The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

3secondmemory

VJsmum said:

I think i'm the same.  While i really love the idea of an allotment, and applaud all who have one, I don't think it suits my lifestyle at all.  I'd sooner be up a hill on a nice day and definitely don't want to be at an allotment on a not nice day.  We have some beautiful ones near us that i often walk by just to have a nose.  But, goodness, the work that's gone into it. In 'normal' times, we spend a lot of summer away from home so it's not conducive.

As i've said before, the garden veg patch has been largely taken over by a wood store which is a different sort of prepping - we get most of our wood for free but need somewhere to season it so it takes a lot of space. OH asked if i wanted to turn another part of the garden into a veg patch but i have lost the heart.  My little patch will grow some runner beans and a few salady bits.

LOL - we seem to have turned into a gardening thread!  And i don't really garden 🤣
In other prepping news I am running down my stores a little.  They were built up with both COVID and Brexit in mind but i've lost a bit of control over what i've got. So i'm running things down (5 boxes of breadsticks, anyone? 😁) to enable a bit of stock taking by the autumn.
 

My cupboards are well stocked in case of emergency, and I’ve really cut down on the amount of products I use and buy. It’s more about a sustainable, enjoyable low impact life style for me. 

I never thought I’d be in the situation that I’m in but now I’ve accepted it, I’m going to make the most of it. I thought my life might as well be over a few years ago, and now I’m googling how to propagate Spanish moss for a little craft project I have in mind 🤷‍♀️

I never thought I’d be happy to stay at home 

3secondmemory

boazu said:

Now that's the most sensible thing I've read in quite a while!

I have my moments 😂😂

[Deleted User]

The middle of Lidl yesterday produced a very simple vacuum sealer and they also had extra bags to go with it.  It came in at £19.99 and I hope it's going to be really useful as we harvest crops this year and I can get the dehydrator going again, I'm going to put together stew packs and soup packs and vacuum seal them so I don't need to open larger air tight jars to get out a portion for the two of us and risk losing hard earned stores as a result. If it's as useful as I think it might be we'll run it to death and then get a better quality one.

Floss

VJsmum said:

I think i'm the same.  While i really love the idea of an allotment, and applaud all who have one, I don't think it suits my lifestyle at all.  
 

I miss mine (well I miss the fresh fruit veg & salad stuff) but I don't miss the tie of it - having to go on my way to & home from work to water when it's hot, to harvest especially when things ripen in a day, keeping on top of the weeding etc. 
I'm not bothering with courgettes this year but have raspberries looking mighty fine, strawberries beginning to show fruit and tomato plants ready to be planted out along with my perennial herbs. I will also do some pots of salad leaves.

greenbee

My raspberries are looking sad. I think they got frosted. The autumn fruiting ones are only about 3 inches high so far. It's actually a good thing as I still haven't built the supports. Strawberries seem to be doing OK. Chard is attempting to take over the planet. Salad is good, broad beans are short but flowering (I should probably pinch out the tops and eat those next week). Carrots are just starting to appear. Lots of aubergines, peppers and chillies are doing well, but only two tomatoes made it, so another batch of those, beans and courgettes are being talked to in the greenhouse along with cosmos and delphiniums to fill in some of the gaps in the flowerbeds. 

-taff

boazu said:

The middle of Lidl yesterday produced a very simple vacuum sealer and they also had extra bags to go with it.  It came in at £19.99 and I hope it's going to be really useful as we harvest crops this year and I can get the dehydrator going again, I'm going to put together stew packs and soup packs and vacuum seal them so I don't need to open larger air tight jars to get out a portion for the two of us and risk losing hard earned stores as a result. If it's as useful as I think it might be we'll run it to death and then get a better quality one.

I got one from there a couple of years ago. It's good because it does a hard vacuum for hard food or meats and a softer one for fruit so it doesn't sqush it. It also has a setting for liquid sealing but I've never used that one because it's just too many bits for me to get my head round. I used up almost all the roll that came with it straightaway and bought more from ebay. I like it's just a pick a buton and press it.

[Deleted User]

Next time we go to the plot I shall pull rhubarb and get the dehydrator going, it's quite amazing how small the chunks get and then I'll use the vacuum sealer to pack them.  I think it's going to mean my store cupboards will be able to fit in much more than I can fit in them in jars.

Floss

boazu said:
...I think it's going to mean my store cupboards will be able to fit in much more than I can fit in them in jars.

Do you have a plan for using the stores, i.e. do you use last year's before this year's or do you just save it all? I'm curious, as you don't mention using very much of it, just storing it.

Managed to sort my garden a bit today, tidied things up,  moved the potted raspberries to their eventual planted spots, tidied up the strawberry planter & planned my new forest-floor herb bed (well, beneath-overgrown-shrub area). I've also potted on a small bay tree for DDiL, who will collect it next time she's in the NW.

mothernerd

VJsmum said:

I think i'm the same.  While i really love the idea of an allotment, and applaud all who have one, I don't think it suits my lifestyle at all.  I'd sooner be up a hill on a nice day and definitely don't want to be at an allotment on a not nice day.  We have some beautiful ones near us that i often walk by just to have a nose.  But, goodness, the work that's gone into it. In 'normal' times, we spend a lot of summer away from home so it's not conducive.

As i've said before, the garden veg patch has been largely taken over by a wood store which is a different sort of prepping - we get most of our wood for free but need somewhere to season it so it takes a lot of space. OH asked if i wanted to turn another part of the garden into a veg patch but i have lost the heart.  My little patch will grow some runner beans and a few salady bits.

LOL - we seem to have turned into a gardening thread!  And i don't really garden 🤣
In other prepping news I am running down my stores a little.  They were built up with both COVID and Brexit in mind but i've lost a bit of control over what i've got. So i'm running things down (5 boxes of breadsticks, anyone? 😁) to enable a bit of stock taking by the autumn.
 

I've been cutting up 2 l plastic bottles for 'potting on' my seedlings. I have rather a lot so decided to put some of the top halves in the recycling. Put them one inside the other and made a good sturdy tube. Originally I was trying to save enough to make a greenhouse and I sighed - but it's just not on, I have far too many things that need doing, I need to accept that this is one thing too many.
Sorry because I know it's wasteful (last year I stapled the top halves to the fence in rows for strawberries and lettuce (much easier to pick as well). I put a square of weedproof fabric in the bottle neck (bottom of the 'pot') so that some water was retained but they would drain if we had a downpour. As a result of today's efforts I am sharing a room with 64 tomato plants, 23 red pepper plants, 7 yellow courgettes and 17 dwarf bean plants. Haven't been able to make space to put my polytunnel up yet - too busy putting in raised beds and shifting soil about. It hasn't rained so far today - every other day I've either not gone out in it or stayed out whilst it was drizzling and come in when it started to pelt down.

Nargleblast

From what I have read on this thread and on other social media platforms, I think an element of realism has crept in around the whole Prepping subject. There is more discussion nowadays about rotating stock and using up stuff before adding more. I know I used to make loads of crab apple jelly, fruit liqueurs, chutneys and jams, but got to the point where we were just not getting  through it all.

Part of successful prepping I think is recognising your limits. As Mothernerd says, you can't  always do everything you would like to. It makes sense to monitor your food stores and make sure you always have the wherewithal to feed the household for a reasonable period of time in the event of serious weather or some other event preventing you from obtaining food supplies. It is also important to rotate stock and use stuff up before it's past its best.

I think when you get to the point that you start to feel anxious about a small gap on the shelves, even though you have months of stuff in store, then that's the time for a re-evaluation of the situation in order to keep a sense of reality. It is so easy to become obsessed.