Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Makingabobor2

Was only talking about coriander last night when I saw a recipe that needed it. I said to DH I wonder if its easy to grow. I also said that @foxgloves would be the lady to ask.....he looked at me as if I was mad....lol

badmemory

Big fan of Agatha Christie here.  I was reading them before I was 10.  My poor mother had to go to the library to give them permission to let me take them out.  My loft holds every single paperback of hers as many years later I bought them all to read on my daily commute.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I just remembered what else I made loads of with the dehydrator - orange slices! 😁😂 Hung them on the Christmas tree and in the windows like stained glass, and I've still got a jar of them on the windowsill 😁 Not exactly a good reason to buy a dehydrator in itself 😂 but brought me a lot of pleasure!

starnac

I'm lucky. My sister bought a dehydrator as a lockdown project (no sourdough starters for her ) so I just gift her whatever produce I have spare and she gives me some back dehydrated. Win win for both of us!

themadvix

I think you’ve mentioned dehydrating courgette before Cheery? I might have a go at this. So far all I’ve successfully used my dehydrator for is banana slices using bananas from Olio. I need to branch out… And I’ve just found a courgette that had been hiding, so it may well be the dehydration victim!

@foxgloves, I’ve just acquired a wormery and worms- if I remember correctly you have a wormery? Any tips? At the moment they are just settling in (and occasionally trying to escape!).

foxgloves

@themadvix - They mostly look after themselves. The obvious things are not to forget feeding them. They eat more than you might think. Also don't accidentally drown them. Our wormery has air holes in the lid & things can get v wet inside if there have been lots of downpours & water can sometimes gather in the sump.
I bought a full kit including composting worms over 20 years ago but spend nothing on maintenance. I cut large circles from cardboard boxes to use as moisture mats rather than buying the woolly variety & I use shredded paper for ' bedding'....well, really it's just to start off a new layer after harvesting compost - a job I need to do very soon. I left my wormery outside last winter but usually ask Mr F to lift it into the greenhouse around the end of Oct for a bit of protection for the coldest months. Wormeries produce a generous amount of liquid plant food which needs draining off regularly......unless you have a leaky tap like we do, when it drains itself into an old jug ready to dilute 1:10 to use around the garden.
I have never bought in additional worms. Even after a very cold winter (2010) when our garden recorded an overnight temperature of 
-16° (!!), & there were only 7 worms left by Spring, I replaced them with a couple of big handfuls of composting worms from our main compost bins. I liked to think this also increased the wiggly gene pool a bit, lol.
They make a v rich compost. I use it to top-dress the grapevine. Probably why it is still nicely productive after 20 years in its big pot without re-potting!
Enjoy your new wiggly friends,
F

themadvix

Thanks Foxgloves - it’s good to know they’ll look after themselves once we get going. I remember you saying you cut up cardboard for the moisture mats - I’ll definitely be doing this and the shredded paper for bedding (a great way to use it). I’m just hoping I do better than the previous owner of the wormery - the worms only lasted a couple of months! 😬

ladyholly

I am glad the insurance are paying out without hassle. I am surprised the meds were only £3 as our emergencty vet once tried to charge us £5 for one paracetamol. We called in at the garage and paid paid about 40p for a packet. She did look a bit shamefaced and said that was a minimum charge.

milann

The wormer sounds interesting. I have no room for anything like that. I’d love to make my own compost but there just isn’t room for one. 

themadvix

@milann a wormery can be very compact - mine is the size of a footstool. And they shouldn’t smell if working properly - a lot of the instructions suggest keeping it in the kitchen, so very little space needed and it doesn’t have to be outdoors. I think mine will move into the utility room in the winter.