The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

LameWolf

i haven't tried it but have heardt it's delicious served on a thick bed of finely shredded lovely green Kale. The food of the Gods.

Really?? Well as far as I'm concerned, the gods can have my share. Nasty green stuff! I may be vegetarian, but I do have my standards! Right, Ming Vase?

pollyanna_26

LameWolf said:

i haven't tried it but have heardt it's delicious served on a thick bed of finely shredded lovely green Kale. The food of the Gods.

Really?? Well as far as I'm concerned, the gods can have my share. Nasty green stuff! I may be vegetarian, but I do have my standards! Right, Ming Vase?

Perish the thought but are you related to the Ming Wolfie? Mention of the K word normally distracts her when she's offering food ti unknowing posters,  Her sudden moving along on her shelf random burst of French and offer of cake is rather suspect.

She is up to something.

Hope you;re both ok and had fun with your Greyhound  guest.

pollyx

tastyhog

daz378 said:

Got a good stock of tins...but low on carbs...might start buying them tins of new potatoes.....not keen...but they are a potential calorific filler....when will we see the effects  of Ukrainian food shortfall     suppose it will manifest  as  both higher prices and scarcity...you all take care

Instant mash, sainsbury's one of the better ones and is good value, their 440g box of it for 95p makes up 2.4kg - 600ml water per sachet, plus you can use potato flakes with flour to make gnocchi and other stuff

CCW007

I'm channelling my inner @Si_Clist today and am getting a 2.5kg tub of NIDO off Olio for free so I can try it (actually so I can get OH to try it as I eat very little dairy) and see if it is worth keeping in stock.  

basketcase

MingVase said:

Thankyou GB for lowering the tone of my shelf .  Nous sommes more into yer actual gourmet guineapig  up here, I will have you know.

One GF Devil's Cake in the oven as we speak basketcase!

Ooh, thanks, Ming!

Surely GB has to be wrong.  Doesn't everything taste like chicken?  Should have had Guinea pig Balmoral, like wot we do it up here...

If we're really getting into gourmet stuff, that Roman gourmand in his own lunchtime Apicius had a recipe for stuffed dormice (with nuts and dates IIRC).  Supposedly not unlike beef olives - but I wouldn't know.

DigForVictory

pollyanna_26 said:

Does noone recall the Poison Gardens at Alnwick?

Oh I do...
I have several little packets of seeds and a bed of "dyers herbs" which, when I have really had enough, I will include herbs to die from. As I don't fancy poinsettia.

I seem to recall, from the circus of my childhood, that there was a disagreement about whose job it was to muck out the guineapigs & someone nearly got served coronation guineapork.

basketcase

pollyanna_26 said:

Does noone recall the Poison Gardens at Alnwick?

If you value your life Step away from the cake!

Thankully her plan to bake Gingerbread and disguise the house up the Hill to tempt small children indoors seemed to have failed.

I tried to be a concientious objector when it came to  dissecting anything but failed.

I never understood the point. There were pictures and explainations in text books, I once had  a miserable looking  frog deceased of course but he must have seen what was coming.

pollyx

@pollyanna_26   I've heard about the Poison Gardens of Alnick, but otherwise know nothing at all about them.  Thanks for the heads up, I'll proceed with caution but was quite looking forward to an exchange of ideas...

Speaking of which, @MingVase I'm not surprised your efforts with the gingerbread house failed in these more cynical times.  Did you consider a double-arched, bright yellow garden gate, with the smell of fries wafting out (like bread in a supermarket)?  That would have the added advantage of attracting the pre-fattened ones - not a small point as food and fuel prices rocket...

elaine241

Ok so I have just caught up on the rather bizarre discussion re hamsters and guinea pigs!! Personally I roast my hamster on a stick over an open fire, something akin to rat on a stick! As for guinea pigs, again not bothered as long as it is dead!

 My boys go feral during the summer months and go off camping round the farm for several nights. In the past they have shot a squirrel and roasted it on the fire, likewise rabbits. They are discussing fishing (sneakily without rod licence) on the canal to see of they can catch any fish that would be of a size worth eating. Does anyone know if Zander live in canals? Apparently they are invasive and not allowed to be released once caught.

I managed to pick some lovely wild garlic the other day and incorporated it into a frittata with a small amount of chorizo and onion, it disappeared very quickly which is always a good sign. I am busy trying to get my veg patch back under some sort of control whilst planting seeds indoors under a grow light in a propagator. I bought a cheap walk in greenhouse via W*wcher the other day , which with another 10% discount code came to £34.99. My existing one finally crumbled to the ground after several years being battered by storms and being fixed by strong tape. I may well take this one down during the winter months and only use it for seed raising/ summer growing. I have my eye on buying a quality polytunnel to fit in the walled garden on the farm yard ( which sounds a lot posher than it actually is!).

My preps are growing quietly, I add extra tins , pouches etc in my normal shop. I am signed up to B*okers the local wholesaler, just got to take evidence of VAT registration and invoice for business. This should get me access to wholesale sized/priced food which will help immensely with the increasing cost of living. Whilst I know not everyone can do this, anyone local that wants to come to Cwmbran with me is welcome. I have a big truck that can fit a lot of supplies in!

grace68

are energy rises going to effect the way we prep? 

I see the boss of iceland has said food banks don't want root veg because of cost to clients of cooking, maybe they should donate slow cookers to feed banks to help? Also pasta is another staple of both food banks and prepping how do you cook that without a hob, i know it can be done in a microwave but then seems to take nearly as long as on a hob and not sure of savings.

I am considering do i really need a chest freezer and an upright freezer? Will i actually be able to afford to put oven on to use flour/bake bread and cakes etc? or even cook pasta, we love a pasta bake.

I am prepared for power cuts  with camping stove etc but was thinking baking bread and cakes would be playing a large part of my future, or may just have to really think these are going to be special occasion foods only and look at home grown and cheap filling veg and cheap cuts of meat for slow cooker and pressure cooker.

I am going to actually get a piece of board to join worktops over my cooker (removable) because i think i will be using my air fryer/instant pot and slow cooker far more than the cooker in near future and i need extra worksurfaces for these appliances. We have a lot of gadgets that need a good dust down (instant pot) and me to understand the instructions!

I am going to try making my jams and chutneys in bread maker, it seems to have a cycle for it, see if it saves any money of electric! I haven't tried canning yet, maybe next thing i have to do, but it feels like i need more confidence in myself to do that.

Luckily i am on a really good fixed deal for electric and gas until November but need to cut back as after that there is a fare chance at current use * and we try to be careful now) that the bill will be more then £400 pcm which is more than our rent and more than we could ever afford.

Effician

grace68 said:

are energy rises going to effect the way we prep?

Gaining the knowledge to be able measure/cost  & adapt our energy usage has become an important part of our prepping,. We no longer have to hope that what we are using is the best method as it can now be measured & costed.  It's not as instantly gratifying as getting a bargain from the shelves or filling the log store & is an awful lot harder on the grey matter but the savings have been huge, come April price rise our monthly bill will be less than last Sept with most of the savings coming from reducing the energy we wasted.