Independence Days
With the hash that is currently being made of our affiliation (or not) with the EU, Independence Days is looking increasingly apt. Talk of hard borders and lorry parks and import delays from an apparently disorganised and disparate government are not reassuring.
Some medication is already hard to get hold of and a ferry company that crosses to France has said it can't honour some bookings made for early summer as space may be needed to import prescription medicines. I mean, good grief. Whatever the political view I cannot believe that our parliament seems to be leading us towards what one minister called significant short-term disruption.
I don't believe we're heading for the apocalypse though some do (I suspect they've been watching too much Extreme Preppers) but life could be very uncomfortable for some time. Some will be more than uncomfortable; those who are already struggling and using food banks will have no cushion if products become scarce or increase in price as predicted. Those that say they are happy to weather difficulties seem to be those with the wherewithal to do so. Or homes in other countries...
Plant: Sprouting some mung beans on the windowsill, have dug my little propagator out of the garage to sow some chilli and aubergine seeds.
Harvest: Herbs, we've had a couple of eggs every day from the hens, nothing from the ducks or quail though. Swiss chard is hanging on in the garden and there's been quite a lot of self-sown rocket and parsley.
Preserve: I dehydrated some surplus carrots, some cheap kiwi fruit and some pineapple. After Christmas we sorted out the chest freezer and I found a bag of Seville oranges so no need to buy more for marmalade. I'm just balancing whether there's less space in the freezer or on the pantry shelves before I make it :-)
Waste Not: Eating our way through the freezer, using reduced meat in the dog's food, always trying to keep on top of the fridge so things don't get lost in there. Husband had a lemon and lime drizzle cake for his birthday as we had some that needed using post-New Year.
Out for a walk with friends and one of their dogs dived into a hedge and reemerged with a pheasant in it's mouth. I managed to dispatch it (for the first time ever, but I couldn't run home to husband. It was horrible but I was so glad I did it). We carried it home and it made two meals for Zak.
Want Not: A neighbour has decided not to keep chickens any longer and so we have acquired 2 more chickens in addition to Speckles who we re-homed before Christmas. All 3 are young birds and laying/will lay.
Eat the Food: Still plenty of squash to eat. I'm trying to roast a trayful when the oven or the Rayburn is on so they can go into dips, cake etc. I made a nice sandwich spread/dip with some potimarron squash by blending with a tin of butter beans, some garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. We drank a lot of our apple juice over Christmas.
Build Food Systems: A friend has offered to collect milk from the organic dairy a couple of villages away once a week so we can use them instead of the national milk delivery company I currently use.
I've been donating extra tins and packets of food to the local food bank as I am concerned about fragile supply chains.
Skill Up: Fruit tree grafting course planned for tomorrow. You come home with your grafted tree and I have plans to graft scions from other apple trees onto our big tree. It's a lovely tree but the apples are truly awful.
How have you done? Do share either in the comments or link to your blog.
Some medication is already hard to get hold of and a ferry company that crosses to France has said it can't honour some bookings made for early summer as space may be needed to import prescription medicines. I mean, good grief. Whatever the political view I cannot believe that our parliament seems to be leading us towards what one minister called significant short-term disruption.
I don't believe we're heading for the apocalypse though some do (I suspect they've been watching too much Extreme Preppers) but life could be very uncomfortable for some time. Some will be more than uncomfortable; those who are already struggling and using food banks will have no cushion if products become scarce or increase in price as predicted. Those that say they are happy to weather difficulties seem to be those with the wherewithal to do so. Or homes in other countries...
Plant: Sprouting some mung beans on the windowsill, have dug my little propagator out of the garage to sow some chilli and aubergine seeds.
Harvest: Herbs, we've had a couple of eggs every day from the hens, nothing from the ducks or quail though. Swiss chard is hanging on in the garden and there's been quite a lot of self-sown rocket and parsley.
Preserve: I dehydrated some surplus carrots, some cheap kiwi fruit and some pineapple. After Christmas we sorted out the chest freezer and I found a bag of Seville oranges so no need to buy more for marmalade. I'm just balancing whether there's less space in the freezer or on the pantry shelves before I make it :-)
Waste Not: Eating our way through the freezer, using reduced meat in the dog's food, always trying to keep on top of the fridge so things don't get lost in there. Husband had a lemon and lime drizzle cake for his birthday as we had some that needed using post-New Year.
Out for a walk with friends and one of their dogs dived into a hedge and reemerged with a pheasant in it's mouth. I managed to dispatch it (for the first time ever, but I couldn't run home to husband. It was horrible but I was so glad I did it). We carried it home and it made two meals for Zak.
Want Not: A neighbour has decided not to keep chickens any longer and so we have acquired 2 more chickens in addition to Speckles who we re-homed before Christmas. All 3 are young birds and laying/will lay.
Eat the Food: Still plenty of squash to eat. I'm trying to roast a trayful when the oven or the Rayburn is on so they can go into dips, cake etc. I made a nice sandwich spread/dip with some potimarron squash by blending with a tin of butter beans, some garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. We drank a lot of our apple juice over Christmas.
Build Food Systems: A friend has offered to collect milk from the organic dairy a couple of villages away once a week so we can use them instead of the national milk delivery company I currently use.
I've been donating extra tins and packets of food to the local food bank as I am concerned about fragile supply chains.
Skill Up: Fruit tree grafting course planned for tomorrow. You come home with your grafted tree and I have plans to graft scions from other apple trees onto our big tree. It's a lovely tree but the apples are truly awful.
How have you done? Do share either in the comments or link to your blog.
Watching the UK with interest. As you say, it's ok if you have the wherewithal to stand a little crisis time.. sounds like you are well on the way to being Little House on the Prairie:) I am thinking of investing in a little propagation tray. Do you have any pointers?
ReplyDeleteMy propagator was a special buy from Aldi that I was bought as a present a couple of years ago. I didn't even get round to using it last year so I don't think I can offer much in the way of useful advice, sorry. I'll let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteThe situation the UK has got itself in seems unreal. I keep thinking something must happen to stop it but I'm not sure what that something could be.