The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

thriftwizard

Pineapple, my younger brother's just finished his HG spuds from last year. They were all grown from a YS pack from the supermarket that sprouted after a couple of days in his veg rack & have seen him right through the winter. Whilst named-variety spuds can be excellent & very delicious (spot the person growing Pink Fir Apples in every potato sack she could lay her sticky paws on) random supermarket or greengrocer-bought spuds will still grow & may even give you a bumper crop!

The digging is finally completed at the allotment (not the way I'd like to do things! But the only game in town, so I have to play by their rules) & planting is well underway now. Radishes, beetroot, onions, shallots, chard, peas & (quite possibly) parsnips have popped up, as have some of the spuds (Red Duke of York) plus we still have chard, kale and a few little leeks left over from last year. The broad beans are flowering, the runner bean trench is filling up with peel, cores & teabags, there are leek, kale, courgette & pumpkin seedlings in the mini-polytunnel, and French, runner & Iron Age Horse beans plus sweetcorn in the propagator my neighbour gave me when she decided gardening was too much hassle. Oh, and squash babies too - we still have one left to eat from last year. As long as I'm still allowed to walk over there, weed & water, we'll have something to eat later in the year, plus some back-up crops in the garden.

jamanda

Can you tell me who is taking orders for seed potatoes next year please.  We can only grow one variety in our soil or we end up with spuds with loads of wibble holes.  I'd rather order now than not get any. Thank you.

MingVase

Si_Clist how are you storing that coal? How much room does it take?

markin

US woman who caught coronavirus despite self-isolating for three weeks believes it was passed to her when she collected a bag of groceries...

Rachel Brummert was shielding herself at home in Charlotte, North Carolina, as she suffers from an autoimmune disorder that makes her...

herlig

markin said:

US woman who caught coronavirus despite self-isolating for three weeks believes it was passed to her when she collected a bag of groceries...

Rachel Brummert was shielding herself at home in Charlotte, North Carolina, as she suffers from an autoimmune disorder that makes her...

Which is why thorough handwashing and cleaning is essential for people shielding and dealing with incoming. 

Si_Clist

jamanda said:

 .. spuds with loads of wibble holes. 

What on earth is a "wibble hole"?

MingVase said:

Si_Clist how are you storing that coal? How much room does it take?

Stacking it against a wall, with a tarpaulin over, is the best we can do here 'cos the store's full of logs.  It's 40 x 25Kg bags, so 8 laid flat to form a rectangle 4 bags x 2 bags, then stack the rest on top.  5 bags high is a comfortable height to slit one open to fill the scuttle from, and during the summer the top of the stack has all sorts of uses

[Deleted User]

Wibble holes, think eel worm or those tiny little black slugs eugh!

I think we all KNOW that we have to take the utmost care when processing things that come into the home from outside sources by now, I'm sure there are people who don't take that care and I'm sure too that some people are easing off the depth of precautions they take as time goes on and they become accustomed to living in a time of pandemic but they won't be posting or reading here.  We, however, as preppers who picked this up as a potential problem in January and ran with it then even before it was a known problem do not need to be taught to 'suck eggs'! I doubt that any of us have lessened our vigilance and lessened our cleansing procedures both to goods into the home  and ourselves, we certainly are as cautious as ever and will remain so because we want to still be here when the virus has run its course and we are living a more normal life again.

Sensationalism has no place in prepping, we are as  boring and plodding and cautious as we need to be, prepping is not a game it's a deadly serious choice to stay alive, we won't be changing our ways anytime soon!

jamanda

We won't be changing our ways either.  We have wood stored, as much planted in the garden as we can, although not particularly varied as there are only a few veg that we eat.  We also have cooking and eating apples, victoria plums, morello cherries, a baby pear treat which has just started fruiting and a black mulberry.  We have recently planted a greengage and another Bramley apple tree, which won't fruit this year. 
I once took a big bag of plums into work, and some said "Aren't you lucky having a plum tree".  No - I planted it myself.  Some people really don't see further than the end of their noses.

MingVase

Wish we could have fruit here, we're too high. I planted a load of strawbs yesterday though.

boultdj

Your right Lynn, dull and plodding keeps us safe.
I surprised the young cashier a couple of weeks back when I paid for my shopping, she said we prefer you pay by contactless card, sorry, I've not got one, it will have to be cash, yes I know it's a worry for you, but the plus side of the new notes being made of plastic, you can wash 'em with the soap and water, same as the coins, she looked at me and said I never thought of that! Just remember to keep 'em away from heat when drying them.