Prepping: the new world...

DigForVictory

Herbs are wonderful - you can neglect them amazingly & they seem to thrive. Then I run amok with the scissors and the Spag bol is glorious….

thriftwizard

For those that like the dreaded green vegetable beginning with K (look away, @MingVase!) there are perennial versions of that which you buy as cuttings, then propagate by cuttings of those once grown; I have two varieties on the go now as well as the annual varieties. They're looking good & couldn't be easier; will even grow in pots & pests don't seem interested! I'm not by any means green-fingered, but persistence & a refusal to accept defeat has got me quite a long way & tonight we ate mostly home-grown veg with our roast - "accidental" new potatoes (where I must have left tiny spuds in the ground last year, though I'm beginning to suspect that Pink Fir Apple is actually a perennial) broad beans, chard, ruby kale & red mountain spinach (stunning plant! Ruby-red leaves which glow in sunshine, good in salad too) plus roasted onions & shallots. I've poked leeks into every spare corner of my allotment & they're coming along nicely with virtually no attention compared to the beans & squashes which need a lot of watering right now - we've not had any rain to speak of for nearly two months.

As DfV says, herbs are indeed wonderful - chives are pretty bomb-proof, "cutting" celery's brilliant (tasty & very easy) as are tarragon & parsley, which is mega-nutritious. Rosemary & sage are pretty tolerant, just need a sunny spot & a biggish pot. Basil can be split from the clumps in supermarket pots & given a bit more space to grow on & will thrive if you pinch the tops out. Chillies can be grown from the seeds you scrape out of one you're cooking; I did this two years ago, when my bought seeds didn't germinate, and ended up with about 50 big, healthy plants. I dried the chillis on top of the boiler & we're still eating them. Even if you think you can't grow food - give it a whirl, something will grow, then more somethings - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Whitefiver

thriftwizard said:

For those that like the dreaded green vegetable beginning with K (look away, @MingVase!) there are perennial versions of that which you buy as cuttings, then propagate by cuttings of those once grown; I have two varieties on the go now as well as the annual varieties.

Thanks for the reminder, I missed these last year, and have just ordered a pair of cuttings. (Panache Daubenton - looked nice too).

We love kale!

London_1

Thiftwizard you are so right one of my grandsons who has never grown anything but taller and older decided at Easter he would like to plant something in my garden for eating.
 He researched it all (he is a teacher bless him ) and said if he dug a small part up could he use it . I said help yourself, I no longer am physically able to do much in the way of gardening anymore,  due to age and an attached drain that I am awaiting an operation for .

So Ben found a spot and dutifully dug it all out (it had been a bit at the bottom of my garden which mainly grew weeds ) I bought him some early Pentland seed potatoes to get him going, and now there is a huge patch of 16 spuds all earthed up properly and the tops are just beginning to flower. All I've had to do was to see they had sufficient water which I did and hopefully come mid july he will be digging up some nice spuds that virtually have grown themselves He also planted up in an old unused butler sink at the bottom of the garden with some red onions ,again I just watered them for him and there are at least a dozen almost ready for digging up. He was down from his job in London this past weekend, and he is so chuffed to see how the spuds and onions have grown. 
I literally have only watered them for him, and he can't wait to see how they have progressed.He has grown some herbs and lettuce in his house share in Hendon, and has enthused his year five children in his class to get growing, and even bought them all pots and seeds to get them started . They all went home a few weeks ago with their stuff as he is like the pied piper to his thirty odd children and 'Sirs' word is almost law to them.  I bet there are a few parents who perhaps may think its a bit of a nuisance but he said nearly all the kids have enjoyed his tales of his spuds in his Nan's garden in Kent and he took some photos to show them how big his spud plot has grown

Its often trial and error when growing things He asked about growing  carrots, but I said they are so cheap to buy hardly worth the water to grow to be honest.
I have been using mainly grey water on the garden and its not just being tipped down the drain after use I figure if I'm paying for it on my meter I will get as much use out of it that I can

I too once grew some chillies from seed from a chilli i had cut up in the kitchen and found they seemed to germinate better than the bought ones .I am lucky I have a conservatory which stays pretty warm so pots of herbs and chillies do quite well and as they are on the window ledge they are at waist hight, so not too much bending  

JackieO xxx

MrsCD

Jackie, its great to hear of another teacher encouraging children to grow their own food! Our daughter has her Early years children growing allsorts in their raised beds at school, and they love eating what they've grown themselves.😁
Hope you get your op soon. My DH has just had a hernia op. He's recovering well but can't drive yet so I'm doing all the driving to the shops for now.

euronorris

I got myself a sage plant at the weekend. If you have a sage plant, and haven't been using it much, don't forget you can make sage and onion stuffing with it. That is what my MIL does, and it's gorgeous stuffing! It's also a good use for bread ends, if you're inclined to eat them usually. She isn't particularly green fingered with the vegetables and such like, but the sage looks after itself and always seems to thrive. 

London_1

 

MrsCD said: 

Hope you get your opinion soon. My DH has just had a hernia op. He's recovering well but can't drive yet so I'm doing all the driving to the shops for now.

Fingers crossed my operation shouldn't be much longer. I have my pre -op checks two days before I go on holiday for two weeks, and I'm hoping when I come home the appointment letter will be awaiting me

Just to be rid of 'Dora -the-Drain will be wonderful, as it stops me from doing so much. It was put in and attached  on New Years Eve when I was in hospital ,and only supposed to be there for 4-6 weeks, and its been 25 weeks now so you can imagine how much of a hinderance its been.
But once the gall bladder is out, and the blockage removed ,along with it hopefully will go the blooming drain  

My grandson Ben (27) is so good with the children, as he grew up with a sister and three brothers he is quite used to lots of children round. He loves his job and he said on Saturday when we were having a coffee and a natter that to him seeing the children opening up and getting involved in something new to many of them is such a great boost .
He is thinking perhaps long term maybe going to a third world country to teach, but we shall see, as he does enjoy the school he is at . A born teacher I think 

JackieO xx

DigForVictory

euronorris said:

I got myself a sage plant at the weekend. If you have a sage plant, and haven't been using it much, don't forget you can make sage and onion stuffing with it. That is what my MIL does, and it's gorgeous stuffing! ... the sage looks after itself and always seems to thrive. 

Happily confirming - it is a point of family pride that our Christmas sage & onion stuffing is made from homegrown sage (and frankly it has to be one of the easiest herbs of all the low-effort ones, plant & wait!) When it gets a bit woody and "leggy" (about 3-4 years, here), I take cuttings & it's wonderful - heaps more sage plants for embarrassingly little effort. Last winter I was chopping back the twiggy leftovers emerging from the snow & realised, this should be being put to use making a Christmas wreath of survived-this-far greens but by then I'd chucked the bulk into the compost & so added it to my list of "seasonal projects" for another year.
Hurrah a teacher showing "This is how you grow spuds" - a proper serial story with a point!

annieb64

My grandmother always made her own sage and onion stuffing. She thought my mother was very lazy using the packet sort.

Wraithlady

My recipe for 'forcemeat' stuffing (from a 1923 recipe book) is probably as easy as opening a packet - all it is is breadcrumbs, herbs, lemon zest, seasoning and an egg (and maybe some liquid if you want it softer).

I have variously made it with white bread, brown bread and sourdough and the lovely thing is, you can adapt it to whatever herbs/bread products and seasoning you have/prefer. I tend to whizz a generous portion of herbs with the bread being crumbed so we get bright green stuffing and OH is fond of pepper so put loads in, but it tastes vastly better than a packet.