Do you have a secret trick?

RobM99

I use mushroom punnets to grow seeds in - in fact anything suitable! Yoghourt pots and such. 

bouicca21

Thanks @Brie.  If you’ve any tips on how to keep basil alive, I’d be grateful.  

Slinky

Can't remember who said they'd forgotten their Clubcard, but if you've got a smartphone you can download an app called Stocard where you can record all the details of your shop cards, and the image on the phone will scan exactly the same as your physical card.

northwalesd

You can also store 'loyalty' cards in Google Wallet (perhaps someone can say if you can do the same in Apple Pay).

Brie

bouicca21 said:

Thanks @Brie.  If you’ve any tips on how to keep basil alive, I’d be grateful.  

If I knew I'd sell my secret to the world and live in luxury.  

That said - I get the pots from the supermarket - Lidl etc have been often under £1. And keep them on the kitchen window sill.  Water occasionally and pluck the leaves off for salads, pastas, even use them in sandwiches.  While they might have a BBD of 10 days or whatever I've had them last for a couple of months of being plucked daily which I figure is good value.  Works much better than having them outside.  Chives are coming up nicely in an outdoor pot, lots of thyme and rosemary in the garden and I'll get some oregano/marjoram to go in the pot with the chives - they never last all that well but are nice in summer salads so what they heck.  

-taff

pelirocco said:

-taff said:

Why can't those items be given to a food bank/community fridge? Then there#s no waste. But I can guess why they aren't. No profit in it? Too difficult to administer?

Why should the shop lose money ? A business losing  money results in job losses
I know our local  food bank doesn't have the facility to handle fresh food

Bags of carrots are pretty cheap ,freeze or donate the extra...or don't you like losing money ?

I'm not a supermarket, I odn't have waste to chuck away for nothing, my waste goes in the compost bin or the foxes stomach. Our community fridge always has fresh food, potatoes, carrots, etc.

WHy should a supermarket be allowed to waste things? They can't in France [go france! yay!]

And what have carrots got to do with it?

Re storecards - download the app for whatever store you have the card with, then scan from there. You can use any exras through that too, clubcard vouchers can be scanned from it.

bouicca21

@Brie. Now I’m really hacked off - you can keep a pot for a couple of months?! I’m lucky if I get 10 days.  At the point when it turns its toes up, I usually make pesto, which freezes well.  I’ve made salsa verde with what’s left of the latest pot. Fortunately I have a use for salsa verde this week, but next time I might have a shot at freezing it.

Longwalker

bouicca21 said:

@Brie. Now I’m really hacked off - you can keep a pot for a couple of months?! I’m lucky if I get 10 days.  At the point when it turns its toes up, I usually make pesto, which freezes well.  I’ve made salsa verde with what’s left of the latest pot. Fortunately I have a use for salsa verde this week, but next time I might have a shot at freezing it.

Basil is really difficult to keep alive.  You need to repot right away , just tease the plants very gently apart , dont repot too many in a pot. feed and keep warm - a sunny windowsill 

Siebrie

@Brie "For a drip proof tray - go to the yoghurt aisle at your local supermarket.  Find the flat trays that hold yoghurt pots the same size or bigger than the pots you are using.  Steal them. (well I should say help the store recycle them as I don't want to get in trouble again)" - I just ask the store if I can have them. I ask the veg assistant if I can have the apple and pear display cases, to store my own apples and pears. It works really well.

Re the basil: the Belgian tv programme 'Factcheckers' tested how to keep sm herbs freshest for longest, and the outcome was to keep them as you buy them (in the plastic baggy thing) in your fridge door. Otherwise, I have kept them on my windowsill, split into several pots with new compost. Don't pick the larger leaves lower down on the stalk, as the plant needs those to collect enough sunshine.

Green_hopeful

Perhaps not a secret but we have started toasting scones in the toaster. It charges the texture to be more fluffy. Really delicious.