The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

elaine241

Sorry to hear your news Grace68. Try to just stay warm and rest and let your body fight it, easier said than done I know. Hopefully the kids will not be too unwell and can give you a hand with things. Hope you feel better soon xx

I may have a go with the lurking potato flour as I am sure its quite elderly and probably out of date! The hens can have the resulting bread if it is inedible even if the process works . It is an idea for the future. J

Joined the two FB prepping pages but not had time to have a look through as I am trying to sort all my paperwork out, its built up a bit!

Karmacat

Grace, I'm very sorry to hear you're so ill, and the kids too.  Bovril sounds good, and I hope you have OTCs too.

weenancyinAmerica

Grace - take care of yourself. Hope you feel better soon.

CCW007

Just had a delivery with three different flavour Knorr soup mix to try - on subscribe and save it works out as over over £5 a tub for 25 portions so good value for lunches as well as a good prep to have in. Depends how big a portion is I suppose!

I believe the tomato and mushroom flavours are suitable for vegans, the broccoli and stilton is suitable for vegetarians.

Instructions are to simmer for 3 minutes but lots of the reviewers say they prepare it like a cup-a-soup so minimal energy required.

Treasurequeen

grace68 said:

! I am drinking Bovril, warm enough to ease my throat, but need to keep a couple of jars as that in cupboard as this one wont be lasting long! I am considering lemon and honey, but that requires the energy to open fridge cut and squeeze lemon, find honey! and that is beyond me today, even struggled opening cat food! (kids have come down with it as well but they are asleep!

Won’t be of much help now but I buy lemons and ginger and cut them up into slices and store in freezer in ziplock bags. So when I do get ill I have them in the house, it was a tip from one of my consultants. I  hope you feel better soon. 

euronorris

Grace, sorry to hear you're poorly. I do hope you're feeling better soon. Take care of yourself and rest.

I've just seen a really nifty tool for car safety. Similar to the little hammers you can get that will smash the windows, this is the size and shape of a credit card that has a point that can be used to break the window, and also a tucked in blade thag will slice through a seat belt easily. But I liked it because it is so portable, so you could have it on you for any journey, or to help someone else you see in distress. It's called OWL (open windows for life) and available for £24.99 on amazon (its an American company). So it's pricey, but I thought it was a really good tool to have as a prep. Wonder if there is a UK version?

euronorris

Well, I just saw someone canning butter (waterbathing the jars). I did not think that possible, but they claim it will then keep for 5 years!

herbily

On the subject of potato flour, it's normally used like cornflour, to thicken sauces or to add to the texture of items made with other types of flour. If you use it with cooked fruit, it goes clear and jelly-like on cooking, while cornflour goes cloudy. If you had overly water mashed potato, I think it would thicken it up, but it might not work as a substitute for potatoes themselves, if that makes sense.

Toonie

Grace - hope you feel better soon.

Today I bought a big bag of compost as we needed to go out and buy a starter for our loft light. I figured I could then spend a little time this week getting some more seeds started in my toilet paper tube pots and pop into my grape punnet propagators as well as my shop bought propagators which I tend to use for cress and pea shoots. I'm hoping to have a more successful year of growing though will have to be more watchful of the slugs/snails in the garden as well as the wood pigeons who like chomping anything that grows.

RAS

Grace, hoping you are recovering?

@Si_Clist - having looked up info on Mylar bags, it appears that they can be re-sealed with an iron or hair tongs, and re-used if clean and scent-free. Obviously they get smaller and smaller but..

So a few questions as you've bought the real products

I've been doing LFTs. Are the white bags in which the test strip is contained mylar or mylar-like. Obviously too small for food but could be handy for prolonging the life of unused seeds? Or even whole spices?

A number of food products are sold in sealed pouches (the almonds I opened earlier) which seem to be mylar? Any thoughts?

These aren't for major bulk preps but I wondered about short-term (couple of years) life extension?