I have to link to I can't remember??


I may play around in a minute so apologies if the page goes a little squiffy!! If it's up the spout I'll can it so we get back straight again

D&DD

DigForVictory

Stunning & inspiring! Makes my flowerpot with a lump of ginger buried in it look distinctly 'underdressed'.

I note Aldi are doing live potted fruits as of Thursday - Gojiberry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Gooseberry, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Tayberry or Kiwi Fruit Issai all £1.79 a pot. Frankly keeping them alive til spring will be the challenge but at that entry price, it almost has to be worth a try?!

[Deleted User]

I invested £30 in frozen fruit from Farm Foods this afternoon, they do 3 bags for £5 so I got 6 x bags 800g apple slices, 3 x bags each of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and cherries all 500g bags and this morning I put in 6 home done tubs of apple and damson puree to join the 3 tubs of plums I put in last week. I think that's a winters worth of crumbles, tarts and pies and well worth the money invested. I've also found a source of really good Bramleys for £2 a kilo (the bags have all been well over a kilo) from our nearest garden centre so many lovely baked apples on the forthcoming menu too.

Karmacat

The kiwi fruit from Aldi is interesting - I watched the Michael Mosley docu on sleep earlier this week, and eating two kiwi fruits last thing at night had a definite effect. It would cost the earth if you bought them at supermarkets, but a couple of plants might go down very well

[Deleted User]

I think, unless they've bred a self fertile one by now, that if you're going to put in Kiwi Vines you need a male and a female one or you don't get fruit. I'm not up to date with modern varieties and don't particularly care for them so I'm not sure but it would be worth a check to make sure.

Just checked online and our surgery are offering flu jabs to over 65s and those at risk, we have to ring to book an appointment which we shall do first thing tomorrow, greatly believe in prevention being better than cure and a reduced dose of flu if we're unlucky enough to catch it.

DigForVictory

Someone asked if we'd read the Tokyo disaster preparedness manual - I hadn't, & I strongly commend it.
Sure their food go-tos are different to ours, as are their timescales - they prep to hang on in there for 7 days, not 3. They are more than alert to the idea you may need to stay over at work on safety grounds - something that would have my line manger having a spasm, and various colleagues making a book on who snores the loudest.

They take seriously the listening out for warnings. We tend to be slightly more casual but haven't their assortment of hazards from earthquakes, to heavy rain to sediment disasters to lightening to tornadoes to heavy snow to volcanoes (21 active in Tokyo) let alone terrorism & infectious diseases. (Suddenly the enthusiasm for facemasks makes more sense.)

Agreed evacuation areas, (indeed planned “disaster prevention parks.” with gas cooking easily configured & straight to sewage plumbing), strike me as admirable beyond words. OK, that stems from lessons learned the Very Hard Way & is rooted in a culture where the collective is important, but they are admirably pragmatic.

They are absolutely aware that shovelling snow is a two person job - unlike the Americans who bury over 100 souls a year who omit having a buddy.

I'm unseemly tickled by the advice "Evacuate before water comes up to your knees".

They even advocate using furoshiki wrapping cloth to help lug bags of water about. Who'd have thought the stash of fabric now has a prepping pretext?

Emergency nappies (single use plastic bags, canny folks!) & sanitary towels are illustrated helpfully, along with making plates & eating utensils & I am much smitten with the emergency knapsack made of knotted trousers. I look on newspapers & cling film with new eyes.

Seriously, even 10 minutes spent looking at the pictures will give you new & probably useful someday ideas.

GreyQueen

Years ago, I read a book about earthquake preparedness in Tokyo. Dunno if it is still the case, but the computer power running their stock exchange had its backup in the next building over. Soooo, in an Event, the whole thing was going horribly wrong.


There have been several destructions of Tokyo (nee Edo) over the centuries. Lots of tectonic activity there.