My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

weenancyinAmerica

Don't know if you have any coffee shops or fast food places nearby. McDonalds and Starbucks here let people have the used coffee grounds for their gardens all of the time.

AnimalTribe

weenancyinAmerica thanks for the information. I've nothing near me, but next time I go to the city I'll give it a try.

I've not been able to post for the last two days. I don't know what was wrong with MSE but it seems to be fine now.

DH and I were out yesterday for lunch and we've been to the cinema today. The weather has been glorious and hopefully it will last a few more days so I can harvest some of the berries that are ripe.

AnimalTribe

DH averted a near disaster. He noticed a strong smell while in the front garden with the dogs. He traced it to a leaking oil tank in the back garden. The tank had a small crack in it and was leaking fairly rapidly. DH and I were in the back garden yesterday, so the damage must have happened late last night or early this morning. We are very fortunate in having an empty spare tank so he could pump out the oil into it. The spare tank was one left by previous owners. I had asked DH to cut it up to use as large planters – thankfully he never got around to it.  We will have to buy a new bunded (double-walled) tank. I will be able to pay for it out of our emergency fund, £2,000 isn’t cheap, but that’s what the emergency fund is for. It’s just one of those things and nothing to do about it except to fix it.

On a brighter note, I have a bumper crop of blackcurrants and redcurrants. I’ve picked some, but will do more harvesting tomorrow.

AnimalTribe

It has been so hot today - too hot for me. I've had a good day though, harvested more berries, dehydrated some, frozen some and I will make some jam tomorrow first thing when it's cooler.

There are still lots of blackcurrants, logan berries and raspberries to come ripe. I've still got lots of redcurrants that are ready as well.

The only downside today was that something has been eating the turnips, so I've pulled them all up even though they are still small and I will dehydrate them. I've never dried turnips before so I see how that turns out. I will use them in soups over winter.

I'm busy collecting seeds. Usually, I just store them in a cut off corner of an old envelope and tape the open edge down, but it wasn't very efficient so I ordered some small brown envelopes. They arrived today, so I've been packaging up various seeds when I've been indoors cooling off.

lucielle

Annoying about the tank. Well done to OH for investigating!
L

teapot2

Shame about the tank but good that OH noticed before more leaked away and excellent that you had a spare.  Great to have the EF in place as well though I hear your pain on having to spend some of it...

I've picked and frozen almost all of the blackcurrants now.  Just a few left that are not quite ripe so I'll leave those and add them to my breakfast when they are ready. I'll get one more pick of rhubarb I think and stew and freeze some of that.  

AnimalTribe

lucielle & teapot2 at least it was the heating oil tank (which we don't need at the moment). If it had been the oil tank for the generator I doubt we would have been so relaxed. We are so very fortunate that we had a spare.

teapot2 £2K is a groan amount, but again we're fortunate to have the EF. I hope your blackcurrant harvest has been as prolific as mine - it has been an excellent year.

I have collected the last of the white currants, but there are still loads of black and redcurrants still to harvest. I also have loads of loganberries and raspberries to harvest. DH has retrieved a small freezer from his shed to use for the fruit, as our main freezer is stuffed full. 

I've dehydrated the turnips. They were smaller than a tennis ball. I don't think they will make it to storage though as I sampled a dried slice and yum turnip crisps. 

I think it was slugs eating the turnips and they've now switched their attention to the courgettes, so I'll be slug fighting the next few days.

DH has been busy strimming an overgrown part of the garden and painting fence posts and I have been weeding so a productive day.

rachmac3

That reminds me, I really need to harvest my pinkcurrants, a few have gone over. I'm really not doing well at eating anything I've grown at the moment, but I have just harvested my first mini cucumber so that should tempt me. I can't freeze that!

AnimalTribe

rachmac3 Definitely, harvest your pinkcurrants they are easy to freeze and are lovely cooked in a little sugar and added to yoghurt. I also mix them with other fruit and use them in crumbles. Of course, they make great jelly or jam if they are mixed half and half with raspberries.

It's great when the first of a plant is ready to harvest. It makes the growing worthwhile and it always excites me - perhaps I am just sad.

It has been another incredibly hot day. But I've managed a bit of weeding, picked more red and blackcurrants and loads more raspberries. Part of my garden is just a large, wild raspberry patch. I never touch it except that DH has to strim a path there now and again. I think it is probably where the stoat family live.

rachmac3

Just read your message and realised I harvested the last of the raspberries and blackcurrants, and half a dozen blueberries (first year producing), and totally forgot the pink currants!! They're next to the raspberries and black currants so I have no idea how I forgot! What a plonker. I'll put a reminder on my phone for tomorrow.
I used them in a syrup/jam last year with the last of the blackcurrants and raspberries and it was delicious. It reminded me of vimto but tasted almost fizzy. 
A Vimto crumble could be good.
I did a cucumber salad as a side dish tonight so at least I've used something.