The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Zentimes

DfV - re bunkers in Switzerland, maybe familiarity breeds contempt? They definitely sound unloved!

Garden - well it's coming along nicely! I have too many plants this year, I grow all veg in containers and on our large patìo, which for the past 2 weeks has been full of building rubbish during our shed refurb. That's just been cleared away so slowly getting pots back in place. Have planted out dwarf runners, cucumbers, red pepper and chilli plant (they are grafted varieties so supposedly one can grow them outdoors in normal temperatures! If that works I will be very impressed).

Re fresh fruit/veg if you can't get them via the normal routes, yes it is problematic, I used tinned fruits/veg (not nearly as nice as the 'real thing') but have recently discovered growing micro greens, which are sprouted seeds in soil mix grown indoors in small containers. They will hopefully provide some fresh interest to food (some are very tasty!) and of course a good source of vits/minerals. They are very easy to grow!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Round-Indoor-Salad-Gardening-Nutrient-Dense/dp/1603586156/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MOPK5RJ5XMCD&keywords=year+round+indoor+salad+gardening&qid=1559544878&s=books&sprefix=year+round+ind%60%2Cstripbooks%2C143&sr=1-1-catcorr

Greenglockenspiel

littlemoney wrote: »

With preping how do you deal with the lack of fresh fuit and veg. For various reasons I am unable to get to the shops, just before I planned to do a shop for more fresh fruit ( bananas, oranges, satsuma etc) and veg. I have frozen peas, carrots and sweetcorn but I wouldn't like to eat them all the time and I usually add fresh to give a variation through the week.

I have tried frozen sprouts and caluiflower but when I microwave them they are soft. Can you offer any suggestions on how to cook them or other frozen veg which microwave OK.

For fresh fruit alternatives how does everyone deal with this when they can't get any?

I loooooove tinned peaches and also always have some tinned pineapple/those little pots of pineapple in juice knocking about - it is much less faff than preparing a pineapple from scratch and they taste just as good. I also have tinned apple which is good for making crumble/cooking and tinned mandarins.
As for frozen veg I find it is much better when put in something e.g. a curry or stew as like you say they can be a bit soft. I get frozen peppers all the time to add to curry, stir fry, pasta etc. Have you tried steaming them? It can be a bit gentler than microwaving so less prone to softness.

[Deleted User]

Steaming frozen veg gives a much firmer and better result for me than immersing it in water and boiling it, I only boil fresh root veg if I need them in big chunks for any reason, the rest, including kale and cabbage are steamed along with anything from the freezer.


I use tinned fruit in juice not syrup and also find the dried fruit salad useful in the months when fresh is either not available or is too expensive to buy. We run on English apples which are usually available year round in the shops and grow much of our own fruit on the allotment. We will be sadly down on production this autumn though as we've just taken on a new completely bare allotment and had to plant it up with new fruit bushes which will not give us produce until next year at the earliest. Luckily Gloucestershire is awash with orchards and farms so the produce here is good, fresh and abundant and not too expensive to afford it so this year will have to be things purchased and not home grown.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

[creeps in]

I freeze fresh pineapple, melon, leftover tinned peaches, fresh nectarines, kiwi fruit, all garden fruits (except the one or two cherries that I get instead of the darned Wood Pigeon family every year), etc. If we had a high power blender, I'd be freezing bananas for ice 'cream', too. Most veg seems to freeze very well - some need preparing in some way, like mash or jacket potatoes/sweet potatoes, rather than just blanching, but if all else fails, blitzing them up with stock to make soup before decanting into begs lining plastic pots works perfectly.


I have Chard (again) but it instantly ran to seed as soon as I saw it amongst the weeds. I'm leaving it in the hope it becomes as pervasive as the Green Alkane. Have tried planting beans and sweetcorn, but I don't hold out much hope with the organic/chemical free/permaculture idea, as the molluscs are more than capable of discarding their current food plants in their favour - they managed to demolish a pumpkin plant in two nights.


I've replaced the pumpkin with two I've grown on a little more in the hope that will make them more able to cope - and I've experimented with another.

The waterbutt is essentially busted - the tap doesn't work at all, but it's full of water. At some point, plants found a way to get their roots in through the little holes and I have left them to get on with it. I lifted the lid today and there is a dense mesh of roots and it smells sweetly like fresh compost. Final pumpkin plant, as I know they are very hungry and thirsty plants, has therefore been placed on the top of the butt with the hope that the roots will make their way into the constant supply of nutrient rich water.

