Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Suffolk_lass

Oh dear, another few days with no update. I have concluded from my witterings that I'm not a daily poster, unlike some (I think I lack the discipline) but I do try to be accountable to myself and here, when I do update.

To that end, my efforts this week are mostly in preparation for the Christmas shopping and coffee morning I am taking a (bee products) stall at. I also need to keep in mind that I must order the food-to-go at least 4 days before the community lunch on Friday-week too, so in the best traditions I need to write a list!

I did go to Sainsbugs yesterday and buy the chicken for next week.

• Two of their 2k packs of drumsticks and the same of thighs are in the freezer now. 
• On the subject of shopping, I also bought 10k granulated sugar in there (their 5k bags for £5 are much used by beekeepers who swear by cane rather than beet sugar*, as I do). 
• I also bought oil (I use it for bee products) 
• eggs (the fox got all but three chickens and the cockerel from my egg-person's flock, so these have been moved to his veg patch at home. 
• Oh, and milk, cream, baking fat (branded bird variety) and butter - surprisingly their big packs work out cheaper than 2 packs of Morries savers butter (only by 3p though)
• sweet biscuits (is there are country-wide shortage of wheatmeal digestives!?) own brand ginger ones (I could make these, having found a recipe I like, but I'm just a bit too busy this week)
• baking potatoes, broccoli, carrots and bowl fruit - oranges, apples, pears and clementines (£5 for a box of these!! - a typical impulse buy I really should have considered more carefully)
• Finally, three meat joints. My local Morries only seems to be offering silverside at the moment and I wanted a brisket and a boned rib joint. I also bought a nectaries pork shoulder joint. All of these were for us over winter

I also went into Markses and picked up coffee bags, coffee, more eggs (before Sains) and some of their complete treat cookies (pistachio and almond, and ginger. Apart from the eggs, the rest are in our treats and entertainment heading from Marksses.

It's a bit academic whether I call these shops December or November spends as I work to a £3000 annual budget, but I still feel I've been indulgent (it is why I rarely shop!)

*I do know beet is local but the energy cost of processing it is much higher than cane, which arrives on low energy deep sea vessels direct to the factory wharf where it is processed). I see the beet. At this time of the year it is laying (harvested) in fields in huge piles awaiting collection by 28 ton (think tipper) trucks. These are all diesel lorries. I know the driving of them provides employment and that is a dilemma for me. My insistence on buying cane makes little or no difference to the industry, it is just a thing with me. Extracting the sweet substance is a whole other discussion, with steam constantly being emitted from the chimneys at the EA sugar beet factories of British Sugar.

Right, that list needs some additions and stuff done now! Have a good day!

dawnybabes

The brisket seems to be out of stock everywhere at the min, Jamie Oliver did a recipe with it on his programme a couple of weeks ago with Chinese 5 spice and slow roasted - I’ve been looking for a joint ever since to replicate along with the rest of England ! 

Suffolk_lass

Oh that is very interesting @dawnybabes - I may have got the last one then, although my butcher always has it (at a premium). There was an elderly couple going over every roasting joint in Sainsbugs but they too a piece of Top rump (or topside), leaving one piece of boned rib and one of brisket - which were, to be fair, exactly what I was looking for. The brisket was a good size but surprisingly expensive. I just went to check online but it is not even listed.

foxgloves

Our market butcher often has brisket & his prices are always good, so we do sometimes buy one, particularly when I want to make a slow cooker recipe.
Re sugar (I live in a sugar-factory town so know all about smelly beets!), I read somewhere that using cane sugar is preferable when making preserves, esp jellies, as it produces less scum during the rapid boiling process than sugar made from beet. I think I have noticed a difference, but must remember to experiment next year when I make my jams, etc.
Re bees - there is a beekeeper not far from us (a couple of streets away) who sells honey at his door - I have never bought any as tend to buy it from the eco-refill shop (another local producer supplies them) but I do like to think that it is his honey bees visiting our very floriferous garden right from the earliest flowers of the year through to the windfall pears lying on the lawn & the ivy flowers up behind our wild compost area.
F

Suffolk_lass

Oh great post @foxgloves, especially about the forage for pollinators (we have Ivy Bees here - a non-native species that coexist happily on the ivy with other pollinators; but we are a bit south of you). Ivy is usually the last nectar crop and the honey is strong tasting and not to our liking - we prefer to feed our bees sugar syrup while it is flowering so that it gets mixed in an easily retrieved form. If they store it on its own it quite often remains capped and takes up a lot of the frame space, so maybe they are not keen either!

I attended a planting for pollinators workshop at the National Honey Show (more of a lecture really, but the advance publicity said we would exchange info, so I offered some of our observations and experiences!). Anyway, the woman presenting, makes her living as a Sommelier of honey, and an expert in planting for pollinators. I did buy one of her books but haven't yet read it. I was slightly less impressed than I expected. I suppose I do absorb gardening knowledge and have been a member of the RHS for close to 40 years, but I was expecting a bit more.

