The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

silvasava

Fingers crossed - I was supposed to have two teeth out with separate appointments, the first one on the Monday of lockdown. Luckily I'm only feeling minor discomfort. & no pain but I'll be glad the get them done.

Si_Clist

Well a few weeks back we really thought we were going to be scratching for gooseberries this year, but it hasn't turned out that way at all.  This morning we picked the last 12lbs off the Leveller in the back garden, and that makes nigh on 25lb off that one bush.  And we've still got one Howard's Lancer and two Crown Bobs to go ...

That's the second lot of bottling from it.  We also did 12 jars of goosegog and elderflower jam last week ...

missychrissy

wow that’s looking good. I’d b thinking gooseberry wine!

Si_Clist

missychrissy said:

wow that’s looking good. I’d b thinking gooseberry wine!

Waste of good goosegogs AFAIC.  If you've never tasted bottled gooseberries, you haven't lived

Those'll make us some smashing puddings in 6 months time.  The remaining bushes are dessert gooseberries, which many folk don't even know exist!

Nonnadiluca

Those gooseberries look lovely! Our 2 bushes aren't far off ripe by the look of them; I haven't tried bottling them before. Can you tell me if you use a light syrup, juice or water and how long you cook them for before bottling? Many thanks.

missychrissy

I don’t eat sweets, cakes, biscuits or puds - just haven’t got a sweet tooth. I’m still thinking wine! I’m going to start some elderflower wine soon, as soon as I get a nice sunny day for picking them.

Nargleblast

I have gooseberry envy. You don't often see them in the shops nowadays. I do know where there is a red gooseberry bush not far from me, so I will be looking out for ripening berries.

silvasava

I bought a red dessert gooseberry from Morrys one year, it cropped very well but I'm not keen on them and as there's only DH and I I have it to a neighbour - it had lethal thorns though. My neighbour gave me some loganberries a few years ago and I get pounds of those win win!

Si_Clist

Nonnadiluca said:

Can you tell me if you use a light syrup, juice or water and how long you cook them for before bottling?

3-4oz sugar to the pint of water, and they go straight into the jars after topping and tailing.  All our preserving's always been done according to the gospel of "Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables" by MAFF, published HMSO, ISBN 0 11 241321 8.  Ours is the third impression, dated 1977 and we'd be totally at sea without it. 

Before we got a spare copy of the exact same book, we made the mistake of buying the later version of it with the same title.  The cover of that's different, and they've omitted a lot of very useful information from it.  IMO the one you want is the one with the above ISBN.  It's "Bulletin 21", light green cover, and last time I looked copies were widely available online at under a fiver.  HTH a bit

euronorris

Well, I let myself down in one area of preps - deodorant! Plain forgot about it! Ran out this morning. Nothing on the order that was delivered at lunchtime today, and was obviously too late to add to it. Luckily, have sourced a delivery with Ocado for tomorrow, betwee 6 and 7am, so have added to that, along with items that Morries didn't deliver, and a good deal on multivitamins for DD. It will be a 6 months supply worth for her, so won't have to think about it for a while.

I can't wait to harvest the second early potatoes (charlotte). Every day I have to have a word with myself about being patient and not digging them up now. Saturday just gone marked 10 weeks in. They are in flower, and showing some signs of dying back. Patience. Patience.

The mangetout....what can I say. Taller than me. And still growing. I will be using a stool to pick them soon! And I have been picking handfuls every day for well over a week now, and they are showing no signs of slowing down! I am soooo pleased with them! That is the kind of crop we need in our small garden space. So have left some on the vine to swell, and dry, and will keep the seeds for next year. I already did a second sowing.