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Thanks for that - I think lack of water is not a problem - they live in the Welsh valleys. Too much water, maybe...

Hadn't even thought about legislation, I'll get them to give the council a call, so thanks for thinking of that!

My parents have had enough of the vile water that they are getting from the mains, and are contemplating attempting to harvest and drink rainwater. They (and I) have absolutely no idea where to start with a system, have any eco-builders got any ideas at all? Any thoughts much appreciated!

I'm not sure whether I added anything that hasn't been said here, but I did a blog post on finding new uses for toilet rolls a while ago here

I hope someone suggests something! I'm very much a fruit forager so far - I make most of our preserves from foraged fruit and avoid buying jam for the rest of the year, but I tend to get lazy in about october and abandon it till the salad leaves come out in late spring!

We're probably looking at another year of container gardening next year, unless we manage to move somewhere with a sensible garden. A couple of people have suggested we consider buying non-hybrid seeds so we can (a) help some of the old varieties and get some interesting tomatoes etc and (b) hopeful...

thanks for all the ideas! They seem to be ripening a bit, might try a bit of jelly, a bit of pickled pear and a bit of dried pear. yum!

probably a bit late for this year, but I managed to get a big batch of le parfait jars on ebay really cheaply...

I thought I'd gone a bit preserve mad (pictures here and here at bottom of post), but when I actually worked out how much we use (a jar of jam every couple of weeks, the same for chutney), there won't actually be that many left over for Christmas presents if we want t to last until next august. Chri...

What can I do with them? I'm wondering whether it's worth poaching them a bit and then preserving them in a heavy syrup, but not sure if it's worth all the effort if they're going to be a bit flavourless. Do we think they'd make a half decent chutney or something? Any ideas at all? They're definitel...

I love car boots - me and my sister go to them reasonably often, and although I rarely get anything (perhaps one or two things every 3-4 car boots), I've had some good bargains: - a massive le crueset roasting tin for a fiver - big sweetie jars (for storing flour in) for a pound each - a meat slicer...

Humph. I will go and be grateful for my old repairable machine then! At least I can console myself with my even-more-advanced eco credentials.

I've been trying to console myself - our washing machine is about 30 years old, and I finally thought it had done the decent thing and died, but the repairman fixed it for about a fiver. I had high hopes of a super duper, A++++ (or whatever it is) rated shiny new machine, but no dice. The old Hotpoi...

I had an Excel spreadsheet for my hospital packing list. :oops: :oops: :oops: Some of the many essentials for me were: 1) lots and lots of dried fruit - I was starving, and wasn't offered any food (gave birth in the evening, then had surgery, so went onto the ward at about 1am) 2) A nightie you can ...

Those tree onions are brilliant! Can't wait until we have a bit more space to try all of these things.

I'm not a terribly experienced forager, but I've really enjoyed flicking through this book for more ideas. It's one of the most comprehensive foraging books i've come across so far, and nice to read one that's totally up to date. I've done a more thorough review on my blog (address in signature), bu...