The point she did make that I was very happy to observe, is that planting wildflowers is not a once and done thing (as exemplified by the Department of the Environment schemes for farmers). Planting them is one thing, Leaving them to it results in ragwort, creeping and spear thistles, curled and broad leaf docs taking over (the five weeds we are supposed to control under the Weeds Act 1959), along with brambles and nettles. Sadly Defra omitted to give relevant follow-up land-management guidance, according to the farmer where we keep bees

foxgloves

That's interesting about the wildflowers. Yes, with all types of plantings, left to their own devices, there are always the thugs which take over. In our garden, bees visit many different flowers, but I would say that their absolute favourite is echium blue bedder. I couldn't get any seeds this year for some bizarre reason, but will defo be looking out for some to sow in Spring.
F 

Suffolk_lass

Goodness, that is a coincidence @foxgloves! I have just ordered exactly those seeds from a place named for the County to the north of you (I think) with a well-known minster, then simply seeds. 20% off today because I elected to try them for quite a lot of the food we grow that I do buy fresh seed for each year (mini-munch cucumber, for example, are exactly the right size for two of us to share as they ripen).

I recalled you talking about echium on your diary and I wanted 20% off from this order. I was alsolooking at flower seeds too (having removed everything from a creeping thistle and ground elder infested bed out front, I wanted some annuals that readily self seed, and some perennials to restore the cottage garden vibe that the weeds have gradually eroded. It's going to be mostly blue, cream and yellow that side, so I added them to my order. There are 280 seeds (apparently, though I cannot imagine they were counted) so if you have a problem getting any, give me a PM shout and I will send some your way.

Like many in EA, I had a complete disaster with all my squash seeds this year, ending up buying some seedlings at the County Show in desperation and very last minute. I shall be keeping all my seeds indoors and plan to trial growing some from existing seed and all fresh shiny new seed to see if there is any change. I am guilty of leaving seed in the greenhouse in a plastic (mouse-proof) box last year and I did wonder if the changing temperature might have impacted the germination.

On to today, I now have a nice big pile of boxes ready to set up my stall tomorrow and have just made some honey oat biscuits that I will donate or sell (need to taste first!). We are only a small village and I don't want to be left with tons of stuff unsold! I have yet to retrieve my bee-themed table cloth and the boxes I keep to display my wares at different heights from their place in the somewhat inaccessible cupboard under the stairs. Other than that, I think I am done.

I could do with a quiet day reading my book club book, as we meet next week and I have not started it!

Tonight's supper will be a choice of leftover mince (from last night), or leftover oxtail stew from earlier in the week. Then the fridge will have space for me to make a fresh batch of soup. Nothing needing to be spent, I hope to get ion with some tidying (much needed) and possibly even some cleaning (we are not talking about how neglected that has been of late, (apart from kitchen and bathrooms), and even the downstairs cloakroom needs a really good do around the non porcelain bits!

Suffolk_lass

All my seeds except the two packs of tomato seeds I ordered have arrived now. I have not used the company sending them before but the seeds are Mr Fothergills, so hopefully they will be OK (and will arrive imminently!). I intend replanting the front garden beds so I need lots! I took advantage of the seeds for members £10 for ten and have them too. I also have some bulbs to pop in (still) and a small shrub, that I wanted for the front but will put in a shady area out back.

To current things, yesterday was the buffet lunch for 40 in the village. Good fun but my word, was I tired! To bed early and awake equally early this morning, I am feeling a bit stiff. With a wreath-making class this afternoon, I think I shall take some precautionary painkillers. We have Mr Sl's motorcycle group dinner at a pub that is 45 minutes away this evening (I have offered to drive) and I need to be a member of the wide-awake club for that, especially the journey, and particularly so if the East is hit by the winds expected. The register plate above the aga in the chimney is rattling already!

Right, I need to get dressed, this lolling in my nightie thing is in danger of becoming a habit! I need to get some flowers for neighbours whose five year old dog died this week, and get some greenery organised for that wreath!

Suffolk_lass

My tomato seeds duly arrived in the post. So all good. My trip to try and buy some blue spruce went well Two bundles for £2.99 each (at the 4th garden centre) and my wreath is rustic and lovely.

I decided on a card, rather than flowers for my grieving neighbours and she opened the door as I was about to put it through the letterbox. We had a hug but neither of us could say anything, we were both choked up. 

I made mimosas for the wreath makers - 18 of us. Great fun but I had to rush away. Just time for 20 minutes sitting with my feet up and a cup of tea, then changed and drove an hour for Mr Sl's Christmas Party meal at a pub. We sat with some very funny people, with some excellent anecdotes and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I could really do with a quiet couple of days but it is onward and keep going here!. I feel I need a list.

In the meantime, apart from putting a fiver in the tips pot (each) and a fiver in for my coffee, I spent nothing beyond the wreath workshop and plan for only drinks today too. I might print the card list too as we need them written and sent this week. We still have some stamps from the exchange to bar code ones, plus some old Christmas stamps, so I might get away without needing to buy more.

Have a good day, and stay safe!

KajiKita

I haven’t even thought about seeds yet! For me that’s typically a Christmas break thing 😊

Though saying that, I have just planted out rooted garlic and have shallots ready to pot up come January 🤔😊

I’m sure the neighbour appreciated the wordless support (and card) - hugs back to you x

KK