I'm back! Trying to spend less on food!

annieb64

The blackberries have been good here but they were early unlike everything in the garden!

Florafauna

Gorgeous blackberries here in the north-east 

KajiKita

Broad beans STILL producing?!! How?? 👏😊 (What variety are they, out of interest?)

Blackberries small, sour and mis here too - south Herefordshire. 

KK

mumtoomany

Hi all, the blackberries in the nearest town are all growing away happily, as normal. They are always earlier than ours, possibly due to the town being nearly as sea level and us being much higher. But all the places on our land and the road, where we get big juicy ones each year, seem to have hardly any. What there is, are small and hard. The raspberries seem to have lots of berries coming, maybe we'll be having those in porridge this winter instead. 

Just been out and picked a pot of blueberries, they've almost finished, to put in yogurt for breakfast. Dadtoomany had toast. The bread has started to go mouldy on the bottom. We normally eat two to three loaves a week. This loaf was bought on Tuesday, reduced to 40p, not bad for a wholemeal loaf. The others went straight in the freezer. I've trimmed the bottom off each slice. Need to eat the rest up today really. Might make bread and butter pudding for tonight, or even bread pudding. Some would throw the bread away, I suppose, but we were both brought up to not waste food. Bread mold has not killed either of us yet.

I cut the greenery, well more brownery really, from the potato plants yesterday. I'll lift the potatoes in a couple of weeks. First time I've grown bought free ones. Let's see if they live up to the claims. One bed of peas has finished, the other has very few pods left. They will be the next beds emptied and put to sleep for the winter. Feels like the seasons are turning and we've not even had summer. 

Needed to make breakfast for grandchildren. Speak later, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

kayannie

The blackberries here, very close to the coast of north Wales, are really weird this year! A few weeks ago, we were all saying that we were in for a bumper crop. I found a few that were ripening at the end of July that were ok. Since then, they seem to be shrivelling up when they are still green or red. I have been picking some when I can, but they are very disappointing, however I was out for the day yesterday & driving slowly down a country lane about 20 miles inland & I could see lots of brambles that appeared to be laden with lovely ripe berries. Unfortunately, although I had an empty container with me, there was nowhere I could stop & pick any as I would have been blocking what was quite a busy lane. I suppose the poor crop is due to the awful weather we have had. 
KA

mumtoomany

Hi, @KajiKita. Not sure of the variety of broad beans, but they were sold as ones you could plant early. I planted them last autumn, when I'd got space in the polytunnel. Mulched them with grass cuttings/hay. They overwintered quite well, lost a couple to frost. They started producing pods end of February, beginning of March. Some of the plants died down in the summer, but five or six produced new shoots and are now giving the odd pod or two. I also have runner beans in the tunnel, that have overwintered for several years underground. They grow earlier and stronger in the spring than those from seed. They will give beans until we get frost in the tunnel. I also, last year and will again this year, planted shoots from the tomato plants in pots. These lives on a windowsill until late spring, then got planted out. They gave tomatoes earlier than the seed grown ones. The tomatoes I grow have to be blight resistant, so seeds are expensive. 

@kayannie, glad it's not just ours. Must be the Welsh weather! 

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Bread was made into bread pudding. Recipe:- take less than half a loaf of wholemeal bread, first removed the mouldy bits. Break into pieces and soak in water. Mix soggy bread with, some dried fruit, I used raisins as it's what I had; half a jar of marmalade, home made several years ago; three beaten eggs; some mixed spice. Cook till you remember to take it out. Nice with cream or custard. Just had some after our chicken curry. 

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Florafauna

Love your recipe @mumtoomany. My kinda cooking 

weenancyinAmerica

Yup, I was thinking the same thing about my recipes. Inherited many of them from my father - "throw in a handful of chocolate chips" "add a couple cups of flour" sort of thing. Took many tries to get his recipes done on paper. I cook the same way - look good, sounds okay - try and see what happens.

mumtoomany

Still, here. No food bought yet, all month. Ok it's only the second. Tea last night, dadtoomany had a sausage and bean pasty. Found in the freezer, home made a while ago. I had stir fried chicken, vegetables and noodles. Dadtoomany doesn't like stir fried veg very much, although he will eat it. There was enough left for my lunch today. Dadtoomany had sandwiches. I have found the last two pizza bases out of the freezer, also tomato sauce,  and frozen pineapple. Ham in the fridge, lots of veggies, cheese. Tea sorted, along with salad. Lots of home grown tomatoes and cucumber still. The peppers are all still tiny. Don't think they'll grow enough to harvest before the winter arrives. Strange year for growing this one. The broccoli are smothered in caterpillars, although I hadn't seen a single one untill a few weeks ago. Very late. 

Of to put grass clipping on the bed I cleared yesterday. Hope the rain stays away. Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx