The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

GreyQueen

If I had more room (300 sq foot flat), some form of haybox/ bean bag cookery would be happening here, too. I often cook passively by bringing things to the boil then turning the heat off. I also get daily use of of my 3 tier stainless steel pan, a present in the mid-1980s, brilliant thing. Even realised I can cook bacon in the bain marie part, over veggies being steamed. Might try an omelette in there one day, out of curiousity. I did find a considerable shortening of cooking time - as in down to about 10 mins - by increasing the soaking time from overnight to 24 or even more hours. LIke you say, you do need to rinse and cook in fresh water. If find the cooked beans keep in a covered dish in the fridge for about 4 days. Much longer than that and they develop fur coats!

elaine241

I am spoilt for space being on a farm if it doesn't fit in the house there are many sheds etc I can use. 
I am definitely in need of pearl barley, we have used up my stock this winter and it is a hole in my preps.
With this warm wet weather my squash plants are going bonkers! I have grown winter squash to try and increase the veg stored for winter plus I have some mystery squash plants ( which I think are pumpkins) that are from seed I found germinated in the bottom of a bucket. I have planted the mystery ones between the climbing french beans and runner beans but they are already spreading into the potato patch. 
One major worry is the dreaded blight! I have received two Hutton period alerts on my phone so the conditions are ripe for an outbreak. All I can do is hope as I am not spraying my toms or pots with chemicals. If they survive this period the weather looks hot and dry for next week so should kill off any fungal spores for now. 

thriftwizard

I'm also living in dread of the blight. Most of my tomatoes are undercover, either in the half-dead-polytunnel or a little "growhouse"/clear plastic tent thing I mistakenly thought would be useful at the allotment, but it's way too windy over there. Surely everyone has a polythene tent full of tomatoes parked on their driveway...? But my spuds in sacks at home have just been hauled around to make way for the little raised bed, with very little care for their spidery limbs; they didn't get enough light where they were, so I'm not expecting a magnificent crop, but with all that damage now we'll be lucky if we get any. However the main crops up at the 'lottie are covered & looking healthy, so fingers crossed they'll do all right.

Ah well, you live & learn. I suspect it's time some of our trees (which used to be shrubs) had a haircut...

euronorris

Blight a concern here also. Had a warning every day for a week now. Thankfully drying up now, but still had some rain this morning.

Holding off on digging up the 2nd earlies (charlotte). They are at 12 weeks, but we still have potatoes on the side in the kitchen, so going to hold off until later in the week when it's dryer and warmer.

3secondmemory

My neighbour has not touched his garden for years – there’s two of those in the near vicinity! 

He’s given me the go-ahead to plan and plant it next year!😃

I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist my sweetcorn and strawberries! 

-taff

GreyQueen said:

We also have Nan's runner beans, which are an unknown variety, often purple podded. Very tasty, I gave some to the local greengrocer as a curiousity, and he remarked on their good flavour.

Hi GQ. Would it be possible to do a seed swap-ish of some of your nan's runner beans by any chance? They sound intriging and I would like to grow some. Keeps the seed gene pool alive too. I  can offer black tomato seeds in return?

pineapple

I finally got the photo bit to work - it was one of my firefox addons that was stopping it. This is Ben my blind border collie in his protective goggles.

pineapple

Spot the dog! Taken last July. There is a cobbled forecourt and a side garden. Small veg patch bottom left just out of sight.

Suffolksue

years ago I had a Jack Russell called Ben 

Tink_04

Help?

I planted some sprouting potatoes in a bag and I had some green coming up, kept adding soil as the green poked through and about 2 weeks ago the green never came up? 

I’ve had a dig around and can’t find it so today I have fished around in the bag and can’t find a single potato? 

Where have I gone wrong? Can I plant more In this soil? I have grew potatoes like this for years and this is the first time it has happened?