I know that the usual rule is you will either never have enough squash-type plants or you will have at least one too many, but I'd rather have too many and perhaps get a couple of pumpkins to chop up and freeze than not enough. The ground cover might be useful in combating the vast numbers of [strike]weeds[/strike] wild flowers that permeate the garden now.

Himself, however, is happy for another reason. He's a big kid. I've already told him that if he is thinking that he'll get to sit out on Halloween and watch for The Great Pumpkin, or worse, thinks he's going to get the slightest chance to cut a face out and shove a candle inside precious food crops, he's got another think coming.



In other news, I'm still waiting for redundancy dates, as they are comprehensively messing me around and trying to get out of paying the legal entitlement by making derisory offers of 'Suitable Alternative Employment' that are so fundamentally different that I'd have to be either mad or living in a tent in the park to find them feasible. I've also had the first sniff of an interview (which is nice) somewhere else for roughly the same money. I'd rather it was more, obviously, but at present, I'm pretty much Brexited by the whole situation; in other words, I'm beyond caring one way or the other now, just get the ****** on with it.


Other news, Himself has started getting ZHC work and reckons he will get a fulltime job before long to take the pressure off me [strike]for once[/strike], he's doing the washing by hand in the bath because the washing machine packed up, but is fed up with that, so is apparently going to buy one with his wages when they eventually turn up, and I've decided life is too short to give a monkeys' beyond being kind when it doesn't impinge upon you, but the rest of the time just getting through another day - mainly because my brother died in an accident at the end of April, so whilst I'm 'OK' with that, accidents happening, carelessness on the part of others happen, it's crap but it doesn't bring them back to fall apart, blah, blah, blah [strike]but I'll always miss him[/strike] - I just don't care beyond surviving now.

ivyleaf

So sorry to hear of your loss, Jojo

thriftwizard

Oh Jojo, that's utterly cr8p. So sorry...

PipneyJane

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

[creeps in]
In other news, I'm still waiting for redundancy dates, as they are comprehensively messing me around and trying to get out of paying the legal entitlement by making derisory offers of 'Suitable Alternative Employment' that are so fundamentally different that I'd have to be either mad or living in a tent in the park to find them feasible. I've also had the first sniff of an interview (which is nice) somewhere else for roughly the same money. I'd rather it was more, obviously, but at present, I'm pretty much Brexited by the whole situation; in other words, I'm beyond caring one way or the other now, just get the ****** on with it.


Other news, Himself has started getting ZHC work and reckons he will get a fulltime job before long to take the pressure off me [strike]for once[/strike], he's doing the washing by hand in the bath because the washing machine packed up, but is fed up with that, so is apparently going to buy one with his wages when they eventually turn up, and I've decided life is too short to give a monkeys' beyond being kind when it doesn't impinge upon you, but the rest of the time just getting through another day - mainly because my brother died in an accident at the end of April, so whilst I'm 'OK' with that, accidents happening, carelessness on the part of others happen, it's crap but it doesn't bring them back to fall apart, blah, blah, blah [strike]but I'll always miss him[/strike] - I just don't care beyond surviving now.

Jojo, my heartfelt condolences and a big hug.

You are a hero for soldiering on.

- Pip

Karmacat

Jojo, so sorry to hear about your brother, that's very tough. Absolutely understandable that you've gone into survival mode just now.



Thinking of you.

herbily

Jojo, so sorry about your brother - you need to be gentle with yourself right now. I'm saying a prayer to the gods of washing machines in the hope that they can land one in your lap (er,not literally, that might hurt, but you know what I mean).

DigForVictory

Having checked the price of turnips, I shall not try to suggest to Jojo that she might just let the lad play, but with the traditional Scottish neep instead.

If he must abuse a vegetable, buy him one of the grown-for-the-job, tasteless, vividly-coloured things the supermarkets delight in saturating the market with (they do compost!), or hand him a spud & a birthday cake candle.

May your crops be sufficiently abundant that you can afford to let him play with Exactly One vegetable, of your choosing! And may your First Footer be known welcome & actually invited for a specific time, so they can get around the other households they're promised to. [My Scottish Grandmother had a neat row of parcels, and sent her husband & sons out clutching same. By her way of reckoning, this meant she knew where her menfolk were & where to look to round them up from, as well as who'd been assured of good luck by her household. Plus who owed her a silver thre'penny.]